And Edinburgh and Glasgow Are like ploomen in a pub, They want to hear o naething But their ain foul bubbub . . . Hugh MacDiarmid, from “A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle” In last week’s referendum Glasgow voted Yes whereas Edinburgh voted No. To be precise: all the Glasgow constituencies voted Yes and […]
Disclosure of interest: the author is a member of the Labour Party (as well as a Yes voter). The astonishing development since the referendum on 18th September is the news that the SNP has almost doubled its membership over the period, from about 26k to about 53k (and still rising). The Green Party has seen […]
I don’t imagine that many of the Yes voters are currently feeling very lucky. They lost after all. Judging by the evidence of social media, there seems to be a mood within the committed Yessers of a siege mentality, of convincing themselves that they won after all, at least in a moral sense. (“We are […]
As I write, the world has become fully aware that there might have been a third question in tomorrow’s referendum, the so-called Devo Max one, and that the responsibility for its omission lies with David Cameron. His calculation (based of course on advice) was that the No majority was so great that he could afford […]
The Aboriginal people of Australia have a concept which is usually translated as “The Dreaming”. This cannot be explained properly with only a few words – if indeed it can be translated at all – but given I need to try I’ll offer my understanding, which is that it is something which underpins all creation, […]