a) Burke’s Corner on the Conservative rapproachment with a previously troublesome separatist region.
b) Hurrah! I’m not on my own, SNP Watch ("Exposing the tyranny of the minority") on the West Lothian Question:
Devolution has all but destroyed the Union. It has given a platform to rebels and has alienated our English brethren. The 1707 Acts of Union created one parliament by design - for it was then deemed that Great Britain had only one people - the British People, ergo - there was no need for two centres of power.
c) Chekov’s bulldozes through a nationalist attempt at deconstructing our collective national identity:
Britishness invites a multiplicity of identities and it is stronger because of it. The very essence of the United Kingdom is that it cannot be represented by a series of easy clichés in an eight minute package. If nationalists require the nuances of statehood to be presented in such a fashion, that says more about limits of their ideology than anything problematic about Britishness.
d) Fair Deal, in his usual close, analytical mode gives his take on the present non-state of devolved affairs.
e) Alan Cochrane on problems ahead for a Queen (the Britannic not Bohemian Rhapsodic version) fan north of the border.
f) Cochrane again on the scummier wing of Cybergnatdom, which last week claimed its first journalistic victim.
However, for Wee Eck to have a go at bloggers is possibly the most hypocritical of all stances that this most opportunistic of politicians has ever adopted. Day in, day out, newspaper and other websites are chock-full of extremist bile from Mr Salmond's supporters, all directed at those who dare utter a word of criticism about our Nat masters.
I have no idea if these strange creatures are members of Mr Salmond's party but I shouldn't be at all surprised to discover that they are.
This small army of separatist insomniacs rises early each morning to castigate, in often the vilest of language, anyone who strays from their shining path. So bad has it got that one Scottish political editor of my acquaintance threatened to take action against his own newspaper if it did not edit the comments of his Nat assailants on its website.
g) Glyn Davies on *Firebrand* Price versus Mr Tango-Man, the non-fight of the year.
h) An Arthur Aughey book review(!) upsets some of the more sensitive ethno-nationalist souls on Our Kingdom and Slugger.
i)The BBC most definitely can not be described, by any stretch of the widest imagination, "Friends of the Union", but this (highlighted by Wildgoose) was a very illuminating programme. A Dublin government horrified at the thought of being "re"-united with its “Fourth Lost Field”- not the usual narrative we're accustomed to hearing.
j)Ignited on a Union, CDU/CSU style (I think we might be hearing some more about this pretty soonish;))
3 comments:
Just a note that Glyn Davies is an outspoken supporter of further devolution.
His comments on the Adam Price v Hain are a bit wide though - he makes it sound as if it was the central theme of Adam Price's speech when in truth it was only a line at the end (easy mistake to make if you only read the Western Mail's article on the speech instead of seeing or reading the speech itself)
Is Liam Byrne a friend of the Union. The Minister has just published a very long paper on the importance of Britishness. It suggested a British Bank Holiday and suggested some dates, one of them being St George's Day.
Isn;t he the same guy that once suggested we hold the British Day on the August bank holiday to show our unity - forgetting that Scotland's bank holiday is different from the rest of us!
Just a note that Glyn Davies is an outspoken supporter of further devolution.
Yes, I know, there was a funny rant on his blog a little while ago when someone accused him of being a separatist because of that view!
(Unfortunately) if I limited "Friends of the Union" to anti-devolutionists, it would be a very short list!
Re Liam Byrne, I commented on his "suggestions" earlier on in the week, he comes under the category of "Someone we wished wasn't a friend of the Union!"
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