Witness sessions
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Friday 28 January, Glasgow
Timetable | Discussions and statements | Witnesses
The Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, G2 3JD
The Witness Session in Glasgow focused on two themes – ‘constitutional reform’ and ‘engaging with the least engaged’.
The Inquiry heard from: Audrey Bronstein (Oxfam UK Poverty Programme), Raji Hunjan (Carnegie Young People Initiative), Peter Kelly (Poverty Alliance), Joyce McMillan (Scottish Civic Forum), Professor Shamit Saggar (University of Sussex; Yale University) and Canon Kenyon Wright (People and Parliament).
Timetable
| 10.30am | Commission Questions (roundtable): Constitutional Reform Peter Kelly, Joyce McMillan, Canon Kenyon Wright |
| 12pm | Audience questions |
| 1.30pm | Commission Questions (roundtable): engaging the least engaged Audrey Bronstein, Raji Hunjan, Professor Shamit Saggar |
| 3.00pm | Audience questions |
| 3.30pm | End |
Discussions and statements
Listen to the discussion & read transcripts and summaries
Peter Kelly, Joyce McMillan, Canon Kenyon Wright
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Audience questions - constitutional reform
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Audrey Bronstein, Raji Hunjan, Professor Shamit Saggar
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Audience questions - engaging the least engaged
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Witnesses
Director, Oxfam UK Poverty Programme (www.oxfamgb.org/ukpp)
Audrey has been Director of Oxfam's UK Poverty Programme since it was founded in 1996. She spent 1994-1996 doing preparatory research into poverty in the UK. The UK Poverty Programme is guided by the same principles as Oxfam's work in other countries: it develops ways of working which enable people living in poverty to work out their own solutions to their problems, and to challenge the policies and practices that are responsible for creating and maintaining poverty. In 2000 Audrey was awarded an MBE for her work with the Programme.
Audrey joined Oxfam in 1982 as Regional Representative for Oxfam's programme in Chile and Paraguay, and was based in Lima, Peru, until 1988. Following her work in South America, she was Director of Communications for Oxfam and published a book, The Triple Struggle, about the lives, needs and struggles of peasant women in Latin America.
Prior to her work with Oxfam, Audrey was a public affairs presenter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and worked on a variety of community and youth projects, both in the UK and abroad.
Co-Director, Carnegie Young People Initiative (www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/cypi/home)
Raji is Co-Director at the Carnegie Young People Initiative, where she specialises in schools and young people's participation in decision making. She is currently involved in work designed to promote the impact of Pupil Voice and Citizenship in schools throughout the UK. Carnegie YPI promotes the involvement of young people aged 10-25 in the key decisions that affect them. It is an independent organisation, funded primarily by the Carnegie UK Trust, created to push forward policy and practice across the UK and Ireland.
Raji is also a member of the Lord Putnam Commission on Parliament in the Public Eye, due to report later this year. Prior to her work with Carnegie YPI, Raji worked for the Hansard Society as Director of the Citizenship Education Programme, where she was responsible for running mock elections in schools with BBC Newsround and producing the ‘MPs in Schools’ pack.
Raji trained secondary school teacher of English and Media Studies and has worked in a number of secondary schools and Sixth Form colleges, mainly in London.
Director, Poverty Alliance (www.povertyalliance.org)
Peter Kelly is Director of the Poverty Alliance, the Scottish network of organisations tackling poverty. Formed in 1985 the Poverty Alliance works with communities and policy makers to find better solutions to the problems of poverty and social exclusion. Since joining the Alliance in 2002 Peter has been involved in work to make anti-poverty policy processes more participatory. Central to this has been engagement with the Scottish Executive, the Parliament, and Westminster around the National Action Plans on Social Inclusion.
Prior to joining the Poverty Alliance Peter worked as a researcher with the Scottish Low Pay Unit and with Strathclyde Regional Council. He retains a strong interest in research issues, particularly around participatory research with people experiencing poverty.
Convenor, Scottish Civic Forum (www.civicforum.org.uk)
Joyce McMillan was a member in 1998-99 of the Consultative Steering Group on procedures for the new Scottish Parliament. She is Convener of the Scottish Civic Forum and a member of the Scottish Working Group of the Hansard Society. Joyce is chief theatre critic of The Scotsman, and also writes a political/social commentary column for the paper. She also broadcasts regularly on Radio Scotland and Radio 4.
Professor of Political Science, University of Sussex
Shamit Saggar is Professor of Political Science at the University of Sussex. He served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit from 2001-03.
He has both scholastic and practical expertise in issues of migration, electoral behaviour, party politics, ethnic pluralism, social capital, social exclusion, religious extremism, labour markets, and regulatory policy. He has considerable hands-on experience in shaping and implementing policy in a range of sectors.
He has been commissioned to provide policy analysis and advice to a wide range of bodies including: Age Concern England, the Commission for Racial Equality, the Home Office, the Department of Work and Pensions, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Know-How Fund, the Lord Chancellor’s Department, the Department of Constitutional Affairs, the Women and Work Commission, and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.
He has published widely. He published Race and Representation: Electoral Politics and Ethnic Pluralism in Britain in 2000 and is currently writing a book on European Muslim communities and threats of religious extremism.
Chair, People and Parliament
Author of The People say Yes: The Making of Scotland’s Parliament (1997), which documents the Scottish Constitutional Convention’s successful struggle for home rule, Canon Wright was a key figure in the movement for Scottish devolution. He served as Executive Chair of the Scottish Constitutional Convention (1989-1999), and was a member of the Consultative Steering Group on the Scottish Parliament. Kenyon also chairs People & Parliament, which carried out an extensive nationwide survey of the expectations of the people for Scotland and for the new Parliament.
In 1999, Canon Wright was awarded a CBE “for services to Scottish Devolution and Constitutional Reform”, and in 2000 was given an Honorary D.Litt. from Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, on similar grounds.
As part of his current work Canon Wright is: working with the new Constitutional Conventions in the English Regions; a Council Member of the Scottish Civic Forum; an Executive Member of the Scottish Council for Development & Industry; Consultant to NHS Tayside on Patient/Public involvement; and Convener of Vision 21 (Inter-Church Group on Sustainable Development).
