In January 2020, I joined thousands of other independence supporters marching through a sodden Glasgow city centre. It was one of many indy marches I’ve been on. Huge gatherings of hopeful people who have come together across Scotland since 2011. In Glasgow that Saturday there was anger and joy. Anger that the UK government remained determined to continue with its plans to remove Scotland from the EU against the democratically expressed wishes of the Scottish people. And joy that once again we showed ourselves to be a diverse, energetic, optimistic group. Thousands of people who could be mobilised rapidly from across the country to showRead More →

Photo credit: Ian Bell At this time, we Borderers celebrate who we are, what we are and where we have been, be it far far away.  Common Riding are to us what every local celebration in every Scottish community means to them, only this is pash off the stratosphere.   No celebration anywhere is as colourful, emotion filled and our royalty are hand picked from the oor ain faimlies.  This being a honour which is fulfilled with great decorum.  It’s also a great excuse to buy a new hat!   We know how to party but we know how to remember and respect our past.  For thoseRead More →

Well, I survived the long weekend of very little tv and wall to wall monarchy wonderfulness. The BBC and mainstream media did their best to scunner us with wall-to-wall unionism.  The other half checked out the tv schedule for the bank holiday weekend (when did it start Thursday and end Sunday? Just for Lizzie then?) Apparently a lot of the films available to view on tv are all about how wonderful Britain is. I finally broke a week past Monday and commented on a post mentioning Elizabeth the second. I pointed out that she is our first Queen Elizabeth as their first was only of England.Read More →

Well, that’s the 2022 Local Council Elections over! So maybe now is a good time to talk about Local Government. One of the few things we all know about it is that it’s becoming more and more of a misnomer. The old saying has it that “he who pays the piper calls the tune” and this is very much the case in the Council chambers up and down the country. Between finance being provided increasingly from Holyrood (and with the threats of the muppets in Westminster doing another power grab). Once it enters the Council coffers money is increasingly being “ring fenced” giving less andRead More →

Like everywhere else in the country,  the recent local election results were particularly fortunate for us in Highland Region.  SNP councillors were returned in every ward bar one with the majority being returned on first preference votes and many successes with two candidate wards.  The results were expected in one way as the campaigns had been positive with the candidates putting in a tremendous amount of work but unexpected in the sense that Highland is traditionally seen as Independent and the opposition parties and candidates had in some cases fought personal and hostile campaigns.  As some councils were won outright by the SNP, others beganRead More →

The swifts have returned to my bit of West Lothian. They turn up round about the same time every year. Not on an exact date but in this first couple of weeks in May. They arrive on a south or south-west wind and bring cheer to the heart and confirmation that the long gloomy Scottish winter is finally past.  My spirits were lifted this weekend not only by the arrival of these aerial visitors from the south but by the news that the so called ‘national anthem’ had been booed by Liverpool football fans at the English FA Cup Final.  Fans didn’t just restrict themselves toRead More →

Well that’s the elections over and I managed to get myself elected and oust a Tory.  It was a strange campaign because there was no door knocking with us as Covid is still rife here in the Borders.  But a lot of online discussions with voters.  The main thoughts were the Boris effect had angered a lot of people but the rising cost of food and energy was really the critical worry.   As so many said, why are we in Scotland suffering fuel poverty when we are rich in wind, hydro, oil and gas?  Why has steel jumped from £600 to £2k when we have closed steel works inRead More →

Thank goodness we have finally reached election day. Both Tory and Labour constantly getting air time for repetative anti SNP messaging. No idea what they intend to do for their local councils as what little policy they have spouted is not attainable by councils. Indeed some of what the Tories are spouting are only do-able by the Tory Westminster government. Talking of which, Boris Johnstone has been unable to crow over his own war, so he seems to have hijacked the war in Ukraine and used language of the past which I am sure the Ukranian parlimentarians didn’t understand. I certainly hadn’t a clue! AsRead More →

This past weekend commentators, journalists, politicians and many others were left gobsmacked and scratching their heads. We had really hoped we had moved on from the sort of comments in the Sunday Mail. Of course, it could all have been made up by a misogynistic journalist in an attempt at humour. In truth though, we all know someone who could have made those comments. When I first started working, young women were often seen as fair game for comments and even unwanted physical contact. Over the years the unions, the politicians and employment bosses have all made pretty speeches about equality. In workplace treatment, pay,Read More →

One of my favourite cliches is “be careful what you wish for”. Recently I’ve been contemplating just how much this applies to the poor misguided souls who keep parroting the mince about Scotland being unable to afford to be independent. The essence of this argument is that Scotland is subsidised by the poor people of England. Now, I grant you that many of them are good, decent, kind-hearted folk who would help anyone in need. There is, however, also a large group who have a wide streak of selfishness and lack of human kindness. You might characterise it as the Archbishop or the Home SecretaryRead More →