BY JOE NUTT Someone who teaches writing to undergraduates recently made this astute observation online: “At university, your main reader is always a peer. That means your readership numbers in the tens, perhaps hundreds, not thousands.” One of the least understood concepts about writing in any context, is this stark reality. Who, really, are you writing this for? Do you even know? This numerical but … Continue reading Can’t Wait for Independence Day
BY EFFIE DEANS And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Sturgeon’s wonder when she first picked out the green light at the end of Covid’s dock. Her popularity was rising as the disease spread throughout Scotland. But we at least had a deliverer who could save us all from this sickness. We could be comforted by her daily … Continue reading The Great Sturgeon
BY EFFIE DEANS The current Pro UK electoral strategy amounts to the Scottish Conservatives continually banging on about independence to scare the Pro UK vote into voting for them. Labour meanwhile tries to ignore independence in the hope that former Labour voters forget that it is still officially a Pro UK party. The Lib Dems hang on in the North, but are now a dismal … Continue reading A Common Strategy
BY EFFIE DEANS I have no interest in going abroad so long as I might have to follow Covid regulations in a language I understand poorly if at all. I don’t see the point in going to a Spanish café while I have to wear a face mask. I don’t want to have to find whoever might give me a Covid test before I fly … Continue reading Dependent Independence
BY EFFIE DEANS It’s 2025 and I’m about to begin my latest journey to Berwick upon Tweed. Every month or so since independence I’ve had to get up early so that I can get to a giant hypermarket that has been built just over the border. But it would be unfair to suggest that the hard border between England and Scotland has only created jobs … Continue reading The Boon of Independence
BY EFFIE DEANS Alex Salmond apparently wants the Scottish Government to begin immediate negotiations for independence with the British Government if his Alba Party helps Scottish nationalists to gain a super majority. It would be amusing if Boris Johnson replied, there’s no need for negotiations you can have your independence immediately starting today. The conditions for separation could be remarkably simple. Scotland would receive a … Continue reading An IMF-Run Scotland?
BY EFFIE DEANS Nicola Sturgeon compared the legal case which the Scottish Government lost to Alex Salmond paying him more than half a million, with the case about minimum unit pricing for alcohol. She said that in every such case there is negative legal advice and if a Government ceased every case whenever a lawyer suggested it might lose it would never be able to … Continue reading Teflon Nicola?
BY EFFIE DEANS The latest developments in the Alex Salmond Scandal remind me of the famous David Low cartoon Rendezvous from 1939. Just like then it is tempting to hope that both sides lose. Just like then it is impossible to trust what either side says. On the one side we have Nicola Sturgeon, her husband Peter Murrell and probably still the majority of SNP … Continue reading SNP V SNP
BY EFFIE DEANS There’s an Austrian school of economics. After Emma Harper, an SNP MSP’s confusion about what a currency is, we obviously need an SNP school too. 1. In an independent Scotland we could make money from non-existent secret oil fields even if the price of oil can turn negative. 2. Scotland already has its own currency because we have different bank notes to … Continue reading The SNP School of Economics
BY EFFIE DEANS Recently the Shetland Council declared that it would explore autonomy. Could Shetland declare independence either from the UK or from Scotland? Could it declare that it was autonomous from either? In terms of law the answer is No. Shetland is part of the UK territory and does not have a unilateral right to declare either autonomy or independence. Anyone who doubts this … Continue reading Shetland Independence?
BY PATRICK WIGHTMAN It appears that the words of the French leader Charles de Gaulle ring true today in Catalonia: “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; Nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” On the question of Catalan independence, the British press has tried its best to sell the public a “love story”: a democratic people, who … Continue reading Veritatis Splendor
