Rally for Remain - Northern Ireland said Yes to the EU

On Saturday 20th October 2018 I took a ferry from Scotland for a day trip to Belfast, in order that I could attend the Rally For Remain at City Hall. This was the first time that I had ever attended a political rally in Northern Ireland, but in the current shenanigans over Brexit I felt it was important to show solidarity with the many folk in my native country who, like me, had also voted to Remain in the European Union, and who are about to be well and truly shafted.

What the Brexiteers in Britain do not get, and certainly would not care about if they did, is that in Northern Ireland, and indeed in Ireland as a whole, Brexit will come at a price. When the Tories achieve their 'hard Brexit', a border will be introduced in Ireland between the European Union and Little Britain's last colony, Northern Ireland. It will be physical infrastructure of a sort, but much worse, there is the very real danger of a 'hard border' becoming reintroduced into the minds of those who can never be reconciled to peace and prosperity.

Northern Ireland, like Scotland, voted against Brexit. The DUP, which only currently has influence because Theresa May screwed up her Conservative majority through an unnecessary general election in 2017, want to see this hard border, but they do not speak for the majority of people in Northern Ireland. For the DUP, Brexit will recreate a 'them and us' scenario from which they see future electoral advantage, something the deeply tribal Northern Ireland and Ireland was previously trapped in for decades and centuries, and which everyone finally learned to escape from through the Good Friday Agreement - except the DUP, who did not sign it. There is an entire generation of people in the north now who can vote who were not even alive during the Troubles, and the DUP is willing to put them on a sacrificial altar. It is disgusting. It is wrong. It is undemocratic. And it is not about orange versus green.

I am not religious. I originally come from a mainly Protestant background in Northern Ireland, but Brexit is the one disaster that has convinced me that the UK will forever be our undoing, whether in Scotland, where I now live, or back home. I now have dual nationality between Ireland and the UK, and when Scotland becomes independent in the very near future, I will be giving up my UK passport, and taking a Scottish one instead. Britain is permanently broken, the tragedy is that on their final swansong, the Brexiteers want to break Ireland and take it down with them.

The following is a video filmed by Independence Live of the Rally for Remain, with contribitions from the following people, representing the MAJORITY of public opinion in Northern Ireland, on a cross-community basis - Séamas de Faoite (SDLP); Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance); Gerry Carlisle (business leader); John Barry (Greens); Glenn Bradley (Northern Ireland Business and Human Rights Forum); Claire Hanna MLA (SDLP); Naomi Long MLA (Leader, Alliance); Olivia Potter-Hughes (President, NUS USI); Deirdre Hargey (Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sinn Féin); Damien McGenity (Border Communities Against Brexit).

(The video is also online at https://livestream.com/IndependenceLive/belfast-remain-rally/videos/182156767).

These people spoke for me, these people spoke for the majority of people in Northern Ireland. If you are a Brexiteer intent on jeopardising Northern Ireland's future, and refusing a People's Vote, please at least have the decency to first listen to the voices of the people you're about to sell out.

Thanks to Sorcha and Seamas for organising the event. And to hell with Brexit - it is not in my name...

The Australian Parliament and Aboriginal Tent Embassy

Whilst on a genealogy talks tour of Australia in August, I was able to take time out to visit the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia (www.aph.gov.au), located in the city of Canberra, within the Australian Capital Territory. Similar to Westminster, the federal parliament has a two chamber system, with a House of Representatives and a Senate, although neither was in session when I visited.

Whilst I was in Canberra the main political story happening at the time was a crisis concerning the rights of some elected members to be able to hold onto their seats, as incredibly several had been revealed to hold dual nationality, which is forbidden under the country's constitution - there's a summary of all those affected at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-19/who-is-who-dual-citizenship-scandal/8819510!

The exterior, and the main entrance lobby:

 The House of Representatives chamber:

 The Senate:

There was a museum display between the chambers, with several interesting documents, including a copy of England's Magna Carta, an Apology to Australia's Indignous Peoples, and an Apology to Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants:

Just down the road from the current parliament is the site of Old Parliament House, which was the institution's original home for some 61 years, and which now hosts the Museum of Australian Democracy (https://www.moadoph.gov.au). Outside the museum is the Aboriginal Tent Embassy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Tent_Embassy), founded in 1972 to originally protest about land rights for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Amusingly, upon approaching the camp, I was asked by one of the folk in the embassy where I was from. When I mentioned Scotland, he yelled out "Yes!", fully aware of our efforts to secure independence here, so I had to get a selfie! Some pictures from the embassy...

Chris

The 2017 General Election

Ye see yon birkies, in a twirl,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at their word,
They're but coofs for a' that:
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their ribband stars, an' a' that:
The Scots o' independent mind
We look an' laugh at a' that.

Keep the faith Scotland. Strong and stable is but a myth...

Fighting, losing, but still winning an election

This year I attempted to get elected to local government on behalf of the SNP (www.snp.org) for the North Ayrshire based ward of Stevenston. Despite putting absolutely everything into it, and essentially suspending my self-employed day job activities for four months along the way, I was unfortunately unable to get past the hurdles imposed by the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system used for the election, and narrowly failed to get elected.

In the STV system, voters are asked to list their preferences in order for as many or as few candidates as they wish, with the idea of producing a more proportionate election result than the 'first past the post' system used in the General Election. In this, candidates have to be elected by reaching a 'quota' of votes, decided on by the number of votes cast divided by the number of seats available plus one. If you reach the quota at the first stage, you are automatically elected; if not, subsequent preferences are then taken into account, and low polling candidates eliminated in stages, until the quota is reached and all the available seats are won.

For those standing on behalf of a political party, this provides something of a headache if more than one party candidate is standing in the ward, in that the alphabetical order of the candidate listing on the ballot paper provides a disadvantage to those listed further down the slip. If asked to vote for your party of choice, the natural inclination is to go down the list and give preferences in the order in which you find the two candidates (unless you perhaps happen to know one of the candidates). In this case my colleague's surname began with the letter M, placing her third on the ballot of eight candidates, whilst I was placed sixth with the surname of Paton. The disadvantage can be overcome partially by canvassing and asking folk in parts of the ward to vote the other way, 2 and 1 (i.e. with my colleague second, and myself first), instead of 1 and 2 – something I spent several months doing, speaking to almost 1500 people on their doorsteps along the way. This worked to a degree in that we ended up with a difference of only 180 votes between us in the first preferences as decided on by the electorate, and with both of us in the top three places, which would have guaranteed election in a first past the post scenario. Neither of us reached the quota, however, with the first preference.

This was also not a normal election. Half way through the campaign, the UK's Prime Minister suddenly called a snap general election, to take place just a month after the local elections, which with its obsession on the issue of Brexit influenced the latter part of the campaign. The Scottish constitutional question on independence, tied in with what many of us see to be the only way to avoid the perils and obscenity of Brexit, was also at play, as it has been for the last five years, making it very difficult to stick to talking about local issues, such as sorting out schools, potholes on the roads, and getting the litter bins collected. As much as we tried to make it about local issues, the opposing parties wanted to make it about avoiding an independence referendum, which councillors actually cannot call.

Tactically, one of the other things that seemed to help my two Labour opponents (both of whom were subsequently elected) was the fact that a sitting Labour councillor had stood as an independent candidate in the campaign. Unfortunately, when he was eliminated in the fourth round, his transfers went almost exclusively to the Labour candidates, and their fellow unionist colleague in the Conservative Party, pushing me below one of the Labour men by just six votes, and the Conservative candidate by just one vote. This led to my own elimination from the contest at the fifth round, which ironically then allowed my SNP colleague to dramatically sail past the quota line – needing just 86 votes to reach the quota, I was able to secure her an additional 547 votes! But that was it for my campaign.

Whilst disappointed not to get in, I have no regrets about having participated. The campaign was a lot of fun, I met some wonderful people and had some great experiences throughout. I was part of a candidates team that worked brilliantly together, with a wonderful election agent, and I was gladdened to see so many colleagues elected on the day, though saddened for those who did not get in. On the day of the election itself, my main opponents were courteous. I had a good election campaign.

My overall thought though is that we live in a democracy, and I'm of the mind that whilst there are plenty of informed armchair commentators out there, ready to complain about the slightest thing, there are not enough political foot-soldiers seeking to make a change within the society in which they live. If you want to see change in your society, no matter what your political conviction is, you have to get off your backside and seek to be a part of that change. At the count, a candidate (I won't say from which party!) spoke to me and said that he was glad to see that even with the effort that he knew I had put in, it had not been enough, which made him feel better about not having done so much campaigning himself (he having not also been elected). Given the chance to run the same campaign, with the benefit of hindsight, I would do it all exactly the same way again. Being elected is not an entitlement, it is an honour to be worked for - and my most cherished memory from the last few months is of the many folk who told me that I was the first candidate they had seen on their doorsteps in decades, which they appreciated. As consolation, although not elected to the ward, I did help to push our vote up by 5% higher than it had been in 2012, and that effort will help my colleagues in future elections, not least the impending General Election. Oh, and nationally, we won the election! :)

So instead of sitting around and moping, I am already back on the horse, out canvassing to help get our local MP re-elected to Westminster. I'll continue to fight for the change I want to see in our country.

Why don't you also?! :)

Chris

UPDATE 11 MAY 2017: An interesting development in the Scottish Parliament. It turns out that 78% of those who were elected as councillors benefitted by being top in alphabetical order, with reform of the system being called for - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-39882814. 

 

 

If interested, the full results from Stevenston (Ward 4) are available at https://north-ayrshire.cmis.uk.com/north-ayrshire/VotingElections/ElectionResults/2017ScottishLocalGovernmentResults.aspx

An Immortal Memory

Last night I attended my first ever formal Burns supper event, hosted by the Cunninghame North constituency of the SNP, where I was asked to give the Immortal Memory to Robert Burns. A couple of folk have asked me to publish what I recited, as a bewildered Ulsterman taking it all in for the first time, so here goes!

Hello everyone,

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Chris Paton, I'm a member of the Largs branch of the SNP, and as you can probably hear I am not originally from this parish. I come from a wee island just off Scotland – it's called Ireland, which at its closest is about 12 miles off the coast. In fact, I'm delighted to say that I come from the same town that God comes from in Northern Ireland, a wee place called Carrickfergus, although I might have to have a word with him about the rugby result earlier today! Just for good measure, this is the first time I have ever attended a formal Burns Supper, so I'm honoured to be asked to speak to the immortal memory of Robert Burns – this is definitely one to tick off my bucket list later!

So, after Googling “immortal memory” and after watching a few speeches on YouTube, what can I tell you about Robert Burns the man? As an Ulsterman, what possible interest could I have in Robert Burns? Well I have to tell you that until a few years ago, I had none whatsoever. In fact, I would go so far as to say I was deeply suspicious about the man, but for all the wrong reasons. So let me tell you where I once was on that, how I have now come to admire and respect the world's greatest poet, and why I as a Johnny Foreigner think he should be remembered and celebrated.

As I mentioned, I was born in, and for most of my childhood was raised in, Northern Ireland. Now the province of Ulster, as you may be aware, was colonised by thousands of Presbyterian Scots some four hundred years ago, in an event known as the Plantations. As a child though, I didn't know any of this. In a period when we lived through the Troubles, you were either a Catholic or a Protestant, or Irish or British, with people often defining themselves not by who they were, but by who they weren't. As a consequence, I had no idea that I had a deep Scottish ancestry, despite the fact that when growing up many of the words I used were good auld fashioned Ulster Scots words

When I misbehaved as a wean and a bad word came from my bake I was scolded for being a cheeky wee hallion, when the pokey van came to our estate I'd buy a 99 poke, it was a place where my wee brother used to be a clipe for squealing on me, where I could go for a walk up the Red Brae, and where I could point to this table, that wall and thon hill thonder. But I didn't know that these were Scots words, I just thought that was how we spoke English. We also had some Scottish traditions, but again, I didn't know that they were Scottish. One New Years Eve, my dad asked me to take a lump of coal up to my Granny Graham's house in our estate and to wish her a happy new year. Terrified that my granny was somehow freezing to death on her own, I ended up filling a carrier bag with coal and took that up instead! I got a clout around the ear for that one! I had no idea about my Scottishness – my Ulster Scottishness – because we were never allowed to define ourselves in that way.

Even today I get wound up by what has happened to Ulster's Scottish culture. I gave a talk in Largs a few years ago about how to research Irish ancestry, and a wee man approached me and told me he was setting up a local non-sectarian Ulster Scots heritage group – would I be interested in going along? He handed me a leaflet, at which point I had to ask him – if this is a non-sectarian group, why have you printed your leaflet on orange paper? I wanted nothing to do with them. My notions of Ulster Scottishness tie into my Presbyterian ancestors from Islandmagee and Antrim, who fought with the radical United Irishmen in 1798. Now I'm not saying all my lot were successful. Never mind the fact that the rebellion failed – as a fifteen year old lad my four times great grandfather John Montgomery accidentally shot his hand off with one of the rebels' rifles in the midst of it. My family's been regularly winning the Darwin award on occasion ever since.

So then there's Robert Burns himself. As a child in Northern Ireland, all I knew about Robert Burns was he was Scottish, and had written that Hogmanay song. Even as an adult, I still had no idea about what half of Auld Lang Syne meant - “we'll tak a right guid willie waught”, for example. I used to work in television, and as a one time researcher on a BBC2 series of short films on men's health, I could never quite understand what a right good willy wart was – that certainly wasn't what my research was telling me, I filmed many a grown man with tears in his eyes complaining about how sore they were – until the time when I twigged that it wasn't quite what it sounded like! It's actually a hearty swig of ale or some other alcoholic drink, and I'll happily tak one of those. Especially if it is Laphroaig, which is God's official whisky.

And everywhere I came across Burns as a child, it was the same image of the man on a tea towel, or a shortbread tin, the portrait that became an icon, a bit like Bonnie Prince Charlie. Now I was raised as a Presbyterian, and the one thing we were taught in Ulster's Presbyterian churches was that idolatry was a bad thing. In fact, on another TV series I once made about the history of the Church in Scotland, I had to visit the Free Church College on The Mound in Edinburgh, where the Scottish Parliament first met after it was reconvened. When I got there, it amused me no end, because when you go through the arch into its main courtyard, the first thing you come across is a statue of John Knox on a plinth – the very man who tore down the statues at the Reformation. I still don't get why the Kirk doesn't see the irony of this! But the point is I was raised not to believe in the idea of celebrity – I can make my own mind up about whether someone should be celebrated.

So how did I first begin to develop an understanding of Burns? Well, when I left the BBC in 2006, I started to work professionally as a family historian. Now as a genealogical researcher, I get a lot of folk contacting me, especially from the States, who tell me that they are descended from William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, the Stewarts – you name it, I've heard it, they're usually always wrong, and they've usually bought the wrong tartan! However, about four years ago, I had a client who claimed she thought there was a family story of some possible connection to Burns, could I take a look?

In fact, it transpired that she was spot on. I discovered that her five times great grandfather was a merchant from Kilmarnock called John AIRD, who, with his wife Anna CAMPBELL, had a granddaughter called Jean BRECKENRIDGE, who in 1791 married a young man by the name of Gilbert BURNS – the poet's brother. It was through this connection that I first looked into the story of the Burns lads, and I learned that Robert and Gilbert had together taken on the lease of Mossgiel Farm, near Mauchline, in 1784. Three years later, Robert withdrew from the farm, and from the sale of his second edition of poems he granted Gilbert a loan of £180 to pay off his debts and to invest in his business. So this was the first time I had ever come across Robert Burns in a guise other than as this foreign icon, not as a poet, but as a big brother looking out for his wee brother. Fair play to you Rabbie, I thought, and all due respect – as the eldest in my family I've helped my own siblings out from time to time in the past, this was something I could relate to.

And then we had the referendum. At this point there was an argument in the sainted Scottish press about whether Burns was a unionist or a nationalist. Well as we say back in Northern Ireland, you can't kid a kidder, and give my head peace! To Johnny Foreigner here this was an absolute nonsense. By now I knew that Burns was a bit of a complex man, and that in rebellious times such as the 1790s he had to be careful how he expressed his loyalties. But it was obvious that he had been disgusted by the Treaty of Union in 1707, for which he condemned the Scottish nobility:

What force or guile could not subdue
Thro' many warlike ages
Is wrought now by a coward few
For hireling traitor's wages.
The English steel we could disdain,
Secure in valour's station:
But English gold has been our bane
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.

His contempt for the upper class, and his belief that all people are in fact equal very much reflected the thinkers of the Enlightenment at that time, as expressed through works such as The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine. Burns expressed his belief in, and solidarity with, the common man when he penned A Man's a Man for a' That:

Ye see yon birkie ca’d ‘a lord’,
Wha struts an’ stares, an’ a’ that?
Tho’ hundreds worship at his word,
He’s but a cuif for a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
His riband, star, an’ a’ that,
The man o’ independent mind,
He looks an’ laughs at a’ that. 
 

A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an' a' that;
But an honest man's abon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities an' a' that;
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may,

(As come it will for a' that,)

That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,

Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that,

It's coming yet for a' that,

That Man to Man, the world o'er,

Shall brothers be for a' that.

Now you're talking! This is definitely a man I can respect. And he wasn't just drawing inspiration from the nonsense he was encountering in Scotland, or in Britain, he knew that education and the revolution of the mind could unlock a strength that no imperial power could ever thwart. In his Ode to General Washington's Birthday he stated:

Here's freedom to them that would read.
Here's freedom to them that would write!
There's nane ever fear'd that the truth should be heard
But they wham the truth would indite!

A short and sweet quote there. Robert Burns would have been great on Twitter!

So I began to pick up on a lot of this throughout the Referendum, and in its aftermath. Now I struggle with poetry, and am not a great one for songs and lyrics. When I sing, it sounds like a chicken farting, and I don't do romance awfully well – I proposed to my wife by waking up one morning and saying “should we get married then?!” Romantic songs, and love poems – was Burns really someone I should be trying to come to grips with? But last year, having by now grasped that there really was something to engage with when it came to Robert Burns, I decided to challenge my final prejudices about him. I visited the Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, thinking I was a going to be accosted by people dressed in 18^th century outfits looking for wee sleekit mousies and hunting haggis. In fact, I was – but I don't think I've ever been to better museum in my life. It wasn't about Burns the industry, it was about Burns the man. The excise man, the farmer, the nationalist, the poet. The interpretative panels were all written in Scots, written as a real living language.

So it turned out from this exhibition that Burns was a great poet, but rather endearingly, he wasn't a perfect man – who amongst us is? He loved his words, and he also loved his women. My God, did Burns love his women! My wee brother, who was actually born in Scotland and now lives in Dubai, is now with his third wife, but I haven't the heart to tell him about Burns' tally with women, in case he gets competitive. As a genealogist, one of the things I regularly come across in old kirk session records are cases of what was referred to as 'antenuptial fornication', basically doing the dirty deed before a wedding ring was put on – well I think in the 18^th century the Kirk must have had an entire department working on Robert Burns. I can imagine all these ministers of the cloth having minor heart palpitations every time he walked into a room which had a woman someone near within a five mile radius! One article I read noted that Burns was a 'philanderer, fornicator and a father of bastart bairns'. Actually, it could be argued that if he wasn't, he might not have written so many of his great love songs. But Burns also believed in the equality of women, and in 1792 wrote:

While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things,
The fate of Empires and the fall of Kings;
While quacks of State must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention.

Even with the things he didn't agree with, he did try to see the opposing view and to understand why others held their views, for example, with religion. Now again, being Irish and being raised on an island that makes religion still seem like a growth industry, the one thing I can tell you for a fact that is that I am not in anyway religious, because whilst Northern Ireland tried to knock religion into me, it also knocked it right back out of me. But I will absolutely to my dying breath defend the right of folk to have religious beliefs, and to continue to argue that we need to keep fighting against the likes of Donald Trump and his disgusting Muslim ban. Well Burns held very similar views. In a letter to a Mrs Dunlop in December 1794, just eighteen months before he died, he commented on the delight that he gained from seeing people gain comfort from something he himself could not be reconciled to. This is what he wrote:

What a transient business is life! Very lately I was a boy; but t'other day I was a young man; and I already begin to feel the rigid fibre and stiffening joints of Old Age coming fast o'er my frame. With all my follies of youth, and I fear, a few vices of manhood, still I congratulate myself on having had in early days religion strongly impressed on my mind. I have nothing to say to any body, as, to which Sect they belong, or what Creed they believe; but I look on the Man who is firmly persuaded of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness superintending and directing every circumstance that can happen in his lot - I felicitate such a man as having a solid foundation for his mental enjoyment; a firm prop and sure stay, in the hour of difficulty, trouble and distress: and a never-failing anchor of hope, when he looks beyond the grave.

Unlike most of you in this room, Robert Burns to me has become an acquired taste worth acquiring. I was not raised to revere the man, I did not take to him because I was taught about him at school, I wasn't raised to eat haggis, neeps and tatties on Burns nights, I instead took the scenic route to come to terms with the Bard. When I read Burns now – and believe me, I am reading Burns now – I see a reflection in many of the things that he writes that I believe in, and that I have believed in my whole life. His words on equality, on national identity, on internationalism, on all the things he has celebrated and railed against, these are words that are easily understood - whether written in Scots or in English - because at their heart lies a truth about who we are and what we aspire to be. They are the same things that Burns believed over two hundred years ago, they are the wisdom of ages immortalised in verse. When we gather and quote his thoughts and share his stories, we celebrate the fact that we remain wed to those words and that ideology. On a personal level, whilst I have spent years trying to uncover and reclaim my Ulster Scottishness, through the words of one man here in Scotland I have been able to find the words that help to define my values as a civic Scot. They are the values I share with each and every one of you here tonight.

Ladies and gentlemen, you'll be delighted to know that I have come to the end, but that also, when it comes to appreciating Robert Burns, I finally got there in the end! So I'd like you all, if you would be so good, to stand now as I raise a glass - a right guid willie waught - to the immortal memory of the one and only Robert Burns.

COMMENT: I should add that it was a great event, at which the guest speaker was Joanna Cherry QC MP who gave the toast to Scotland, and with many other great speakers and entertainment. I'll definitely be going to another Burns supper at some point!

Chris

Save the Ardrossan ferry route

As an Ulsterman I regularly take the ferry back 'home' across the Irish Sea, although to do so I need to drive an hour and half south from Largs to Cairnryan. Not too long ago there was in fact a closer option to my North Ayrshire home, a ferry service from the town of Troon, just forty minutes away. Despite the fact that it sailed to my birth town of Larne in County Antrim, it was a route that I never used. The reason was simple - it was far too expensive. As a ferry port, Troon just didn't work economically, either for me as a customer or anyone else, and eventually the Northern Irish ferry service ceased to be. Today the port in Troon remains all dressed up, but with nowhere to go.

Troon has raised its head again, however, in its desire to become an active ferry port once more. ABP Ports, the owner of the town's port is bidding to take the ferry route from Ardrossan which currently serves Brodick on the Isle of Arran. It's an astonishing bid, one that has raised a lot of controversy locally with accusations that the company is trying to bribe the island's inhabitants through a community fund of £50,000 (see www.ardrossanherald.com/news/14841835.Save_Our_Ferry____50_000_promise_for_Arran_community_branded_a__pitiful_bribe_/). Whatever it might be trying to dish out from its corporate candy jar to sweeten its attempted take over, however, there are some key facts that just make the whole idea of Troon a useful port for Arran a complete non-starter.

The current sailing time from Brodick to Ardrossan is 55 minutes. The route to Troon would be one and a half times longer by way of distance and time, and almost certainly in the cost of each trip as a consequence. And if you have longer sailing times, you will therefore need to have fewer services each day. Then take for instance the fact that in Troon, the railway station is a mile away from the port. Is it realistic that in the busy summer season, when many folk are trying to visit the island that the ferry operators will have anything like enough buses to run a shuttle service to take folk across the town? By contrast, in Ardrossan there is a train stop at the harbour itself - should an islander need to travel to the mainland, perhaps to have a hospital appointment, it is a very straightforward onward journey from the port. As public transport solutions go, you could not ask for better.

Don't get me wrong. Troon is a wonderful town - a place I have visited several times in the past with my kids, and also to give various talks to the local family history society. But Troon is not a convenient place to go to as a transport hub. It never worked for the Northern Ireland trade, it will work equally as ineffectually for the Arran trade. The Scottish Government's Transport Minister Humza Yousaf has announced that he will be considering the case for both Ardrossan and Troon, and that may well be the right and proper thing to do. But can anyone be in any doubt that once both options have been examined, that Ardrossan does not win the business case hands down?

Well, to help make the case, a Save Our Ferry campaign has been launched today in Ardrossan by North Ayrshire Council. Along with local councillors from across the political divide, local businesses, members of the local community, and our parliamentary representatives Kenneth Gibson MSP and Patricia Gibson MP, I attended a gathering at Ardrossan ferry terminal to show support to those in Arran who rely on the service, and to those in Ardrossan whose livelihoods depend on the retention of the service.

 

We are as surprised as anyone that we have to make the case to retain the service in Ardrossan, but despite it being such an obvious case, we are only too happy to restate it. Whilst in Ardrossan I took the opportunity to ask my local MSP Kenneth Gibson to summarise why he believes the ferry service should be retained:

An online petition is available at https://www.change.org/p/north-ayrshire-council-keep-the-brodick-to-ardrossan-route, which will be presented to both North Ayrshire Council and the Scottish Government. Please take the time to sign - let's save the Ardrossan ferry, let's Keep it A to B!

UPDATE 23 NOV: I was out last Saturday 19th November gathering signatures for the petition at both Saltcoats and Ardrossan, as part of the SNP. Whilst there I recorded my own take on the possible move, which you can view below:

(Also available at https://youtu.be/JHFRiPWg66Q)

A new campaign site from North Ayrshire Council with another petition is at http://www.saveourferry.co.uk - please take time to sign this also. There is also a Save Our Ferry event at Ardrossan Civic Centre on Thurs 24th November at 7pm - further details at http://www.ardrossanherald.com/news/14909039.Council_to_hold_special_event_in_support_of_the__Save_Our_Ferry__campaign/

Thanks,

Chris

Say No to xenophobic Tory rhetoric

A letter I've had published in this week's Largs and Millport Weekly...

Dear Editor,

I don't think I have ever been as shocked by a newspaper headline as that presented in The Times on the morning of October 5th : “Firms must list foreign workers".

Now we're getting an idea of what Brexit really means. Theresa May is planning to impose some of the most right-wing policies on the UK that a Conservative government has ever sought to implement. It does not matter that businesses and organisations such as the NHS rely on immigrant workers to help provide the services we need, because it would seem that now we apparently intend to demonise them, make them register as migrants, and attack the NHS for hiring them in the first place, along with anyone else offering jobs to those not from Britain. Theresa May also stated elsewhere to the BBC that she will 'allow' foreign doctors to stay until indigenous doctors can be trained up – I am sure they are truly grateful for her magnanimous offer.

I have been ideologically opposed to the Conservatives my whole life, ever since the days of Thatcher. Despite our political differences, I always thought at least we had some core ambitions in common – a desire to achieve the best for our respective communities and our families, no matter how we differed utterly in our attempts to realise those ambitions. But now I am reading headlines advocating registration schemes for those deemed to be the 'other'. What next? No blacks? No Irish? Yellow stars on our sleeves? Are we really heading towards all of this as British national policy?

Do the Scottish Conservatives really support this new xenophobic right-wing direction that Theresa May is taking us down? Instead of asking them to check their rhetoric, Ruth Davidson, a former EU Remain campaigner, spent the conference in England cosying up to this new regime, even belittling Scots in one of her speeches to gain a cheap laugh: “Usually they put the Scots in a place where nothing can be broken. Or stolen for that matter”. Really Ruth? Really?

On October 4th our local MSP Kenneth Gibson led a debate in Holyrood condemning hate attacks against Poles. It received cross-party support, with the exception of the Tories. They abdicated their responsibility at a time when the national rhetoric their London bosses are sewing needs firmly to be challenged. So are the Scottish Conservatives truly Conservative any more? Or like their southern colleagues, have they simply abandoned their principles for the darker, inward looking, backward facing, narrow-minded, Brexit-ready British nationalism of UKIP? Increasingly by the day, it would seem to be the case.

Chris Paton, Largs

UPDATE: A Tory councillor down south has just been suspended for starting a petition calling for opposition to Brexit to be made a treasonable offence. You can't write this stuff - see http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tory-councillor-christian-holliday-suspended-brexit-treason_uk_5804e8b8e4b0ee335212c68c?