#state dependency

With the Scottish elections coming up next week on the 5th, hustings are appearing throughout the region, and The Gordon Arms Hotel hosted one last night as organized by the Huntly Business Association.

Featuring the soft-spoken, but stern Nanette Milne for Scottish Conservative Party; newbie Jean Morrison for Scottish Labour Party; Dennis Robertson, SNP, probably the most personable of the lot; and Mike Rumbles, Scottish Liberal Democrats, the least like-able but seemingly most practical, the evening proceeded with few surprises. From the hecklers to the hecklers' hecklers, to the playful jabs between the well-worn candidates, to the lack of any clear answers provided to direct and straight forward questions, hustings are formulaic and reinforcing of party ideals, and rarely do these sort of platforms shed new light or perspectives on anything, but nor are they meant to. Whether you come as a loyal party member or a concerned citizen with a sheet of notes, nobody ever leaves satisfied, but at least they came out at all, as I was disappointed in my generation, with the room filled with not more than 50 people, and almost all were over the age of 60, or to be generous, 49.

What makes this election interesting, if it's interesting at all, is the redrawing of the boundaries making up Aberdeenshire West, which now includes Huntly and surrounding areas to the West Garioch; Westhill and District; Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside; Banchory and Mid Deeside; and in part, East Garioch; Stonehaven and Lower Deeside. While Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, was the MP for Huntly citizens, that is no longer the case, and the focus of the evening was spent considerably on questioning Salmond's failed promises before rousing the most passion on the issue of wind farms, which inevitably affects all of Aberdeenshire. A majority of people in attendance were visibly angered by the wind farms, and all the candidates stood in unison on the topic that the placement of wind farms should be carefully considered, but I don't know if that was the issue that irked everyone. Besides the complaints about the supposed noise of wind farms, it appears it is the sight of these large white towers dominating the much beloved landscape that has irked so many. There was also a lot of statistics being thrown around about how much power these wind turbines are creating and actually consuming versus how much power each Scottish household uses, which seems to be more about the UK reaching its renewable energy targets than anything else.

I will admit I was a bit confused as to why anyone was protesting renewable energy resources, but this confusion was not of the dismissive kind, as the emotion expressed ran quite deep, almost of a protective ferocity. This morning, I came across this documentary Winds of Change, which looks at the issue of wind farms from a global perspective. Locally, and as a neighbor, wind farms may be less than ideal, but judging from civilization's last 150 years, we are just at the beginning of covering up our insatiable appetites for energy sources, and we as a global entity appear to be facing some irrevocable choices in how we maintain our lifestyles. 

Other topics lightly touched upon was the SNP's stance on having a referendum for the Scottish people to separate, which Robertson staunchly defended as having a choice, which was about the only democratic thing said all night, the possibility of streaming the multitude of "local" holidays across Scotland, and a pointed question from the back of the room about how Scotland is to proceed in the coming decades being already one of the most state-dependent nations in the world, just behind Cuba and Iraq.