Journalist, author, broadcaster
On Saturday, with only days to go before the independence referendum, thousands of Yes supporters gathered on Buchanan Street in Glasgow, waving Saltires and singing ‘Flower of Scotland’. At around the same time, more than ten thousand Orangemen staged a pro-union march in Edinburgh. The standards at the head of the flute bands hailed from […]
Coldstream, Scotland – Jock Law is in no doubt about which way he is going to vote in Scotland’s independence referendum on September 18. “I’m against, definitely against,” the septuagenarian former soldier says, taking off his thick-rimmed glasses and shaking his head. Few are as passionate in their support for the union with England as […]
“We’re looking for the cairn.” The woman behind the counter in the Cadbury’s outlet store in the Gretna Gateway shopping centre looks slightly bemused. All around her, piled precariously high, are clear plastic bags filled to bursting with ‘Roses’ chocolates and mini-Wispas. “Any 2 for £6” declare signs in red dotted across the shop. “We’re […]
Before the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, Aberdeen was a regional town and nationalism a marginal concern. With weeks to go until Scotland’s historic vote on independence, Aberdeen is a city transformed. It’s Scotland’s oil capital and the city’s resulting wealth is apparent. But not everyone has benefitted from those riches. As […]
Last Tuesday night, I watched, along with most of Scotland, two besuited, middle-aged men argue with each other on national television for the best part of two hours. In the main it was pretty unedifying stuff. Alastair Darling refused to accept that Scotland could function as an independent country; Alex Salmond made the frankly bizarre […]
What a difference a century makes. In 1912 Ireland’s constitutional future seemed irrevocably bound up with that of Scotland. That year the Government of Ireland Bill was introduced by Liberal prime minister HH Asquith, shortly to be followed by a similar home rule measure for the Scots. The rest, of course, is history. The first […]
The longer any online discussion goes on, the greater the probabilitythat someone will make a comparison involving Hitler or the Nazis.This maxim – known as ‘Godwin’s Law’ – is so widely accepted that ithas even made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. So today I wouldlike to propose an #indyref equivalent (but please don’t call […]
Scotland’s Alex Salmond (L) and Alistair Darling (R) engage in a TV debate over independence [Getty Images] Coatbridge, Scotland – “Independence is forever. You can’t take it back if you don’t like it,” the lean, wiry-framed Jim Murphy proclaims on Main Street. About 60 people are congregated in a semi-circle in front of the Labour MP, who […]
A pack on the Irish in Coatbridge and Scotland’s independence referendum from RTE’s Morning Ireland in March.
With his Eton education and clipped vowels, David Cameron is often seen as quintessentially English. But lately the British prime minister has been talking up his Scottish heritage – with particular emphasis on Clan Cameron’s motto, “Let us unite.” As September’s referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom draws closer, Mr. Cameron is becoming […]