And having writ moves on, nor\nall thy piety nor wit, shall lure it back to cancel half a line nor all thy\ntears wash out a word of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fitting way to start with the\nopening lines from the Rubiyat of Omar Kayyam by Edward Fitzgerald, although as\nusual I only remembered a fragment of it and had to consult The Concise Oxford\nDictionary of Quotations \u2013 must choose something simpler next time. Anyway the fingers of history are moving\nrapidly onward and we are not getting enough time to work out what is\nhappening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Latest on Sunday of this week\nMrs May is not presenting anything to the Westminster Parliament this week and\nallows 7 of the days to slip away probably leaving her running out of time\nbefore tipping over the cliff \u2013 correction, she is driving us over the cliff\nbecause she does not know what she is doing, but seems to have some vain hope\nthat a solution will magically appear and rescue the situation. She, and her associates are pinning the blame\non the EU, when it is her Tory Party which is blocking everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As time has gone by Mr Corbyn\nhas now decided that he will support another EU Referendum! The penny has finally dropped but he is still\nprevaricating; it seems that if he\ndoesn\u2019t get his amendment through Westminster then he will try to get the much\nlauded People\u2019s Vote, but doesn\u2019t hint at whether he will support Remain. It\u2019s all very confusing, probably because he\nis confused and now states there should be another vote looking for a way out\nof the shambles he allowed the Tories to create; what the outcome of that vote should be is\nnot clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nicola Sturgeon has given a\ncautious welcome to this cautious proposal. \nIt is difficult to see any sign of enthusiasm from any of the sides on\nthis issue; Mr Corbyn aspires to be\nPrime Minister, and even his fans are wary of that. The House of Commons is all\nover the place, and Labour know if they become the government they will have to\nclean up the mess their predecessors made, but that is the case for any change\nof government; this one is much more\nextreme \u2013 for instance how do you campaign against a big red-faced bus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As far as Scotland is\nconcerned I cannot see any chance of an enthusiastic campaign for the EU, but\nwe will have to campaign on what is best for Scotland \u2013 correction we have to\nsupport and vote for a re-run of the EU Referendum and hope that the rest of\nthe UK decide to Remain; Scotland voted 62% to 38% to Remain. \nThe danger is overkill. People do\nnot vote every day of the week, and it is not a difficult process, but the\nconstant dripping will sap patience. \nNicola Sturgeon is in an awkward position; the people of Scotland are\nhaving marches all over Scotland but this is for a new Yes campaign, not about\nEurope, so our enthusiasm can be diverted and used up with the hilariously\nnamed \u201cPeople\u2019s Vote\u201d \u2013 who else votes \u2013 sheep?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strangely enough, I remember\nthe 2014 campaign with nostalgia. In the run up, I had decided, on the eve of\nthe Dunfermline By-election to hang up my campaigning boots \u2013 it was my 78th<\/sup>\nBirthday- and the family view was \u201cNo\u2019 afore time\u201d. On the following Saturday I went down into\nCorstorphine to get bread. I passed a\nYes stall and nodded pleasantly as I went past; \nat the corner I stopped and said to myself \u201cYou\u2019re an idiot! You\u2019ve\nspent most of your adult life supporting Independence and you\u2019re just walking\npast!\u201d I retraced my steps and got a\nbunch of leaflets to hand out. When I\ngot home about two hours after I should have my wife asked \u201cDid you get the\nbread?\u201d I had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I got caught up in the vast\nwaves of enthusiasm, and decided to do as much as I could; it was the most inspiring period of my\nlife. I had taken part in the 1975\nReferendum on the Common Market when we campaigned against it with the slogan\n\u201cNot on anyone else\u2019s terms\u201d, which we lost. \nAt the time I had fought both the 1974 General Elections as the\nCandidate for Edinburgh North so I spoke at a couple of meetings \u2013 at one of\nthem it was myself and a Tory versus Labour and Liberal. My principal recollection of that meeting is\nthe Liberal stating \u201cIn the Common Market you get longer holidays and better\nweather!\u201d I had fun with that, and am\npleased to say the Liberals have not changed! (To illustrate I quote Stuart\nCosgrove writing in the Seven Days part\nof The National on Sunday \u201cI decided last year to put a coin in a piggy bank\nfor my son\u2019s future every time that Willie Rennie demands that independence be\ntaken off the table. I now live with the\nyoungest millionaire in Dennistoun\u201d.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n I got caught up in the\nCampaign and leafletted and canvassed away; \nwhat struck me was that people wanted to talk about it on the doorsteps,\nand we seemed to have an endless supply of workers turning up, unannounced, and\nready to help. As a participant in 1975,\n1979 \u2013 we won that one but Westminster chicanery snatched it from our grasp\nthen 1997, which was for devolution, and which we also won, there was a\ncompletely different attitude among the canvassers and the canvassed. I do not quite know how to express it but I\npersonally found it inspiring and exciting. I will not be able to contribute in\nthe next Referendum, age and infirmity \u2013 now 84!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am pleased that Nicola is cautious, wary of\nconflicting paths, but while I devoutly wish for a Scottish Independence\nReferendum we cannot be panicked into jumping into a premature battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I see Scottish Labour, that\nnon existent unicorn, may not be going to support Remain if there is a\n\u201cPeople\u2019s Vote\u201d. Mr Leonard is happy to\ngo along with his fellow Englishmen and support Leave, or so I am given to\nunderstand. It is probable he feels\nlonely in Scotland, but if he persists in that attitude I think he may become\neven lonelier \u2013 perhaps some of his Special Advisers will tell him 62% v 38%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also at this time the Tories,\nhaving cheated women out of their retirement pensions by increasing the age\nthey retire are now hinting at taking away free TV licences for the over\n75s. This strikes me as stupid, as they\ndepend on the votes of pensioners \u2013 as a comment, in the 2014 Independence\nReferendum 16 year olds were given the vote, as were people of other nations \u2013\nin 2016 they were excluded. How strange,\nexclude the ones who will be most affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And just this very evening I\nsaw Mrs May uttering the words \u201cArticle 50\u201d for the first time; as far as I\ncould understand she will be putting her new proposal to Westminster next week\nand if it is not supported by the House she will invoke Article 50 to get a\nshort extension, ie kick the can down the road again. Poor can, it must be\ngetting gey battered by this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So many proposals, so little\nchoice, it seems that SNP Commons Leader is getting under her skin \u2013 can\u2019t be\nbad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time of going to press\nI see that The National is going to publish the full text of the McCrone Report\non Wednesday; this, if you remember was the Report to the Cabinet about the\nvast oil reserves in the North Sea n the Seventies \u2013 remember \u201cIt\u2019s Scotland\u2019s\nOil\u201d. The Treasury scoffed at a figure\nproduced by SNP Research Officer, Donald Bain of about \u00a3800 million a year, and\nrejected it out of hand. Donald had not\ngot the figure right, there were untold billions in the North Sea and Gavin\nMcCrone gave a report to the Cabinet to estimate there would be billions and\nthat no one could ever again say Scotland could not survive. The Treasury created a Continental Shelf\naccount and the money disappeared from the records before it disappeared into\nthe Treasury\u2019s gaping maw. The McCrone\nReport became public when the Cabinet papers were released to the Press 30\nyears afterwards. Researcher and author\nGeorge Rosie spent some time in Kew when the records were released, and BBC\nAlba did a programme called \u201cDiomhair\u201d \u2013 Secrets – in Gaelic, produced by Les\nWilson. Both of these men were presented\nwith the Oliver Brown Award, separately, by the Scots Independent newspaper;\nthey are both still around to testify to the chicanery. When the McCrone Report became public the\nScottish Press gave it scant coverage. I\nthink this was about 2005 \u2013 works for the date of discovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And having writ moves on, nor all thy piety nor wit, shall lure it back to cancel half a line nor all thy tears wash out a word of it. Fitting way to start with the opening lines from the Rubiyat of Omar Kayyam by Edward Fitzgerald, although as usual I only remembered a fragment of it and had to consult The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations \u2013 must choose something simpler next time. Anyway the fingers of history are moving rapidly onward and we are not getting enough time to work out what is happening. Latest on Sunday of this week Mrs May isRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2415,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414\/revisions\/2415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}