Indyref

#IndyRef: “Nationalism breaks things and they are things not easy to fix.”

Mick Fealty on April 23, 2014, 2:03 pm

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On the subject of Scotland and the clear failings of the No campaign (such as it is) Hugo Riftkind’s column in yesterday’s London Times is worth looking at (if you have a subscription). He deals with the impossibility clause currently being pushed by Labour, up front… …as we all know really, an independent Scotland, would be mostly fine. Poorer than now, perhaps, both culturally and economically, but no great disaster. But more damaging than its prospect, for all of us, …

Scotland Essays: Proud declaration of lack of vision is the hallmark of a failing No campaign

Mike Small on April 22, 2014, 12:13 pm

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Just a week after John McTernan tried mightily to sound upbeat about about the No campaign’s relentless negativity and it’s almost universal condemnation by campaign analysts and the Scotsman writes: Alex Salmond is on the brink of securing a historic victory in the referendum, according to an exclusive poll suggesting Yes Scotland needs a swing of just over 2 per cent to win independence. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. In fact none of this …

Scotland Essay: Why the No side should be looking up in Scotland…

Soapbox on April 16, 2014, 5:07 pm

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By John McTernan The most important three words in any campaign are not ‘Vote For Me’, but ‘Hold Your Nerve’. The independence campaign has reached what Sir Alex Ferguson used to call ‘squeaky-bum time’. The polls are closing – we are told. The No campaign needs to be positive – opine commentators. Scotland is so different, so progressive – pant assorted lefties breathlessly. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Now is the time for the campaign against separation to hold its nerve. …

Scotland, “England” and the post colonial struggle for warmth and freedom between porcupines…

Mick Fealty on April 10, 2014, 8:32 am

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Melanie McDonagh writing in London based Evening Standard thinks Michael D “…isn’t so much a foreign dignitary; more like a friendlier version of Alex Salmond”. Aha, now it would be tempting to go with the ‘well if Scotland was independent…’ line, but it’s probably better to point out that as President Michael D is supposed to stay clear of politics. In fact, London is probably the least advantageous point to understand the nature and perhaps even the merits of the …

Gordon Brown’s tough to trump “have-your-cake-and-eat-it formula” for Scotland

Mick Fealty on March 12, 2014, 12:07 pm

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For my money I think Gavin Falconer underestimates the sheer pragmatic force of John Bew’s latest argument in favour of the union. One of my late uncles by marriage was one of the few people I’ve ever known who had been an enthusiastic member of the AOH (by contrast I know lots of Orangemen). I once asked him why the AOH had fallen on hard times. He answered quick as a flash, the 1947 Welfare Act. Up until then, he …

“Scary or liberating, that is the meaning of independence…”

Mick Fealty on February 21, 2014, 12:06 pm

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Talking to an English mate the other day he was waxing lyrical about how he’d be glad to get rid Scotland, until I pointed out that that’s a song you could keep singing until there was only London, Kent and the home counties left, at which point you’d be left with a valueless lump of the managerial classes. No lumpenproletariat to fight your wars, for instance? It was just a bit of banter, but there’s a reason loping stuff off …

After the Currency Union debate the #IndyRef is dead, so long live the SNP…

Mick Fealty on February 20, 2014, 12:33 pm

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Lots of remarkable happenings in the last week or so in Scotland’s #IndyRef debate. Some of it needs taking with salt. For instance, whilst Barroso is correct to say that an independent Scotland will have to apply for membership of the EU, it’s hard to see what grounds anyone in the EU would have for saying no. It’s also true to say that the No campaign has hardly set the world alight. There have been precious few inspiring reasons given …

“If I were Scottish, I would not dream of accepting such an arrangement…”

Mick Fealty on February 13, 2014, 8:35 am

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Martyn Wolf in the FT has been mulling over last week’s statement from the Governor of the Bank of England in relation to any future changes in the currency union between Scotland and what would be left of the UK after independence: Mr Carney failed to bring out two differences between the eurozone and a currency union between Scotland and the rest of the UK. One is that the rest of the UK generates 90 per cent of UK gross …

Hope, delusion, memory and trauma in the Scottish referendum of 2014: Prof Murray Pittock (QUB, Wed 12th)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 10, 2014, 8:54 pm

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Cultural historian Prof Murray Pittock (University of Glasgow) is delivering a lecture entitled The British people? Hope, delusion, memory and trauma in the Scottish referendum of 2014 in QUB’s Canada Room (Lanyon Building) on Wednesday afternoon (12 Feb) at 4pm. His presentation will be followed by the launch of his updated book The Road to Independence? Scotland in the Balance (whose foreword has been penned by First Minister Alex Salmond). Murray Pittock’s book concludes: A loosely federated or virtually confederal …

Book Review: Battle for Britain: Scotland and the Independence Referendum

Tom Gallagher on December 12, 2013, 1:01 pm

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The Battle for Britain: Scotland and the Independence Referendum. By David Torrance. London: Biteback Books 2013. pp.xiv + 370. Paperback. The nature of the policies advocated by those seeking a ‘Yes’ vote in the September 2014 referendum on whether Scotland should depart the 306-year union dominate this timely and often insightful book. Perhaps its main strength is that it conveys the cerebral side of the Scottish National Party (SNP) whose electoral victories in 2007 and 2011 enabled the Scottish Question …

Nate Silver delivers a timely wake up call to the Scotland Yes camp in the #IndyRef?

Mick Fealty on August 13, 2013, 10:02 am

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You get a sense of why Nate Silver has annoyed politicians and pundits in the US when you have a look what he’s been saying in Edinburgh about a prospective Scottish Referendum whilst launching his book, The Signal and the Noise: In an interview with The Scotsman, Mr Silver said polling data was “pretty definitive”. “There’s virtually no chance that the Yes side will win”, he said. “If you look at the polls, it’s pretty definitive really where the No …

Belief in Scottish independence may see nationalism outperform current poll ratings…

Mick Fealty on July 24, 2013, 2:08 pm

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Kevin Toolis provides a fascinating take (h/t John at Nuzhound) on the quiet unionist syndrome noted here yesterday when he looks to Northern Ireland for lessons to draw for Scotland which will in the Autumn time begin to pick up speed in the run to an election… For its adherents Nationalism, he notes, “possesses an intrinsic moral good” which “trumped all personal sacrifice..” …Whatever the polls say, the Yes believers are likely to turn out in far greater numbers to vote as …

SNP must fight their campaign, not rely on foibles of #IndyRef opponents

Mick Fealty on April 5, 2013, 10:29 am

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Great piece from Lallands Peat Worrier, who is, erm, worried that the SNP is too quick to dismiss the possibility of the Conservatives, Lib Dems and even Labour of making good on hints that some form of Devo Max could be on the table if the Scots reject independence. Yes, the British state is given to unprincipled strategic trimming. Yes, the Tories exhibit no principled reason to support more devolution. Yes, the recent history of all three parties has exhibited …

Robinson tells Cameron he’s playing a ‘powerless-inside-the-union card’ on Scotland…

Mick Fealty on March 27, 2013, 11:20 am

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I was asked yesterday why neither of the two leaders in Northern Ireland said much on the subject of Scottish independence. This may be one reason. Expressing his frustration with the lack of progress on corpo tax, the First Minister said this: “What, effectively, you are saying to the people of Scotland is that if you want more fiscal autonomy than you have at the present time, the only way to have it is through independence. That is the wrong …