On Friday 19 March 2021, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) are organising a digital “Rural Workers Protest”.
The purpose of the protest is to demonstrate to MSPs and the Government the disaffection many in our communities feel with recent decisions made for rural Scotland, with little input from rural Scotland. With campaigns from pressure groups seeming to outweigh the lived experiences of those who know rural Scotland best, the gamekeepers, farmers and land managers who work the land as well as those who run businesses and provide employment there.
Our members recognise that they have no greater attribute than their staff, the rural workers who keep their businesses going and who make an incredible contribution to the Scottish Countryside. We understand and sympathise with workers concerns that recent decisions threaten businesses in our communities that keep thousands of workers in jobs. Good paying, steady jobs, paid for by private capital and supporting local businesses in villages and market towns throughout Scotland. It is important also to understand that local multiplier effect of rural employment is huge, supporting many other businesses and jobs both directly and indirectly.
When it is safe and lockdown restrictions allow for it, we will be encouraging as many of our elected officials as possible to get out to visit estates, to see rural workers at work. To witness first-hand not only the economic boost their jobs offer rural Scotland but the social and environmental work they undertake in some of the most isolated parts of our country. How rural workers help our push to meet ambitious biodiversity and climate change targets and play their part in attracting tourists from around the world to visit Scotland time and again.
SLE are grateful for the engagement we have had and continue to have with MSPs from across the political spectrum and Government officials. We appreciate that they have difficult decisions to make and competing interests to balance. We would urge them to listen to the concerns the protestors are voicing and to ensure that policies they propose are evidence led and informed with the benefit of hearing the lived experiences of rural workers.
You can learn more about the SGA protest on their website and on their facebook events page.