Why Scotland deserves a memorial to Nelson Mandela

We in Scotland often congratulate ourselves on being an open, welcoming and diverse society. It’s certainly true that public statements on issues like racism and immigration from the Scottish political leadership tend to be a welcome antidote to the xenophobia that manifests itself all too often in the Westminster equivalent. First published in the Morning Star

But we have our problems. Social attitude studies show that Scotland is largely the same as the rest of Britain in attitudes to issues like immigration. The poison of bigotry centred on the two biggest football teams just won’t go away and nobody seems to know how to tackle it. And we have racism, though we don’t always want to talk about it.

But in the last few weeks alone the local mainstream media has covered at least five stories of racist abuse in sport, several attacking the consultation on slave-trade connected statues in Edinburgh and some about racism in the community including an attack on a woman wearing a hijab. They are powerful reminders against complacency. Yes, there is condemnation, but that alone has limited persuasive effect.

Another way of lifting the public debate is to celebrate the other Scotland — the one that has a proud history of fighting inequality and racism, to confront the problems of today and build a focus for tackling them in the future.

Build real lay control and local organisation, not power-play at the top

With the division, and what looks like organising stagnation, in UNISON’s lay national executive (NEC) following the election of a majority running under the Time for Real Change (TFRC) ticket, it is a good time to look at what exactly lay control is, its history and how that works in partnership with the full-time structures. (see also UNISONActive blog)

It certainly wasn’t intended to centre on paying for various legal opinions to try to justify TFRC attempts to meddle with National Conference rule decisions. There may be legal loopholes but there’s also the spirit of what the supreme lay Conference intended – and Conference is the place to address that.