Indyref – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

Scotland, Canada, #Indyref and all that jazz……

David McCann on September 13, 2014, 8:49 pm

| Readers 914

“Vive le Scotland Libre!” If I could twist a phrase from the former French President, Charles de Gaulle about the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence this according to the polls is apparently what nearly half of the Scottish people will be chanting on the 18th September. It is hard to believe that just two months ago the No side enjoyed a 22% lead in the majority of the opinion polls. With a media largely hostile to their cause, the resources …

Why a Yes now would be taking a fling on Scotland’s health.

Roy Kilpatrick on September 12, 2014, 12:39 pm

| Readers 314

In the 667 pages of the Scottish Government’s white paper, ‘Scotland’s Future’, a mere sixteen are dedicated to ‘Health, Social Care and the NHS’. The future of the NHS in Scotland, became a key battle-ground in the middle of August. Nationalist claims of privatisation and funding cuts to our National Health Service if Scotland remains in the UK have polarised the country. I’ll argue that in fact it is unnecessary and wrong for health and especially public health to be so …

#Indyref and the Orange demonstration: some quick notes

John Ó Néill on September 12, 2014, 12:33 pm

| Readers 2287

With the actual poll looming, this weekend sees the Orange Order make its on-street intervention into the #Indyref debate in Scotland. What will add an extra dimension to this is keeping an eye on how the media deal with events on the day, since, as Kilsally points out, #Indyref has created some unusual bedfellows. The last few days have given a couple of stand out media moments of the campaign. At a wider level, Nick Robinson’s reporting yesterday was astonishing, not …

#Indyref: An Orangeman on the side of George Galloway

Kilsally on September 12, 2014, 8:41 am

| Readers 2860

Less than a week and too close to call. The independence referendum is upon us. There is no getting away from the fact that the Better Together campaign has allowed the SNP & Yes Scotland to frame the debate and run with the Scotland vs The Tories line. I warned of such the very start. It is incumbent on Better Together and other `No` groups to counter this narrative. I understand the need to focus on the `don`t knows` but the resulting …

#IndyRef: In a battle for a nation’s hearts and minds it has to be both…

Mick Fealty on September 12, 2014, 7:55 am

| Readers 352

Now, this is interesting. It’s a fairly aggressive question from the BBC’s Nick Robinson on “why a Scottish voter should believe you, a politician, against men who are responsible for billions of pounds profit?”… Not his greatest moment implying as it does an ad hominen appeal to absent and unaccountable authority (a classic of the cave) rather than a question with its own internal logic. What follows is a long hectoring lecture from the Scottish First Minister on Number 10’s …

.@BlairJenkinsYes : How would an independent Scotland succeed? #indyref

Soapbox on September 11, 2014, 6:00 pm

| Readers 572

With the Scottish referendum just one week away, we now have a post from the Yes side of the argument. Writing exclusively for Slugger O’Toole, Yes Chief Executive, Blair Jenkins tells us why people should vote Yes next Thursday. In just a few days’ time, the people of Scotland have the opportunity to change their destiny. With just the tick of a box on September 18, we can provide ourselves and our children with a brighter, more positive and prosperous …

#IndyRef: Rejigging Scotland’s currency arrangements requires restructuring (and damage)

Mick Fealty on September 11, 2014, 5:37 pm

| Readers 409

So yesterday three ‘boys’ from Westminster went to face the man of Scotland. As it happens all four major party leaders have been immersed in the art of politics since young, but Alex Salmond’s has twenty years on his more ‘senior’ rivals. Time and time again it shows. For much of the last three years whilst the ‘boys’ were in Westminster trying either to hold together or prize apart Her Majesty’s Government in the Palace of Westminster, there has only …

What makes an #IndyRef don’t know an actual “Don’t Know”?

Mick Fealty on September 11, 2014, 12:04 pm

| Readers 269

This conversation recorded in a pub in Cupur by Reporting Scotland is worth leaving here if only for sake of outlining three concerns of Don’t Know voters (there’s vanishingly few of those if most of the polls are to be believed)… – One simply doesn’t know and cites the lack of information (a residual feature of referendums)… – One doesn’t believe the assurance that there will be no trouble ahead in the short term and suspects Yes of lying over …

Effing Tories

The Firemen on September 10, 2014, 5:13 pm

| Readers 1901

David Cameron made an impassioned defence of the United Kingdom today as he began campaigning for a ‘No’ vote in next Thursday’s Scottish independence referendum. However the phrase making all the headlines is “effing Tories.” Has the Prime Minister scored a spectacular own goal? Cameron said “Because it’s an election, because it’s a ballot, I think people can feel a bit like it’s a general election. That you make a decision and five years later you can make another decision. If …

#IndyRef: Dublin silent, an insouciant NI and an abrupt resumption of British constitutional history

Mick Fealty on September 10, 2014, 2:40 pm

| Readers 1437

So this morning I joined an Irish Times Inside Politics panel to talk about the implications of a decision next week in favour of Scottish independence for Ireland and Northern Ireland… Some of the highlights include… – ‘Neo unionist’ silence of Dublin and the unspoken fear of unintended consequences, particularly within Europe… – The dream versus Ireland’s lived reality of a currency union in the first fifty years of the state’s history… – No show of Ireland as an exemplary …

#IndyRef ‘If the cost of failure is high, optimism is the wrong strategy’

Mick Fealty on September 10, 2014, 1:04 pm

| Readers 464

The truth is that most of the commentary around the Scottish referendum is purely speculative, and built on passion and subjective personal belief. Polls merely tell us that the argument is real and has critical resonances in the wider population. They don’t tell us who’s going to win. One of the most interesting individual ‘takes’ I’ve seen so far comes from Carol Craig who, after much agonising, is planning to vote No. And interestingly she hits what seems to me …

Can #IndyRef’s new Civic practices help renew Scotland’s representative democracy?

Mick Fealty on September 10, 2014, 8:10 am

| Readers 266

Scotland Yet: a film about independence (FULL MOVIE) from Scotland Yet on Vimeo. So this is about two weeks old. It’s an hour and a half long argument for Yes, crowd funded amongst people who are campaigning for yes in Scotland. This is what’s possible when the campaign is long enough for ordinary people to brigade their own resources. In part it’s a documentary, with stories explaining where a disparate group of individuals are coming from on the matter. A …

Currency remains a significant stumbling block…

Mick Fealty on September 9, 2014, 5:31 pm

| Readers 784

So, on currency, the Governor of the Bank of England has said that currency union is incompatible with sovereignty. By which he means that any prospective rUK’s sovereignty as much as iScotland’s. This short discussion above from the FT lays out some of the political complications that are likely to arise… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and …

#IndyRef Elephant trap #2: Don’t ask me about policy, ask a unionist (we haven’t got a clue)

Mick Fealty on September 9, 2014, 1:31 pm

| Readers 1108

So here’s another Elephant trap from last week. This one appears overtly to have far less public valence than the George Robertson faux pas. But then again Steve McQueen’s not quite jumped the fence and into Swiss freedom yet! In part that’s because the Yes campaign has signally failed to make policy an issue. So, to the trap. It’s the moment in last weeks debate when the deployment of actress Elaine C Smith a celebrity ringer for Yes was put …

Perceptions of an independent Scottish economy driving shift

Mick Fealty on September 8, 2014, 2:55 pm

| Readers 931

And an analysis of the detail of that deadly poll at the weekend by YouGov principlal Peter Kellner.. Only Conservative voters have resisted Alex Salmond’s advances: 93% of them still plan to vote No. All other sections of Scottish society are on the move, most notably among four key groups: Labour voters, up from 18% saying Yes four weeks ago, to 35% today Voters under 40, up from 39% to 60% Working class voters, up from 41% to 56% Women, …

#IndyRef Elephant Trap #1: Falling into the role of ‘self hating Scot’…

Mick Fealty on September 8, 2014, 12:44 pm

| Readers 1077

I’ve a couple of instances which show some of the weaknesses in the way the debate over Scottish independence is configured for each side/ This one shows the psychology of adopting a Yes position rather than a No to the the referendum question. As a former Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (which the SNP has promised Scotland will join after independence) George Robertson is well placed to argue why Scotland could be a stronger actor within the …

Scotland. A historic and generational engagement.

Phil Mac Giolla Bhain on September 7, 2014, 2:48 pm

| Readers 4484

I recently spent ten days in Glasgow. My intention was to pick up the vibe on the YES side in my native city with particular emphasis on the Fifth Estate and the unofficial YES campaign. I found that there was plenty of it and on day one of my trip I was pulled into a voter registration stall in Buchanan Street in the city centre. It had been set up by some university students and they were all YES voters. …

Ho hum, and now the Union of Great Britain (and that other bit) sits on a knife edge…

Mick Fealty on September 6, 2014, 11:22 pm

| Readers 2490

Cannot go to bed without posting this.. The numbers represent a four-point increase for YES support since YouGov’s last Scottish independence poll conducted a week ago (August 28-September 1). Opposition to independence has fallen from 53% to 49%. The percentages reported exclude those who wouldn’t vote and don’t know. With those groups included ‘Yes’ are on 47% and ‘No’ are on 45%. And this from Panelbase… Yes Scotland Panelbase poll just released: Yes: 44% No: 48% Undecided: 8% Excluding undecideds …

#IndyRef: City of London finally wakes up to possibility of losing Edinburgh (and more importantly the EU)…

Mick Fealty on September 5, 2014, 7:42 pm

| Readers 1627

Just to finish the week on Scotland (aye, there’s more next week with the start of a mini series we’re calling #IndyRef’s Elephant Traps), with this from Chris Blackhurst in the London Evening Standard… …the City has finally woken up to the Scottish referendum and the serious possibility of a Yes victory. We know that if the Scots opt for independence there will be a rush by investors to exit companies with a heavy presence north of the border. Many …

#IndyRef: An Open Question to Northern Irish Unionists (Only)…

Mick Fealty on September 5, 2014, 12:26 pm

| Readers 2815

In my experience Unionists tend to be the quiet men and women of the internet. Those unwise enough to put their heads above the parapet tend to be, erm, let’s just say, those of more incautious personality type. In that silence lots of non unionists end up speaking on their behalf. So, I come to a question. And it’s a fairly open one, but I’m going to put a rigid caveat on who can answer it. That is, no non …