Is there anybody who still doesn't understand why it was essential to have a new referendum no later than September 2018? Apologists for the SNP will respond to this by asserting that we could not possibly have won a referendum in September 2018. This is certainly true if you don't actually hold the referendum. If … Continue reading Party like it’s 2018!
Whatever John Curtice may say, there is no such thing as "the economics of independence". Firstly, economies are not static. They are dynamic. One might even say organic. Secondly, they are not discrete. All economies are connected to one another. Fluctuations in the subsistence farming economy of a village in Africa may not have any … Continue reading How to make an informed choice
That the Union has always been a bad deal for Scotland is not in doubt. Even in those periods of history in which a case can be made for saying Scotland has benefited from being in this purposefully grossly asymmetric political union - such as the age of the British Empire - any claimed benefits … Continue reading Our own worst enemy?
My intention this morning was to write an article prompted by the headline over Richard Walker's column in The National - Yes movement has to come together and recapture the spirit of 2014. It's one of those very sensible-sounding things that people tend to agree with having given the matter little or no thought. It … Continue reading No way back
The National's headline over its report of some positive press for Nicola Sturgeon in an American newspaper (Washington Post hails Nicola Sturgeon making a role for herself at COP26) seems designed to prompt shrill allegations of a 'personality cult' from the dunces' corner of the Yes movement and mindless British Nationalist fanatics alike. So let's … Continue reading A very Scottish personality cult
I confess to being rather concerned on seeing the reference to "the rules" in the headline over the latest contribution from Scott Crichton Styles in the Sunday National. What rules are those, I wondered. I fervently hoped Scott Crichton Styles wasn't in the business of lending credibility to the idea that Scotland must be bound … Continue reading Lawyers or politicians
No great political sophistication is required to intuit that when a politician says we should be looking at this thing it's because they don't want us looking at that thing. Everybody knows that when a politician insists on answering what they refer to as the 'real' question rather than the question they've been asked it's … Continue reading Don’t read this! Read that!
Let me make one thing clear from the outset. I fully recognise the crucial nature of the climate crisis. I was persuaded by James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis long before climate change became the stuff of mainstream media interest and global political significance. Nor am I one to minimise the not unrelated issue of zoonotic pathogens … Continue reading There’s aye somethin’!
The closing paragraphs of James Kelly's analysis of the latest full-scale Scottish poll from Redfield & Wilton Strategies fully explain why we need to be at Holyrood when the Scottish Parliament resumes on the afternoon of Tuesday 31 August to tell the Scottish government that "now is the time". They show no sign of deciding … Continue reading Now is the time!
If you are asking what the SNP is going to do about the dismantling of our democracy and obliteration of our national identity by the British state then you are asking the wrong question. To paraphrase John Fitzgerald Kennedy, ask not what a bunch of politicians might do for you, but what you are prepared … Continue reading Defiance! Not compliance!
Peter A Bell 