Human rights seminar marks 30 years of campaigning for freedom of information in Scotland

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland (CFoIS) turns 30 this year. And it is marking the anniversary with a major seminar in Glasgow on Friday (26 September) exploring whether FOI is part of the human rights agenda, and what still needs to be done to improve the law in Scotland. The event is also Scotland’s celebration of International Right to Know Day, which is on the 28 September.

Aidan O'Neil QC

Leading public, employment and human rights lawyer, Aidan O’Neil QC will address the issue of human rights and freedom of information.

Carole Ewart, Convenor of the CFoIS said

‘We are delighted that Aidan O’Neil can come and address our seminar on this important topic. As constitutional issues across the UK come up for discussion, we need to raise the importance of FOI and develop thinking on the interdependence of human rights and access to information, so we can inform debate on national and local issues.”

Another topic that will be discussed is the relative health of FOI legislation, North and South of the border.

Carole Ewart said

Carole Ewart

            “While there have been things to celebrate in the last 30 years, there is still much to be done. In particular the inclusion of Arms-Length bodies set up by public authorities, and ‘public’ bodies like Registered Social Landlords. We are concerned that Scotland is lagging behind the rest of the UK in maintaining a progressive and effective FOI regime.”

The seminar is being held jointly with Strathclyde University’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law at 2.00pm in the University’s Lord Hills Building. It is supported by the NUJ in Scotland.

Tickets are available from https://www.eventbrite.com/e/is-accessing-information-a-human-right-lessons-for-scotland-tickets-12969904333?invite=&err=29&referrer=&discount=&affiliate=&eventpassword=

Tony Benn’s life and work to be celebrated in Glasgow

The release below went out to a wide range of media yesterday. The Herald picked up the story and

Tony Benn at 2011's UCS 40 anniversary

printed it here. This is the full release. Watch out for further announcements as other guests are added to the list!

A major Scottish celebration of the life of Tony Benn was announced today (Monday 22). Taking place in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on November 30 this year, the plan is for a series of events through the afternoon culminating in a substantial concert in the evening.

Rab Noakes

Singer songwriter Rab Noakes has agreed to curate the concert which will also feature Chris Difford of Squeeze, folk legend Roy Bailey, Karen Matheson, Donald Shaw, James Grant, Arthur Johnstone, and Alastair McDonald . Also planned is a spoken word event in the afternoon, along with discussion workshops on topics close to Tony’s heart

Neil Findlay MSP from the group set up to support and promote this event, said  “A number of our major trade unions felt it was important that a campaigner like Tony, who had strong links with Scotland, from UCS up to the present day, should be recognised and remembered here. We’re delighted to have the support of the Benn family for the event.”

The day is being supported by Aslef, GMB, UNISON and Unite in Scotland, who have commissioned FairPley – the people who organised Tony Benn’s sellout appearance at Celtic Connections in 2013 – to produce the show.

Stephen Wright, one of the directors of FairPley, said  “It was a real privilege to organise Tony’s appearances in Scotland over the last few years, at the Fringe, Celtic Connections and the UCS 40^th anniversary celebrations. We’re delighted to be involved in this major event to mark Tony’s life and legacy.”

Further addition to the line-up will be announced as they happen, but advance tickets have now gone on sale at - http://www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/events/tony-benn-a-celebration-concert/

Our NHS. Why the Yes campaign must destroy a UK-wide service

With the polls coming together as the referendum approaches, it would seem a good time to analyse the importance to that debate of the controversial claims around our NHS

This is a difficult issue for the Yes campaign. Firstly the NHS is that rare thing, a UK-wide institution that is both respected by experts and valued and supported by people across the UK; obviously the complete antithesis of what Yes campaigners want to see. Secondly, it is funded as part of a system (Barnett) that makes at least some attempt to recognise differing demands of different parts of the UK and fund them accordingly. Again an example of an UK-wide positive process that would be killed stone dead by a Yes vote.

In short and in principle, the NHS is a good example of what Better Together should be trumpeting. Sharing UK resources so that anyone in any part of the UK can receive treatment free at the point of delivery, wherever they need to receive it. Why BT hasn’t done so enough, we'll deal with in a minute.

Are the threats real?

The Yes campaign have to deal with the inevitable break up of our NHS that their aims predicate. To invent a back story for this split, a) they have tried to create an image of an irreparably damaged NHS South of the border, and b) argue that the only way out is to pull up the ladder, and abandon the rUK NHS. To do so they risk the claim that they will cut the 'hassle free access to specialist clinical facilities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland' that doctors put so much importance on, and abandon the collective creation, involvement and resourcing of our UK NHS.

So, if a successful UK-wide institution delivering services to us all is so clearly a problem it has to be denigrated. And not just for failings in England, but if possible how those failings will eventually reach across the border.

Eleanor Bradford of the BBC

So the targets picked on by the Yes campaign were Barnett and how it is threatened by English privatisation, and - when it quickly became clear via Eleanor Bradford amongst others, that privatisation itself threatens Barnett in no way - the overall impact of lowering levels of service in England and the knock-on damage to Scotland's Health Service.

What did SNP MPs think?

However, Yes have another problem with the 'impact of NHS privatisation on Scotland' argument. As is well known, SNP MPs do not (as a matter of principle) vote on legislation that has no impact in Scotland. But obviously, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (the main coalition legislation opening health care up to private commissioning) DOES impact, doesn't it? Everyone from Dr Philippa Whitford to Alex Salmond has

Dr Phillippa Whitford

told us so. However you'll look hard to find the SNP MPs voting against that bill (neither in the second nor the third reading!). Surely they couldn't have been under the impression its impact on Scotland would be non-existent (twice)? Hopefully, if a Labour government committed to repealing that law - as both Burnham and Miliband have committed to do - is returned in 2015, they won't make the same mistake again.

However, no matter what SNP MPs might think, the Yes campaign’s point about the privatisation of England's NHS does have an impact on Scotland and Scottish patients. Currently - although the NHS is run differently either side if the border - all UK patients are entitled to get the most appropriate care for their condition in the most appropriate venue. In some cases that means English specialist hospitals. That has been made clear by Sir Leonard Fenwick, the chief executive of the North East NHS foundation when he replied to Dr Whitford's bogus claims about cancer surgery in his area. A number of us also remember the emergency airlifts of Scottish patients suffering from swine flu, to a hospital in Leicester. The prospect of these areas of specialism down in England suffering because of the introduction of profit-driven, resource-undermining privatisation is very much something that we in Scotland should be concerned with. And we should be campaigning with our fellow NHS supporters across the UK to ensure that privatisation is stopped in its tracks and the Health and Social Care Act is repealed.

It is disappointing that Better Together seem to have been a) hypnotised by the 'Barnett myth' and b) hamstrung by the presence of parties representing the architects of this privatisation, and failed to highlight the REAL dangers to Scotland’s patients, but at least the Labour opposition at Westminster has made a clear commitment to repeal the odious Act.

Campaigning for the NHS across the UK

External support, or joint campaigning

We could still campaign in support of the English NHS in an Independent Scotland, of course, although we would a) then be offering solidarity to campaigners in a different country with a different healthcare system, and b) no longer have a right and a stake in a UK-wide NHS. Not impossible then, just unnecessarily more difficult.

And this leads to another objection that the Yes campaign has to challenge. The right of us all as patients to use the NHS across the UK would cease. Now, it is possible, even probable, that arrangements would be negotiated to allow continued access, but they would have to be created via some financial bargain, as Scottish and rUK populations would no longer be contributing to one cross border system.

Plus, of course, the real cast iron danger to any redistributive effect (however small) that exists in the Barnett formula doesn't come from English privatisation, or even from 'revenge plots' by Westminster politicians, but from a Yes vote! Separation of the nation, means separation of national healthcare systems, and separation of the tax and spend arrangements that fund them. So – no Barnett, no redistribution from a bigger pool to a smaller.

Our NHS, Our Campaign

So, while no one underestimates the danger to the NHS from privatisation, it is surely more likely to be defeated by working and campaigning together as part of our NHS, than by striking camp and stealing away into the night? An argument that can also, incidentally, be applied to many other pan-UK struggles and campaigns.

And ultimately this is why the break up of our NHS is quite so crucial to the Yes campaign. It is not just a successful practical service, it is also a symbol of a UK success with input from us all, and access for us all. Let's keep it that way. Vote No to continue and increase the campaign to defeat privatisation of our NHS - wherever that is threatened.

When Four Tribes go to war

Polyphonic and polylingual. Re-creation of First World War explores horror and common humanity

5/5

The polyphonic production of Front, by Hamburg's Thalia Theater and the Nederlands Toneel Gent at the Royal Lyceum - directed by Fleming Luk Perceval - is a truly impressive and moving performance. Lasting two hours without an interval, and performed in Flemish, German, French and English (English sur-titles allow us linguistically-challenged to appreciate it) it doesn't sound like something that is immediately accessible. But the pared-back set, the use of a backdrop of monochromatic images from the front, the noise of the collected thunder sheets hanging on stage all combine to evoke the horror.

Taken from a selection of scenes from both Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Henri Barbusse's Under Fire, the narrative circles the opposing front lines - represented by the lines of cast members along the front of the stage. It gives us the full perspective of the sufferings both in opposing trenches and on the home front. While actors spin like dervishes in an assault, the noise rises to a crescendo. Incongruously, yet entirely believably, a moment of romance between a nurse and a wounded soldier counter poses a spark of life amongst the destruction (although the future of that life is shadowed by the fate of the soldier). Above all, the characters of the young friends condemned by their fates to land in the hell of the First World War highlight the reality of this 'war for fatherland and freedom'. As one says, they are not soldiers, just civilians imported to the front.

I've seldom seen a production that evokes the trauma of killing. The horror of the impact of weaponry on bodies, both human and animal, is somehow more effectively portrayed by the flat, emotionless delivery. If you've a chance in Edinburgh today or Tuesday, go. You'll be gripped for the full two hours.

Front, 7.00pm until 26 August, Royal Lyceum Theatre,

The humour of deceit - Cuckooed, by Mark Thomas

4/5

An absolutely fascinating tale, told by an expert in telling tales. And it is all the more effective for being true!

Mark Thomas has dramatised a period of his life when he was active in the Campaign Against the Arms Trade. A period where one of their foremost activists, their most charismatic campaigners and someone who became a close friend to Mark and many others was exposed as a spy. A spy planted in the organisation by an agency on behalf of BAE Systems who reported to them on the CAAT's activities. 

Thomas uses a theatrical setting for his performance. Although it is a one-man show, he has gone back and interviewed the people involved at the time. Not only that he has filmed them, and they appear like an administrative Beckett play, on screens set in filing cabinets. All except one.

While the story and the situation is tailor-made for Thomas and one of his political diatribes - and he doesn't miss the political targets - the personal imbues the political with a tinge of sadness. Our spy isn't living the high life in Monte Carlo but in a two-up  two-down somewhere in the Medway area (I am surmising as Thomas makes it clear he is not going to be identified or targeted).

There is humour, there is pathos, there is political campaigning. It isn't the huge belly laugh that Thomas can generate, but maybe that's part of the personal journey that he has taken. 

Traverse Theatre, until the 24 August. various times. It will then be on tour across England (with a gig in Northern Ireland) during October and November, finishing with a season in London in December. Dates here

MacBraveheart – an alternative vision of our land (and a Very Important Play)

-->In addition to the piece below I've now written a review for the Morning Star. You can find it under their headline - Confronting Scottish Demons - mine would have been Burying the Hatchback! - Anyway it's here.

In all the furore of political debate and discussion in the theatre world over the independence referendum, and the nature of Scottishness, one play on Edinburgh’s Fringe takes a very different look at our future.

Philip Differ

Writer and director Philip Differ’s, short play, MacBraveheart (a FairPley production at the Assembly Rooms, 31July - 24 August), is a wry look at what we might become in the future. It is a post-indy dystopia, if you will – and a very funny – take on what indy-Scotland could become

Unlike FairPley’s other major production - David Hayman's pro-Indy, The Pitiless Storm - also on at the Assembly Rooms, this play is a black comedy, set in a past post-Indy Scotland of bleakness and infighting. William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Rabbie Burns wrestle with the issues of what happens next? Be careful what you wish for, because it's the early bird that takes the biscuit! It’s a very important play. It is also very funny!

Differ himself says,

"I have long wondered who we would fight with, if all other targets of our wrath were removed! So I tried to take iconic Scottish figures and set them in an extreme post-Indy landscape to answer that question!"

MacBraveheart stars Gerry McLaughlin, James McAnerney, and Scarlet Mack and is a sharp and witty unusual slant on the independence debate. It plays throughout the Fringe (until the 24 Aug - not the 11) at 13.15 in Studio 1 of the Assembly Rooms. Tickets £10 from http://www.arfringe.com/show/5/macbraveheart_the_other_scottish_play or tel:0844 693 3008.

Promo videos at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SNxYESxvUc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MBbTKGMe1E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HvrepzwafM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ms0PBDskXg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFmyId2427A

David MacLennan – Plays, Politics and Popularity

--> This is a slightly longer and more personal version of the obituary I wrote for The Morning Star. That version can be accessed here.

David MacLennan (June 19, 1948 - June 13, 2014)

I was in Italy when the news came through via a friend on Twitter. David MacLennan, the theatre writer, director and producer, had lost his short battle with Motor Neurone Disease. The co-founder of 7:84 Theatre Company and Wildcat Productions, the man who had been part of the foundation of MayFest, and who created the Play, Pie and a Pint format, who was in a new ascendancy with the National Theatre of Scotland (NToS) commissioning him and David Greig to co-curate The Yes, No, Don't Know, Show, had left us and in particular, left a huge hole at the centre of Scottish Theatre, Political Theatre and Popular Theatre.

I first came across David when Nalgo, one of UNISON's predecessor unions made their first break through in joint working with political theatre. They reunited 7:84 Theatre company co-founders, John McGrath and David by commissioning their production, On the pigs back, in 1983. The show was a street theatre production of typical 7:84/Wildcat wit and political polemic that toured all across Scotland in a double decker bus that doubled as the backdrop! Getting the bus onto ferries to Stornoway and Lerwick was not the least of the problems!

This was part of Nalgo's first major campaign against cuts and sparked a raft of similar union-supported productions with both Wildcat and 7:84 dealing with the politics of the Thatcher years. including Bed Pan Alley sponsored by NUPE. It also included Nalgo's sponsorship of The Steamie which opened at a disused public wash house in Govan, one of my favourite venues! Ultimately, these initiatives also led to the establishment of MayFest in 1983, an arts festival based on trade union MayDay celebrations. Typically David (and his then wife Ferelith Lean) were in at the start of this too!

David's (and Wildcat's) uncompromising, if extremely humorous, politics – they produced plays on the Miners’ Strike, Ireland and Rock and Roll! - eventually led to a falling out with the then Scottish Arts Council, and funding was withdrawn. Despite a lengthy campaign, it was the end for Wildcat. MayFest too, shut after a different funder withdrew support (for different reasons).

After some years on individual projects and commissions, David launched another innovative and popular initiative. Entrepreneur Colin Beattie's new bar and venue, Oran Mor, was looking for artistic projects to fill its cavernous spaces! And A Play, a Pie and a Pint was born! This format, allowing people to leave work, have a drink and a bite to eat and see a short play - all in the space of a lunch hour - quickly established itself in a completely commercial environment. Spin-offs to both other venues, and other art forms (a Cocktail, a Canapé, and a Concerto, anyone?) showed its versatility, and ultimately the idea of short, popular plays in non standard venues was taken up by the NToS itself in its Five Minute Theatre initiatives.

Although now successful commercially, David's political commitment was maintained right till the end. He addressed one of the first Morning Star cultural events in Scotland, shortly after the success of A Play, A Pie & A Pint. He introduced himself as a 'convinced Marxist'! His final project - co-curating the Yes, No, Don't Know Show - involved a series of 5 minute plays all dealing with the current referendum on Scottish Independence, (David's 'No' view, being balanced by David Greig's 'Yes' one!)

Political, yes, but not didactic, David knew the need to entertain was part of the production. In John McGrath, his brother-in-law's phrase, the production had to offer an audience, 'A good night out', if it was to connect politically.

His vision, and the ability to sense a successful theatre idea, kept with him from The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil, 7:84 Scotland's magnificent opener (from a film of which there is a rare shot of a MacLennan appearance on stage!) through his other joint collaborations (with Dave Anderson) in Wildcat, right up to the hugely successful Play, Pie and Pint, series. This last has been copied all over the world. It would be a fitting tribute, were David's political ideas similarly distributed! The story, as yet, has no end.

David’s loss is keenly felt by the Scottish theatre community, the many colleagues who worked with him and the close friends he had, but the biggest loss will be to his wife, Juliet and their son Shane. My sympathy goes out to them both.