Kintyre Show

I was at the Kintyre Agricultural Show today  which fortunately experienced a rare day (this summer anyway)  of good weather. 

I like the Agricultural Shows in Argyll & Bute ; they are family, community events  where people met for conversation, the odd dram in a tent and the chance to catch up with friends old and new. 

Cathleen and I gave a lift to Campbeltown to Cllr Robert Macintyre from Bute who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Argyll farming scene and particularly of dairy farming having been a dairy farmer himself all his life and having served on the old Milk Marketing Board.   Inevitably all three of us spent the bulk of our time in the dairy section, talking about the terrible situation that local dairy farmers find themselves in with prices  ten pence a litre or more below the cost of production and no relief in sight.

Yet despite that very serious problem (which is already driving people out of the industry) there was keen competition in the dairy ring and a fierce pride in the quality of the dairy cows and the quality of the milk they produce.  There was also a stand promoting Mull of Kintyre Cheddar, which comes from that milk and which is a premium product being very badly marketed at present by the creamery owners.  It should be in every shop the length and breadth of the land but it isn't - yet !

We spent the last hour or so having a drink in the Committee Tent (the very efficient Show Secretary is SNP Cllr John Armour) and then wandering round the stalls talking to a wide range of people ,  all of whom knew Robert. 

Last year the political parties were  much in evidence as the show was only weeks before the referendum.  This year, I said to Cathleen before we went , if any other politicians were there, it was because they were intending to contest next May.  

So it turned out - we met the former Lib Dem MP Alan Reid who confirmed that he was hoping  to be his parties' Argyll & Bute candidate for the Scottish Parliament in May.   He at least was pleasant and happy to converse.   We also saw the former Labour Argyll Westminster Candidate Mary Galbraith  (she has Kintyre farming roots so the visit may not have been a declaration ) but she virtually cut Cathleen & I dead.  She  still seems to be smarting from  her very bad result in May  but courtesy costs nothing whilst the lack of it speaks volumes.