Invisible Wind of Change

‘The wind is invisible but we can see which way the trees lean’.
– Ian Hamilton Finlay, from Proverbs for Jacobins

Amidst all the gloom, relentless negativity, media bias and dark winter onset, here’s some different voices. The  Scotland’s History series has been a huge success and it’s interesting to see what re-learning your mislaid history results in.

Elswehere, a Press & Journal poll of almost 1,000 people were asked if Scotland should become an independent state, with 31% agreeing, 46% disagreeing and 23% saying that they didn’t know. The poll, which was conducted between November 25 and December 2 by TNS/BRNB, formerly System 3, for a national newspaper, suggests a ten % drop in the number of people who are opposed to independence. The Scottish National Party had called the results of the latest poll “enormously encouraging”.

SNP depute leader and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “When this question was first asked in August 2007, there was a majority opposed to independence but this is no longer the case, and we are entirely confident that we can bridge the remaining gap in a successful independence referendum campaign. Read more here.

It’s certainly true that the SNP need to create  a bolder clearer case for change, but the one-sided vision of a collapse in support for independence is a wishful falacy.  The media is not a reality.

David Daiches: “It is the picture of Scotland as we should like to see it that lies in the imagination of those who live here that alone can be decisive in shaping the country’s future. In the last resort a country’s destiny depends on the imagination of those who live in it.”