Scotland – Page 18 – Slugger O'Toole

In a post #IndyRef Scotland will ‘form’ trump ideological ‘content’?

Mick Fealty on June 11, 2014, 3:02 pm

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Interesting piece from Torcuil Crichton who is a Westminster lobby correspondent for the Scottish Daily Record, courtesy of Bella Caledonia.. There have been 29 general elections to the Dàil, Ireland’s parliament, since independence. Ireland’s Labour Party have won precisely none. When socialism goes up against nationalism in a country where all civic politics is about the nation, then Labour doesn’t stand a chance. What happened in Ireland – in fact Irish leader Eamon de Valera’s specific strategy – was to …

Some observations on the European Count and talk of electronic counting

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 27, 2014, 9:31 am

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The vacuum of incomplete European election results will be filled today by discussion of the speed of the count and desires to introduce electronic counting. The verification of the ballot papers had already been completed in the local government count centres, allowing European ballots placed in local government ballot boxes to be retrieved. [The local government and Euro elections will collide again in 2019, and the super councils can look forward to verifying both ballots again.] The sorting of first …

Open Government Partnership: How to start the ball rolling…

Mick Fealty on May 15, 2014, 8:39 am

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After Tuesday’s #DigitalLunch on Open Government Partnership and ahead of Friday’s event in Belfast, for those of you thinking of how you might roll up your sleeves and get involved in making government smarter and more open, here’s your Survival Guide to OGP in Six Memos: Paul Braithwaite sets the scene on where we are… Fred Logue on what OGP is and what it isn’t… Davy Sims on the critical importance of participation… John Kellden on collaborative sense-making… Matilda Murday on how to do it… If you are keen …

Abortion turndown is a constitutional issue

Brian Walker on May 9, 2014, 10:41 am

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The ruling in the English High Court against free abortions for Northern Ireland women in England comes as no surprise. Have campaigners legally examined the situation in Scotland? This now seems like a case for the Supreme Court where the issue would be: Are devolution powers superior to UK equal citizens’ rights? An aspect of the judge’s comments intrigued me: He ruled that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s duty to promote a comprehensive health service in England “is a duty in relation to the physical and mental …

The Scottish independence debate goes colourful…

Brian Walker on May 4, 2014, 11:31 am

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The Herald on Sunday is the first Scottish newspaper to come out clearly in favour of independence. The front page designed by the artist Alasdair Gray makes quite a splash and the editorial arguments are balanced and reasonable. (The case for independence) seems to us to be a more exciting, imaginative and inspiring proposition than the alternative proposed by the No campaign. That it has been remorselessly negative need not detain us here. Its leaders have told …

Damning comparison between Dev’s Ireland and Salmond’s Scottish Free State

Brian Walker on May 2, 2014, 12:33 pm

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Kevin Toolis, a Scot of born of Irish parents who wrote “Rebel Hearts”, one of the best books on the IRA on the ground, returns to a previous theme and makes this devastating comparison between an independent Scotland in prospect and post 1916 Ireland in the FT(£). We do have one good historical model of what it is like to carve out a nationalist state from within the political union of the UK but it is not one the SNP is …

Scotland Essays: The pro-Union cause has four months to unite, learn identity politics and make a new devolution pact now!

Brian Walker on April 26, 2014, 1:49 pm

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The difference between before and after the Scottish referendum is as fundamental and unknowable as the black hole between life and death. Yet the fate of the Union may depend on what people believe now about what may happen then, in that currently unknowable state. With the polls narrowing near the point of cross over, London- based politicians and commentators are at last stirring themselves, the Conservative commentator and ex-MP Matthew Parris in the Times (£) being the latest in assuming a torrid fall-out from …

#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 …

“Poll: Scotland on the brink of independence” Time to panic?

Brian Walker on April 22, 2014, 11:55 am

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For Scotland on Sunday to strike such a headline shows it’s time to panic says the Speccie. “Mr Darling and his allies in Better Together have to wake up to the fact that they have managed to blow a 20-point lead in a few months and the gap between the two sides looks like it is now within the margin of error for polling companies. Not only does the Yes camp have the momentum, it has the foot soldiers on …

More evidence that the Westminster village is waking up to the threat of Scottish independence

Brian Walker on April 17, 2014, 1:07 pm

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John McTernan is among the shrewdest of political strategists. As quoted by David McCann, he offers “don’t panic” advice to fellow strategists. What’s missing here are reasons for Scots to vote No. The McTernan view isn’t cutting it with leading commentators on the centre left and right. Martin Kettle in the Guardian The psychological impact in England, Wales and Northern Ireland of Scotland’s rejection of the union, meanwhile, could be very unpredictable, and possibly nastily so. I do not want any of these …

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 …

Phil Mac Giolla Bhain showing what ‘socially present journalism’ looks like…

Mick Fealty on April 9, 2014, 5:33 pm

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“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations So a little vicarious glory via sometimes Slugger blogger Phil Mac Giolla Bhain who has made it to number 10 in the Press Gazette’s top social journalists (not bad for a Glasgow Irishman ensconced in the west Donegal Gaeltacht…) It’s all his own doing of course. The key is to maintain social presence. Phil’s success has been …

John Barry: “We need legislators, not negotiators…”

Bangordub on April 9, 2014, 7:24 am

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I had an interesting chat today with John Barry. A fellow Dubliner but a far more interesting and indeed public character than that may suggest. John is a Green Party candidate in the forthcoming Council elections standing in the Abbey ward of the new North Down and Ards Council. He was co-opted onto the existing North Down Council when Steven Agnew was elected as an MLA and will be seeking to retain the Green seat in the forthcoming elections but he …

It takes the threat to Cameron’s survival to wake Westminster up to the threat of Scottish independence

Brian Walker on April 3, 2014, 9:51 am

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Signs are emerging that the Westminster village, which usually treats north of Hampstead Heath as terra incognita, is at last waking up to the real threat of Scottish independence. The contrast couldn’t be starker between the obsession of the English right wing with a phantom referendum over Europe and the real one in Scotland that is almost upon us. The Times (£) reports pressure on David Cameron to ban Scottish candidates from the 2015 General election if Scotland votes Yes in …

The Scottish referendum. The British identity that dare not speak its name

Brian Walker on March 30, 2014, 7:42 pm

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The best article I’ve seen about the dearth of a cultural identity debate in Scotland by Alex Linklater, son of the great Magnus. Could Scots learn a thing or two from the Irish? Or maybe not? You’d have thought the Scottish cultural air would be thrumming with an accrued history of intellectual fighting and flyting over who we are, dating back to the unions of crowns and parliaments, through the Enlightenment and into all the scientific and artistic legacies …

Talking of shifts of opinion, what’s happening in Scotland?

Brian Walker on March 19, 2014, 11:14 am

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Even after several visits to Scotland to talk to political elites I confess I never quite twigged what the core appeal of Scottish independence actually was. Now from reports like this by Severin Carrell, I’m beginning to get it. The Yes campaign would say all that wouldn’t they, but all the same.. Margie Maxwell is no Scottish nationalist. But she is Glaswegian, and intensely loyal with it. It never occurred to her she would vote for independence. But then the threats …

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 …

David Cameron’s bid to go it alone could open up the debate on the UK’s future on the EU

Mick Fealty on February 25, 2014, 7:45 am

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NOW this is interesting. James Kirkup at the Telegraph broke the news last night that as well as having its manifesto writen by five old Etonians (and one former pupil of St Pauls, and I don’t mean the one in Beechmount!), the Tories will be going into the next election determined not go into coalition. Bold move by the Cameroons. Though as Mike from Political Betting notes, it is one that could swing both ways. It would certainly clear the …