Many Happy Returns

Today is a first for me. I am sitting out in the back yard tapping away on my portable computer. And it is the third fine day in a row.

But much more important, I am one of a very large crowd of North-East folk who topped up their tan at the Turra show on the two previous days. A very happy return indeed after last year’s cancellation.

And I actually met a few farmers who told me that things are looking up.

But we still have an overhang from foot and mouth even here where it came no nearer than a four hour drive away. Stockmen have to suffer a 20-day quarantine after their beasts have moved. And provide special areas isolated from their other fields in which to hold these animals.

My colleague Richard Lochhead and I previously pressed the Minister in Parliament for a science-based reason why it should be 20 days. But answer came there none.

And then a chink of light had appeared. The Rural Affairs Department were to review this restriction. But lo and behold they wouldn’t hold their meeting until the English DEFRA people had taken their decision.

The people we hoped were ‘our folk’ in the civil service then meekly followed the decision that their southern colleagues had taken the day before. So no change and frustration all round.

With Liberal minister Ross Finnie sorting his mess with Glasgow’s water supply I suppose it was too much to hope that he would see our farmers as his priority.

Visitors

My travelling surgeries are well under way again this year. While the high profile part of an MSP’s job might be the press releases on high profile issues and the speeches in Parliament, I am in little doubt that the real job satisfaction comes from helping individual constituents.

And you really hear people’s concerns as you go around.

I am sure a village I visited during my tour won’t be alone in continuing to pay the price for closed toilets. I was told that in a single day, four visitors’ cars were seen to draw up to the local facilities. And four sets of visitors disappeared round the back when they found the door locked.

At the height of our holiday season not exactly the welcome we should offer. And not very savoury for the locals either.

But the real price is more difficult to measure. How many have diverted to Moray or Aberdeen for their day trip. Last year a number of old folks’ bus trips certainly did so. And reports suggest this year is the same.

The long term costs will far exceed the small savings made from the closures. One shopkeeper tells me of a dramatic fall in customers while others give more mixed messages.

Some villages have found local volunteers to staff the toilets. Well done!

But when they find our closed toilets how many of this year’s visitors will give us a 2003 ‘happy return’?