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Bureaucrats in the saddle 36

Posted on January 07, 2014 by

Chapter 5 of “The Claim Of Scotland”.

claim5

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Frustration in Parliament 68

Posted on January 06, 2014 by

Chapter 4 of “The Claim Of Scotland”.

claim4

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In all loyalty to the Crown 121

Posted on January 05, 2014 by

Continuing our daily serialisation of HJ Paton’s fascinating 1968 book “The Claim Of Scotland”, courtesy of splendidly alert and dedicated reader Wilma Watts.

claim3

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History and legend 114

Posted on January 04, 2014 by

The Claim Of Scotland chapter 2.

claim2

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To our English brother 166

Posted on January 03, 2014 by

We’re enormously grateful to the alert reader who uncovered this little gem. “The Claim Of Scotland” is a book published in 1968 and written by one Herbert James Paton, a philosopher and a senior civil servant at the Admiralty and Foreign Office, who sadly died the following year.

claimofscotland

If you click the image above, you’ll find a scanned PDF of the foreword, contents and first chapter, which at just 14 pages is a modest task of reading. Prepare yourself to marvel at how little times have changed since this pre-North Sea oil age, and to smile ruefully at a few of the sentences you’ll encounter.

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Respect agenda still strong 62

Posted on December 27, 2013 by

Since we’re talking about The Independent today, we thought those of you who don’t follow us on Twitter or Facebook might like to see their latest editorial cartoon.

indysalmond1

No, we’re not making that up.

The Wings Pantomime 2013: Cindyrella 88

Posted on December 23, 2013 by

theatre

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Setting the tone 58

Posted on December 22, 2013 by

Our more downmarket readers may have noticed this piece in today’s Scottish Sun:

doctoredno

But we were tickled to learn this morning, from a very well-placed inside source, that the advertising agency involved had also (genuinely) presented as part of their report a graphic demonstrating the current public perception of the No campaign.

You can see it below.

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Celebrity endorsement 90

Posted on December 09, 2013 by

We don’t normally set a lot of store by them, but this one’s a peach:

palin

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So blind that you cannot see 56

Posted on December 06, 2013 by

That was always a pretty silly lyric. But anyway.

We had to switch the telly off after about 10 minutes of the news this morning. The piety was too much to take. So intead we’re just going to quote two things from the avalanche of comment that’s appeared this morning on the death of Nelson Mandela.

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The case for Yes in six words 138

Posted on November 26, 2013 by

If you don’t have time to read 170,000:

foodxmas

“Xmas dinner at the food bank”. The best of both worlds, there. Sleep well.

Pay up and shut up 148

Posted on November 25, 2013 by

So today we got a response from the BBC to our Freedom Of Information request concerning this story. Those of you who’ve ever sent an FOI request to the state broadcaster before probably won’t need to read any further.

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