Scottish Politicians
Is Small Still Beautiful?
Is Small Still Beautiful – Digital Notes With Professor John Bryden, Aberdeen University Chaired by Lesley Riddoch, writer and broadcaster Edinburgh City Chambers Wednesday 27 May – 6.00pm-8.00pm Norway has 428 kommuner (councils) The average size of a kommune is just 12,000 people. In Scotland the average council serves a whopping 178,000 people. How do these tiny Norwegian kommuner function and avoid bureaucracy and uneven standards? Whatever the answer it seems they are doing something right. Turnout at elections is 64% – almost twice that of Scotland. And 1 in 81 Norwegians stands in council elections compared to 1 in 2071 Scots. The new Norwegian Government has proposed mergers which would bring the average kommune size closer to 15 or 20 thousand people. Even this...Read More
Gibson on decentralisation – “This is my personal priority.”
The debate over whether powers should be decentralised in the Highlands came to the fore today, as Caithness Sutherland & Ross MSP, Rob Gibson, declared the return of power to communities his ‘personal priority’. Mr Gibson said that during this, his final term as an MSP, he would do everything he could to bring about greater decentralisation and local control in the Highlands. Mr Gibson made the announcement as he launched a new paper outlining basic arguments for decentralisation, entitled ‘Small Works’. Testing how to publish