We know how they lobbied; silently without conviction!
Let’s not forget by going the judicial route faith groups got 50 people packed indoors before we were allowed on the hill.
If they want to represent the membership from this point forward (and I have serious doubts as an organisation they do), they need to;
1) Unreservedly apologies to the bulk of the membership for being church mice
2) Reconfirm they regard representing the membership as the first priority; not Mountain safety, not training, not climbing coaching, not diversity, not being a arms length voice of the government.
3) They have stated that vociferous campaigning would have been detrimental to the organisations post COVID objectives. They need to tell us what objectives were more important than members physical and mental well being, then we can judge.
4) Energetically campaign to be included in the Scottish COVID Enquiry, stating they want the enquiry to look at the legality of banning travel without interaction. So that it can’t happen again.
5) Currently their press releases show little inclination to fight for the membership and more trying to tell the members what to do (and in the process making hill goers look like idiots) notice how all the press releases have focused on how we should be responsible when accessing the hills and be respectful of local communities. At no point have they turned the mirror and said if landowners break the law or the SOAC they stand ready willing and able to take them to the courts and will crowd fund do so.
6) State whether the Scot Gov either directly or indirectly threatened to remove SportsScot funding if they didn’t tow the line.
7) if the answer to the above is yes, why didn’t they inform the membership.....
Why at the end of last summer when further lock down was looking likely, they didn’t survey the membership for the direction we wanted them to take?
Personally I think the organisation has gone past the point of no return and are now irrelevant to most Scottish hill goers.
