A Voice for Scotland's Anti-Nationalist Majority
This article was written on September 11, 2014, a few days before the Scottish Independence Referendum. It is just one of many possible pasts or futures. Let me know what you think would have happened in the comments.
On September 18, 2014, Scotland votes 'yes' to independence by 51%. Independence supporters claimed they wanted a more democratic system, but now 49% of the country is living under a system they don't want.
Commentary by Jamie Blackett
Do you know the Mull of Galloway? The chances are that you don’t; even people who live in Galloway have probably never been there, unless they have a passion for sea birds, or lighthouses. I can recommend it for these two things, plus the seascape, but mainly as a way of exploring one’s inner sense of Britishness.
There, standing on the southern-most tip of Scotland, gazing across an empty Irish Sea, once the nexus of trade in these islands for early Britons, you get the sense that, having travelled miles to be somewhere really isolated, you have actually located the centre point of the United Kingdom.
Commentary by Jill Stephenson
First a couple of definitions.
‘We’ are the good, solid people of Scotland who voted to remain in the UK in 2014.
‘We’ were relieved, rather than triumphalist, about having won the referendum.
‘We’ didn’t rub the losers’ noses in it but tried to appease them.
‘We’ sat back and let the UK government make concessions to the side that had lost.
‘We’ believed Salmond and Sturgeon when they repeatedly told us that the referendum was a ‘once in a generation’, ‘once in a lifetime’ event.
Commentary by Tommi Kerr.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Chancellor of Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, delivered a typically impressive performance in the House of Commons. Outlining the next phase of governmental support for the British people, he spoke passionately about protecting livelihoods before announcing an imaginative set of measures intended to kick-start the UK economy.
The speech – entitled ‘A Plan for Jobs’ – contained several notable soundbites. The measures themselves were eye-catching, with a floundering hospitality sector receiving special attention in the form of a VAT reduction and a new policy dubbed ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ – cue much innuendo on Twitter.
A guest editorial by Matt M.
For some time now, the SNP, under Nicola Sturgeon, has attempted to portray itself as a paragon of virtue and truth. The party proclaims itself as anti-discriminatory, anti-racist, anti-sectarian, and anti all-things-objectionable-to-a-tolerant-and-civilised-society. Defender of the bastion of Jocktopia.
When Nicola Sturgeon strutted her rant at George Square last December, she advised us of her ‘vision’ for Scotland. Apparently, the ‘New Scotland’ is to be open, welcoming, tolerant and inclusive (no Tories please!).
A guest editorial by James Bundy.
In a recent commentary, ‘Ireland’s past is not Scotland’s future’, Damien Scott talks about his upbringing in a mixed Catholic-Protestant home. Damien says he is now an atheist and that as religious belief has dwindled in Scotland, politics has replaced it as an article of faith. In effect, he says politics is Scotland’s new religion.
However, as a practising Catholic, I believe my faith does play a fundamental role in shaping my political beliefs, including my view that Scotland is better off as part of the United Kingdom, and that the world is better off because of the United Kingdom.
When will the opposition parties in Scotland learn to fight? Today I was appalled to see yet another weak and compliant message from Jackson Carlaw, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, praising the Nationalists for their response to COVID-19.
This comes on the heels of an earlier tweet where he did the same:
Confidence in the First Minister? W.T.A.F.
Jackson, a wee clue: they are not your friends. They are Nationalists who are destroying our country. Every move they make, every breath they take, is designed to further their ugly Nationalist goal of separation. Everything they do causes division.
Over the past 24 hours there's been quite a bit of discussion about closing the border from England, led by a shameless front-page headline in The National.
There's even a poll with over 5000 signatures that claims trips from England to Scoland are 'international'...
There is about to be a massive second wave of this new virus in England due to Tory ineptitude. The borders of both Scotland and Wales should be closed to all but essential traffic ie commerce. Not casual trips that are in fact international from a COVID hot spot about to get worse.
This is a guest editorial by Damien Scott, founder of Scottish Opposition Forum.
It has been 22 years since the Good Friday Agreement was reached. After the 1997 General Election and the subsequent referendum on reconvening the Scottish Parliament for the first time in nearly 300 years, the April 1998 event was probably the third earliest political moment that I remember. At my tender age, I didn’t fully understand the details of the peace accord, but I knew it was a significant moment in the history of our country.
In a previous contribution I wrote how the SNP have failed schoolchildren of all ages and stages of progress, with slipping standards. The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) found that only 49% of 13/14 year olds were performing "very well" or "well" in 2016, down from 55% in 2014 and 64% in 2012.
It is against that backdrop that the SNP need a bolder drive and ambition to get Scottish school children all of the classroom time they can. Nicola has had since March this year to plan for this provision, and that is precisely what is happening in the Scottish public school sector, but the SNP are letting down the majority of pupils who attend state sector schools.