While the Chilcot report validates public outrage at the UK’s disastrous decision to invade Iraq thirteen years ago, the full consequences of Brexit have still to unfold. How will the future judge our self-inflicted constitutional crisis of 2016? Continue reading
Category: Scottish Independence
Should Scotland be an Independent Country? If we were asked that question in a school or college exam and we gave only the positive case for creating a new nation we would surely not expect to pass. Yet we are being asked to vote YES on the basis of only the most optimistic forecasts – on the pound and pensions, on oil revenues, the economy and the constitution, on welfare, education and defence, on speedy entry into the EU. All will be well according to the Scottish Government. Continue reading
“When Scotland is told you cannae dae that, you know what our answer’s gonnae be. We’re just, like, saying, ‘Aye we can.’”
There was an almost touching naivety about that smiling young face to camera on the news last night. Or it would be touching if it wasn’t such a chillingly simplistic rejection of all the complexities, all the cavernous unknowns, implied in the momentous decision Scotland will be making on Thursday. Continue reading
If you are visiting this blog post for the second time you will notice that I have changed the heading. If you have just arrived, I should explain that the original heading said In a state of hysteria Scotland risks making an irreversible decision based on the fever of the moment. I apologise for careless use of an emotive word (you will see from comments below that I have been criticised for implying that everyone voting Yes is acting out of hysteria and in blind faith). If you read my argument I hope you will see that is not what I intended, or said. But I do not think I was wrong to express alarm at the mood of the country which seemed to me to reach fever pitch with yesterday’s demonstration outside the BBC. Enough. Here is the post which has attracted more attention than most of my thoughts. It starts with a quote from an article in the Financial Times magazine. Continue reading
An odd story caught my eye yesterday. A photograph posted on Facebook claimed to prove that Jim Murphy, the Labour MP for East Renfrewshire was ‘egged’ by his own ‘minder’. According to rumours flying round Facebook this was a set up intended to smear the Yes campaign whose tactics had forced him to abandon his soap box tour of Scotland campaigning for a No vote. Continue reading
