It’s commonly assumed that if Scots vote Yes to the EU and England No then #indyref2 will follow on swiftly. But there are other scenarios, including a special and separate relationship post-Brexit between Holyrood and Brussels. Better get planning!
Archives for 2015
Lights going out all over Scotland
Scotland faces an acute energy gap in the near future and the Scottish Government will fall short of its 2020 target of self-sufficiency in energy supply via a ‘balanced mix.’ Key elements of this mix, especially renewables, will fail too deliver so – apart from imports from England – we could be forced to make a very rapid ‘dash for gas’ as alternatives run dry.
Remembrance: poppycock on poppies
On Armistice Day and 70 years after the ending of WW2, there’s plenty of loose talk about “poppy fascism” from those with no experience of the real thing – as the author remembers the suffering and sacrifices endured by her grandfather in five years as a PoW.
Politics, poetry, imagination: a life of Shelley
In an age ever more obsessed with the importance of crafting effective political ‘stories’ and ‘narratives’, Jacqueline Mulhallen’s Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poet and Revolutionary is a timely review of the life and work of a poet writing 200 years ago acutely aware of the vital role the imagination plays in extending the horizons of political possibility.
Head for the hills
By email, a breath of fresh air. Gordon Peters writes to say he has been climbing mountains, chumming a friend attempting his last Munro and he has documented it in verse – Sceptical Scot is free to publish it if we like. Indeed we do.
Could private discussions kill the Scotland Act?
The Secretary of State for Scotland wrote to me this week telling me about progress on the Scotland Bill. I don’t know David Mundell and I imagine I am just one of hundreds, if not thousands of people to receive his emailed letter, but I appreciated his concern to keep me informed.
Depression, delusion and disorder
One in four adults suffers from mental health problems in any given year; politicos talk of raising awareness and funding. In this searing personal account – “designed with people who are struggling in mind” – Loki tells it how it is/was for him and how hard to find and deal with the truth about himself.
Scunnered of Leith on new passport design
The new UK passport design is full of English images but not a single Scot is represented. A No voter is more than upset at 30 pages of Shakespeare and none of Burns: she gives vent here to her outrage.
Luddism in the age of Uber
The term Luddism is thrown around as a form of abuse against vested interests resistant to economic/technological change. But the real lesson of its history is that the law and courts should hold powerful companies to account – and protest can help regulate disruptive technologies in a new social compact.
Five amazing (unheard of?) women scientists
Women scientists, like women composers and those in other walks of life, tend to be ignored, forgotten, passed over…But many have reached the pinnacle of their careers and of scientific understanding. A young science PhD student pays tribute.