Scotland
Are the SNP the Scottish UKIP?
Posted on May 20, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | 1 Comment
A crowd of activists pointing out that the UKIP leader is a bawbag does not a national sentiment make. In fact, with the good folks at Hope not Hate refocussing their ire from the scattered BNP onto its besuited twin, I imagine that Nige is soon going to have to contend with more crowds expressing [...]
The independence referendum has become a straight up left/right fight
Posted on April 2, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | 7 Comments
There is, of course, a left wing case for opposing Scottish independence. It is articulated best by the likes of Owen Jones – ‘we shouldn’t divide the working class’. Likewise, there is, of course, a right wing case for independence – the Scottish Enterprise Party got a handful of votes for espousing it, once upon [...]
Scottish independence would be good for the English left
Posted on March 31, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | 5 Comments
No Labour government has relied on Scottish MPs to get into power. They have, however, relied on Scottish MPs to get right wing policies through. The former point may be surprising – we are forever hearing that independence will leave the rest of the UK with perpetual Tory governments. But look historically and this simply [...]
The Yes campaign should welcome home rule for the Northern and Western Isles
Posted on March 19, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | 10 Comments
The leaders of the councils of Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides have announced they are to meet next Monday to discuss their demands for home rule – for autonomy from both Westminster and Holyrood. Here are some facts to kick us off: Between them, Orkney and Shetland and the Outer Hebrides have around 20,000 [...]
Communication Workers’ Union branch backs independence
Posted on March 4, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | 1 Comment
The CWU Scotland No 2 Branch has voted to back a yes vote in the independence referendum next year. The union, which covers postal workers in the Stirling, Edinburgh, Fife and Falkirk, has voted to play an active role in the campaign for Scottish independence. The vote is symbolic because it is the first union [...]
Veneers of sustainability: the public sector’s collusion in opencasting
Posted on February 5, 2013 by Luther Blissett | 2 Comments
Last week another opencast coal story broke across the environment pages of Scottish newspapers. You’d be forgiven for missing it, despite the egregiously appalling nature of the proposal – to entirely drain the beautiful Loch Fitty in order to make way for seven more years of opencast mining at St Ninians – because it seems [...]
Come the Independence, what will we do with the military?
Posted on February 3, 2013 by Jock Barge | 1 Comment
For me, the whole appeal of leaving the union lies in the idea of reimagining the country we want to live in from first principals, in the hope that we would jettison a range of damaging traditions which are only accepted because they are unquestioned and which show their direct lineage to the historical tyrannies [...]
Ten questions for the No Campaign
Posted on January 28, 2013 by Adam Ramsay | 22 Comments
The strategy of the British nationalist “Better Together” campaign against Scottish independence is clear: it aims to sow uncertainty. What will happen with the EU? What will the currency be? Etc. The idea is to make people afraid of voting yes. But this misses something key. As Andrew Tickell of Lallands Peat Worrier fame has [...]
Why “Yes Yes” beats “Yes No”
Posted on January 22, 2013 by Justin Kenrick | 6 Comments
Despite polls showing those intending to vote No in the independence referendum hovering at around 50% and those intending to vote Yes at around 30%, last week’s article by Joyce McMillan goes a long way to explaining why the middle ground is shifting towards a Yes vote and why it will continue to do so [...]
Why I support Scottish independence
Posted on December 5, 2012 by Adam Ramsay | 18 Comments
I’m a Scot living in Oxford. Every week now I seem to be asked my opinion on Scottish independence. And every time, when I say I support it, this elicits the same response – “don’t leave us”. We all know the arguments: Scotland skews Britain away from the Tories; England, Wales and Northern Ireland will [...]
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