The Landworkers’ Alliance is a union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers.

Feedback for us

If you have any comments, critiques, considerations, compliments, complaints, about anything the Landworkers Alliance is or isn’t up to, do let us know your thought. We love feedback, it keeps a system healthy. Please fill in this quick form.

Membership / Supporter / Donation Queries

Please contact Lauren.Simpson@landworkersalliance.org.uk

Requests for work, volunteering or internships

We are currently not recruiting for any roles but please read our newsletters for any announcements. We currently do not offer any volunteer or internship placements directly with the LWA, but keep an eye out in the newsletter or on the forum for any members looking for volunteers or workers.

Academic/Research Enquiries

Please look at the Agroecology Research Collaboration to see if it fits your area of research/work.

Membership Support / Advice

Currently the LWA does not have capacity or resources to help individual members or potential members on their specific projects, farms or programmes. We get a lot of requests for individual support and would love to have the time to respond to each request in full. We are fundraising for a new role for somebody to focus on membership support and services as we have identified it is a gap in our offering so please watch this space. Having said that, if your query is critical and urgent please email info@landworkersalliance.org.uk including the word URGENT in the subject header and it will get picked up and we can try our best to help.

Contacting Individual Staff

Please take the time to explore our staff page here to see who the most relevant contact for your enquiry is.

Our addresses format is firstname.lastname@landworkersalliance.org.uk

Please bear in mind we all work part time and have limited capacity to respond to enquiries outside our core areas of work.

You can also find information under the About Us header about branch and regional organising, and identity groups within the LWA membership.

Press/Media Enquiries:

For any queries relating to press please email press@landworkersalliance.org.uk

Merchandise/calendar Enquiries

For any enquiries to do with shop sales including the calendar please email merchandise@landworkersalliance.org.uk

To Include an Item in Our Newsletter:

You can fill in this quick form to submit it to be included in the next bulletin/newsletter. The deadline to submit is the end of Friday each week for the following week’s member bulletin. With the same form you can also submit to the monthly non-member newsletter which goes out in the first week of the month.

All Other Enquiries:

For any other enquiries that are URGENT please email info@landworkersalliance.org.uk with the word ‘urgent’ in the subject header and we will do our best to help.

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Scottish Elections Q&A

(2021)

Who are the Members of Scottish Parliament (MSPs)?

Everyone in Scotland is represented by 8 Members of the Scottish Parliament. One member is a representative of the constituency that you live in. To find out which Scottish Parliament constituency you belong to, visit: http://lgbc-scotland.gov.uk/

The other seven members are regional MSPs. Scotland is divided into eight electoral regions: Central Scotland, Glasgow, Highlands and Islands, Lothian, Mid Scotland and Fife, North East Scotland, South of Scotland, West of Scotland.

To find out who currently represents you in Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament, visit: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ 

The upcoming elections for the Scottish Parliament are different from the general elections which were last held on Thursday 12 December 2019, and which are scheduled again for Thursday 2 May 2024. During the general elections British citizens vote for their representative in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament (Member of Parliament or MP). The House of Commons has 650 members and 59 are from Scotland.

How are the Members of Scottish Parliament elected?

Constituency candidates are elected on a ‘first past the post’ basis. This means that parties will put forward one candidate to represent the constituency in Scottish Parliament, and the candidate who receives the largest number of votes in the constituency will win the seat.

The regional vote or ‘list vote’ works differently, through a form of proportional representation. As there are seven spots available, each party will list their candidates with the first to be elected at the top of the list, followed by the second, third, etcetera.  A mathematical formula is used to allocate the votes for each party in the region, which decides how many of those on the party lists get elected for the seven seats that are available. This system can help smaller parties who may not get enough votes to unseat a constituency candidate. For example, in the 2016 elections, the Scottish Greens had no constituency representatives but had six MSPs elected through the regional list. 

For more information on the workings of the Scottish electoral system, watch the webinar by the Scottish Food Coalition available at the bottom of this page: https://www.foodcoalition.scot/2021-scottish-election.html 

What do the Scottish Parliament and Government do?

The Scottish Parliament legislates on matters that are devolved’ to Scotland. Such devolved topics include many areas of law and policy that are very relevant to the work of the Landworkers’ Alliance in Scotland:

  • Agriculture, forestry and fisheries
  • Education and training
  • Environment
  • Health and social services
  • Housing
  • Law and order
  • Local government
  • Sport and the arts
  • Tourism and economic development
  • Many aspects of transport

The UK Parliament legislates on topics that are ‘reserved’. These topics such as foreign policy, trade and industry, crown estates and MOD estates, and some matters of taxation, financial and fiscal policy have UK-wide or international impacts.

The Scottish Government is led by the First Minister of Scotland (who must be nominated by Scottish Parliament within 28 days of the election result). The First Minister appoints the Scottish ministers to make up the Cabinet, with the agreement of Scottish Parliament and approval of the Queen. The most senior ministers are known as the Cabinet Secretaries. The Cabinet is the main decision-making body of the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government normally proposes new laws (known as a ‘Bill’) within the scope of the devolved competences. Bills can, however, also be presented by a committee of the Parliament (Committee Bill) or by an individual MSP (Member’s Bill). In order to become law (or an ‘Act’) the Bill must go through three legislative stages in Scottish Parliament (for more information, visit: https://www.politics.co.uk/reference/primary-legislation-scotland/). 

The Scottish Government is responsible for executing or implementing the legislation that has been passed by the Scottish Parliament. Its work is supported by the civil service.


Who are the candidates for the Scottish Parliament election on the 6th of May 2021?

The main parties that are standing for the Scottish Parliament election are:

  • The Scottish National Party (SNP)
  • Conservative and Unionist Party
  • Liberal Democrats
  • Labour Party
  • Scottish Green Party (only for the regional list)

We have summarised the main points from the party manifestos on the production of food, fuel and fibre and land use for you, which can be found here.

Information on other political parties that have put forward candidates in your region can be found here: https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/

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