Grasping the Thistle

Bless those poor wee journalists over at the The Herald Newspaper and their former bosses up the road at Scottish Television, they might have a finger on the pulse when it comes to news, they might be able to give you the inside scoop on how much Rangers still owe the tax man down to the last penny but they still need a little help with basic maths. Somehow to them two and two make Sixty Thousand!

Last week they made the shocking announcement that 60,000 Americans had cancelled their trips to Scotland in the light of Stirling's plan to cancel its gathering event. Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the diaspora! For a while I was wondering where this '60,000' figure had come from an then we discovered that 60,000 was the number of people on COSCA's mailing list, the number of people who had been sent an email from COSCA president Susan Mcintosh telling them that they should put plans on visiting to Scotland 'on hold' until things were clearer. That's 'On Hold' not 'Cancel' so for starters there seems to be a bit of a confusion there. 'On hold' means wait and see not forget the whole thing and go to Disneyland.

Then of course we need to remember this is a mailing list. I'm on that same mailing list, sorry I can't cancel my plans to visit Scotland, what with me living here and all. Then there is the fact that an email campaign will have a small percentage of people who read that message let alone act on it. This 60,000 begins to dissolve away to very little, so all in all, its a non story.

Meanwhile back in the real world...

With Stirling pulling the rug out from under the main clan gathering event there is a big gap in the schedule. Some people are rushing in to fill this gap; from one side a collective of people passionate about Scotland and disgusted by the mis management of Stirling Council and Visit Scotland are trying to go it alone with a 'Peoples Gathering'. They have the passion and the dates and are building up a following but so far have yet to secure a venue. From the other side we have Glamis Castle, the castle can put on large events in their sleep and can easily accommodate 30,000 plus. They have marketing people, can attract big name sponsors and are able to work with an event management company with a level of professionalism that to be frank Stirling council could only dream of. The only stumbling block though is that for this to work it could really do with a leg up from Visit Scotland.

Last week representatives from Glamis went to meet Visit Scotland and offered an opportunity for them to save THEIR embarrassment. OK its not a complete package but its a good framework to build another world class event at such short notice. Visit Scotland would be mad to knock them back, wouldn't they?

....wouldn't they?

[caption id="attachment_745" align="alignnone" width="300"] It Wisnae Me Mistur![/caption]

Yesterday I watched a video of VS chairman and kilt salesman extraordinaire, Mike Cantlay in front of the government's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee being asked to explain why the Gathering2014 went belly up and what plans were in place to see clans represented in the year of homecoming. Cantlay looked like a kid that had been caught nicking sweets as he attempted to sell the idea of theshoehorned Bannockburn clan village and thewider regional clan events. Wider clan events that something like Glamis would fit in with perfectly. You can watch his performance for yourself here (its towards the end of the video). In the video he says that Visit Scotland have had 160 applications for events to be part of the homecoming clan schedule. This sounds great, there is just one tiny problem. The application process closed a few weeks ago just around the same time that Stirling were throwing the switch on Gathering2014's life support. Now if i was a fan of conspiracies.....

Now to me its clear what needs to happen; First of all Stirling needs to give up the intellectual property rights for the gathering, IPR that they paid a measly £6,000 for. Pressure needs to come from the government to make this happen. This would then leave Glamis or whoever to run a 'clans2014' gathering with no hinderance. Then VS, Event Scotland need to get behind a rescue package and come up with a better plan that absorbing clans into Bannockburn. Bannockburn is a decent plan but its a fall back plan. They must put some serious effort and money into one big clan event with a parade and all the bells and whistles. While at the same time ensuring that a decent quality and range of wider clan events are still included, in particular events in the Highlands and in the Borders where 'clans' really mean something.

Will it happen though? will there be an outbreak of common sense at Visit Scotland? Many won't be holding their breath but there are a few optimists out there. The fact is if VS/Event Scotland kick another major clan event into touch then there is going to be a hurricane force storm of what is known in scotland as 'keech' heading for a very large fan, The 'splatter pattern' is going to hit a hell of a lot of people.

Whats to stop Cantlay getting behind this? technicalities? Or is he worried that Stirling Council stop collecting his bins?

Time to grasp the thistle...