Forget dour Scots ... the feelgood factor tops the political agenda - [Sunday Herald]

Forget dour Scots ... the feelgood factor tops the political agenda - [Sunday Herald]

WITH the new Centre for Confidence and Well Being due to launch its programme of events on Tuesday and the Executive launching a discussion paper on confidence, boosting our egos is now firmly on the political agenda.
But a poll of Scotland’s high-fliers – who you’d expect to know a thing or two about self-possession – carried out by the Sunday Herald are split over our country’s supposed crisis of confidence.

The Centre of Confidence and Well Being, a “virtual” meeting place, has been hailed as a pioneering project to boost optimism and self-belief throughout the nation and end our widespread “cannae do” attitude. The plan is to encourage more positive attitudes, individuality and creativity. The centre will receive £750,000 over three years from the Scottish Exective and the Hunter Foundation.

On Tuesday at the Scottish parliament, the centre’s director Carol Craig will announce the Vanguard programme, the first installment in its three-year confidence project. For £1300, business leaders, politicians, strategists and practitioners in health and education can participate in 35 hours of lectures and distance learning conferences with Professor Martin Seligman, a specialist in positive psychology from the University of Michigan, and other leading lights in the field of confidence building. Some places on the course will be available at £400 to ensure that practitioners and organisations in the voluntary sector are able to participate.

The centre has received cross-party support and Craig expects the places on the course to be snapped up. Leading lights from Scottish society have mixed views.

Artist John Byrne is cynical about the whole affair: “If the American model spreading freedom and democracy is the exemplar of this confidence, then we should