Meeting of the Parliament 16 March 2016
The amendments lodged by Claudia Beamish and Angus MacDonald are important. As someone who herself has Gaelic heritage, I recognise the importance of those amendments and the struggle in speaking the language of my forebears. The amendments reflect a deeper issue, which is the danger that the people who appoint people to boards will appoint people who look and sound like them, and the amendments create the opportunity to think more seriously about how to ensure that there is a range of talents and commitments among the people in this public body.
I will press amendment 100, because I believe that community land ownership is one of the most effective models of land ownership. Our own history serves as a record that shows how common ownership of land has ensured that communities that may have been struggling can be revived and regenerated.
The amendment asks that the potential that community land ownership and community benefit societies have to benefit local communities is addressed. Therefore, I do not regard the amendment as overly prescriptive; rather, I consider that it reflects the reality that, too often, the co-operative model is not included in the Scottish Government’s strategy and that, when we have talked about economic models in the past, we have not understood the power of the co-operative model.
In our island and rural communities in particular, the reality is that the co-operative model is a natural and instinctive means by which people co-operate. People have come together through crofting committees, community shops, community enterprises and whatever. Amendment 100 simply locates the significance of that model in the bill, ensuring that the reason why we engage on the question of land reform is to address the question of neglect and the fact that too much of our land has been left unworked and unused, and that communities have been left unregenerated.
It is in that context that I hope that people feel able to support the amendment, which I intend to press.