Month: September 2014
Promises of new powers was irrelevant to indyref result?
Disquieting number of Unionists have suggested the promises of new powers did not sway enough voters to make a difference to the outcome of the referendum.
Here are some empirical data from a post indyref poll conducted by Lord Ashcroft, the renowned Tory benefactor, and uber …read more
A Helot Society
So we are back with a vengeance to notions of the undeserving poor. Electronic cards are to ensure that the poor can only spend their benefits on basic necessities like food and clothing, and not on a lifestyle of alcohol and illegal drugs.
Having lived a rather spectacular life encompassing …read more
Ten days after
A guest post by William Duguid
Call off the search party, I’m still here. It’s just taken me a bit longer to return to blogging than I expected.
It’s not that I’ve been lying disconsolately in bed, surrounded by tear-sodden Kleenex and empty beer cans. Apart from that first Friday, anyway. It’s …read more
Returning Soldiers
There were many reasons why Scots did not permanently settle overseas. One group of returnees among which the Scots are disproportionately highly represented is that of military pensioners, especially in the early nineteenth century. Existing scholarship has largely focused on soldiers settling in the colonies at the end of their …read more
Scotsman column: Ready and waiting for a new way
My Scotsman column, 28 September, 2014
My side lost, clearly and incontrovertibly. Like many of my fellow Yessers, outwith matters of the heart or family, it’s probably the hardest loss of my life.
What makes the loss acutely hard – the defeat of the enthusiasm, innovation, commitment and …read more
One week on, Nicola Sturgeon on ambition, disappointment and delivering devo max
As she prepares to succeed Alex Salmond as head of the SNP and first minister, Sturgeon says Scots expect real change
The British establishment is still lying down in a darkened room after its brush with constitutional mortality, and so Nicola Sturgeon is being a good neighbour: the curtains are still …read more
Labour in Scotland is dying. Does anybody care? | Kevin McKenna
Preoccupied with their Westminster careers, the partys newly ennobled grandees are busy condemning it to the twilight zone
Jim Murphys scary monsters tour of 100 towns during the independence referendum campaign encapsulated many of the reasons why the Labour party is all but finished in Scotland. Murphy, a man who has …read more
At last, a timetable
To be fair, it’s just brilliant finally to get a guaranteed timetable for the delivery of Scottish Home Rule and an undertaking from those who have solemnly promised to deliver it that they will do so and that they won’t let the grass grow under their feet.
Deliver. Grass won’t grow …read more
Technology breakthrough boosts North Sea oil future
A team at Heriott Watt University are celebrating another break-through in North Sea extraction technology. Professor Mehran Sohrabi, at the centre for enhanced oil recovery, has announced progress in gas injection technology and ‘low salinity water injection’. When combined, these new forms of extraction can add decades onto the lives …read more
We are One Scotland: Anatomy of a Referendum
We are One Scotland: Anatomy of a Referendum
Gerry Hassan
Scottish Review, September 24th 2014
It was a momentous moment in Scottish and British history. The Scottish independence referendum. It dominated Scottish and British airwaves in the last couple of weeks, and became a huge international story.
Nearly every single cliché has been dug …read more
It seems we’re all agreed
So, as highlighted in the last post, we have been promised “home rule”, “nothing less”. Home rule/devo max means that we have control of all our affairs bar our currency, defence and foreign relations. And just as I accept we lost the referendum, I expect the No side to honour …read more
Scotland will force Westminster to deliver ‘Devo-Max’ promise
The dividing lines have shifted, but not by much. The result of the referendum represents a blow to those who have campaigned tirelessly for decades. Yet the resilience and determination of those campaigning for a better Scotland has been impressive. Now the challenge is to get the best deal for …read more
Yes – Business for Scotland will continue
Business for Scotland has been around in one form or another since our successful devolution campaign targeting business people in 1997. In the run up to the 2014 independence referendum we morphed from a small pressure group into a fast growing and influential business network and think tank. Many …read more
The Future is Independent
Trident, Austerity and Dentures. Those are the key components of the Labour brand in Scotland. The unionists demographic is overwhelmingly old. Independence had a majority in every age group except the over 55s.
Unionism is not a factor of age in the sense that once people reach …read more
Over to you, No voters
My side lost the referendum. I was at the count. It was entirely, and quite upliftingly, fair. Anyone saying otherwise is wrong. The “Shock and Awe” campaign may have been (was) untruthful, bullying, and unfair. The actual vote was, however, entirely fair. And, to repeat, we lost. …read more