Right to Roam???

Those of you who read regularly will know that I don’t need much of an excuse to have a good old rant, and this is a 24 carat gold opportunity!

Well, there is no doubt that the answer to the question posed in the title of this post is yes there is a Right to Roam; however, in Scotland the right to roam goes far further than simple access to land

Scotland has both a different legal system and a different tradition when it comes to access to open country. The Land Reform ( Scotland ) Act 2003 is much more radical than similar legislation in England and Wales, and gives the public responsible access to all land, both open and enclosed.

See here and here for more info.

Here in Scotland a landowner has to have a bloody cast iron reason for restricting access to his/her land. The problem with this is that some landowners do not respect this legislation. As I said in the previous post, the Bonds have been off walking on Skye, and about half way through our trip we encountered just such a problem when we took a walk to the coral beaches at Claigan, which we extended out along the cliffs and up to the summit of the hill behind the beaches. It was not until we had completed the descent from the hill and were almost back to the car park when we encountered the problem:-

Now, the “No Parking” I can understand; having grown up in a farming community I know that there is nothing worse than some idiot blocking a farmer’s access to a field. But this:-

I have no time for whatsoever. It will probably be easier to see in the larger version of the pic above (just click on it) that the landowner here has not only wrapped barbed wire around the top of the gate, but has also chicken netted the lower two thrids of it to prevent people climbing it. But why not just open the gate I hear you ask; well, take a look:-

This obnoxious bugger had not only barbed wired and chicken netted the gate he had bloody padlocked it as well, here is a closer look:-

The rusty chain, indicating that this is not a recent event, is clearly visible, but the padlock is cunningly hidden to those who would not be looking closely. By the way these photos were taken after we had successfully negotiated the obstacle course.

This is ot the first time that we have encountered such tactics by landowners who wrap gates and stiles with barbed wire; but it is the most comprehesive attempt to keep people out that we have yet come across. To say that such tactics annoy me would be a gross understatement, this sort of behaviour makes me want to invest in a good sturdy pair of wire cutters to remove any barbed wire that I find wrapped around gates and stiles, and I would welcome my day in court to highlight the problems caused by the moronic landowners who do such things!

Institutional Vandalism…

The Bond’s have been off on their hols this last couple of weeks, we were walking in Skye; more of this in later posts… I digress, to get to the point, in our travels around Scotland in particular we have noticed the institutionalised vandalism that results from the operations of the Forestery Commission; this is the sort of thing that I am talking about:-

Now, as if planting these vast stands of Norwegian Spruce in the first place was not a big enough act of vandalism; they did nothing but create a completely sterile environment beneath which nothing else would grow, and extremely few things would live, not to mention sucking every bit of life out of the ground. This blatant act of vandalism is further compounded years later when the trees are “harvested”! The photo’s above were taken close up to show just what a mess the Forestery Commission leaves behind when they move into one of these sterile forests to cut down the trees. What cannot be seen from these photographs is that the scar left once they have finished is visible for miles around. The other thing that a photograph cannot show is the amount of time that the ground takes to recover after being denuded of this bloody awful blight of the countryside.

I call this “institutionalised vandalism” because that is precisely what it is; the one thing that I do not understand is why the Forestry Commissions of Scotland, England and Wales are not forced to clean up the mess that they leave behind them, and to take steps to repair the damage that they do to the countryside.

Spot the Difference…

Gordon Brown?

Heathcliffe?

I have to admit that i find it quite difficult!

Nineteen Days to go And…

No Candidate!

I read this earlier this morning, and could not stop myself laughing! Nineteen days to go the the Glasgow East by-election on 24 July and Labour have no candidate for the voters to vote for, or against as the case may be. The leading contender did not make an appearance at the selection meeting on Friday.

Shettleston Councillor George Ryan has now officially withdrawn from the contest after missing the selection meeting on Friday for “family reasons”.

Now I am not say that George Ryan is finding an excuse, we all know just how stressful a life can be for Scottish MP’s in Westminster, and I think him very wise to put family first. However, I do know that were I even vaguely in the running for this position I would not only scraping the bottom of the barrel, I would be turning the bloody barrel over and looking underneath it for any excuse not to be taking this poisoned chalice; and indeed in  te present political climate it most certainly is a poisoned chalice.

That all round nice guy Brian Taylor (BBC Scotland’s political editor) has a really good take on this whole debacle - see here…

Hedonistic Frivolity

Thoughts on Violent Crime

I just read this horrendous story, and it got me thinking about the problems of knife and gun crime. I just want to tear my hair out in frustration every time I hear one of these political pillocks on the radio pontificating about something that they really haven’t given much thought to. They usually end up calling for a ban on this, a ban on that or a ban on the other; they also usually end up demonising the “young thugs” who, they think, are responsible for the majority of gun and knife crime. Have they never asked the question “why do we have a problem with gun and knife crime in young people?” well, obviously they haven’t, because if they had then they would not make the asinine comments that are so frequently heard from them.

The answers are not simple ones, but they are common sense ones; a) there is the matter of education, or the lack of, both in schools and in the home, b) there is the matter of parental control, and if this is not exercised from a very early age then it is worthless. I actually think that the most important aspect is the parenting; if children grow up in violent households then they are more likely to be violent themselves, whereas if they are taught from birth to respect others then they will be more likely to do so. I know that this is a very simplistic argument, but these are simply off the top of the head thoughts. I also think that there is a problem with the way young people are policed, in as much as they seem to be targeted simply for being young and doing what young people do. In my opinion if we treat young people as potential criminals, then that is what they are going to become. They will end up thinking, well if that is what they think we are then that is what we will be.

Then there is the whole problem of the availability of knives and guns, they are too easy to get. I have heard all sorts of cries for banning this, that and the other, but we have been down this road already, with hand guns there was the knee jerk reaction after Dunblane, which led to the hand gun ban; and what was the net result, the fact that it is easier for kids to get their hands on a hand gun now than it was before. The whole problem is that it is now almost impossible to police hand guns as they have been driven underground, where there is absolutely no control over them at all; it is the criminals who are now making money out of, and controlling the supply of hand guns. Surely it would be much better if the control and supply of hand guns were in the hands of responsible people rather than criminals.

There are inherent problems with making anything illegal, whether it is hand guns, knives, drugs, boxing or whatever. Making something illegal will not make it go away, all it will succeed in doing is drive it underground and into the hands of the criminal elements who will seize upon the chance to make money out of it. Once something has been driven underground, for whatever reason, all control over it has been lost, it becomes virtually impossible to police. Surely it makes far more sense to legalise something so that at least there is some form of control that can be implemented and policed effectively.

There is no doubt that we have a societal problem, particularly in some inner city areas, but no amount of bans will make even the smallest difference, bans will just make the problem worse, experience tells us this. The societal problem we have has to be understood, we have to get to the cause before we can effect the solution. The cause of the problem is not the knife or the hand gun, the cause of the problem is the person wielding it. So, does it not make sense to understand why the person wielding the knife or the gun is doing so, would it not be much easier to effect a solution with this knowledge at our disposal, at the end of the day I think that the answer to both questions is a resounding YES!

Thoughts on Identity

I know I am going to offend some people with the very content of this post, but that is not my intention in any way. The point of this post is more an internal exploration of myself.

While out wandering around Leith a while back I saw a quite rare sight for Leith, a woman in a burqa, and I have to admit that I found it quite offensive. Now I am not saying that the burqa should not be worn, nor am I making any sort of anti-religious or anti-cultural statement; all that I am saying is that confronted with what for many women is a matter of personal choice, my first reaction was that I was offended by it. This probably says quite a lot about me as a person, but I have to confess that, a few days later, my reaction made me stop and think about who I am, why was I offended, and about ethnic and cultural identity in general.

At then end of the day I think that I am a reasonably intelligent and pretty liberal minded person who’s basic philosophy is live and let live; which is why my reaction came as all the more of shock to me. I have never given the wearing of the burqa any great deal of thought, of course I have heard some discussion, and quite heated at that, about the matter, but have always taken the attitude of “if that is how people want to express their religious/cultural identity, so what, it’s their choice”, as I say live and let live.

When I began to think about why I found the burqa offensive my first thought was that it sort of implies that all men are rapists, now I know that this is a rather stupid reaction, especially when one begins to think of the psychology behind rape, the whole ‘power’ thing amongst others. My next thought was about how one would interact with someone wearing a garment that covers everything with only a slit for the eyes, and I think that it would be almost impossible to interact with anyone wearing such a garment as we all rely on body language, facial expressions etc. as part of everyday communication, whether we realise it or not.

This led me to thinking about who and what I am, and whether who and what I am is responsible for my reaction; after all this was only someone expressing their own sense of identity. After a great deal of reflection I have come to the conclusion that I don’t think of myself in terms of any form of ethnic or cultural stereotype; I know that I sometimes make a big thing of being a Cornish Celt, but that is more for effect than anything else. I don’t think of myself in terms of black, white, pink with blue dots or whatever colour you may care to mention. Neither do I think of myself in any religious terms, not as a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, nor any other religious identity. As a matter of fact I have very little time for religion at all, but that is another story.

This led me to thinking about how I perceive others, and I think that all of the above also apply there; I do not think of people I meet or know in terms of their colour, religious beliefs, cultural beliefs etc., I judge them by what they have to say, but that is not to say that I always agree with them. I suppose that at the end of the day I see myself first and foremost as a human being, albeit a white, Cornish, liberally minded and slightly flawed (but aren’t we all) human being. And that is precisely how I see others, as human beings; fine they are human beings who think differently, have different beliefs and probably see themselves differently than I see myself, or them for that matter, but they are still human beings, no more no less.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the lady in the burqa, whoever she may be, for stopping me dead in my tracks and making me think about who and what I am. What I have put here only scratches the surface of my thinking, and I know full well that we are all shaped by the circumstances of our mundane lives. But, ultimately, we are all human beings, and to put it in a rather vulgar manner, we all enter the world through a hole, and we all leave the world through a hole. So, why the fuck can’t we all just get on and make the best of the short time that we have between the two holes of birth and death!