No thought given to folk in the Far North

IN the past couple of months there have been two major political announcements that will have a profound effect on the Far North if they come to pass.

Firstly, the Scottish Government declared its intention to create single Scottish police and fire services. Then last week the Boundary Commission, under instruction from the UK Government, published its initial proposals to redraw constituencies for Westminster elections.

The SNP Government at Holyrood plans to merge Scotland’s eight police forces and eight fire services into national bodies. Northern Constabulary and Highlands & Islands Fire and Rescue Service will disappear and become minor parts of two organisations that will be administered in the central belt.

Meanwhile, the Tory-Liberal Democrat Government at Westminster is pressing ahead with its promise to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600. To achieve this target the Highlands will lose one of its seats and the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross parliamentary constituency will be enlarged to include the entirety of Ross-shire and Cromarty.

On the face of it these two proposals would appear to have little to link them but if you scratch under the surface it is clear that both decisions have been made with absolutely no consideration given to people in the Far North.

IT will be pointed out that Labour, my own party, supports the SNP’s plan to get rid of our regional police and fire services.

For the record, I disagree with my party’s policy and I am pleased that the Labour group of councillors on the Highland Council is also opposed to the single services.

The move to centralise the police and fire services to the central belt is strange when you consider that the SNP is a party that exists with the sole aim of decentralising government away from London. Furthermore, it was disappointing and surprising to see SNP MSP Rob Gibson back his party’s policy rather than stand up for the interests of his constituents.

After all, Mr Gibson is currently undertaking a public consultation in Caithness in which he would like to see certain Highland Council powers taken back to the county. Is it not inconsistent of him to want to decentralise some local services whist centralising others? No wonder so many people think politicians are nothing more than cynical opportunists.

As for the Tory-Lib Dem plan to increase yet further our already vast constituency; it is completely nonsensical. Democracy should not be reduced to a numbers game in sparsely populated rural areas and geography should be taken into account when considering changes to constituency sizes.

As with the Western Isles and Orkney and Shetland, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross should have been given special dispensation and been protected from any boundary changes.

Unlike Rob Gibson, though, it was good to see John Thurso MP take a very vocal stand against his Liberal Democrat party last week.

He is right that the move to increase the size of Highland constituencies will be a deeply unpopular move by the Lib Dems.

One of the negatives John Thurso highlighted in the media was that some members of the public would have to travel five hours to visit a constituency office.

Of course, as John Thurso has no office in this constituency that would, in fact, be an improvement for his constituents.

After all, it takes around 15 hours by bus or train from Caithness to visit him in his current constituency office in London.