Journey to the Yes side
As far back as I can recall, I haven’t believed in anything. I’ve had no over-riding passion for change, I’ve felt jaded and disconnected from the establishment, from the institutions. Westminster and...
View ArticleKnowing our place
When I was a child I was taught of a long-ago battle. It was a monumental battle, an invading army and a defending one, swords and shields, bows and arrows. The attackers were somehow both bad men and...
View ArticleThe long way around
My journey to Yes is probably a rather unconventional one. I’m from an establishment background: military family, English public school, Oxford. I’ve spent a lot of my life abroad and in England. My...
View ArticleLifting the veil
As a child, I hated Alex Salmond. He was everything I was raised to despise: most people around me were generally suspicious of his motives, the Daily Record painted him as a contemptible human being,...
View ArticleThe moment when it clicks
I was introduced to politics at a very young age. One of my first memories is of watching John Major giving a speech of some kind on television, possibly to do with Black Wednesday. I was only three at...
View ArticleA letter to Mum and Dad
Dear Mum and Dad, I’m writing this letter because I want to talk to you about a topic that’s extremely important to me. I’ve broached it once or twice but haven’t felt fully comfortable pursuing it as...
View ArticleLatvian lessons
Latvia has been ruled by others for most of the past thousand years, with Riga even being the largest city in Sweden until they carelessly lost it to Peter the Great in 1710. Independence from Russia...
View ArticleThe in-betweeners
The last of our poll data releases yesterday highlighted perhaps the biggest factor in deciding the outcome of the independence referendum – the views of the undecided. Cross-referencing those yet to...
View ArticleReading through the lines
Sometimes I can be a deeply cynical man. I get it from a couple of sources. Some is from my time as a political activist, when I learned the game in the sewer of Glasgow politics. Some is from my media...
View ArticleThe long journey to Yes
Hi, my name is Cindie, I’m one of those “New Scots” you hear people talking about from time to time, and I’m going to vote Yes in 2014. Born in Wales with an English father and Irish grandfather, I’m...
View ArticleA happy new year for democracy
Whatever your political views, this is a very important year. The commentators, the politicians and the so-called experts will all be heard ad nauseam – but ultimately it’s you and me, the ‘ordinary’...
View ArticleThe greener grass
Let me first declare my interests. I’m a Yorkshireman, so I suppose that technically makes me English. I wish my beautiful region had more autonomy from Westminster, because perhaps if we had our local...
View ArticleView from an immigrant
We’ve been taking the mickey out of Labour a lot in the last couple of days, which has been thoroughly merited and done with serious intent, but we thought it’d be nice to finish the week with...
View ArticleSowing seeds
Dear Scottish women, It seems that we’re letting the side down a bit here. If the same percentage of us were willing to vote Yes as the men, we’d be home and dry come September 18th, living in a...
View ArticleThe mushroom farm
Have you seen the film of the coronation? I’m not talking about the grand televised extravaganza in Westminster Abbey with the young Queen Elizabeth done up like a wedding cake – I mean the Scottish...
View ArticleSomething to believe in
It’s a Bank Holiday and frankly there’s absolutely bugger-all of any interest in the news today, so I hope you’ll forgive me a personal indulgence, readers. I’ve only used the personal pronoun for a...
View ArticleThe head and the heart
The deeply dodgy fake-grassroots “Vote No Borders” group of wealthy London-based PR people has been rolling out its “unpolished” voters (their term, not ours) again, this time in a series of what must...
View ArticleAn actual letter from America
I’m Will McLeod and I’m the Government and World Affairs Correspondent for Netroots Radio in Washington, DC. I’ve been following the Scottish independence referendum for a few years now. Most of the...
View ArticleAn Englishman not abroad
Why would an Englishman vote for Scottish independence? Why would a whole group of English people vote Yes? It’s a question I’ve been asked many times, and which the group I helped to co-found last...
View ArticleWe don’t need your pity
One of the most commonly-occurring arguments proffered by the left side of the No camp (regardless of how often it’s comprehensively debunked) is that should Scotland decide to leave the Union, it...
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