Chamber and committees

You will have watched last week’s evidence session, when we took evidence from musicians that programmes were already reaching an international audience. In response to questions that Mark Ruskell asked, there was concern that that could be lost. There is also a question of how the archive is grown. All the musicians who came last week talked about the pleasure and the positive memories that they had of recording for BBC Scotland.

The witnesses at last week’s meeting commented on the impact on community music and how you will continue to grow that. My colleague Sarah Boyack and I attended an interesting meeting of the cross-party group on culture and communities on Tuesday night, and there was a comment about the privilege of imagination and play, which really struck me. I have been thinking about that, and BBC Scotland is in a privileged position to enable imagination and play to happen across Scotland and across Scottish communities and culture. I am concerned that the solutions that you have put forward, specifically for jazz, might not allow imagination and play to continue in that musical genre.

From the piping perspective, Finlay MacDonald gave us an important insight into how different communities in Scotland view piping and the different stories behind it. I am concerned that that might be lost. How will you mitigate and compensate for the concerns that were raised by musicians last week?

The BBC SSO’s output is mainly commissioned by Radio 3. The funding comes out of BBC Scotland’s budget, so are you working with Radio 3 to commission a different type of output? How will that relationship to work?

If I may, I will just give you another thing to think about before you answer, Indra. Many farmers in my area are from generations of farmers, so they understand their land and have been working it, they would argue, in a sustainable way. What information might you have that would support them to be able to review how they are doing things?

That has not really answered my question. It was not specifically about grassland; it was more about hill farming, which includes peatland that sequesters carbon. The argument that was made by the farming groups that we heard from earlier was that, if there is livestock on that land, it improves the peatland and allows it to absorb more.

Sure. The farmers in my area and across Scotland have been farming their land for generations, so they understand the land and they know the different types of soil—they know where the peat is. They can watch their livestock move around. They understand that the outputs from the livestock, if I may put it that way, are used as fertiliser. I am interested to know how the work that you have done relates to what I am hearing from farmers.

I represent Argyll and Bute, in which there is a mix of farming types. A lot of it is upland farming on islands and the mainland, and there is some dairy farming. I am interested to hear about reconciliation of your proposal to reduce cattle numbers with its direct impact on the sustainability of populations. In the previous panel session, which I am sure you listened to, we heard that, for a lot of hill farmers and crofters, having beasts on the land is improving that land’s ability to sequestrate carbon. I am interested to know your thoughts on that.

No improvisation, then. [Laughter.]

Tommy, do you have anything to add?

This has been incredibly informative. I have to lay my cards on the table: I am an ex-BBC Scotland employee. I have to admit that it was Stephen Duffy who introduced me to jazz, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra that introduced me to classical music, and I would say the same about the World Pipe Band Championships and piping. Thank you very much for coming along.

I had been going to ask about the archive, but Professor McKerrell covered that point very well. There is something about a continuity of archive and knowledge of what is going on, and the ability to make other programmes from that, which is very important.

The content of the programmes is important, but I am also interested to hear your thoughts on how the loss of back-room staff and other experts in the different musical genres could be a loss to wider Scottish culture, and to ensuring that children can learn musical instruments in different genres. Professor McKerrell, do you want to start?

Thank you for that. I was doing a bit of reading as well, and the operating licence says that BBC Radio Scotland must provide

“content and music of particular relevance to Scotland.”

I would like to hear your thoughts on what the difference is in hearing somebody who is of Scotland introducing the programmes, and what that might add to the content.