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| Riding the road-map of devolution | Riding the road-map of devolution |
| (3 days later) | |
| By John Knox Political reporter, BBC Scotland | By John Knox Political reporter, BBC Scotland |
| For the last 10 years I've been reporting Scottish devolution from Holyrood. | For the last 10 years I've been reporting Scottish devolution from Holyrood. |
| But, for the month of April, I'm making a journey across mainland Scotland to find out what difference devolution has made to people's lives. | But, for the month of April, I'm making a journey across mainland Scotland to find out what difference devolution has made to people's lives. |
| I'll be cycling from Gretna Green to John O'Groats to meet people, record their thoughts and hear their experiences and, as I wind my way along 1,200 miles of highways and by-ways, I'll be posting a diary of my journey here. | I'll be cycling from Gretna Green to John O'Groats to meet people, record their thoughts and hear their experiences and, as I wind my way along 1,200 miles of highways and by-ways, I'll be posting a diary of my journey here. |
| A series of three programmes based on my travels will also be broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland at the end of May. | A series of three programmes based on my travels will also be broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland at the end of May. |
| TUESDAY 7 APRIL | |
| "I hope you've got your passport," said the man at the bridge over the River Sark at Gretna. | |
| It's an old joke but, in a way, I am entering a strange country. Take this "marriage mecca" for a start. There are around 5,000 weddings here in Gretna Green every year. And it's big business, seven different venues, 10 registrars, a dozen retired ministers, three full-time pipers and I don't know how many Rolls Royce drivers and horse and trap owners. | |
| "Marriage was out of fashion for a while but it's coming back into favour as the times become less secure," said Jane Chandler, the senior registrar. | |
| She reminded me that there have been two important changes to the wedding laws since the Scottish Parliament came into being. Registrars are allowed to marry couples in any suitable place, not just the registrar's office, and civil partnerships have been brought in to keep up with the changing times. | |
| The marriage business seems to be holding up well in Gretna | |
| Fred and Catherine Fisher, from Liverpool, said they'd come here to be married because they liked Scotland for walking holidays. "It's been wonderful," said Catherine, in a wonderful Liverpool accent. | |
| So in a romantic mood, I cycled off west, into a head wind, of course. The Solway glistened in the sun. Lambs were leaping. Hedges twittered with birdsong. Daffodils and gorse lit up the countryside. And there was a discarded plastic bottle every hundred yards or so along the roadside. | |
| Griffel seemed to say, like all mountains, that he was here before all this human nonsense began and he would be here when even talk of Devolution had died away. | |
| In Dumfries I found myself being shown into Robert Burns' room at The Globe. Jack Harvie, who looked a lot like Souter Jonnie I thought, pointed to the four poster bed and said: "We're waiting for Rabbie to come back for the Homecoming." | |
| Next morning, after a good night's sleep in Rabbie bed - only joking - I cycled up the road to Keir Mill. It was here, at this whitewashed blacksmith's forge, that Kirkpatrick Macmillan invented the pedal bicycle in 1839. For me, this was the invention of the modern world, it set working men like me free. | |
| Samye Ling Buddhist monastery proved a welcoming retreat | |
| Quite rightly, it is going to be marked by a Bicycle Homecoming Festival next month. But at the time, Macmillan was considered a fool and an eccentric. Stones were thrown at him as he cycled past. Once, on a trip to Glasgow, he was fined five shillings for speeding, at 8 mph. | |
| What would old Kirkpatrick Macmillan have made of my next stop, the Seven Stanes mountain biking centre in the Forest of Ae. "We took the cattle waggon to the top," said Chris from Kirkby Lonsdale, as he scraped the mud off his bike. "Then we came down through the forest, cross country and downhill, as fast as we could. It was excellent." But for all his skill and expertise on his bicycle, he knew nothing about Devolution. He hasn't really lived. | |
| In Lockerbie, we don't mention Pan Am flight 103 any more. It's been over 20 years since the tragedy. I did however cycle along Sherwood Crescent, feeling dreadful, and was glad to find no trace of the destruction. Neat new little houses stood quietly on the site, though a woman told me there was a plaque in the garden at the corner if you looked carefully. I didn't, perhaps I couldn't. | |
| Next I entered the enchanted valley of Eskdalemuir and found a Buddhist temple shining in the sun. The Lama wasn't in, but I spoke to one of the nuns, Ani Lhamo, a very charming young lady from Fort William. She wore the dark red habit of her calling and had her head shaved. She'd been a nun here in Samye Ling for 20 years. | |
| The parliament's been good for Alex Salmond and the other MSPs but it's not done much for Hawick Paul, Hawick | |
| "We get 30,000 to 40,000 visitors every year," she said, "but I don't know if Scotland has suddenly become a more spiritual country. I once gave the Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament but I don't feel qualified to comment on its work." | |
| I had my spicy lentil soup in the monastery tearoom and got back on my bike. How strange and moving it is, that all these statues of Buddhas and temples and peace pagodas and gardens - and they were busy building a new college quad - should exist up in the clouds here in the Scottish Borders. | |
| Finally, at the end of day three, I came downhill, with a bump, to Hawick. The dark satanic mills along the Teviot are fast dying. The welcome sign to the town says it's the home of cashmere. But in the Hawick News I read of Barrie Knitwear losing 19 jobs, Hawick Knitwear losing 32, Johnstons' losing 40. Unemployment, the paper said, has rocketed by 130% in the past year, 19% in the past month. | |
| In The Waverley Bar I met two young men playing pool. Paul and Karl had just lost their jobs, Paul with a wife and two children to support. "Yes, we're angry. And we're depressed. This used to be a great wee town. Gordon Brown is handing out billions to the bankers but he hasn't given Hawick 2 pence." | |
| I asked what the Scottish Parliament could do for them. "It's been good for Alex Salmond and the other MSPs but it's not done much for Hawick," they said. And their solution? They laughed. When I suggested the government should build a few more houses. They said. "Yes, anything to give us work." | |
| And so I move on ... to Jedburgh, Kelso, Berwick on Tweed and then north, chasing the sun. | |
| SATURDAY 4 APRIL The next few weeks will see me taking in communities across Scotland | |
| I'm setting out on this 1,200 mile journey as a sort of penance. | I'm setting out on this 1,200 mile journey as a sort of penance. |
| For the last 10 years, I've been reporting on Devolution from above. I failed to take a look at what's happening underneath. | For the last 10 years, I've been reporting on Devolution from above. I failed to take a look at what's happening underneath. |
| Being a BBC reporter at Holyrood is all about policy announcements, bills and speeches, occasional rows and colourful protests. | Being a BBC reporter at Holyrood is all about policy announcements, bills and speeches, occasional rows and colourful protests. |
| Now, I'm about to find out what difference all this talking and those 140 pieces of legislation have made. | Now, I'm about to find out what difference all this talking and those 140 pieces of legislation have made. |
| We now have free personal care, a smoking ban, two national parks, a more regulated nursing home system, a ban on fox hunting, no bridge tolls and a start on new railway lines. | We now have free personal care, a smoking ban, two national parks, a more regulated nursing home system, a ban on fox hunting, no bridge tolls and a start on new railway lines. |
| But perhaps we also have less tangible benefits . . . better public services, a feeling of involvement, a greater national pride, more self confidence. | But perhaps we also have less tangible benefits . . . better public services, a feeling of involvement, a greater national pride, more self confidence. |
| The pursuit of happiness may have become a little more possible. This is the hypothesis my cycle run is setting out to test. | The pursuit of happiness may have become a little more possible. This is the hypothesis my cycle run is setting out to test. |
| I may be pelted with tomatoes if people find out I'm from 'that Holyrood building up in Edinburgh' | I may be pelted with tomatoes if people find out I'm from 'that Holyrood building up in Edinburgh' |
| Who will I meet on this journey? What will I see and hear? I don't know. | Who will I meet on this journey? What will I see and hear? I don't know. |
| It's an unscheduled inspection of a country I think I know well, but which I'm sure has many surprises lying in wait behind every tree and every street corner. | It's an unscheduled inspection of a country I think I know well, but which I'm sure has many surprises lying in wait behind every tree and every street corner. |
| I may be pelted with tomatoes if people find out I'm from "that Holyrood building up in Edinburgh". Dogs may bark if they catch a whiff of sleaze. | I may be pelted with tomatoes if people find out I'm from "that Holyrood building up in Edinburgh". Dogs may bark if they catch a whiff of sleaze. |
| Accountants may laugh behind their hands at the cost of all this home rule - £416m for the parliament building alone. | Accountants may laugh behind their hands at the cost of all this home rule - £416m for the parliament building alone. |
| And questions about devolution may seem irrelevant in a landscape desolated by the worse recession for decades. | And questions about devolution may seem irrelevant in a landscape desolated by the worse recession for decades. |
| On the other hand, I might be cheered like a participant in the Tour de France bringing bright news from the capital of a new dispensation, a more benign, listening and competent government. | On the other hand, I might be cheered like a participant in the Tour de France bringing bright news from the capital of a new dispensation, a more benign, listening and competent government. |
| We'll see. | We'll see. |
| And the route? I start at Gretna Green on Saturday 4th April. Go on to Dumfries and then turn east across the Borders to Berwick. Then it's along the coast to Dunbar and through East Lothian to Edinburgh. That's week one. | And the route? I start at Gretna Green on Saturday 4th April. Go on to Dumfries and then turn east across the Borders to Berwick. Then it's along the coast to Dunbar and through East Lothian to Edinburgh. That's week one. |
| Week two will take me across the canal path to Glasgow and along to Dumbarton. North then to Loch Lomond and swinging east to Stirling, Perth and Dundee. By the end of week two I hope to be in Fraserburgh. | Week two will take me across the canal path to Glasgow and along to Dumbarton. North then to Loch Lomond and swinging east to Stirling, Perth and Dundee. By the end of week two I hope to be in Fraserburgh. |
| Week three will take me to Inverness and across to Skye. And, in the last week, I'll be struggling into the Atlantic winds heading for Cape Wrath and Durness and, finally, along the top to John O'Groats. | Week three will take me to Inverness and across to Skye. And, in the last week, I'll be struggling into the Atlantic winds heading for Cape Wrath and Durness and, finally, along the top to John O'Groats. |