Golf Tango Foxtrot

One of the great attractions of Dundee for me is the fact that even though I live thirty five miles away I can always be sure to run into someone I know. Like this afternoon.  I went to down to attend a public rally against the Scottish Defence League neo-nazis who had been threatening to march through the City. When I got there it was pretty well a damp squib.  The nazis had cancelled their march a couple of days before and no-one had got round to telling the cops that the counter-march from our side had similarly been cancelled. With a result the the city centre was crawling with cops and a handful of anti-fascists who had come to join a static rally which in the hinder end didn’t happen. Undeterred I had a quick blether with some acquaintances and turned about to have a wander round Dundee’s historic toon centre when who did I meet but some friends from Banchory.  We exchanged news on the continuing Yes campaigns in our respective areas and headed off on o...

"It was the Day of Days, it was the Hour of Hours". The day of reckoning has arrived. The day for those who have been marginalised, ignored , condescended to and attacked by governments that they did not vote for. The day for those who have been deserted by a party that claimed the right to speak on their behalf while sucking up to the wealthy. The day that we have the chance to show that our vote counts this time and that things will never be the same again. The day that we say "another Scotland is possible". The missing million who never vote because they know their vote means nothing except to make a corrupt politician a Lord when he can no longer pretend to be bothered to seek the votes of his constituents. The people who never registered to vote since coming off the register in the Poll Tax days.  These are the people who will win this referendum for YES.   These are the people who need to reap the rewards of a new, better Scot...

Recently I went to hear Lesley Riddoch speak in Stonehaven. She was promoting her new book “Blossom”.  The meeting was promoted by the local YES campaign though the main thrust of Ms Riddoch’s talk was social rather than political. Comparing social norms in the Nordic countries and Scotland Ms Riddoch makes a persuasive case as to the simple abnormality of social relations in Scotland as compared to countries in similar latitudes. Highlighting the differences between thriving Hammerfest in Norway and depressed Wick in Scotland,  Ms Riddoch makes the point well that communities in the Nordic countries have access to their local resources of land, water and environment. Access which is utterly and pointedly forbidden to communities in Scotland.   Developers of tidal power technology in Norway were able to get access to their local tidal stream without having to pay exorbitant rents to the Crown Estate.  Communities in Norway have access to land for recreation...

Lest we forget on the centenary of the outbreak of what I still refer to as "The Great War".  An extract from "Scotland's War Losses" by Duncan Duff. “It may well be that the total Scottish loss in the war does not fall far short of that of the United States of America, which was 126,000 out of a population of106,000,000. It is rather startling to find out that the losses of the United States of all services, Army, Navy  and Air were at the rate of nearly 1200 per million population, while Scotland’s loss in infantry alone worked out at about 18,000 per million. The losses of Scottish Infantry Regiments alone exceeded the whole Canadian losses (Navy, Army and Air Force) by nearly 23,000. They were considerably higher than the total Indian losses, and though New Zealand is generally credited with having made the greatest sacrifices of all the units of the British Empire yet its rate for all services is much less than that of Scottish infantry, whose losses ...

I hear accusations that pro-indy folk are punting the notion that all we have to do is Vote Yes and we will then live in a "fairyland" of Milk and Honey. This idea complements the strange fact that the only people in the Independence debate who mention "Braveheart" or William Wallace are pro-unionists. The usual suspects punting both these lines are Alastair Darling, head of the NO Campaign ( and recipient of backhanders from companies privatising the NHS in England & Wales) and "Scottish" Labour leader Johann Lamont, that incisive debater so beloved of Daily Telegraph readers. I don't know anyone on the YES side who says that voting Yes is all that needs doing. Voting Yes DOES mean just the start of taking responsibility for what we do as a country instead of leaving it up to the neighbours.  Voting Yes gives us the chance to build a better future. Just a chance mind. A chance to build a better society that can destroy the myth that there is n...

On a morning train commute to Aberdeen the automatic ticket barriers are not in use.   Normally, the mass of unhappy surly commuters make their way through about half a dozen automatic barriers more or less speedily.  This morning as so often lately, we are forced to queue up and pass through a single barrier where we hand our ticket to a Scotrail employee. We are then sniffed at in turn by a Police Scotland sniffer dog.   No-one apologises for this inconvenience, no-one explains for what purpose we are being inconvenienced. Is it drugs we are being sniffed for?  That is the general consensus. Is it explosives?  Is it any of the other things that Police Scotland can do us for? This stuff never happened in Aberdeen under the old Grampian Police.  They presumably had local intelligence on the movements of drug dealers.  They didn’t have to sniff every Aberdeen-bound commuter. So, one is left with the impression (unavoidable in the abse...

I've returned from a couple of jobs in England. By jobs I mean Ceilidh Band jobs, playing the fiddle.  Precisely speaking I played two weddings.  One in Yorkshire, near Harrogate and one near Otterburn in Northumberland. In between the jobs I stayed with friends in Rothbury, a lovely country town in Northumberland. Speaking with people that I met about the forthcoming referendum was a great delight.  This wasn't a scientific poll or anything like that.  It was simply just relaxed blethering, mostly in pubs and licensed premises. For the most part our neighbours to the south are pretty laid back about the prospect of Scottish independence.  In short they wish us well.  They trust us to make the decision that is right for us. More importantly, these Borderers know that the social union will not change.  People will still flit back and forth across the border as they do now.  People will be dancing to the same bands.  The bonds of fami...

What contribution do you make to a wedding? Is your part a passive one that involves simply showing off new clothes, enjoying a free feed and enduring some tedious speeches? If so you are an example of the worst kinds of rudeness around. You might be under the misapprehension that you are at a wedding to enjoy yourself. That's simply not the case. Your job as a wedding guest is to make sure that the Bride and Groom have a good time. If you can't do that why the hell did you accept the invitation? Playing at as many weddings as I do and being the certain age that I am it always annoys me when people simply will not dance. Dancing at a wedding is good manners. It is a way of thanking the Bride and Groom for their hospitality and wishing them well. Not dancing at a wedding (without a valid excuse) is the height of rudeness. I have witnessed Brides pleading with their guests to get on the floor. I have watched these same guests simply blank the bride and groom when given a direct ...

78 years ago the working class of Barcelona rose and defeated a military coup intended to overthrow the second Spanish Republic. Their sacrifice marked the start of the armed defeat of Fascism in Europe culminating in the victory of May 1945. The working class movement of Barcelona was defeated in a bloody Civil War, yet they held the gate so that we might survive to fight on other fronts. It is not difficult for me to explain my affection for Barcelona and its people. The debt of gratitude that all of us owe to the working class of Barcelona is immense and untold. Without their willingness to begin the fight against Fascism on the 19th July 1936 there is every reason to believe that Hitler and Mussolini would have triumphed unopposed. The Spanish military coup of July 1936 was an open secret.  Everyone knew that the Army intended to overthrow the government of the Second Republic.  No-one exactly knew when.   The working class movement was not unready.  Work...

Project Fear was the name coined by "Better Together" to describe their campaign tactic of scaring us into voting NO in the Independence Referendum in September. And a constant source of amusement it has been.  This tactic has been rolled out to us to terrify us into thinking that we won't be able to watch the BBC, to the thought that "they" won't let "us" use "their" currency.  We will all be "foreigners" and we know what nasty folk they are don't we? It really is the gift that keeps on giving for YES.  The more idiocy that NO comes out with the more likely it is that sensible people will vote YES. The YES campaign in all its variants, from the SNP through Women for Independence to Radical Independence Campaign and the Green Party has been almost unfailingly positive in their arguments for a pro-indy vote. It is an argument which has many facets.  My particular spin on this is that Independence gives us the raw materi...

It’s the 4th of July.  US independence day.  No word of them wanting to rejoin the UK, though the way that US interests are briefing against a Yes vote in the Independence Referendum suggests this can only be a matter of time. What would be the likelihood of any country voting to give up its independence if the choice was to join rather than to leave a union with our powerful southern neighbour? I once had the privilege of offering hospitality to a group of First Nations people from the Northwest Territories of Canada.  They had been over in Scotland at an international conference of hunter-gatherer peoples. Near the end of their stay I asked one guy the standard question “What do you make of Scotland?” His answer surprised me.   He made the observation that his own and Scottish societies had many things in common; In particular he cited problems with drugs, alcohol and powerful southern neighbours. Making the assumption that this meant the Unite...

Nearly 100 days to decide whether or not to keep on with the tired old union with our powerful southern neighbours or to try to set out on an adventure in building a new society based on equality and justice for everyone.   At times I am very optimistic at the prospect of a YES vote, at other times less so.  The prospects are quite daunting in either event.  If we vote YES then we can expect all sorts of double dealing, bad faith, threats and obstruction in the negotiations.   In the event of a NO vote we are going to be hammered by Westminster.  No matter what they now say about further powers if we vote NO.  If they were going to extend more powers to our Parliament then why did they actively fight against those options being on the ballot paper?  Why didn’t they simply give us these powers anyway? I am old enough to remember the devolution referendum of 1979. More than 50% of those who voted were in favour of the very moderate devolution s...

My Dad’s posthumous award of the Arctic Star has been confirmed.  The decoration was bestowed by virtue of the fact that he had served on Arctic Convoys in World War Two.   He was in the Fleet Air Arm and serviced planes which supposedly provided air cover for the convoy.  I say supposedly because mostly the Arctic weather was so horrendous there was no prospect of the planes flying at all even if their engines were thawed out.   Most of the time above the Arctic Circle was spent at Action Stations, ready to fight the ship at any moment.  For Dad this consisted of lying on the hangar deck  out of the way of seamen working the ship and gunners defending it.    Despite the fact that the Canadian and other Allied governments had decorated their Arctic veterans, the British government waited for seventy years to do it.  Too late for my Dad of course but fortunately there are still a number of living recipients of the medal. There...