"I hate bagpipes, I hate kilts, but I've changed my vote from No to Yes" I despise nationalism. I despise patriotism. I hate bagpipes, I hate kilts and tartan and I hate the cringe inducing shouts of “wha’s like us” in bars across the nation at closing time on drunken Saturday nights. I love the other countries we share this little island with. I am not what you could ever call a patriot or a nationalist and I would call myself European long before I’d ever call myself Scottish. I believe in cultural and ethnic integration. I believe in a world where nationalities blur into one another rather than divide on tribal lines. There are economists on both sides of the argument saying wildly different things. We have the unique opportunity to build something better than the status quo – a status quo that is destroying the fabric of our society, that more than ever in living memory, supports the rich and powerful at the expense of the weak and the poor (regardless, I think it is fair to say, of whatever Westminster party is in power.)
Tom Devine: why I now say yes to independence for Scotland. Tom Devine, Scotland’s most celebrated historian of recent years, sent shockwaves through the country when he revealed in a news report in The Observer newspaper last weekend that he intends to vote in favour of independence on September 18. Now, for the first time, the full text of Devine’s declaration, made on August 15, in the Grill on the Corner restaurant, Glasgow, is published by The Conversation. It was made in the presence of New Zealand academic Angela McCarthy and Observer correspondent Kevin McKenna. My engagement in the Scottish independence referendum campaign before now has been restricted to impartial academic interviews. And although I’ve only come to a yes conclusion over the last fortnight this has been a long journey for me.
My preferred option would previously have been devolution maximus, but that’s not available. I’ve never been a member of a party and am still not, so my position does not indicate support for the SNP; it’s simply in favour of independence. Osmart : My submission for @comicsoapbox ... All Grist for the Mill. Sean Connery on Scottish independence: “Simply put – there is no more creative an act than creating a new nation” Having been on this journey to independence for more than 50 years, it seems to me that the arguments have been kicked about like a bladder on a beach. But as the 18 September approaches and, one by one, the scare stories are burst, a new sense of opportunity and hope for the future is now in sight. Scotland has an opportunity to make a step change. More than anything else, culture defines a country. It provides international visibility and stimulates global interest more than a nation’s politics, business or economy ever can.
So, with our colourful history, strong identity, deep-rooted traditions, a commitment to artistic innovation and diverse and beautiful landscapes, Scotland is truly blessed. All these attributes mean that Scotland is one of the most familiar countries on earth. I have no doubt that this is due to our reconvened Scottish parliament. I believe Scotland can and will go further. Simply put – there is no more creative an act than creating a new nation. Mjaei | Just my shite opinions. Let’s throw a surprise party. Britain Is Great – So Why Would Scotland Want to Leave? I’m crying my beautiful eyes out because I don’t want Scotland to leave the Union.
Poor me. My gut instinct is that we’ll stay together, but the thought that she might leave England all alone with Wales and the Tories could be enough to put me back on the Prozac. Because I love Britain. Lots. I don’t mean to offend those proud Scots who passionately desire their own nation-state, and it’s important to be sensitive with this issue, but seriously, you lot fucking love Britain too, don’t you?
This isn’t a piece of persuasive writing. That said, I happen to be an authority on Scotland. The more I think about the issue, though, the more I see how full my mind is with doublethink, which is fitting – we Brits are wonderful at holding entirely opposing ideas in our collective consciousness and carrying on regardless. There is much that I hate about Britain. I’m a socially liberal kinda gal. Empire was shitty. Scotland, be warned. Leap of Faith - Wild Brigand. When he and my mum were a young, poor couple, my dad had the idea of starting up his own taxi business.
Armed with only his car and ten pounds loaned from the only non-dissenting voice around him, my mum’s sister, he left his safe job as a mechanic at a local garage and set about realising his dream. Through hard work and determination, his business turned out successful, so much so that a few years later decided to sell it and buy a pub. Again the nay-sayers warned him against the venture. “A pub will never work”, they said. “You’ve bought a dive that deserves only knocking down”, they said.
My dad saw it differently though. Fast forward a good few years and here was me, working as an electrician, jumping employers depending on where the work was, in Aberdeen. My boss wasn’t too pleased, when I eventually told him what I was about to do. My previous employers are all still in business, apparently none of them any the worse off for me not working there any more. Raymond Soltysek: Independence Is The Triumph of Hope Over Fear. A few months ago, I was talking to my godson, Andrew, about the forthcoming referendum.
He’s a lovely lad; in his thirties, he works in the care of adults with severe learning disabilities. He and his partner, a nurse, have the most beautiful two year old daughter, a smiley, happy, sweet child who charms everyone she meets. They both work punishing shifts for not much more than a combined living wage: Andrew frequently has to walk four miles to catch a bus that’ll take him to work. He was going to vote No. Astonished, I asked him why. “Well,” he said, “look at me. We live in a society that is crippled by fear. I remember growing up in the 60s and 70s, when optimism for the future was all the rage. And we have been made afraid. I don’t know about you, but I reckon senior politicians have a duty of care to the electorate. And that’s why I’m voting Yes. I agree with Patrick Harvie when he says it’s not going to be hugely different the day after we vote Yes.
That’s not good enough for him. Lesley Riddoch: Uncertainty is a starting point too - News. AN IRISHMAN who was a senior BBC executive for many decades had a favourite joke about the dangers of presumption. There was an Englishman driving round the Irish countryside and he was lost. He saw a chap standing beside the road, stopped, rolled down the window and said: “Good morning, Paddy. Which way is it to Dundalk?” The chap said, “How do you know my name’s Paddy?” “Well,” says the man, “I was only guessing.” In the wake of last week’s controversial BBC Question Time programme – in which I was a panellist along with Anas Sarwar, Angus Robertson, George Galloway, Ruth Davidson and Nigel Farage – this anecdote has sprung to mind several times. It seems there was surprise in some quarters that I announced an intention to vote Yes in the 2014 ballot despite arguing for more than a year that 37 per cent of Scots (at last opinion poll count) should have the chance to back their preferred “in-between” constitutional option.
Some believe the end justifies the means in politics. Rosettes Are Red: A Brief Introduction To Why I'll Vote NO To Independence. Vote Britain. Michael Greenwell: Huffing, Puffing and Blowing the UK House Down. The United Kingdom, like all states, is an artificial construct. For some its symbol is the bulldog. The strange thing about the bulldog is that it would die out as a breed if left to its own devices.
This is because their heads are so big that the vast majority of them have to be born by cesarean section. Therefore, because of its bigheadedness, it relies on a form of artificial selection to continue, and this makes it a great symbol for the UK. The idea put forward by Harry Mulligan recently, that the Scottish people are being fed "ill-thought-out patriotism", is exactly correct. The fact that Scottish independence movement continues to exist and strengthen in the face of an overtly hostile media shows that the motives for it are not confined to a narrow patriotism.
The British media is controlled from London and reflects London's views quite accurately. The first and most common is to conflate the Scottish Independence movement with the Scottish National Party. My contribution to the debate on Scottish independence « Alan Bissett. Vote Britain Alan Bissett People of Scotland, vote with your heart. Vote with your love for the Queen who nurtured you, cradle to grave, Who protects you and cares, her most darling subjects, to whom you gave the glens she adores to roam freely through, the stags her children so dearly enjoy killing.
First into battle, loyal and true. That’s why we send you over the top with your och-aye-the-noo Mactivish there’s been a murrrderrr jings! Vote, Jock. Vote with those notes we scrutinise in our shops. (might be legal tender but looks dodgy to me) Vote for the Highland Clearances. Vote for nuclear submarines in your water. Vote for the Olympic Games you didn’t vote for (but you’ll pay for it, you’ll pay for it).
Vote Conservative. Vote with the chip on your shoulder. Vote Labour. (Get back in line, Scottish Labour, HQ in Solihull will issue their commands shortly, Just keep the vote coming in from up there thanks goodbye, Subsidy junkie). Vote for enjoying your own culture being soooooooo parochial. Jock. Hardeep Singh Kohli: A Scotland that believes in itself can be what it wants - Commentators - Opinion. But depart I did. Twelve weeks stretched out into six months. Those months melted into years, then decades. Now my future seems inextricably linked to The Big London one way or another.
And Scotland has changed in my absence. The year I left Glasgow, John Major was sleepwalking his way into the political oblivion, after astonishing everyone (mostly himself) by returning the Tories to a fourth term in government. This finale, this flourish, was most memorable for the setting up of the Cones Hotline and the hopeless, helpless, flailing during the meltdown that became Black Wednesday. In Scotland, the Tories were at the heady heights of their powers – in the modern age, at any rate. Then New Labour unfurled the new "danger" of devolution.
The maturing of Scotland under devolution has been a sight to behold. Devolution required Scotland to stop abrogating responsibility, stop blaming England and start growing up. Scotland has a unique set of problems when compared with its Union partners. Joyce McMillan: ‘It won’t work’ is not good enough - Cartoon. Independence debate is fully joined and hell mend unionists who have nothing positive to offer THURSDAY morning and I am listening to a BBC Radio Scotland debate on the Scottish Government’s proposals for the forthcoming independence referendum, announced with a fine flourish on Wednesday afternoon at a press conference in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle.
The tone of the four assembled radio voices – for the four main Scottish parties, with Patrick Harvie of the Greens apparently lost in transit – varies a good deal. Stewart Maxwell for the SNP sounds confident and cheerful, while Annabel Goldie of the Tories seems relieved to have given up the burden of leadership, but the Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie is his usual dour and downbeat self, and Anas Sarwar, for Labour, sounds about as cheerful as a professional mourner at an old-fashioned funeral.
Now, for all that any of us knows, some of these predictions could turn out to be true.