Banned wagon
A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit IF George Orwell were still alive, I sense that a tome on the new Scottish parliament would swiftly follow. Sup- posedly born of a drive for greater democracy, the assembly (whose new building was revealed this week to be costing taxpayers £200 million) makes Westminster look like a grand temple to libertarianism. One of the first Bills to be considered will be Lord Watson of Invergowrie's Protection of Wild Animals Bill, which will not only outlaw hunting north of the border but also hare coursing and rough shooting.
Some will interpret this as class war- fare; the peasants taking revenge on the lairds for the Highland clearances. But in fact it is more sinister than that: a clause in the Bill will also make it illegal to sell rabbits shot on a farm. Those who will suffer most are not lairds but ordi- nary crofters, whose marginal way of life requires them to exploit every resource which their poor Highland crofts offer them. The only people unaffected by the new Bill, it seems, will be poachers.
Why the need to ban the sale of rab- bits shot on farms? Don't ask the Scot- tish parliament. Purely in the name of modernity, you understand, Scottish civil servants have hidden themselves behind a wall of technology. The recep- tionist at the parliament claimed never to have heard of Lord Watson of Inver- gowrie, in spite of the fact that he is an MSP, and neither could the press office comment or help in faxing the Bill. 'We can't make any comment on a private member's Bill,' said a spokesman. Instead, he directed me to the parlia- ment's website. There, I would find the Bill and some explanatory notes. The only problem is that it turned out to be in an obscure format which requires special software to read. 'You some- times find that PC magazines give away the software on a CD on the front cover,' says a spokesman, helpfully.
How the average crofter is supposed to embark on this enlightening journey through cyberspace is anyone's guess.
Ross Clark
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