Scotland: National Rural NetworkIts that deja vu all over again. I have lost count of the glossy well meaning reports I have read over the years. I remember the end of the Thatcher era and empowering entrepreneurs. Labours new deal and now the Scottish governments efforts.
The pattern is always the same it goes like this. A review(manifesto etc etc) implementation of the review and then review of the implementation, cosmetic change (more glossy paperwork) failure. Repeat.
We have now got well past crisis point. Livestock numbers continue to decline, the rural population ages, young people leave. Whole areas are now semi abandoned.
Part of the problem is theory versus reality. We have broadband in theory (certainly have the bills ) but not a realistically usable service. We have healthcare, just not at the weekend, at night, or in bad weather. We have a "community" too the objectors to my planning applications always claim to speak on its behalf. The objections are the same too just the names on the letters are different. The names of the same houses change regularly too with each new occupant.
How to change this? The suggestion of a nice cuppa in pleasant surroundings made me laugh out loud. If only real people were that nice, sadly some regard farmers as little more than backward peasants.
Then comes the holy grail of group cooperation. We can all share the tractor, hall, glorified riding school, children's play area etc etc. The fact is there are now too few of us to share more than perhaps a helicopter rescue service. Individual businesses must be strong enough to survive on their own or they will not survive at all. Nothing has yet been done but perhaps and only perhaps we have begun to talk about doing something.
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