Unblocking the gutter
Maxwell MacLeod
In the late eighties when the late Lord George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, was awarded the Templeton prize for religion, a sum of £160,000, he asked that the money be used for two purposes. One half was to be used to alleviate hunger directly and the second half to encourage a situation where there would be less hunger in the future.
Not a bad instruction to come from someone in his nineties.
George had a strong conviction that justice could only come if everyone became engaged in the political process. He used to say: ‘Praying with some old lady who has a cold damp council house is a bit of a waste of time unless you then go up the ladder and unblock the leaking guttering that caused the damp in the first place, and that’s a political action’.
Today we face the biggest political mess of our lifetimes. A largely Tory England ruling a largely Labour Scotland.
How to react? The temptation is turn on the World Cup, warm up, sink three pints, kick the cat and pretend it hasn’t happened.
As a trustee of the George MacLeod Trust whose job it is to spend some of George’s Templeton ‘reduce the chance of hunger’ money I think that he would have wanted us to be engaged in reviewing the options. After all we have the prospect here of a good few unnecessarily hungry people.
This is no game, the chances of an economic meltdown are very real. Accordingly working alongside the Scottish Review we have put together an interactive website that will list some of those options for Scotland and ask for comments and debate. Every day a different activist will make their case in a 400-word slab and you will have a chance to comment. We’ll do a new one every day.
‘Slabbers’ will include people from all sides of the political spectrum and the whole thing will be monitored by the incomparable Hugh Kerr (ex MEP) who has been involved with more parties than Peter Stringfellow and knows a good few folk in the politics and media business.
Incidentally you can always suggest a few names, or indeed a potential slab yourself.
Will such an exercise be a waste of time and George’s money?
Possibly if nobody responds, but it has the potential of generating new initiatives, so we’ll give it a go.
Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
And besides there’s a while to go till the World Cup and if nobody is interested we can always take the damn thing down again.
Many thanks to the Scottish Review for agreeing to this experiment. Now it’s up to you.
Some questions:
Can anyone contribute?
Yes, but you have to give your correct name and email address to reduce the chances of fraud.
Will the contributions be edited?
Possibly yes. Many such sites become gummed up with nonsense. The secondary aim is to facilitate debate outside the site so we aim to ensure quality by eradicating the inane though hopefully without any selective censorship.
Who will be making the daily initial comments?
Nominations, or indeed offerings, are welcome. They should be readable, pose questions and less than 400 words.
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