Correspondence
RICHARD BENJAMIN
leaps to the defence of Ann Gloag. Sort of. Well, not really
More than a bus operator
Far would it be from me to criticise anyone for taking a pop at Ann Gloag, but after reading Kenneth Roy’s article on ‘Great Scots’ (SR Issue 164) I feel compelled to rush to her defence. Sort of.
I couldn’t agree more with Kenneth that it is nothing short of farcical for Gloag’s name to be mentioned among the likes of Adam Smith, Jimmy Reid and Rabbie Burns. As a nation we are not exactly having to scrape the barrel of greatness, although the sexist bias on history and those who write it has left us somewhat struggling for female candidates of a similarly high profile. Liz McColgan? Mary Slessor?
We wring our hands with worry about a lack of positive male role models for boys but in terms of famous national figures are the girls really any better off?
Kenneth’s derision of Gloag’s nomination was I felt based on untypically shallow ground. To dismiss her as a ‘bus operator’ seems disingenuous given her achievements as a philanthropist through the Mercy Ships charity – providing medical support to some of the world’s poorest people. Gloag also runs an orphanage project in Kenya and indeed her contributions to charity were recognised as recently as three weeks ago when she became the first winner of the Susan B Anthony Humanitarian Award, run by the National Council of Women of the United States.
To describe millionairess Gloag as a humanitarian, however, does strike me as a little rich, if you’ll forgive the pun. In 2007 she challenged the public right-to-roam through the grounds of her Kinfauns Castle estate in Perthshire. Inexplicably, her wish was granted by a sheriff ruling in her favour.
As a businesswoman, Gloag’s ‘humanitarian’ values must also be questioned. Stagecoach’s tactics involved wiping out the competition by slashing fares and even offering punters tea and cakes on their morning commute to work. After these tactics put most rivals out of business and Stagecoach seized the monopoly, the less lucrative local services were slashed across Scotland, prices were hiked back up and the morning cuppas were mysteriously withdrawn.
So there we have it. Ann Gloag is no more a ‘bus operator’ than she is a ‘humanitarian’. Another label she fails to qualify for is ‘great’. But at least I can now be satisfied that she has had a fair hearing.
And herein lies what I love about the Scottish Review – it gets my brain moving and whets my appetite for inquiry and debate. Keep up the good work!
13.11.09
Issue no 169
A week in Glasgow
north-east
Islay McLeod’s images of the constituency which produced more than 1,000 votes for the BNP on Friday morning
[click here]
The woman from Kabul
Afghanistan and remembrance I
Kenneth Roy
on a visitor who personified
the qualities of the Afghan
[click here]
The white poppy
Afghanistan and remembrance II
David Mackenzie
and Andrew Sarle
[click here]
The gentry’s cloth
Peter MacAulay
People wove tweed when
there was no other work
[click here]
A hunger for ideas
Walter Humes
on the intellectual
life of a city
[click here]
More than a bus operator
Richard Benjamin
leaps to the defence of
Ann Gloag. Sort of
[click here]
Next edition:
Tuesday