I’m not anti-English – but the coalition has hijacked Scotland’s referendum
Are we really going to have to endure over 2 years of the SNP attempting to paint anyone disagreeing with them on this issue as a Tory and/or “anti-Scottish”? The whole tone of this ‘debate’ has so far...
View ArticleScottish independence yes vote would drive change in England, says writer
I find this piece fascinating in its highlighting of what infuriates me about much of the independence debate. It’s certainly a level beyond Better Together’s ‘independence will be armageddon’ or the...
View Article#INDYREF AND THE POSITIVE MYTHS WHICH DIVIDE US
I’ve written here about Scottish independence only once before, largely because it seems more hassle than it’s worth. Opinions run high, to put it mildly. As a Scot who is now based in London I don’t...
View ArticleValhalla vs Apocalypse: Enduring #IndyRef Myths
I wrote a couple of months ago on the myths which pervade the #indyref campaign and I don’t think much has changed on that front. It’s funny – a common theme from commentors on the debate is how...
View ArticleIt’s not about nationalism…
Presumably because nationalism has such a regressive reputation (to put it mildly) and the Scottish Yes campaign wants to be viewed as the sole repository of progressive thought in the UK at the...
View ArticleThe Collapse of the Left into Nationalism
My previous blog was about the contortions which the Scottish left have been making to avoid facing the fact that the pro-independence movement has been utterly dominated by nationalism. It’s a...
View ArticleSo This Thing Happened.
So that was that. 18 months after the date of the referendum on Scottish independence was announced, the vote happened and the answer was ‘No’. The result was closer than most would have expected back...
View Article2014 – The Year of Nationalism
My first blog post in 2014 was about the Scottish independence referendum and nationalism – topics which came to dominate my writing over the year and which I’ll no doubt continue to write on. On the...
View ArticleWe Get What We Can However We Can Get It
As we edge towards the 2015 General Election or, to give it its proper name, The Worst Election of All Time, we’ll be seeing a lot of boilerplate columns, articles and opinion pieces. You know the...
View ArticleTickling the Tummy of Nationalism
The boyfriend was watching The Voice the other night (yes, I know) and I caught a section where they were discussing one of the contestants who happened to be Scottish. Now, I say ‘happened to be’ but...
View ArticleNo Matter
The above is from Patrick Wintour’s breathless eulogy to the Tories’ ‘brilliant strategy’ of painting the SNP as dastardly puppet-masters pulling Ed Miliband’s strings. ‘No matter’ that it’s almost...
View ArticleAfter the Election
….for the 31% of the public who voted for Labour, they may not ring absolutely true. Those people may feel, as they haven’t for a generation, like aliens in their own land. Promised that social...
View ArticleSaving Syriza and Shooting Foxes: The Incoherence of the SNP
It’s a grim marker of how firmly much of the left remains lodged down a nationalist rabbit hole that this week is not being widely viewed as exposing the facile incoherence at the core of much SNP...
View ArticleThe Cul De Sac of Self-Delusion – A Year After Indyref
This was my Facebook status on the morning of 18th September 2014: I wasn’t going to write anything about the anniversary of the referendum as I’ve written at length about the result, the sad collapse...
View ArticleThe EU Referendum, the SNP and Political Fog
Before the election last year I wrote about the problem of ‘politics as comic book’, a ‘twilight’ world of good and bad, right and wrong, conducted by fighting fog because relatively few people had any...
View ArticleIndependence Day
“Nothing we say is gonna change anything now” – Independence Day, Bruce Springsteen So here it is: independence day. The day on which, for many nationalists, Scotland would have gained its ‘freedom’...
View ArticleElection Day: Rejecting the Tories and the SNP
Sadiq Khan romped to victory in Labour’s mayoral selection contest due, in large part, to the same wave of restless dissatisfaction which saw Corbyn elected Labour leader. Khan positioned himself as...
View ArticleWe Must Unite
Brexit was the blowback from David Cameron and the Tory party’s embrace of a toxic English nationalism, a tactic which seemed to pay dividends in addressing the challenge of UKIP, wrong-footing many on...
View ArticleArticle 50 and Scotland
Rory Scothorne, one of the insightful authors of Roch Winds, has written an interesting blog which serves as a counterpoint to my argument on Article 50. It’s compelling in parts but on reflection I...
View ArticleVote Labour
Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning – Eugene V. Debs ‘And these words shall then become Like Oppression’s...
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