DAVID STEWART: Proposed changes to boundaries make very little sense

Unity broke out among our Highland councillors recently, when they queued up to throw brickbats at the Boundary Commission proposals for Westminster parliamentary boundaries.

In fairness to the Commission, who are independent, the councillors’ angst should be directed fully at the Tory government who are the real culprits of this deadly deed.

So, what is all the fuss about? Constituency boundaries do get reviewed from time to time because of changes in population. Seats can disappear or be merged with neighbouring constituencies. When I stood for re-election in 2005 as the local member of parliament the constituency was barely recognisable from the one I won in 1997 and 2001. The whole of Lochaber was removed and joined the constituency of my parliamentary neighbour, Charlie Kennedy.

Only a few seats are protected and cannot be changed. These include Western Isles, and Orkney and Shetland. This time round, the Scottish Boundary Review Commission were charged with losing two constituencies in Scotland. Within the Highland Council area there are currently only three MPs, covering an area the size of Belgium with the population of Brussels.

The new proposals would see four council wards split and MPs covering different local authority areas. I know from my own experience as a national elected representative the particular difficulties in covering rural and remote communities; the lack of public transport, problems of road travel in the winter and poor and inadequate broadband connectivity make communications very difficult in the north.

The new proposals are a dog’s breakfast. The new Inverness-shire constituency will stretch to Ullapool, Skye and Fort William. Nairn, and Badenoch and Strathspey will lose their connection with Inverness and be shunted into Moray, which is now split into two. Former Inverness Provost Alex Graham an elder statesman on Highland Council, was spot on when he described the proposals as “one for the bin.”

n It is not every day you dress up in a bow-tie in the depths of a hollow mountain, acting out the words of a long-dead Secretary of State for Scotland! Confused? Let me explain. A few months ago, a good friend, Susan Torrance, asked if I would take part in her student project. It would involve visiting the Ben Cruachan Power Station near Oban, a giant pump storage hydro scheme.

Four thousand men had worked on the pump storage project – one of the largest construction initiatives in Europe in its time – and dug out 222,000 cubic metres of rock by hand, creating the “Hollow Mountain.” It opened in 1965.

I was asked to act out the role of Tom Johnston, the Scottish Secretary of State under Winston Churchill. He was seen as the “father of hydropower”. hence the location of our visit. My colleagues, Lorraine Mann and Jim Miller, took the roles of Inverness Courier icons, Eveline and Dr Evan Barron – who had long campaigned for, and championed, hydropower as a great future hope for the Highlands.

Tom Johnston’s words on the late Courier proprietor, Eveline Barron, were profound: “Of no-one else in Inverness could it be said twice a week, “what is she saying today?” She was sharp, humorous, fearless – but behind a formidable exterior, a very kind, sensitive and fair-minded woman.”

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