‘Should Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City become independent from Scotland?’

I’m delighted to introduce another guest blogger, David-John McRobbie this week with his success story from the Young Scotland programme. As we promote nominations for council employees to take part in this year’s programme, hopefully David-John’s insight will provide some food for thought.

‘Should Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City become independent from Scotland?’ By David-John McRobbie

The Young Scotland programme exists to develop the communication skills of people in the early stages of their working lives and helps participants to improve their research, writing and presentational abilities.

In October last year I was asked to participate alongside two other council employees, Vicky Vaughan from Housing and Arlene Gibbs from Legal and Governance. At the time I was Fisheries Project Officer and I’ve since moved to the post of European Programmes Coordinator.

I think it must have been daunting for us all but I looked forward to the challenge and after researching the event I discovered that the programme has ties to rural Aberdeenshire. A group of young people back in the 1920s converted a shack on the platform of their railway station at Inveramsay into a meeting place they called Utopia. I was proud to be representing Aberdeenshire and hoped I could bring a prize back to where it all started!

As a first task, us delegates were asked to prepare a two-minute, on-the-spot speech which we’d deliver without a script. We were tasked with posing a question of our choosing – whether it was philosophical, political, ethical, personal, serious or humorous – and then answer it without notes in as close to two minutes as possible.

My question: ‘Should Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City become independent from Scotland?’ was a tongue in cheek argument inspired by my Corporate Induction. I’d listened to Chief Executive Colin McKenzie explain how well Aberdeenshire performs compared to other areas in Scotland and felt it provided an opportunity for a jolly and thought-provoking talk.

After rattling off a list of impressive facts about the area, I finished off my presentation with a bit of humour by nominating myself as leader of the newly created ‘Aberdonia Independence Party’. I reminded attendees: “It wasn’t Scotlands Oil, but in fact Aberdonia’s Oil.” 

The centrepiece of every Young Scotland event is the presentation of a 900-word argument paper by each candidate. I was delighted to receive the ‘Esther Roy’ award for Best Argument Paper after arguing that consumers have been misled about declining fish stocks in the North Sea. The paper, entitled ‘Fish for the Truth’ countered that UK stocks are not in a vulnerable state but in fact increasing.

My family background and my job, along with the volume of negative publicity there is around local fish stocks, inspired my decision to write about this topic. I grew up in a fishing family and often went to sea during the Summer months on board my father’s vessel. I felt it was important to stand up for the industry and dispel some of the negative myths there are about it – I certainly didn’t have a lack of material on the subject!

The Young Scotland programme also includes Testimony Sessions through which speakers share their experiences and the impact these have had on their lives with delegates. Tim Coulson, MBE, re-lived the London bombings of July 2005 in which he tended to the gravely wounded, Marie X talked about her descent into drug addiction and drug dealing, her experiences in prison, and how she reformed her life. I was really taken by Marie’s searing honesty as she explained the effect her choices had on her family. Pinar Aksu and Ali Mudassir talked about the difficulties asylum seekers face in daily life and Isabel McCue spoke about her son’s mental illness which led to him taking his own life, and the charity she has set up, Theatre Nemo.

A total of 50 delegates completed the Young Scotland Programme last year, with former Aberdeenshire Council employee, Jude Balfour receiving the Young Scotland Thinker of the Year. It was great to see Aberdeenshire become an emerging theme throughout the five-day event!

I am very grateful the Council provided me with the opportunity to take part in the programme as I met some truly wonderful people and had an extremely good time. I would urge all line managers nominate an outstanding young individual from their team to take part this time as it really helps staff with their professional development as well as giving them the opportunity to promote the work of the Council at the same time.
Events like these help to shape the leaders of the future. To find out more about how you can get involved in this year’s event, email beth.reader@aberdeenshire.gov.uk who is running the Young Professionals Programme internally with a view to signing participants up for Young Scotland.