Lesley Riddoch: Reach for the sky to end inequality. Westminster is faced with a conundrum but only real reform at Holyrood will consolidate SNP gains, writes Lesley Riddoch ‘Top Tories lash PM over Scotland deal.
Miliband faces revolt on home rule for England.” Weekend headlines show the Westminster parties are trapped between a rock and a hard place over delivery of Devo Something. If it’s too little or too slow for Scots, Yes campaigners will feel robbed. If it’s too much or too fast, MPs from all parties will veto the plans. But for the soon-to-be anointed new leader of the SNP, difficulties are looming too.
. • Get the latest referendum news, opinion and analysis from across Scotland and beyond on our new Scottish Independence website Yet, like Labour, the SNP lost the vote in heartlands like Perth, Aberdeenshire and other rural areas and failed to win over older and more affluent voters for whom social justice and equality were not the most effective rallying cries. In truth, as yet, there is no great will to make that happen.
George Kerevan: Panic, cynicism and desperation. The ‘iron timetable’ takes no account of the fact that the rest of the UK has not been consulted, writes George Kerevan I want to apologise to the people of Wales and Northern Ireland – not to mention the good folk of England.
Without consulting you, and with absolutely no mandate, the leaders of the three main, pro-Union parties at Westminster have decided to tear up the existing British constitution and invent a new one on the back of the proverbial fag packet. Be warned: this cynical exercise will impact on wallets, freedoms and life-chances in Cardiff, Belfast and Newcastle every bit as much as in Glasgow, Orkney and Prestwick, should Scotland be beguiled into voting No. Joyce McMillan: Independence is not about the past. Contrary to popular opinion south of the Border, the movement for change is modern and realistic, writes Joyce McMillan This week, the celebrity hairstylist Nicky Clarke popped up on a BBC news strand, suggesting that Scots who are thinking of voting Yes – that’s around 40 per cent of us, according to the latest polls – are doing so because they have been blinded by “romantic Braveheart stuff”, and don’t understand economics.
His interviewer agreed that “that is what we’ve mainly been hearing so far”; then they moved on to other matters. Now in a sense, the comments of two people in London talking about the current referendum campaign without any real knowledge of it do not matter very much. Root around in the archives, and it’s easy enough to find images from just two decades ago of SNP leaders addressing huge Bannockburn rallies, with Saltires and lions rampant as far as the eye can see. Margo warned SNP on women voters in last interview. THE late nationalist politician Margo MacDonald used her final television interview to warn that First Minister Alex Salmond was failing to convince enough women voters to back independence.
Ms MacDonald, who lost her battle with Parkinson’s disease earlier this month, made a series of remarks about Mr Salmond’s approach to the referendum campaign in a documentary to be broadcast on Tuesday. Ms MacDonald, who was an Independent MSP for the Lothians, suggested that Mr Salmond’s approach to opponents could harm the chances of winning a Yes vote. However, the veteran nationalist stated there was still time for the Yes campaign to overcome the gender gap and convince the majority of women to back independence. She told interviewer Jackie Bird: “They don’t like him [Mr Salmond] very much because he’s now sounding like a steamroller.
“He goes through everybody hard, fast and takes no prisoners. “But they know there is a very important vote coming up.” Andrew Wilson: Unite behind single vision for independence - News. LISTEN to the views of the metropolitan informed and intelligent and you would be entitled to think that, with just over a year to go, the referendum is all but over.
The No campaign has won and it is only a matter of whether they can win well enough to extinguish all hope of advancing Scottish self-government further. Curious. I am a firm believer in research and evidence in any campaign. George Kerevan: March to escape dog-eat-dog Britain. As the polls stagnate, tomorrow’s rally in the capital is a chance for Scots to show and learn why we need independence, writes George Kerevan Tomorrow I’ll be in Edinburgh to join the march and rally for Scottish independence, ending with the traditional speeches on Calton Hill after one o’clock.
Last year’s march took place in bright sunshine and was cheerful, energetic and positive. This year, the weather forecast is cloudy, and that includes the opinion polls. These have not moved in the past 12 months, with a plurality of those intending to vote saying No, and about a third saying Yes. So why am I marching? Tory’s Hadrian’s Wall pro-Union torch protest plan. SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE: A Tory MP is planning to recruit 100,000 English activists to make a human chain along Hadrian’s Wall bearing torches in a bid to convince Scots to vote No in September.
Rory Stewart said the initiative, called Hands Across the Border, is an emotional appeal to Scots to remain within the Union. The Penrith and Border MP, who is half-Scottish, said the campaign would “symbolise holding the Union together.” He said: “It is a chance for people outside Scotland to show they value its contribution. Natalie McGarry: Sticks, stones and loads of moans - News. Vitriolic attacks on the First Minister seem to reveal more about his rivals’ insecurities than his own failings, writes Natalie McGarry A popular fictional wizard said, “If you’re holding out for universal popularity, I’m afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time”.
Given the most recent series of attacks on the person, the figure and the motivations of Alex Salmond, Scotland’s fourth First Minister will recognise an inherent truth in those words. He isn’t staying in his cabin though. There is too much at stake and Mr Salmond is no conformist. Whilst politics by its very nature is divisive, the discourse almost wholly reserved (in Scotland at least) for evaluating the pros and cons of Alex Salmond is characterised online, and in the House of Commons, with the kind of language that a perusal of Twitter to find it should not be attempted by those of a sensitive disposition. Natalie McGarry: Listless Labour losing value - News. AMID vague promises and a vacuum of policies from the left, the Yes camp can seize the initiative, writes Natalie McGarry THE campaign group United With Labour was launched in the last few months to argue for Scotland to remain within the United Kingdom.
That there is little narrative to accompany this beyond vague promises of more powers if the Scottish electorate put their X in the no box is problematic for a Labour Party which seems – at UK level at least – to be in thrall to the Conservatives and voters of middle-England. It is repeatedly argued that the existence of a separate Labour campaign to preserve the sanctity of UK hegemony is not a sop to unions like Unite who chafe at campaigning with the Tories as part of the official No campaign umbrella group, but is instead necessary to expound a Labour values argument for retention of the union. SNP close to being dictatorship - wind farm critic - Environment.
A GRANDMOTHER who won a landmark victory against UK wind farm policy has accused the SNP of becoming “almost a dictatorship” in its support of renewable energy.
Christine Metcalfe said the Scottish Government’s drive for green energy was so great that it risked appearing to “interfere” with the democratic process. The retired community councillor from Argyll spoke out after the United Nations upheld her complaint, sparked by concern over a local wind farm scheme, that government policy in the UK failed to give the public adequate information and rights in deciding on environmental issues. Gerry Hassan: London Scots and the referendum - News. A coterie of media-elite Scots, peddling ill-informed and biased opinion, leaves the referendum debate the poorer, writes Gerry Hassan One of the most powerful group of Scottish opinion formers do not live and work in Scotland, but are the London Scots.
This group are never far from the public gaze. They come into focus with the northern exodus of the London and Southern classes at Festival time, personified in Andrew Marr’s recent intervention at the Book Festival about the state of Scotland. Marr stated that: “There is a very strong anti-English feeling [in Scotland], everybody knows it.” and that “it could become toxic”.
Two of his main pieces of evidence were Alasdair Gray’s comments about “colonists” and “settlers”, and the Nigel Farage standoff in the Royal Mile with the Radical Independence Conference supporters. Marr’s Edinburgh appearance did not give the impression that he had been following Scottish politics closely, getting several basic facts wrong. Joyce McMillan: Is the No camp killing the Union? In September, Better Together may pay the price for its lack of vision about Scotland’s future, writes Joyce McMillan LAST NOVEMBER, I was invited to say a few words at the launch of a book by the late Stephen Maxwell, perhaps the greatest radical political thinker and writer ever to belong to the Scottish National Party. As a member – along with Alex Salmond and Margo MacDonald – of the left-wing 79 Group that was briefly expelled from the party in the early 1980s, Maxwell was never much interested in the ideology of nationalism pure and simple. £25,000 sketch is Titian worth millions.
A BLACK and white drawing bought at auction by the National Galleries of Scotland for £25,000 has been confirmed as a work by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian. The chalk drawing, which shows three shadowy figures, was attributed to another Venetian artist, Jacopo Bassano, until an eagle-eyed curator who spotted it in a catalogue said he believed that the work could be a Titian. An art dealer was given permission to spend up to £30,000 and was charged with discreetly bidding for the artwork – created in around 1550 – when it came up for auction at Sotheby’s in London. Scottish independence within SNP’s grasp - poll. ALEX Salmond is within reach of victory in the independence referendum, according to an exclusive poll showing that support for the cause has grown dramatically by five percentage points over the last four months. The largest swing towards a Yes vote recorded so far in the campaign is revealed today in an ICM survey for Scotland on Sunday, which has found that support for independence has grown from 32 per cent to 37 per cent since September.
The surge in those backing Yes was accompanied by a corresponding drop in No support by five percentage points from 49 per cent in September to 44 per cent currently. The poll also found that when the 19 per cent who said they didn’t know how they would vote were excluded, support for Yes is at 46 per cent compared with 54 per cent who said they would vote No. There was more good news for Yes Scotland, when the “don’t knows” were pressed further on their views on independence. Arbroath smokies and mirrors. It’s always a matter of concern when supposedly impartial newspapers put out stories which appear more openly partisan than a party press release, and doubly so when the author is a staff news reporter rather than an opinion columnist. (As the latter are under no obligation to exercise impartiality, or indeed even to feign it.)
Eddie Barnes: Darling’s dilemma as Tories applaud. ALISTAIR Darling yesterday received a standing ovation from delegates at the Scottish Conservative conference. He did not look entirely overjoyed. Comment: Dare to set out a vision, First Minister - News. In an open letter to Alex Salmond, George Kerevan explains why he is concerned about next year’s referendum Dear Alex, Tory calls for Scottish MPs to be abolished - Top stories. Saturday 8 June 2013. Henry McLeish: Unionists sunk by a perfect storm? - News.
Socialism will work better in independent Scotland. I HAVE been a member of the Labour Party for more than 30 years, at first by inheritance, later by conviction, and since the invasion of Iraq, from sheer bloody-mindedness. Both my grandfathers were miners, my maternal grandmother’s parents counted Keir Hardie amongst their friends, and as a child I believed that the framed portrait of him which had pride of place in her living room was my great grandfather. As I grew up, I learned with pride that I had English, Cornish and Irish forebears as well as Scots and that I was Scottish, British and working class; and with prejudice that the Labour Party was the people’s party, born in Scotland of “Keir Hardie socialism”, which believed in home rule for Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
I loved the story that when a heckler shouted, “What about home rule for Hell?” Hardie replied, “Certainly. Now with added fear. Ooh, we haven’t had one of these for a while. UK says no to talks on independence - Scotland on Sunday. Ewan Crawford: Real welfare disaster comes if we stay in Union - News. Margo Macdonald: Mary’s vision’s a vote-winner - Opinion. Andrew Wilson: Some choice words on independence. IN TIMES when we have to think very hard, we can do worse than to turn to the sage advice of Professor Albus Dumbledore. School headmasters can be such comforting leaders, after all. My favourite of his quotes, from Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, finds its power in the deep wisdom it teaches everyone from children to prime ministers, business leaders or sportsmen: “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
How true is that, I ask you? Scots could see second referendum, says ex-SNP leader - Top stories. FORMER SNP leader Gordon Wilson says Scots should be asked to vote in a second “multi- option” referendum after independence – to settle the country’s EU membership, currency and defence. Gerry Hassan: Britain may not be worth repairing. Westminster bans word ‘separate’ after SNP complaints - Top stories. Michael Kelly: Confident Labour to decide referendum result - News. The day Edinburgh burned: Cowgate Fire ten years on - Latest news.
Andrew Wilson: Scotland for the Scots? No, we have to throw open our doors - News. Michael Fry: Spinning the independence debate - News. Nicola Sturgeon: No more ‘what ifs’ Joyce McMillan: No answer came the stern reply. Gerry Hassan: Note to Salmond: power of speech needs work - News. Scots given £1,594 more than the English, reveals Treasury. Ewan Crawford: For people to vote Yes they must see the positives. Euan McColm: Politics needs passion but leave out hateful attacks. Lesley Riddoch: Strange portents from SNP strategist - News. Euan McColm: When polls begin to pall, SNP must regain feelgood factor. Gerry Hassan: Current state of Britain is elephant in the room. David Torrance: Salmond is still box office - News. George Kerevan: Forget the economy, for Scots it’s security, stupid - News. Brian Monteith: Phoney war is over, now the real battle begins - News.
Iain Gray: East is east and west is best – a tale of two cities. Leaders: Darling’s critique is music to Nationalist ears - News. Scots will lose British culture, warns Darling - Top stories. Andrew Wilson: A ‘yes can-do’ attitude would raise the level of independence debate. Kenny Farquharson: Cultural revolution as SNP learns to love the Brits - Comment. Comment: Labour boo-boys may ultimately be silenced - Comment. Euan McColm: Revolution postponed as Scottish Labour struggles to raise eyebrows - Comment. Allan Massie: Difficult hands to play in referendum game - Comment. David Cameron lays claim to ‘people’s referendum’ as PM and SNP ‘on verge of deal’ Edinburgh gives more to UK than any other city. Relatives of Scots living elsewhere in UK will feel ‘like foreigners’ and British culture will no longer be ours - Alistair Darling - Top stories.
Brian Monteith: Bad time for Tories to suffer an identity crisis - News. Lesley Riddoch: Ringing paean of praise to diversity - News. No campaign in danger of being seen as ‘anti-Scottish’ - UK. Taxpayers not allowed to even see pictures of MSPs’ new bar - despite paying £75,000 for it - Latest news. Independence: Full control of income tax if Scotland says ‘no’ - Politics. Alistair Darling leads ‘No to independence’ fight over tea and biscuits - Politics. Euan McColm: As Sturgeon’s stock has risen so has her overwhelming value to the SNP - Comment.
Business billionaire Jim McColl backs independence. Duncan Hamilton: Labour losing its grip as SNP takes on mantle of the people’s party - Comment. Portrayal of infamous Leith event set to go under the hammer - Edinburgh Evening News. On your marks, get set, glow for light fantastic - Scotland. Margo MacDonald takes aim at SNP’s Yes strategy - Politics. Michael Kelly: Showdown has put BBC objectivity to the test - Comment. Leader: Race for Rio Scots can’t win - Comment. Campaigners gear up for defence of Union - Politics. Joan McAlpine: Equal rites bring all our friends into the fold - Arts blog. Attorney General blocks release of devolution papers - Politics. Sheridan spin doctor defects to SNP - Politics. George Kerevan: Sun now setting on the British state - Cartoon. Dr Matt Qvortrup: Scotland does not need permission to go it alone - Arts Blog. Lesley Riddoch: Existential question of who we are - News. Joyce McMillan: ‘It won’t work’ is not good enough - Cartoon.
Scotland on Sunday. Edinburgh Evening News. The Scotsman.