On 15 January 2025, WMCS president Ian Bowman could be seen rubbing shoulders with the likes of First Minister John Swinney, who – at an event in Stirling hosted by the Robertson Trust – was speaking about his government’s priority of ending child poverty.
In the course of his speech, the First Minister talked about there being nothing ‘without society, nothing without community and connection’, and set out a vision for a Scotland where ‘we thrive, we flourish, we are most ourselves not when we stand alone, but when we stand with others.’ He also said: ‘We’ve got what it takes to both imagine and to create a better Scotland – of that I have no doubt – because there is nothing wrong with Scotland that can’t be fixed by what is right with Scotland.’
All music to the ears of those trying to create a place for community and society to thrive (albeit on the comparatively minuscule scale of a community hub).