Jimmy Halliday
We are saddened to report the death of Jimmy Halliday, Chairman and guiding light of the Scots Independent since it became a private company in 1957. He had also been the youngest Chairman ever of the SNP from 1956 to 1960.
Jimmy died in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee on Thursday 3rd January 2013, aged 85. He had been in apparently good health until mid December.
His obituary and tributes will be published in the February Scots Independent.
Accentuate the Positive
So far this year there has been the same old negativity regarding the political discussion about our future. Was it really too much to hope for something a little more intelligent? Honestly, I would have settled for truth and constructive criticism. The absolute minimum surely from those who make a living from words.
Firstly we are lauded by the polls which show that we have not advanced. The poll was taken over the period of year when people are more concerned about affording their Christmas shopping and their carry out for the New Year revelling. All “normal” life activities are, for most people, put on hold at this time of year. They don’t tend to submerge from the festivities and the cold until at least the end of January. Given this, I would have thought that maintaining your percentage in the polls was a positive thing. Not having dropped you support in the polls is surely a good place to restart your campaigning from? Silly me! I keep forgetting am in the positive YES campaign camp, not the negative NO campaign.
NO campaign. Maybe campaign is the wrong word. Has anyone seen any of them (on the T.V. doesn’t count).
On Monday Scotland was delivered a VERY unexpected present. The Guardian headline Scottish independence is fast becoming the only option appeared and was quickly sent around Facebook, Twitter and any other social media you can think of. This piece was written by Kevin McKenna who has made no bones about being firmly in the unionist NO camp.
Kevin could see, as we could, that the unionists had problems with their campaign “Last year, over coffee in Glasgow, I was discussing the strategy of the Better Together camp with a prominent Labour politician. I suggested to him that Labour’s problem in Scotland is that they had to develop a narrative that says good things about the union rather than simply parrot the predictable and scientifically questionable surveys of purple-faced and gin-soaked CBI types that claim we’ll be a developing country if we become independent.
One year later and, despite Douglas Alexander’s best efforts, Labour has still failed to sell the union on its own merits. Events since then may even have rendered the task impossible. Unionists, me included, have talked loftily about dangers of break-up and separation in a world that is thirsting for continuity and stability.
Yet we conveniently overlook the fact that London has already broken away from the United Kingdom and now exists as a world super-state governed by the greed of unhindered capitalism and recognisable as British only by its taxis and bad service. As the world’s most newly minted oligarchs continue to colonise the independent state of London, it becomes almost impossible for families on less than £250k to live decently there. Poor London families made homeless by the coalition benefit cuts are being evacuated as far north as Middlesbrough.’’
The whole article is well worth reading and can be found here
As an invaluable aid to informing people of reasons why Scotland can and should be an Independent country I am going to make a shameful plug. The Case For Independence by Ian Goldie is a collection of articles, originally written for the Scots Independent Newspaper. Each article tackles a different topic and answers many of the questions people ask about Independence. It can be purchased here http://www.scotsindependent.org/shopping_mall.htm and is the first book on the shop.