BY EFFIE DEANS Until relatively recently the UK Government was planning similar changes to the Gender Recognition Act that are now being proposed by the SNP. But after listening to the concerns of women it decided to reverse course. At present it is necessary to obtain a medical diagnosis and to wait at least two years before being allowed to legally change gender. That situation … Continue reading Shame on You
BY EFFIE DEANS The SNP are going to encourage Scottish teachers to take a white privilege test. It will no doubt be a rather odd sort of test, because no matter what you answer it will turn out that you do indeed have white privilege. There will be no set of answers that you can give that demonstrate that you don’t. It therefore won’t be … Continue reading The Test that Undermines the SNP
BY EFFIE DEANS The Scottish Greens will not save the world, though if given the chance they might wreck Scotland. The deal they have made with the SNP changes nothing whatsoever. It was unnecessary for Sturgeon to form a coalition with the Greens, because she knows that they always vote with the SNP anyway. We are no closer to a second independence referendum because Sturgeon … Continue reading Sickly Shade of Yellow
BY EFFIE DEANS What’s the worst thing the SNP could do to you personally? Many Pro UK people would assume that it would be if Sturgeon achieved her goal of Scottish independence. But this is not true. Whatever we might think about the economic consequences of the breakup of the UK these would not necessarily affect us personally. We would still have choices. We could … Continue reading The Worst Thing the SNP Can Do to You
BY EFFIE DEANS About a year ago I described a trip to the Highlands and my difficulties with Gaelic road signs. Faced with a roundabout with multiple place names in a language I could neither understand nor pronounce I unjustly blamed my getting lost on the signs rather than on my own poor ability at navigation. I received some sympathetic responses from other road users, … Continue reading Gaelic Road Signs: Atonement
BY IAN MITCHELL Democracy, as the mad moaner Malcom Muggeridge once remarked, can work only in societies that are essentially unified. He was thinking at the time of communist regimes, but the point is still valid. We are beginning to understand that Scotland, which was tolerably unified before Nicola Sturgeon started to foment social division for political advantage, is no longer in that category. Neither … Continue reading South Africa & Tribalism
BY EFFIE DEANS While support for the SNP remains high and while many Scots support independence at least in theory, there is no question now that both face an intellectual challenge over EU membership. For this reason, the independence movement has become divided over how to overcome the challenges caused by Brexit. While the UK was an EU member it was possible to argue that … Continue reading The Hard Border Checkmate
BY EFFIE DEANS The racist abuse suffered by the English football players who missed penalties was peculiarly stupid. The English football team is picked on merit. It so happens that a large number of those players are black. The manager’s judgement must be that these players deserve to be in the squad. If they underperformed other players would be picked in their place. It follows … Continue reading Anti-English Hatred not Racism?
BY JON STEWART An investigation conducted by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland has apparently included a recommendation for a special department to be set up, within Police Scotland, devoted entirely to combating hate crime. However, as the SNP administration’s new ‘Justice Secretary for Scotland’ Keith Brown may discover this will be a lot harder to set up than he thinks. As all are aware, … Continue reading Holyrood’s Anti English Hate
BY EFFIE DEANS I have been writing less since the Scottish Parliament election. The mood has changed. It is partly because it is summer. I have been more interested in using the sunshine to travel around Scotland than write about Scottish politics. But it’s not just me. Both sides of the constitutional divide spent the year or so before the election building up to the … Continue reading Summer Stasis
BY EFFIE DEANS Last week there was a minor incident in the Black Sea when a Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender sailed close to the Crimean shoreline and was warned by the Russian coastguard to keep away. Some shots were fired, but no one was hurt and it is likely that no one was in danger of being hurt. The waters around Crimea and Crimea … Continue reading Crimea & Scotland
BY EFFIE DEANS An organisation called The Social Justice and Fairness Commission recently published a report dated March 2021. We didn’t see it in March however, but rather it was only revealed after the Scottish Parliament Election. Of course, the organisation is another of the SNP’s front organisations. The authors of the report are SNP politicians and supporters. Like every other SNP report, it concludes that independence kills … Continue reading Brits, Move to Scotland
BY EFFIE DEANS A woman studying at Abertay University has been disciplined for saying that women were born with female genitals and that it was a fact that women were generally less strong than men. This means that she has been disciplined for telling the truth. It would be interesting to find out about the political views of those who complained and those who judged … Continue reading Punished For Truth Telling
BY EFFIE DEANS I have been asked to help decolonise the curriculum where I work. I take this to mean I must remove all subjects that benefitted from colonisers or colonialism, all writers who were involved in or benefited from the slave trade or indeed all books that nice people in 2021 should disapprove of. My first task is to remove all books in Latin, … Continue reading Decolonising the Curriculum
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 IAN MITCHELL As a responsible democrat I thought, when this election was called, that I would write to the candidates to ask them a few questions before deciding how to vote. We had no hustings this time, even in Campbeltown, and our MSP has not visited the town for ages. So election time seems to be the only opportunity to enter into dialogue with … Continue reading Hustings by Email in Scotland
BY NIGEL BEAN & PAUL READ Attempts by the animal rights extremists and their supporters in both the Scottish Parliament and Police force to secure a hunting prosecution ahead of the Scottish elections – to be used for propaganda purposes – ended in dismal failure on Thursday 29th April. The Scottish Greens’ manifesto commitment is to ban pest controlling with packs of dogs, driven grouse … Continue reading Huntsman Lee Peters Show Trial Fail
BY EFFIE DEANS During an election campaign, the last thing the SNP wants to talk about is independence. The core SNP vote is obsessed with this and it is the primary motivation for these voters to choose the SNP. These people will overlook the SNP’s performance in Government. Indeed, they don’t appear to care if the SNP rules well or poorly. If only the SNP … Continue reading The Deteriorating SNP Argument
BY EFFIE DEANS In theory Alex Salmond’s new Alba Party is good news for independence supporters. Let’s assume that support for independence is 45%. Well if the SNP wins 45% of the vote in the constituency seats, it will win nearly all of them. But this means that it will win few if any list seats, because the number of constituencies you win is part … Continue reading Alba
BY EFFIE DEANS In Scotland there are a group of people who want Scotland to be an independent country. But who are they and why do they want this? They are frequently supporters of the SNP though some also support the Scottish Greens or other less well-known parties. Some don’t support any party but have decided that they would vote for Scottish independence at any future … Continue reading Not More Scottish Than Me
