Alba Party has launched it's latest billboard campaign with great fanfare. Well, as great as can be managed by a party which approaching two years since its launch, remains very much the minnow in the pond of Scottish politics. The billboard is bold (see above). As is the message ─ Enough is enough! It's time … Continue reading Bold on the outside
In the party-political discourse around Scotland's constitutional issue, what passes for variety is the difference between the disappointments that are anticipated and those which come as something of a surprise to even the most cynical among us. As an example of the latter category, we might look to Murdo Fraser's reaction to the Pope's suggestion … Continue reading Glittering generalities an unasked questions
To give credit where is is due, The National does seem to have developed a knack for producing headlines which give me a wee adrenaline hit. Most commonly, it must be said, this momentary surge of agitation is occasioned by some grievous abuse of language. But every once in a while there is a headline … Continue reading The anticipated anti-climax
Wishart has changed his tune. Back in June 2020 he was totally disparaging of the idea of a de facto referendum. 'Just doing it anyway’ means we would be doing something broadly similar to what Catalonia did when they ‘won’ their uncontested referendum – without actually winning a referendum! This would in effect mean we … Continue reading Toeing the party line
It sometimes happens that people get so involved with disputing the relative merits of different ways of doing something that the omit to ask whether the thing should be done at all. A case in point is the argument about whether a Westminster or Holyrood election should be used as a de facto referendum. Actually, … Continue reading Bad ideas and worse ideas
I begin to suspect that Gerry Hassan doesn't want to talk about process because that is the difficult bit. Any fool can talk about policy. We regularly elect scores of such fools. Anyone with a bit of imagination can speak of their 'vision' of Scotland with independence restored. But without a process by which independence … Continue reading Don’t mention the process!
I confess my heart leapt just a little when I read the headline in The National announcing an 'SNP bid to amend Scotland Act to allow Holyrood to hold indyref2'. Could this possibly be the kind of bold, decisive action some of us have been urging on the SNP/Scottish Government for several years? Was the … Continue reading Bolder! But wiser?
There shall, I'm certain, be more than a few nods of agreement when I say that I find the behaviour of Sturgeon/SNP loyalists and apologists at all times maddening and on occasion quite sickening. The behaviour of some of these sad creatures over the last few days has fallen into the latter category. Quite unintentionally, … Continue reading And lo! Arses were covered!
I like to tell the story of the vague epiphany I underwent some years ago when, during the open discussion section of a meeting at which I was guest speaker, someone used the phrase "dissolve the Union". One of the things I most enjoyed about those speaking engagements was that I almost always came away … Continue reading Old thinking. New thinking.
The choice in a new independence referendum should be much bigger than in 2014, as Sir John Curtice puts it. But we are not being offered a choice. The referendum as proposed asks only for a preference on the basis that the expressed preference doesn't actually change anything. In 2014, we went into the referendum … Continue reading The judgement and what matters more
Peter A Bell 