Scotland – Page 15 – Slugger O'Toole

#IndyRef: “Each group is dreaming of this fresh new country (as clean as a white sheet)”

Mick Fealty on September 17, 2014, 1:18 pm

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The ‘my journey to Yes’ is becoming something of a subgenre in the Scottish journo/blogosphere. Tom Devine and Kevin McKenna come immediately to mind. But this one sticks not just because it goes in the opposite direction, but because Ewan Morrison’s journey began by moving to a Yes… It’s telling in the way that Carol Craig’s account was telling in the sense that we get an inside view of what happens when people ‘convert’ in this social media campaign to …

#IndyRef: And the betting market says it will be a No from Scotland, but…

Mick Fealty on September 17, 2014, 12:27 pm

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So here’s Betfair calling tomorrow’s real referendum poll for a No. At the time of recording a full 78% of the money was going there. It’s one of their biggest ever markets, so according there’s a lot money to be had for a courageous Yes bet. With so much money behind a No, it’s certainly worth a tenner on Yes, if only to make it interesting for wibbly wobbly No folk. Or as Mike reminds us… As any punter knows the key is not …

London’s problem is that Scotland is already de facto independent…

Mick Fealty on September 16, 2014, 10:18 pm

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When we tell you to apply updates we are not telling you to mend your ship. We are telling you to keep bailing before the water gets to your neck. Everything is broken, Quinn Norton Okay, so moving away from the detail of IndyRef, here’s an interesting four point blog from Mark Leonard at Reuters. He raises a number of key points that should not only be listened to London, but elsewhere …whatever the result of the vote, I think we must recognize that …

Journeys on the Scottish omnibus

Phil Mac Giolla Bhain on September 16, 2014, 3:44 pm

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If you’re into politics then this is the happening place this week. I arrived in my native city last night and it started for me almost immediately. On the shuttle in from Glasgow airport the chaos of the universe decided to put me in the seat in front of Brian Wilson. For the uninitiated Brian was elected to serve for the Cunninghame North constituency in 1987 for the Labour Party and he successfully defended the seat until he retired in …

“Introducing a new Scottish currency has always been the most sensible option….”

Mick Fealty on September 16, 2014, 1:22 pm

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Okay, so let’s for argument’s sake assume the premise of my previous blog is roughly true. Why is Alex Salmond want to mash up the media playing field between now and Thursday. It’s the conclusion from a short paper by Angus Armstrong and Monique Ebell of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), called simply, Is This Plan B: In 2016, Scotland is likely to face twin deficits in the year that it might become an independent nation. …

Whilst ‘No’ channels Æthelred, is ‘Yes’ filibustering the media up till polling day?

Mick Fealty on September 16, 2014, 12:13 pm

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Well, only two days to go. Mike Smithson wisely is throwing the polls off to one side: My reading is that Thursday could produce a YES victory or a NO win by up to a 10% lead. Hedging my bets? You bet. Yep. It could be squeaking it, and it might not. We don’t feckin know. We do know that the Yes campaign however has been an outstanding success having wrought from Westminster all manner of time sensitive promises for …

Ireland’s experience of Bankers: “Focused on profit the same way a starving dog focuses on a sausage”

Mick Fealty on September 15, 2014, 9:52 pm

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Brian Lucey with some advice of his own on the advice offered to Scotland by experts in banking… The bottom line is this. Exceptionally able as most of the bank economists, financial sector analysts and FX traders may be, they are not in the truthiness business. They are paid to help their companies sell product. They are not paid to ahve a moral, ethical, or social perspective except in so far as that aids in sales. That doesn’t make them …

Murdoch cooling on the idea of independence #indyref

David McCann on September 15, 2014, 1:56 pm

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Rupert Murdoch, he is famous for backing certain parties in electoral contests and has recently flirted with the idea of carrying forward his support for the SNP in 2011 by backing a Yes vote on Thursday. However this interesting report drawing on his recent Twitter comments show that he is cooling on the idea of independence; Using his global media empire’s private jet and making stops in Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Fife, News UK sources said Mr Murdoch wanted to judge …

On the verge of a Scottish Spring? Social sentiment says Yes will walk the #IndyRef.

Mick Fealty on September 15, 2014, 10:01 am

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B Kliban

“The best way to see the future is to observe the present…” – Carmin Medina I’ve an English friend who spent the last week of August on their regular family holiday in the highlands. He doesn’t have a vote but if he did he’d be a certain NO. One of things he found disturbing was having to decode the YES signs. At first he felt drawn towards it, only to feel a shudder of recognition when he thought about what it meant. There’s …

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

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

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“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 …

Ireland v Scotland – 3rd ODI Live

Pete Baker on September 12, 2014, 3:02 pm

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With Ireland’s cricketers having already won the first two games in the three match ODI series against Scotland, the Scots are only playing for pride today at Malahide. They’re chasing a total of 242 to win after John Mooney made 96 runs from 77 balls to put Ireland on 241-9 from their 50 overs in the first innings. Live coverage via CricketIrelandTV on YouTube. Pete Baker

After #IndyRef how fit is Westminster to bring about a democratic renewal of local regional government?

Mick Fealty on September 12, 2014, 2:39 pm

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If Scotland only gets as far as another metaphorical Derby next week, this conversation is worth checking against delivery. About here, John Redwood (who is like Hain a former Secretary of State for Wales) tells Hain he cannot object to his proposal for an English parliament because, erm, he’s Welsh (I think he means a Welsh MP). As Jenny notes in her first blog for Slugger, the Scottish bid for an exit from the Union is as much a disgruntlement …

Selling ‘Togetherness’ when all over the world people are separating and atomising

Jenny Holland on September 12, 2014, 2:15 pm

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It was only a few days ago that the debate over Scottish independence was brought into sharp focus for me. As a person born in Dublin of American and Northern Irish parentage, the politics of London – never mind Edinburgh – were at a remove for me. The idea that Scotland might separate from the UK and form its own tiny country seemed too far-fetched to take seriously. Well, no longer. But it’s clear to me now that the campaign …

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

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

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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: An Orangeman on the side of George Galloway

Kilsally on September 12, 2014, 8:41 am

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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

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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

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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

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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 …

“The job of a journalist is not to cheerlead, but to ask hard questions…”

Pete Baker on September 11, 2014, 2:04 pm

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In the Irish Times, Karlin Lillington makes a pertinent point on coverage of Apple’s recent launch of “two phones, a payment system and a watch” – “a non-existent product that, for now, remains vapourware”. From the Irish Times The idea of an audience of journalists and analysts giving a standing ovation at a product launch is, frankly, alarming. The job of a journalist is not to cheerlead, but to ask hard questions. To be sceptical at product launches. To confirm …

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

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

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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 …