Big Cairngorm Debate - Aviemore
The Big Cairngorm Debate in Aviemore took place at the new MacDonald Highland Resort, one of the developments built to boost the area. Over 200 people tackled a panel of politicians on a range of election issues including, National Parks, the environment and housing.
As usual, we have broken the debate down into managable sections that you can listen and view directly on this page. You can also view videos on the Scottish VotePod Channel on You Tube, subscribe to the audio podcasts on iTunes or directly download the audio files. Our audio clips allow you to listen to the discussion in detail, while the videos will feature shorter highlight clips.
On the panel were
Danny Alexander Liberal Democrat
Fergus Ewing Scottish National Party
Mary Scanlon Conservative Party
Eleanor Scott Green Party
Linda Stewart Labour Party
AUDIO
Section 1: The most pressing issue in the Cairngorms is the affordability of housing for local, particularly young, people. The first question came from Ian Brodie of the Scottish Enterprise Party
Download the file here.
Section 2: One younger member of the audience was not impressed with what he'd heard from the panel.
Download the file here
Section 3: The next question raised issues of access to the plateau of Cairngorm from the funicular railway that takes tourists and others up the mountain.
Download the file here.
Section 4: The discussion then considered the conflict between the leisure interests such as mountain biking and the protection of wildlife.
Download the file here.
Section 5: The proposals for many more wind farms in the Highlands and the running of giant pylons through the National Park provoked passionate debate amongst both politicians and audience.
Download the file here.
Section 6: The debate concluded with questions about care of the elderly and the particular difficulties faced in rural areas.
Download the file here
VIDEO
Here are clips of some of the audience putting their points and questions to the panel.
The Cairngorm audience were pretty vocal in wanting to discuss housing. These extended clip give you an idea of how the panelists took this tough subject on.
After Fergus Ewing and Linda Stewart, it was the turn of Danny Alexander and Mary Scanlon to offer their views on providing affordable housing for local people.
Videos produced by Chris Smith
If you are to have any credible debate on this area then your panel, and indeed, the folk you put forward with questions, will have to get the names of the places right. That means that you will have to guide them.
It's not AVIEmore, it's AvieMORE.
It's not CAIRNgorm or the CARINgorms, it's CairnGORM and CairnGORMS.
If your panel want to claim local knowledge then they should try to show that they have spoken with and actually listened to local people.
Local people know the names of the places where they live and they know how to say them.
While some media people and even elected representatives sometimes mistakenly say ABERdeen, somebody will usually explain to them that it's not ABERdeen, it's AberDEEN.
Similarily, it's not INVERness, it's InverNESS.
So why allow people to keep on talking about AVIEmore when it's AvieMORE?
If you can't get a simple thing like the name right, how can you expect people to believe that anybody who took part in the debate had anything more than a superficial understanding of the area and it's people?
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