Am Bratach No. 208
February 2009
editor@bratach.co.uk

Foundation rebuked over MacKenzie petition

AbThe petition to the Scottish Parliament by Netta MacKenzie from Elphin calling on the parliament to urge the Scottish Government not to adopt the main recommendations of the Shucksmith report on crofting is being closed on the grounds that communities will have a further opportunity to make their views known when the draft Bill is published and that the issues raised by the petitioner could also be considered as part of the Parliament’s scrutiny of the Bill and amended as necessary. In closing the petition, the committee agreed to copy it to the rural affairs and environment committee and to the Scottish government for their information.

In a letter to the Scottish Crofting Foundation, Fergus Cochrane, clerk of the committee, referred to the organisation’s written submission that “Motivation for the petition is questionable; the fact that Mrs MacKenzie is a Scottish Liberal Democrat Party worker may be relevant and her historical discord with the SCF may also have a bearing.”

In his letter, dated January 28, Mr Cochrane comments: “The Committee was very concerned that such a statement should be made in a response to it and asked me to write to you to make you aware of its disagreement with what you say. What a petitioner’s political affiliation may be, it considers to be of no relevance to the issue. It is not an issue in terms of an individual’s right to petition their Parliament. It was disturbing that you felt that such a comment was required and may ‘have a bearing’. The Committee did not agree with you and felt your statement was not appropriate or helpful in any way and did nothing to further debate on the issues raised in the petition.”

Although the petitions committee does not appear to have commented on the crofting foundation’s other assertion, that Mrs MacKenzie may also have been motivated by a supposed “historical discord” with the organisation, she herself dismisses the suggestion in a letter to the committee, dated January 12. After resigning as SCF chairman in 2003, having failed to gain support for a refinancing plan, she states she took no part in the crofting debate in the intervening years, save for responses to certain consultations, and a petition calling for the retention of the bull and ram hire schemes.