Scottish referendum – Slugger O'Toole

Has anything been happening while I’ve been away?

Brian Walker on September 20, 2014, 5:54 pm

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For the past few of months I’ve been buried in other projects, not least the Scottish referendum. So Northern Irish affairs are as inward looking and deadlocked as ever. Well I never! Paisley’s death passed off with little fuss amid the customary respect the Irish reserve with fingers crossed for the recently dead in contrast to the living. How amazing that at the funeral this most clerical and religious of politicians had no church service and no political salute. The elephant …

The decline of traditional patriotism in Britain and Ireland

Brian Walker on September 21, 2013, 10:17 pm

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Remember the great closing episode of Blackadder from the trenches of the Great War where the artful dodger meets his nemesis at last : “ We need a futile gesture?” The “futile gesture” being that he was to lead his men over the top to be mown down by the German machine guns. But it was in Ireland that the futile gesture worked best, in the blood sacrifice of 1916. The Irish Times had some fun at the taoiseach’s expense …

No parallels with Ireland as a pro-union strategy in Scotland begins to emerge at last

Brian Walker on April 25, 2013, 2:58 pm

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There were risks in sending a posh English boy like George Osborne to Scotland to warn that it might be no doddle for an independent Scotland to continue using sterling as its currency. The move might yet backfire among thrawn Scots if the English try to put the frighteners on them. Like pointing out the supposed difficulties of Scotland continuing more or less automatically as a member of the EU, Osborne’s sally north was part of London’s growing challenge to the …

Referendum blues

Brian Walker on January 24, 2013, 12:00 pm

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Bad news for the Yes campaign for Scottish independence, analysed by the psephological guru of gurus John Curtice. It’s a debate worth following not only for its own sake but for how issues wider than the border itself might feed into any referendum debate in Ireland. First off, the headline: just 23% now say that “Scotland should become separate, independent from the rest of the UK”. That’s nine percentage points lower than last time round in 2011…Going beyond that headline finding, there’s …

Bold alternative urgently needed to Scottish independence

Brian Walker on January 21, 2013, 2:29 pm

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In Scotland the Better Together campaign has deservedly come in for some stick. The pro-Union cause has so far failed to agree on devo-more, the alternative to independence many politically aware Scots seem to want. (Incidentally if it ever comes to an NI referendum, their website is not the model to follow: remarkably for a Save the Union umbrella organisation it’s trite and one dimensional. They key critique is made by my friend Alan Trench whose Devolution Matters blog is the …

Independence only for the Scottish referendum – DailyTelegraph

Brian Walker on September 20, 2012, 12:36 pm

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The strongly pro Union Daily Telegraph boldly claims that Alex Salmond is about to concede that the referendum should be about the single question of independence when the details are finalised next month. This must be in part because of the difficulty in framing a clear second question about the extent to which devolution powers might be extended, whether “devo max” or “devo more”. If true, the SNP climbdown represents a tactical victory for Westminster which has been holding out …

No breakthrough yet for either side over Scotttish independence

Brian Walker on September 18, 2012, 12:05 pm

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On opinion in favour of a separate Scottish State, the British Social Attitudes survey reports little change. The 32% who supported independence was nine points higher than in 2010 but two points lower than in 2005…. However, the research also suggested 43% of people in Scotland wanted Holyrood to make “all” decisions. The higher figure emerged in a question in which the word “independence” was not used, and where a second option on so-called devo-max – more power short of independence …

Gordon Brown may not have helped the Union cause

Brian Walker on August 14, 2012, 11:58 am

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The papers have caught up with Slugger on Gordon Brown’s emergence from political purdah to join the debate over Scottish independence. Brown it will be noted isn’t claiming an Olympic effect on a referendum that’s over two years away. His argument is in two parts; first, the Better Together case. One thing I take from the Olympics, a point that Sir Chris Hoy has already made for me – when we pool and share resources for the common good …

“it is in the public interest to know the type of information that the Ministers were taking into account”

Pete Baker on July 14, 2012, 8:29 pm

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Here’s a little referendum related snippet from Scotland. The Scottish government is reportedly “surprised” at a recent ruling by the country’s Freedom of Information Commissioner. In response to a request by Labour MEP Catherine Stihler on 30 May last year, the Scottish government had refused to confirm or deny whether it had received legal advice on the status of an independent Scotland within the EU. They had cited section 18(1) of the FOI Act. As the Information Commissioner’s press statement notes This allows …

Scottish independence: Can Alistair Darling at the head of the pro-Union campaign match Alex Salmond?

Brian Walker on May 20, 2012, 11:05 am

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Alistair Darling is to spearhead a Save the Union campaign of all the pro-union parties in Scotland, according to a Mail on Sunday scoop. The former Chancellor has just confirmed the story on the Marr show, although the BBC website has still to catch up with it.The report says the plan was hatched in true Edinburgh style over tea and sandwiches in his constituency home, one of a several over recent months. It was impressively attended. No 10 director of political strategy …

“The last thing the Northern Isles want is to be ruled by Glasgow trade unionists and Edinburgh lawyers…”

Pete Baker on March 19, 2012, 3:12 pm

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At the Guardian’s Scotland Blog, Severin Carrell notes the independently-minded Shetland and Orkney Lib Dem MSPs Tavish Scott and Liam McArthur’s attempt to play Alex Salmond at his own game – with a joint, “at best provocative and, in constitutional terms, at least playful”, submission to the UK government’s consultation on the independence referendum. Short BBC video report here. From the Guardian’s Scotland Blog Scott and McArthur have reinvigorated a long-standing notion that the former Viking earldoms of Shetland and Orkney have …

Scotland – Ascherson still not decided on independence…

Dewi on February 28, 2012, 10:31 pm

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Always liked the bloke – but at 79 years old I thought he might have made his mind up….. From the New York Times. Even larger questions would loom. Would there still be a place called “Britain”? Would Scottish independence finally force the English to rediscover their own national voice, instead of hiding their problems under the cloak of “Britishness”? Would a reduced “England” still rate a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council? It may not happen. The …

Scottish referendum: the unionist case is still all over the place

Brian Walker on February 22, 2012, 9:46 am

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The unionist split shows no sign of closing. The Aberdonian Tory cabinet minister and Surrey MP Michael Gove echoes my “England is sulking “ theory and delivers some pretty sharp words to his own side. …While there is a threat posed by Scottish separatism, he added, “there is also a threat, under-appreciated, from English separatism as well.” Mr Gove said: “When some of my colleagues say we need to re-visit the West Lothian Question or we need to have …

Scottish referendum: ‘Devo more’ could be a unionist runner

Brian Walker on February 20, 2012, 8:13 pm

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On the subject of greater powers for Holyrood, there’s something of a right wing split between the Telegraph newspapers and the darling of the Tory grass roots, blogger Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome. The Sunday Telegraph leader dealt with the subject with a knowledge of the subject that would disgrace an unpaid intern: To concede greater powers to the Scottish Assembly is always to raise the question: why should they not be given more? This kind of condescension is an English …

It’s the English question now, stupid

Brian Walker on February 17, 2012, 12:58 pm

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The Scottish media were a PhD dissertation about chippiness all unto themselves,” reflected Mr Blair in his memoirs, the Times editorial (£) recalled. By those standards, it seems Dave’s nervous apologia for the Union in Edinburgh fitted the bill after all, presentation wise. Substance was more problematical. In the Times (£) the august Scots unionist Magnus Linklater, conscious of every kink in the Scottish soul saw the problem of staying schtum for two whole years about devo max or (devo …

Scottish referendum no further forward

Brian Walker on February 14, 2012, 11:55 am

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“Spin” the Telgraph acidly calls it, while the home- based Herald labels it “confusion“ There are different views, of course, on the timescale that the Scottish Government has set out. I don’t think that is a serious argument any more.” However, Mr Moore later insisted that he timing question was far from settled and said the two sides “still have some way to travel” to reach an agreement. Mr Moore said: “I am still not convinced that the people of …

Referendum demands may be catching

Brian Walker on January 30, 2012, 10:06 am

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In that interview trailed by Pete below, the Examiner itself highlights the DPM’s soft voiced approach to an early referendum on unity. Have Alex Salmond’s tactics found their Irish imitator? The deputy first minister believes the Democratic Unionist Party can be persuaded to agree to such a dramatic move. Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and …

Maybe the referendum question is not so simple

Brian Walker on January 26, 2012, 10:24 am

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I may have spoken too soon about the clarity of Alex Salmond’s preferred referendum question : do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country? The Today programme took the trouble to ask a professor in Arizona who had never heard of Big Eck if the wording was fair. Sure, it was completely loaded he said. To be fair, the question had to be balanced with a “or not “ in some form. Closer to home the Times reports …

‘Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?’

Brian Walker on January 25, 2012, 4:47 pm

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Well, the essential question proposed by Alex Salmond in his consultation paper is surely good enough to satisfy the UK government’s requirement for a clear question on independence. That’s one stumbling block out of the way, I reckon. But Westminster ‘s rival paper is clearly opposed to a second question on anything like devo max. These are two different issues, and should be considered separately. If these two questions were asked together, there would be four possible outcomes, and potentially four …

Paxman: the gowk goes over the top.

Dewi on January 25, 2012, 7:14 am

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Playing the man I know but needs saying: Not Newsnight’s finest hour. After a twee introduction from a whisky sampling reporter then came Paxman’s interview with the Times’s Briton of the year. You can see some of it here. Zimbabwe, Mugabe, One party State?? Opting out of the BBC? the cheek of it all. Some of us might have been interested in what Alex had to say in the Hugo Young Lecture. (Worth watching the that sample video from the …