YOU know there’s something stirring in the Yes movement when dozens of people give up their Sunday afternoon to attend a meeting that featured serious discussions on subjects not directly related to winning independence.
There is a growing realisation within the movement that Yessers are highly concerned about a whole range of issues, and it is truly heartening to see the grass roots organising conferences, seminars and meetings to address the vast range of issues that confront Scotland at the moment.
That realisation is why an open meeting organised by SNP Stirling and held in the city’s Smith Gallery on Sunday attracted a full house with more than 70 attending who played their own part in the event.
Murray Dunan, who attended the meeting, wrote to tell us: “Three good speakers and an attentive audience meant that the question and answer session ran to the time limit and could clearly have continued much longer. Topics were related to Brexit and the potential effect on Scottish food production and farming.
“A major problem is even now developing as the seasonal labour force of mainly Europeans for fruit and vegetable harvesting is already dwindling. Will crops be left to rot?
“Jim Fairlie being personally involved in both farming and food sales was very knowledgeable, had facts at his fingertips and was very informative on the potentially disastrous effects particularly for Scottish hill farmers. Scotland is 15% good arable land and 85% poor uneconomic hill grazing. England is the exact opposite but any support will be designed to suit the English situation.
“Ruth Watson emphasised the importance of Scotland the Brand to maintain our international reputation and international sales of our quality produce. Westminster holds all the cards and is planning to claw back even more powers from Scotland.
“The US is waiting in the wings to flood us with inferior cheap produce and take away our right to Protected Geographical Indication than protects our acknowledged regional speciality products.
“Stuart Guzinski explained the good work being done by the Forth Environmental Link in setting up cooperative relationships between producers and consumers to encourage more use of local produce.
“All mentioned the outrage felt by our farmers and food producers which begs the question why is there no evidence of this outrage being demonstrated? I can imagine French farmers blockading French roads with their tractors so why are we not seeing Westminster brought to a standstill by a parade of combine harvesters – or better still a cavalcade of dung spreaders emblazoned with Saltires?”
That might grab some attention.
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