Yet another new blog

...I see before me? I saw someone on Facebook taking Paul Mason to task for misusing the word 'coup' and two things struck me. Firstly, given what's going on with the UK's parliamentary system, arguing about the definition of the word 'coup' suggests to me someone has missed the point here. The traditional way of doing things in the UK democracy is by negotiation. I'm not naive enough to claim that this involves consensus: I've seen too many politicians in action to ever claim that. Nor can I claim that the results of negotiation please me personally: all too often, it leaves politics as a system that cuts out the voter. We get to vote and that's all. Every other decision is then in the hands of the people we voted for and all the voters can do is hope that some information filters down to us and that the people we've voted for have a scooby what they're doing. (And they don't always). That traditional way seems to have stopped...

This has appeared again on Facebook. I say 'again' because it's been turning up on FB in one form or another at least once a year for as long as I've been a member. It was racist nonsense when it first appeared and it's still racist nonsense. I don't know what's more annoying: the fact that the lies keep on appearing or the fact that the people in the UK who share it are too daft to realise this is an American racist post and has nothing at all to do with the UK. The language gives it away: there are no 'food stamps' here, nor do we talk about 'drivers licences'. And we certainly don't worry too much about Americans crossing other people's borders in the Middle East. So let's just establish something: there are two categories of immigrants in the UK. If you're an EU citizen, you have the right to move anywhere in the 28 countries of the EU and seek work. Note that: seek work. You don't get to move around the EU a...

I'm now finishing week 2 of this 3-week futurelearn online course: THE SCOTTISH HIGHLAND CLANS: ORIGINS, DECLINE AND TRANSFORMATION I've lost count of how many people are on the course: over 600. From all over the world. People who claim Scottish ancestry, are Scottish or are just interested in the history of the clans. The course comes from Glasgow University and has some excellent presenters. But the most striking aspect for me is that the myths about Scotland, the Scots and the Highlands in particular, are the same all over the globe. Clan Scotland was a land of castles, tartan and bagpipes. The clans - right up till the mid 18th century - were some sort of glorious cooperative, a commune if you like. The Highlands and Islands were either a barren waste where nothing grew or an earthly paradise ruined by the introduction of sheep. The lovely churches we see all over Scotland were built for the people by their clan chiefs. The bagpipes were banned by the gover...

...I owe you an explanation... In the space of the last week, I've been called ignorant, stupid and a 'mouth-breather'. I'm sure there have been other insults but these are the ones that stick with me. When I decided to give Facebook a rest, someone suggested I should avoid 'controversial' FB pages. Let me tell you those three insults appeared on a page where the members are all, apparently, on the same side and where the admin people assure me they are very hard on people who insult other members. I'm guessing they mean people who swear at other members, because I see no efforts being made to curb this kind of insult. It's playground name-calling this, and I've been hearing it all my life (not just me, a lot of us have) and now I've had enough.  To be fair, the page where the insults above appeared invited me to become an admin. I thanked them and made the excuse that I was already the admin of 5 groups, but in fact for just a moment I ha...

I was still working when the bank crash happened. By the time we began to realise we were going to be asked to bail out the banks, I'd retired. The people I'd worked with in local councils all over Scotland talked about poverty and deprivation in ways we hadn't heard since the Thatcher era. We predicted the current conditions of poverty - and lawlessness. Since the crash, pensioners like me have been protected - apparently, the Tories think we vote for them - though we won't be from now on if today's Tories have anything to say about it. Already, they refer to our pensions as 'benefits.' If you're a woman born in the early 1950s, you can whistle for your pension. Young people are told they will probably have to work till the age of 70. At least. But the people who came out of the bank crash worst were the unemployed, the disabled, the young, the unskilled who all took a massive hit from 2008 onwards. 'Zero-hours' contracts appeared. Firms pay...

I'm grateful to Professor Devine for publishing his book on The Scottish Clearances.  As I keep saying, I'm very ignorant about Scottish history. Ask me anything you like about the French Revolution of 1789, the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 or the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. I'm your wumman. We studied all this in my Higher History class at my secondary school in Glasgow in the 1960s. At the time, I didn't know why. And  my knowledge of what was happening in Scotland on those dates is - to say the least - sketchy.  Of course, us Scottish kids heard about Mary Queen of Scots and Robert the Bruce and the spider. But that was all at primary school - and honestly, that was it for Scottish history. I know more about the Crimean War than I do about what was happening in Scotland in the 19th century.  It's great that people are taking an interest in Scottish history. But It's quite alarming that the old myths persist. For example, the Clearances. These didn...

I'm kind of fed up with politics right now. Not with independence. I'll never be fed up with that. That's a lifetime commitment. But I am definitely fed up with the divisions among pro-independence people. Honestly, anybody would think things were going badly, whereas those of us who watch the online news as well as the newspapers and the telly news are aware that things are in fact going quite well independence-wise. Some London papers (Guardian, Independent, Times) are coming round to the idea that Scottish independence might just be something for people in Scotland to decide on. That the union is finished. That, in fact, the Scots don't hate the English. That we just want to go down a different road from England. I call this 'normalisation': we've seen this happen many times before. Your idea starts off as being outrageous but gradually when people get time to think it through, it becomes acceptable. I'm thinking seat belts in cars; compreh...

I nicked this idea from my pal Dennis in Singapore. The Year in Scotland: January                    Man, it's cold! But at least Christmas is over, even if we're all skint. February                  Cold and wet - roll on Spring! March                      Cold, wet and windy - is it Spring yet? April                        Nothing but Easter eggs in the shops May                         I thought it would be warmer by now June                         I hope it'll be as sunny as this when the kids get their school holidays. July                          Man, it's hot. Au...

Eventually, there will be a reckoning. Trump will be forced to face up to how badly he has treated people of Hispanic origin - and maybe black people, poor people, disabled people and women. Ordinary decent Americans will decide they can't take any more and he'll be out. They may not be able to impeach him. And, to be fair, getting rid of Trump won't mean a lot to the people of El Paso... But most of us are decent and we don't go for 'othering' the people we live and work with. We really just want to get on with living our lives. What is 'othering'? It's about making people feel they are different, less important than us. It's about denying they are just the same as us. It's what the Nazis did to the Jews of Europe. The Roma. Gays. The disabled. Some of these groups are still recovering from that treatment 80 years later. The same thing will happen with Boris Johnson. Johnson is just at the start of the process of disillusi...

Yes, I know that's a bad start to any blog, but events in the last few days have got me wondering. Who came up with the idea of austerity? Not David Cameron. He's not bright enough and would never think long enough or hard enough to come up with an idea. Not Theresa May. The very idea of Treeza coming up with a policy on her own would make a cat laugh. Johnson? Nah, so far he's not dealing with the economy of the UK mano a  mano . Too busy tripping round the 'regions of the UK' being booed and looking not too sure how to react. Hoping Steve Bannon will keep him right. But round about 2009 someone somewhere in the UK government came up with this idea: if we tell them there's no money as a result of the bank crash and we all have to tighten our belts...Yes, that's it, we can tell them we're all in this together. What? MPs are due an 11% payrise? Well. no, we can't do that now . You mean, it's already been decided. Well, okay. But no payrises...