Love Life – January

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‘Love Life’ is Bella’s Agony Aunt column by Jamie Heckert… because the personal is political and the ‘state we’re in’ is complicated.

Freedom, in Scotland and elsewhere, isn’t something that is given by governments or other authorities. It’s something that’s practiced. And not just in social movements or halls of power. It’s part of everyday life.

This month I respond to Davie Park’s comment on last month’s column:

Having only a tenuous grip on the idea(s) of anarchism / anarcho-syndicalism, it seems to me that the fundamental problem is that, whilst the capitalist system wouldn’t be undermined by even many thousands of people living an anarchist lifestyle, anarchism could be completely undermined by even just a few people whose primary motive is profit and personal enrichment.

Also, unrealistic as they may be, the dreams of the freedoms that huge personal wealth can bring sustains many of us in hard times. Nearly all of us play the game of ‘What would you do if you won the lottery?’ Asking people to give up on these dreams will be one tough job.

Dear Davie,

Thank you taking the time to share your thoughts! These are great questions which I’m sure many Bella Caledonia readers can relate to.

For many people on the Left, there is a belief in a capitalist system that should be smashed, undermined or at least reformed. And those who believe that capitalism is good and necessary are talking about how it has to change in order to maintain growth. Continue reading →

Bringing it On

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By Doug Daniel 

The 25th January 2012 brought the independence referendum another leap closer to reality, and did its best to shift the debate along, while not quite succeeding. We now have a published timeline of events detailing exactly why the SNP has chosen Autumn 2014 for the referendum. Sure, unionists can argue that there are perhaps exaggerations in how long certain aspects are scheduled to take, but it’s pretty difficult to argue that any of the stages included are superfulous, which makes those who are still demanding a referendum “sooner rather than later” look even more ridiculous than they did before. It also makes it crystal clear why they make such demands – because they want a rush job, particularly as polls are already suggesting public opinion towards independence has now caught up to be completely neck and neck with the status quo.
For decades, unionists ignored all calls for independence. For four years, they claimed an independence referendum was a waste of time and money. For six months, they argued that the referendum had to happen NOW and that not knowing the date was harming Scotland. We now have a definitive time, yet apparently this still isn’t good enough. There is only one word for this behaviour: disingenuous. Well, maybe another word: petulant. You can only change your mind so many times before you start to look like you’re just arguing for the sake of it, and unionists passed that point long ago. We have a timescale – it’s now time to move away from this tedious argument and get onto the main, grown-up debate. Continue reading →

Scotch Myths 4 – No Scottish Army

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By Mike Small

One of the most humorous myths peddled about Scottish independence is that it could not, and should not have a competent military structure. This week Lord Richard Dannatt even suggested that we would struggle to have recruits because it would be too ‘boring’ serving in a Scottish regiment. Presumably he was thinking of the fun enjoyed by Baba Moussa at British Army hands , or the recent case of soldiers in Kabul? Perhaps he was thinking of the collusion in the murder of the human rights lawyer Patrick Finucane, or other exciting times in Ireland?

Whatever he was thinking of, it should be remembered that it’s not actually a prerequisite of a nation to be armed to the teeth. The stark geopolitical consequences of Scottish sovereignty are what motivates these myths and attacks. Continue reading →

Alex Salmond: Hugo Young Lecture 2012

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Extract from Alex Salmond’s Hugo Young lecture (see video here):

I want to reflect on the astonishing, and increasing, pace of change in Scotland. Devolution took a century to be delivered. The last decade embedded the Scottish Parliament as the focal point of public life and Scottish democracy. We now have a Scotland Bill changing by the day and overtaken by events before it even reaches the statute book. The momentum and direction of the people of Scotland is unmistakable.

It is therefore right that in 2014, people in Scotland should have the opportunity to vote on whether to become independent. Continue reading →

Something for the weekend: Big Burns Supper & Neu! Reekie!

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by Kevin Williamson

For anyone planning on being in the Edinburgh or Dumfries area this weekend, here’s a heads-up on a couple of events I’m involved with that might be worth checking out.

The monthly Neu! Reekie! culture club returns on Fri 27th with the usual eclectic mix of film, spoken word and music.  This Friday we’ll be celebrating the birthdays of two very different Scottish poets. Continue reading →

Braveheart Buddhists

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By Andrew Barr

“Independence isn’t just history.” That was the message of leafleters outside Scottish cinema screenings in the 1990s as Wallace rode onto our screens ready to free the nation.

Today the Braveheart effect on Scottish politics may have worn off, with modern nationalism now being centred on economics, democracy and future aspirations. But with the referendum set to be held in 2014, the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, just how closely the independence movement should run to historic sentiment is still a real issue of debate.

Recently, several sources including the Scottish Centre of Himalayan Research reported that Tibetan monks had been watching Braveheart, even between prayer times, presumably encouraged by the story of Scotland and its fight for independence from a much larger and much more powerful neighbour.

Perhaps it is the monks’ philosophy of all things being interconnected that has in some way influenced these developments – and that is something we should learn from. Independence movements around the world are bound together by a common goal; and in the new age of internet democracy that solidarity will have an even greater part to play. Continue reading →

Decommisioning Dounreay: Babcocks or Starbucks?

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by George Gunn

Recently I was stuck between a conference where mobiles were verboten and writing a screenplay where everything other than the work in hand was verboten. But I had this desperate need to know whom the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority had awarded the contract to decommission Dounreay. So taking five minutes to nip out of Eden Court Theatre to text a friend and I asked the question – who was it? I burst out laughing that evening when I switched my phone back on and read the answer: “Starbucks”. Of course my friend meant “Babcock’s” and whether it was the height of political satire or a Freudian slip I have never had the heart to find out.

But one thing we will find out, now that Babcock and their all-American associates in the “Dounreay Partnership” have been announced as the winners of the two horse race for the decommissioning of Dounreay (the other nag in this chase was Amec, the privatised engineering arm of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and their partners Energy Solutions from Salt Lake City) is just what sort of future for Caithness – and by extension, Scotland – there is now that the “almost” £3 billion has found an operator. The press love it when £2.7 billion can become “almost £3 billion”. Continue reading →

Max Headroom

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By Doug the Dug

The Labour, Conservative and Lib-Dem parties’ joint strategy is clear as all of them want a single question referendum. In or out, yes or no. A binary choice for Scots with no middle way of devo-max to distract them.

The SNP want to keep that devo-max option open. What they say is that they don’t want to write its definition but they are happy for someone else to do that and to have devo-max as an option on the ballot paper.

Since as far as the polls are concerned devo-max is the preferred option for Scots it seems a strange inversion of the positions one would expect from the unionist and nationalist sides. The unionist parties don’t want to include a unionist option on the ballot paper which is apparently preferred by Scots to independence and the SNP who want independence are fighting to keep that slot open for someone to write in a devo-max option. What is going on? Continue reading →

Scotch Myths 3 – Devo Max

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By Doug Daniel

This wasn’t originally going to be the third in this series, but I felt the need to put it out there now, so here it is – Myth #3: The majority of Scots want Devolution Max.

I know what you’re thinking – “all the opinion polls say it’s the most popular option” – but it isn’t; not really, anyway, and that’s why it’s a myth. Present people with two options out of the blue, and they’ll go for the one that is closest to the status quo. Present them with three, and they’ll go for the one in the middle. Staunch unionists vote to stay in the union, just as staunch nationalists vote for independence. Everyone else, who doesn’t think that strongly either way, plumps for the middle option. I’m deliberately calling it “the middle option” rather than “devo max”, because it isn’t devo max they’re voting for. How could it? We don’t know what it is yet. Perhaps we never will. But it sounds nice and cuddly, so that’s why people go for it – a bit of change, but not  too much. Continue reading →

Why Indy Lite is Wrong

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By Pat Kane

It’s fair to say – along with the not-so-gentle student arm-twisting of a newly elected representative for the South of Scotland region – that the veteran SNP grandee Jim Sillars is responsible for my current political identity.

His concept of independence-in-Europe, articulated in his mid 80′s book Scotland: A Case For Optimism - and still on the SNP website - was the first time I’d heard a truly sophisticated argument for Scottish independence: about reconnecting to the wider world, not just chippily tilting against our largest near-neighbour.

Somewhere in my personal archives I have a piece of campaign literature from the 1992 SNP campaign, arguing for “The New Union” for Scotland – that is, the European Union, with Scotland as integrated but independent nation-state within it. I also remember seeing Jim at a conference about 10 years ago, arguing with great vision about how an independent Scotland could contribute to the creation of a “strong European feel”, which would help legitimate and bolster a European governance that was certainly facing its challenges at that time.

This is personal, too: back to 1992, I shared an SNP Snappy Bus on Jim’s last, desperate day as a Govan MP during that years General Election. My admiration for his commitment to, and sympathy for, ordinary voters hasn’t diminished from that day to this.  Continue reading →

Beyond Knoxian Theatre

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By Thom Cross

Scotland does it all the time. We were taught it at school and in the street, by grannies and the meenister; more significantly (ominously?) by our Scottish? media the BBC, The Herald, The Scotsman (and for us in Fife) the Dundee Courier. ‘It’ is to honour the conservative way; to be cautious; to play nine-men behind the ball, especially when you are a new manager; a new boy or a new woman. The unheralded underground historical Glaswegian conservatism was a powerful (samizdat) ideological tradition not confined to Orange politics. Remarkably it even produced socially conservative radicalism, remember ‘nae bevvying’ during the Clyde work-in. Much of the support for the USSR on the Clyde was due to the very fact of soviet caution, its orthodoxy created entrenched institutional statist ‘socialism.’ Continue reading →

The Devo Deficit & the Independence Referendum (Part2)

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By Donald Adamson

As we saw in part one (see The Devolution Deficit here) , since devolution, the turnouts at Scottish parliament elections have been significantly lower than the turnouts at the British general elections in Scotland that preceded them. This can be clearly seen in the Table 1 below:

Turnouts in Scotland at British and Scottish general elections (1997-2011)

British

Turnout (%)

Scottish

Turnout (%)

1997

71.3

1999

59.1

2001

58.2

2003

49.4

2005

60.6

2007

51.7

2010

63.8

2011

50.4

Table 1.

On average, turnouts in Scotland at Scottish parliament elections are around ten per cent lower than turnouts at British general elections. What can be seen here also is a significant decline in turnouts at both British and Scottish elections from 1997 and 1999 respectively. What the table doesn’t show is that the turnout in Scotland (as in the other British nations) at the 1997 British general election was itself a significant decline in the turnout in British general elections prior to 1997. This secular decline in turnouts, in Scotland and Britain, is also evident in many other established liberal democracies.

  Continue reading →

Empire State of Mind

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By Gerry Loose

These are the territories and countries that could never make it without England’s support.

They would fail.

They would fail.

Vote Britain

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By Alan Bissett

People of Scotland, vote with your heart.

Vote with your love for the Queen who nurtured you, cradle to grave,

Who protects you and cares, her most darling subjects, to whom you gave

the glens she adores to roam freely through, the stags her children so dearly enjoy killing.

First into battle, loyal and true.  The enemy’s scared of you.

That’s why we send you over the top with your och-aye-the-noo Mactivish there’s been a murrrderrr jings! crivvens! Deepfriedfuckinmarsbar wee wee dram of whisky hoots mon there’s a moose loose aboot this smackaddict

Vote, Jock.  Vote, Sweaty Sock.  Talk properly. Continue reading →

Let the i Generation In

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By Kate Higgins

If, even in the quietest moments, we wondered if we might sneak independence in by the back door, well, we ken noo.  One of the most contentious issues is the SNP’s proposal to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in the referendum.  A referendum apparently is no place for bairns, not even if they were born to be free.  Me?  I’d go even further and let all children over the age of five in Scotland have their say.  This is, after all, the independence generation. Continue reading →

Why have the Greens Disappeared from the Independence Debate?

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By Justin Kenrick
Great post Clare – many thanks. It points to the liberating possibilities that accompany recognising what holds you down, and the creativity and responsibility that comes with recovering hope and refusing to blame others any more. This post is absolutely great.
But it is also far harder than that for (at least) three reasons:
(1)  there’s a need to recognise the forces out there (and habits in here) that disempower, unless you do that you can’t be free of them, but paradoxically you also can’t be free of them until you stop blaming the forces out there, and instead insist on taking the blame for going along with it, and so reclaim the power to change it

Lilliput Nation

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By Clare Galloway

I awoke at 2am with my usual head-buzz about my house renovation, and the sustainability of my lifestyle at present… but rather than nodding off amongst ever-decreasing eddies of problems-versus-solutions lapping round my mind, something started to germinate from what my dad had said on the phone earlier, about the question of Scotland’s independence from England: If we are such a dead weight, so unable to stand without the crutch of English political, economic, etc support, then why (the hell) is it that England is hanging on so adamantly to our inconvenient weight? And in their Christian good-neighbourliness, so familiar from the colonial days, and so similar to the American consumerism of all world cultures; what are their real interests in/ on behalf of their poor northern relatives? Continue reading →