Category Archives: Scottish Culture

An Awfully Big Adventure

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8

By Christopher Harvie

According to Neil Oliver the referendum will be ‘the biggest decision in 300 years’. So ca’ very canny … I wonder.

In 1707-15, as far as the mass of Scots were concerned, there was no decision. The deal was done, for good or ill, by elites – or parcels of rogues – north and south, for dynastic and diplomatic reasons. In 1837 the same Union was partly dissolved, when Victoria could not, by Salic Law, become Queen of Hanover. She was replaced by the reactionary Ernest August, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, whose repression helped provoke the German liberals who rose and fell in 1848. In 1866 Hanover’s king backed the Austrians against Bismarck. The blind George V’s state was swallowed by Prussia, and with it the chance of a type of liberal confederalism. Did anyone notice?

What operated in the UK after 1707 was more a tacit confederation than a union. The ruling groups of both Scotland and England invested in distinct ways, and the separate Scots ‘estates’ of kirk, law, learning and local government had about as much autonomy as small states enjoyed within the European empires. The alternative wouldn’t have been the ‘freedom’ that the likes of Paul Henderson Scott optimistically infer from Fletcher of Saltoun’s pamphlets, but either a version of England’s ‘Poynings’ Law’ that paralysed nominally self-governing Ireland, 1494-1782, or a drastic French-Jacobin-style ‘co-ordination’ of administration and civil society. Continue reading →

The Spin Room

Posted on
19

By Mike Small

So what just happened? Watching the body language, maneuvering and positioning is fascinating. Salmond welcomes Cameron, and hand on back ushers him into a room before sitting in front of a huge yellow map. The table was tiny, the whole set-up to be as uncomfortable as possible. Moore seems inconsequential, a mere bag-carrier.

Previously through the day Cameron had gone through a choreographed “I’m visiting Scotland” routine. Dave eats porridge, poses with his MP and his new Scottish leader (allegedly) in front of the Forth Rail Bridge (Scottish icon), then declares that ‘the Union’s not about the past’ before citing John Knox, Adam Smith, James Maxton, RLS, James Watt and so on (and on). Having established that a) he was in Scotland b) he liked porridge and c) he had a great grasp of Scottish history and knew where Aberdeen was, he then made some very odd statements, including: ‘There are now more Scots living in England and English people living in Scotland than ever before. And almost half of Scots now have English relatives.’ Continue reading →

Rangers On the Edge

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37

By Phil Mac Giolla Bhain

These are indeed historic days for Alba, for just as Scotland’s Claim of Right may about to be asserted at the ballot box in 2014 a bastion of North Britain is terminally ill.

Once hailed as one of the great institutions of Scotland Rangers FC is now at death’s door.

Yesterday’s events in the Court of Session in part spring from the fact that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) believe that the Ibrox club operated an illegal tax strategy for the first decade of the millennium.

That case has just gone through the First Tier Tax Tribunal and the three judges have yet to deliver their judgement.

The underpayment alleged by HMRC is £24million added to this is £12million in interest accrued.

HMRC are also seeking £18million in penalties which will be dealt with by a subsequent Tax Tribunal.

If Rangers lose this case then HMRC they can appeal to the Upper Tribunal, but HMRC could push for immediate payment of the £36 Million (£24 Million  + £12million) a sum that the Ibrox club, by the admission of the previous Chairman Alistair Johnston, just could not pay a total bill of £52 million.

The current owner of the club has also been assailed by controversy from all sides. The news that he mortgaged four years of season ticket money to raise £24.4million shocked the club’s supporters.

Craig Whyte’s reputation was recently shredded in court when he appeared on a matter of an unpaid bill of £90,000 to a roofing company where his veracity and his connection to reality was questioned by the Sheriff.

The Ibrox club, one of the twin pillars of the Scottish game, could be about to exit the scene.

This is almost too big to contemplate for the many in the Scottish press pack. Continue reading →

Global Gathering

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22

By Kate Higgins

So, Janice Forsyth has to go because her delightfully eclectic mix of music, blether and interviews no longer fits the template.  BBC Radio Scotland has decreed – though claims it is only following orders – that daytime is for talk, evening is for music.  Our brains, you see, are too linear to cope with anything so confusing as diversity.

But what’s this?  A music show – a proper music show at that – is being bumped from the evening schedules.  For years now, Mary Ann Kennedy has delighted and amazed with her Global Gathering.  No show has done more to promote folk, roots and world music with a distinctly Scottish wrap than this programme.  Mary Ann makes for a delightfully knowledgeable and enthusiastic host, guiding the audience through music from all parts of the globe.  The best thing about her show is the certain knowledge that you are going to discover something new, something you’ve never heard before.   Continue reading →

Let Glasgow Flourish

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15

By Jonathan Mackie

It’s a common – and often justified – complaint that Scotland’s mainstream media outlets focus disproportionately on Glasgow when deeming what’s worthy of ‘news’ status.  This time, however, the goings-on over recent weeks at Hollywood’s favourite Kremlin substitute have been entirely worthy of the headline treatment.  You’ll forgive me for treating the next sentence to a paragraph entirely to itself:

Labour is now a minority party on Glasgow City Council.

My first campaign as a bright-eyed newly paid-up SNP member was the 1995 Council Elections.  That resulted in our having 1 councillor out of 79, versus a monolithic 71 for Labour (election anoraks may like to know it would likely have been 1 from 90, had the District/Region set-up been retained).  The last time Labour were deprived of a majority in Glasgow, the Foreign Office were sending photos of dead bodies to Olympic athletes to dissuade them from competing in Moscow, and homosexuality was still a criminal offence. Other than a 3-year interregnum, Labour held total domination in the City Chambers for decades.  Until 9th February 2012. Continue reading →

Positivity

Posted on
19

By Mike Small

Pundits seem to be coalescing around the idea that a ‘positive message’ is an essential part of political campaigning (nothing new here, see Pat’s Juggernaut of Joy thesis). Whether it’s Obama’s upbeat derivative (but ultimately empty) Yes We Can, or, as critics had it, Salmond’s indy question (characterised by some as some sort of Derren Brown-style mass hypnosis), the idea of positivity is the key, or so we’re told. It’s simple: people who whinge and moan all day become a bit of a drain to be around. We naturally gravitate towards those who bring a bit of sunshine and light into our life.

This presents the Unionists with a challenge. How to oppose the Yes Campaign with a positive? What is the positive case for the Union? Well it’s about security, continuity and stability. All good things, but in stressing these you have to also sort of pretend it’s all okay as is, and that’s where they get unstuck. The nationalists have to say things will be okay, the unionists have to pretend things are okay. It’s not jam tomorrow but it’s a set of ideas – a vision – based on hope. Now we know that this might not work out but we have aspiration whereas in the HERE and NOW we kind of know perfectly well what things aren’t working. UK Plc has nationalised the banks and given our money away to the super rich. People can’t get the homes they need, and there’s an outbreak of mass unemployment, fuel poverty and a generalised economic insecurity that strikes into the heart of peoples well-being by the residual stress it creates. Continue reading →

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

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1

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 →

Why Indy Lite is Wrong

Posted on
21

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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9

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 →

Bad News

Posted on
15

By Jamie Maxwell

One of the most dispiriting aspects of the debate surrounding Scotland’s constitutional future has been the relentless, grinding superficiality with which the London-based media have covered it. The failure (or refusal) of many UK broadcasters and print journalists to address the question of Scottish secession in any real depth has become all the more stark since David Cameron’s ill-judged attempt to ‘seize back the initiative’ earlier this week.

Take, for instance, last night’s Channel Four News. In a report about how British assets and liabilities would be divided in the event Scotland became an independent country, economics editor Faisal Islam suggested it was unreasonable for the SNP to expect to take 90 per cent of the oil from the North Sea yet only 8.4 per cent of the UK’s total debt. Jon Snow pursued this line of argument in a subsequent interview with First Minister. But it is a complete dead-end. The protocols governing the ownership of natural sea-bed resources are clear and internationally recognised: states control a 200-mile exclusive territorial zone running out from their coast lines and the resources contained therein. The question of debt following the break-up of multinational states is equally unambiguous: it is distributed according to population or GDP. Any other formula would provoke endless – possibly irresolvable – disputes. Continue reading →

The Union: A Journey into the Unknown

Posted on
14

By Dorothy Bruce

Politicians, commentators and posters have in recent months urged Unionists to make their positive case for the Union. Although some of us are rapidly coming to the conclusion there is no such case to be made, we nevertheless expect our Unionist friends to attempt to spin together crumbs to feed to the faithful.

It’s amazing what deliberations time off, or perhaps immobility due to over-indulgence on the food front, fuelled by a higher alcohol content in the blood, can give rise to. Anyway, over the festive season, I began to wonder about this Union we want defined, its benefits, its shared values. And after some late night research, it dawned on me that I was unclear on exactly what Union our Unionists want to preserve. Is this uncertainty why they too are having trouble defining it? Continue reading →

Happy New 2012!

Posted on
30

I hate focus group politics. But we want to to know what you want more of – and less of from us and our squad of scribes here at Bella Towers. So here’s a sneak-peak of our stats report from Word Press’s digital monkeys and then an opportunity for you to say ‘yay’ and ‘boo’ and that sort of thing for the year ahead with our first ever Bella Poll. There’ll be another one tomorrow.

First our 2011 Year in Blogging… London Olympic Stadium holds 80,000 people. This blog was viewed about 480,000 times in 2011. If it were competing at London Olympic Stadium, it would take about 6 sold-out events for that many people to see it. If they could get a ticket, or gave a shit.

Our top 5 referring sites were Facebook (natch), Twitter (obviously), Infowars.com (eh?), Reddit.com (natch again) and … (secret).

Our Top 5 most popular posts are hilariously diverse covering Icelandic Economics (pictured, comments thankfully closed), Chomsky on Libya, David Hume’s Tercentenary, Celtic FC’s Green Brigade and a typically delightful post by LPW on The Gruniad, Britishness and its One-Faced Janus…

So – what do you want from us in the year ahead? The first of a couple of polls, feel free to leave rambling explanatory comments too…

Offensive Behaviour

Posted on
11

Disppeling some myths about the new anti-bigotry bill. Extract from a great piece by Humza Yousa (read the full article over at The Glaswegian):

Everybody remembers the first football match they were taken to. Be it in the 1950s or just last week, there is no greater excitement than when you are taken to watch your team play for the first time.For me, it was the 1995 Scottish Cup fourth-round tie between Celtic and Raith Rovers.

My uncle, a lifelong Celtic fan, had decided that at the age of 10, I was finally ready.

I’ll never forget the experience; the sounds, the tastes, the fans, the atmosphere, the singing, and of course the match itself (Celtic won 2-0).

None of us want to see that atmosphere and passion leave football. It is what makes the beautiful game the world’s most popular sport.

There has been a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation regarding the Scottish government’s proposed legislation on tackling offensive behaviour at football. Continue reading →

Labour’s Leader Lamont

Posted on
6

By Mike Small

It’s unfair I know but the idea that there’s more likelihood of Hearts players getting paid on time than Johann Lamont breathing life energy and the feelgood factor into Scottish Labour seems to be doing the rounds.

Don’t belive us (nasty nat separatists and all) ask self-styled ‘Labour Man’ George Galloway who unleashed an astonishing attack in this weeks Daily Record likening Johann Lamont to Rosa Klebb: Continue reading →

Scotland the World Over

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Reply

You might think that we would *hate* Edinburgh-based website Blipfoto.com, who pipped Bella to top-spot in The Lists definitive guide to The Best Blogs in Scotland.  Not a bit of it.  As regular readers will know our outlook is characterised by bonhomie and good cheer to all. Blip – which encourages users to create a daily photoblog is launching a call for tens of thousands of photographs based on the saltire flag to be uploaded.

The pictures, which will be collected from St Andrew’s Day on Wednesday, will then be turned frame by frame into a film to be premiered globally on Burns Night 2012.

Each picture must feature the saltire – but that’s where the guidelines end. Joe Tree, the founder of Blip explains: “It was very experimental, but it gave us the spark of an idea, and months later came the concept of Scotland the World Over.”

GO HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS…

Joan McAlpine & Séamas Ó Sionnaigh

Posted on
24

This is a guest post by Andrew Anderson following on from Joan McAlpine’s writing on the anti-sectarianism bill and the impact of writing on it, (Sing out for a country free of prejudice and hate) and then the response to that on An Sionnach Fionn.

The Scottish Government is quite right to believe that measures are required to address sectarianism in our society. It is also correct to believe there is a need to urgently address violence, and particularly domestic violence, in the context of Old Firm matches. Unfortunately legitimate motivation has not yet resulted in the development of an effective strategy and the political point-scoring of the unionist parties seems to be resulting in an entrenched defence of well intentioned but inadequate proposals.

The reality is that making laws about what constitutes offensive is a difficult business. The BNP find immigrants offensive. I find the toe-curling obeisance the BBC regularly pays to the royal family offensive. Many people are offended by swearing. Are we going to ban swearing at football matches? Continue reading →

Breaking Waves

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1
The Scots and the Basques are the European nations which are most likely to break away from the states of which they are currently citizens and have most incentives to do so, according to a new model created by an international research group employing a proxy for cultural heterogeneity based on genes (while making clear that there is, of course, no politically incorrect implication that culture is explained by genetics).
“For the case of secessions, the model predicts that the Basque Country has the highest propensity to break away, followed by Scotland and Sardinia. This ranking is unchanged under a number of robustness checks. These results are consistent with the observation that the Basque Country and Scotland are the only two regions in Western Europe that in recent years have called for referendums on self-determination.” (The Stability and Break-up of Nations: a Quantitative Analysis, Klaus Desmet, Michel Le Breton, Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín and Shlomo Weber, August 2011)
The mathematical model operates by considering  not only demographic and economic criteria but, in an original and ingenious manner, also culture. It includes factors such as the wealth of countries alongside size and cultural differences in terms of population genetics, there being a correlation between culture and genetics in so far as it is true to say that populations which have mixed more tend to display greater cultural similarity.
Read the full post at Frankly here.