Hubris adjustment
Posted on
August 27, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The website of the Dumfries & Galloway Conservative Party yesterday:
Perhaps they read the press coverage of the Salmond-Darling debate later on.
Because this is the same page today:
Not only has the triumphalist language gone, the entire event itself appears to have vanished. Of course, maybe it’s sold out. Or after Mr Darling’s performance, maybe they’re not looking forward to the results quite so arrogantly any more.
Cereal’s off, presumably?
I know it’s bad chat…and I know after a yes vote (should it come) we should be looking positively to the future and discarding old enmities…but there’s a part of me that really really really wants to paint “who cares now?” on a colossal canvas and leave it at Ian Davidson’s front door.
They’ll be out building Hadrian’s wall no doubt…………..
Maybe all their members are secretly voting Yes?
Even the instruction
‘Remember and go out and vote – No’ sounds like the petulant kid their campaign personifies, just needs an exclamation mark at the end!
@ecruden
Which one though?
Love it.
Housing prices going down in D & G on the 19th Sept?
Bargains to be had.
Roll up, roll up.
Maybe their past cairn…
Where’s the cereal eating club? Not on anymore?
Sorry “passed”(just up!)
I just hope they all get what they deserve, followed by some humiliation perhaps?
Lol, are they thinking what we’re thinking?
Mike,
The ladies are too busy ironing socks.
I hope they all choke on their bubbly, when the result on 19th September comes in.
Iain,
Can’t think and iron socks at the same time.
I thought the results weren’t going to be announced ‘as they come in’ but as a single final result ?
The Aston hotel is situated on the Crichton campus – now a thriving university and college campus but up until recent years it was the Crichton Royal Hospital – a beautiful and ground breaking psychiatric hospital/asylum.
I worked there for a wee while many years ago and am glad it is now being put to the use intended by Elizabeth Crichton originally.
I can just imagine the D&G Conservatives may need a little peace and quiet, brisk walks in the fresh air and convalescence after a Yes. Where better than in the beautiful grounds of the Crichton?
Guid they have downgraded expectations – planning victory celebrations in advance always seemed to me to fly in the face of superstition and invite humiliation.
Yes, Dumfries and Galloway Conservatives’ man at the debate let both of them down badly. Maybe they could meet at the home of that Captain Mainwaring figure, have too many sherries and send off begging letters to people in Who’s Who asking for a grace and favour mansion to live in in Buckinghamshire.
Nothing wrong with a bit of triumphalist language.
For instance, we’re totally going to win the yes vote on September 18th. 🙂
No show
No tickets sold. Deposit about to lost.
Bring it on.
O/T
BBC: “Scottish independence: Firms question ‘Yes’ vote business case
More than 130 businesses have signed a letter saying the business case for Scottish independence “has not been made”.
The signatories account for about 50,000 jobs in Scotland”
This is total bollocks. More than 130 businesses have not signed a letter saying the business case for Scottish independence “has not been made”. 130-odd business figures signed the letter in a “personal capacity”. They may represent the view of their organisation as a whole, but they aren’t claiming that in the letter. Take this one, for instance.
“THE BUSINESS CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE HAS NOT BEEN MADE
Signed in a personal capacity by the following:
Timothy Wright, chief executive, Edinburgh University Press”
link to scribd.com
Wikipedia; “Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh in 1992. Books and journals published by the Press carry the imprimatur of The University of Edinburgh. All proposed publishing projects are appraised and approved by the Press Committee, which consists of academics from the university. Since August 2004, the Press has had Charitable Status.”
Timothy Wright is working for a charity. It’s very unlikely that the organisation would come out and agree with his views. He signed the letter in a PERSONAL CAPACITY, but the thick shits at the BBC do not understand this*.
* or BBC journos are massaging the truth deliberately, which is probably more likely
Looks like the penny has finally dropped.
Tam Jardine says:.
“Guid they have downgraded expectations”
I agree. Their mood will have changed from certainty to doubt. Better safe that suffer humiliation.
Could the D&G Tories maybe get the Vote Nobs woman to reposition them?
Come on folks, do what the Rev has taught us.
Phone the hotel to confirm the event or not.
It’s known as journalism.
I shall tender my apologies. People who have brunch are not my type of people.
30 mins of celebration champagne,while the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, revives his idea for a Scottish national convention as a way of reconciling a divided Scotland and mapping a new path for the country.
walofs
Brunch? Is that not too early to be talking about politics?
Hubris –> Nemesis.
That’s all.
@Scotsbob
People who start getting pished at breakfast aren’t my type!
O/T sorry, but very revealing
newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-news/9649-controversial-bbc-reporter-suggests-nhs-stats-harm-snp-referendum-campaign
Well that’s me just voted – a big X next to yes. Now off to post the ballot paper.
Timothy Wright, chief executive, Edinburgh University Press”
Edinburgh University Press employs 32 people, a small business by anyones standards.
Perhaps we should ask Business for Scotland to publish a signed letter from their 2000 odd members representing ? jobs asking us to vote Yes?
A motley cru indeed!
Me too…… should Scotland be an independent country X YESssssss (y) waited all my life for this moment 😎
Bottoms up!
Cancelled through lack of interest? 🙂
So, here’s a wee quiz:
130 “business leaders” come out for NO – in “a personal capacity”(the CBI would have helped there but they are inexplicably discredited and disgraced)
3,000 businesses people have joined Business for Scotland.
1,000,000 of the Scottish electorate sign the Independence Declaration.
Which of these is news at the BBC?
“Be a part of the most historic event our country has faced in hundreds of years”.
There are no words.
What the party’s over before it began, cancelled, off!
Terry Gill and Lord Foulkes in the Express say Salmond bludgeoned to victory. Oh and the BBC was bias and that Glen was a bad chairperson.
All dummies spat out, funny old world init. 🙂
Lonnie Donegan version ‘ the party’s over’ good listen.
Will they be doing refunds for people who have already paid in advance?
Major Bloodnok,
Och, you can’t expect the wee wummin on this site to have time to think about a difficult question like that.
OT, but I had a day trip to London yesterday. Interesting seeing the difference in the front pages of the Daily Mail. The ‘real’ one had a bit at the top ripping the pish out of Flipper. I could have grabbed a complimentary copy of each, but, well, nah.
Shampoo anyone? Naw thanks.
@ BtP This may be relevant. I put my house on the market and the agent now says ” let’s talk toward the end of September “.
This could work two ways for me – if prices go down I get less but pay less for another property.
and vice versa. However the big worries will be for those with large landholdings, especially the ” slipper farmers ” since I like many YES voters will be pursuing Land Reform with renewed vigour.
I was down in D&G on Sat and spent some time with a bunch of enthusiastic lads manning the YES street stall in Thornhill. They were saying that canvassing was going well in Dumfries town but lower Nithsdale was a hard slog for them as it has always been Tory.
Leaving Thornhill on the road to Penpont I saw a large YES in a field. Seems the farmers are very concerned about the Tory/Ukip threat to leave the EU.
O/T but this gets a lot of good feedback from the younger ones when they see this compared to the political commentator reviews of the AS/AD debate
link to youtube.com
Shame you can’t get that sort of thing on the TV.
A friend just called to say she has had an elderly couple in the shop ask if the story in the telegraph applies to Scotland if we vote No.
link to telegraph.co.uk
link to newsnetscotland.com On the one hand they attack Yes for scaremongering over NHS privatisation in England while BBC in Scotland desperately attack Scots.gov with NHS in Scotland, which is another dichotomy of unionists in action sort of thingee.
100 x jump in BBC NHS freedom of info requests all in the name of the union
Bruch will now be held at #PatronisingBTlady’s house. Entertainment will be provided – crayons
Apparently it’s a Holiday Inn.
The Crichton, Bankend RoadDumfries & Galloway, Dumfries, , DG1 4ZZ United Kingdom
Still plenty rooms available.
cearc says: Och, you can’t expect the wee wummin on this site to have time to think about a difficult question like that.
Paul. Paul. PAUL!! Quick, get in here and get yer wimmin telt. You’ve left them hame alane with the dishes not done in front of a BT film crew and they’re thinking fer themsels!
O/T
Question for folks on here. Where do you think efforts are best spent over the next few weeks? I have a bit of time to spare and want to go out and help but just wondering is it best farming out WBBs or YES leaflets, or going out with RIC? What’s going to be the most effective do you think?
Thanks
Business leaders can only express a personal view.
If they actually represented the company then they would have to have the majority approval of the employees and/or shareholders.
But of course they don’t because businesses are too busy doing busy to be holding silly internal referendums.
Here’s a thought for Dumfries & Galloway Conservative Party, and anyone else thinking it will be a NO win …
Turn out is expected to be 70-80% instead of recent 50%. Who believes all those extra voters are getting out to support the status quo and preserve the Union? Who believes they might be looking for change?
What a very odd event.
“Be a part of the most historic event our country has faced in hundreds of years”.
Then celebrate with champagne when we reject all that in favour of continuing things as they are.
There’s nothing worse than premature congratulation, which the tory lot are trying hard to jump the gun, but realised oops
‘Luncheon Club’ ffs.
I know I shouldn’t be impressed by journalists doing their job but it was still refreshing to see Sky’s Niall Paterson, who I have been critical of in the past, give a very balanced report earlier when asked by the presenter if this represented a huge blow to the Yes campaign. He managed to mention the “over 2,500 members of Business for Scotland” at the end, which I was not expecting, in fact I’d just said “aye, what about the 2000 plus in BfS” so he fair put my gas at a peep!
The view from Germany couldn’t be more different to Dumfries :
“With just weeks to go before the referendum, Scotland seems like a land waking up from a winter slumber to celebrate the Caledonian version of the Arab Spring.”
link to spiegel.de
Wow, my Facebook page just got pounded by 5 huge No thanks ads, must be where their vote no Vitol cash is going.
Great portrayal of a tory. Now Scotland you’ve had your fun…what what!
link to theguardian.com
@ Colin
I understood that they weren’t speaking on behalf of their businesses; rather they are making a personal statement that they’d prefer not to make the perceived bigger change that may come with independence compared to the perceived lesser change that comes with staying with Westminster. Consequently, I’m not sure we can count their employees as they haven’t been polled or asked to sign the letter, nor have their boards.
More generally, my problem with this ‘businesses will leave’ type message is that it doesn’t appear logical (inductively or deductively). Inductively – is this what immediately happens when there’s a constitutional change in a country? Then, deductively: Businesses make contingency plans based on risk; Scottish independence is perceived as a risk (assumption there and assuming they don’t see UK as a risk – Weir’s guy on radio today said most of their employees are not in Scotland); Scottish independence won’t be achieved until earliest 2016 SO businesses watch negotiations and policy development of parties in Scotland and conceivably then leave as we approach full independence. Question: why would they then leave?
Champers! Probably decided it was over the top.
Or the realisation of YES!
Full page No thanks adverts daily now in ghastly Press and Journal now, talk about overkill for those swivel eyed loonies, 2 Bettertoghether pamphlets in the mail and one from UK.gov, including their full page vote NO local new ads, and Facebook No thanks blitz, all in one sunny BetterTogether morn here in Aberdeen.
Maybe pissing away all their champaign money on masses of vote No ads everywhere probably explains why they are so relaxed about winning too.
Wonder if the owners of Press and Journal, currently in top 5 richest in Scotland, current worth £800+ million, signed that business men say no 130 times list?
crisiscult 11.07
” rather they are making a personal statement”
Maybe so, but they should remember we have the option of leaving their products off our shopping lists.
@Jim Marshall
Yes, I take your point. I certainly consider the ‘ethical stance’ of a company before buying their products. I refuse to buy L’oreal products for my wife (well, she’s not that fussed cos she’s happy with Schwartsthingy anyway) and I haven’t bought Golden Wonder since I was a kid and my parents stopped buying their products when they closed their Scottish factory. If I have two similar products at a similar price, I’ll take into account other factors. Mackies ice cream has fallen foul on this criteria.
wouldn’t be a good idea to post YES window posters thru letter boxes?
I guess if they had used the logically equivalent positive descriptor “because the case for the Union has been made.” it would have been high tea for two.
O/T
Please share this……Craig Murray video
link to youtube.com
Rather more worrying in de Speigel, this article is linked from the page that Yerkitbreeks showed.
link to spiegel.de
They really do seem to be heading into cold war mode.
On the bright side, for Scotland, without russian gas the new gas pipe being laid to Clair will be much needed by Europe.
Och, my brain hurts…off to iron the floorcloths.
@Caroline Corfield
I thought the results weren’t going to be announced ‘as they come in’ but as a single final result?
As far as I am aware, the results are going to be announced by the 32 council authorities in Scotland, and then added up to produce the final count.
@ Nana Smith
Thanks for the video link! That was priceless 😀
Nana Smith
Well that’s the NO’s telt.
Thanks for the link.
@Ian Mor
You are welcome!
I assume that Humble Pie will still be on the menu.
I think the local constabulary need to be advised of the possibility that there could be some drink-driving offences outside the establishment on the morning/lunchtime/afternoon of the 19th Sept.
It’s our civic duty to be concerned for the on-going safety of our fellow countrymen (and ladies).
@Scottie Dog
If you want to fill your time make yourself available to all three. I spent 4+ hours in the middle of yesterday for Yes accosting passersby and asking if they were registered to vote and those that weren’t offered the chance to sign up there and then.
Last Evening I was canvassing for RIC.
Look on Fb or the web for your local Yes and RIC groups and their upcoming events and use to fill your time. I’ve only been at it a few weeks but it has been an absolute blast, great fun. Just get out there and do as much as you can for whoever. Wings, RIC and the various attached and unattached Yes groups are all part of the Yes Campaign. On the doorsteps for RIC we say we are from the Yes Campaign, because it is true and less confusing for the punters. What we cannot say is we are from Yes Scotland, because we aren’t.
I’m badged up with a Gaelic Bu Choir, a RIC ‘Another Scotland is Possible’ and a big yellow YES with an enamel Yes pin in my lapel.
Just watched last nights BBC2 Referendum Debate from Edinburgh
The classic piece of crap for me is when at the end Charles Kennedy stated that it didn’t matter how much oil there was it would turn Scotland’s currency into an oil based one
Yes Charles a bit like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar all country’s with gross poverty eh Charles
In the spirit of building bridges I will be quite happy to join them for a celebration drink on the 19th.
🙂
The conservatives do not mind wining and dining at our expense but when they have to pay themselves its a major no no ,even more so now that the tide has turned and the event would appear to be a major downer event and they would be paying for nothing really – keep up the good work Mr Cameron please enlighten Mr Daring sooner rather than later that his services are no longer require along with the customary P45 off you pop old chap
“the FACTS we need for our biggest decision”, “return your postal ballot today”.
this very unbalanced leaflet states; “i like the fact we have over 63m people across the uk paying into the pension pot.”
There is another programme tonight at 7:30 pm on the referendum but it will only be seen on the BBC News channel. Mainly directed at English viewers, I assume, as, it seems they have been kept out of the independence discussions so far? It will be more lies for them then.
@Nana Smith
The Craig Murray talk is really disturbing, was watching it on fb earlier, I hope Stu can look at this
I’d love to book a room there that night and be a fly on the wall if they lose.
D&G is a Conservative county. Mainly farming and the vassals, being grateful for small mercies, had to follow the political orders of the landowner. It’s also a comparatively poor county so I can’t understand why ordinary workers would still be inclined towards the Conservative party. At the top end of the county it was coal mining and Labour supporting. The Tory council got a pounding when they tried to put up the rents in upper Nithsdale, got a rent strike for their troubles and had to retreat on the issue.
Even BBC Scotland ignores D&G.
I think it’s excellent that the Dumfries & Galloway Dinosaur, sorry Conservative & Unionist Association want to celebrate Scotland becoming an Independent Country
Ah the old “pension pot” line, Ask for the ‘borrowed’ pension monies back from Gordy Broon and its not a pot, its paid from current taxation…A cynic might think they are talking pash !
Surely not !!!
Broon and Flipper teaming up now…hilarious.
Imagine the scene, its BT/TORY strategy HQ, Cameron asks Farage how they can persuade the stubbornly swithering Scots to vote Yes so they can rid westminster of those pesky Labour MP’s from ‘ north britain’
In a rare moment of inventive genius, Farage looks up from his colouring out immigration book and suggests sending in Team Fiscal Responsibility to secure victory for the Torykip party.
Job done !
Scottie-dog. Best thing is to go canvassing with your local Yes or RIC group. It’s the only way to talk to undecideds. You can take a few WBBs with you. If you’re shy then you get paired with someone more experienced who can do more of the talking. You can chip in with your tuppence worth.
The customer is King, not the shopkeeper.
Some of these entitled Tory Twits really can’t understand that the days of Rotten Boroughs and Le Droit de Seigneur are past. Fuds.
Large landowners No sign at J9 M9. Totally plastered wi wee Yes stickers. Good metaphor
Smashing bunch …the lot of them.
Yes, let’s all vote No, and celebrate with the killing off of social democracy with champagne, lobster thermidor and some cracking salmon and cucumber sandwiches, before then going out for a spot of shooting, hunting foxes and then scourging the local peasants for having the audacity to even dare of thinking of changing our glorious and imperialist enlightened vision of her Majesty’s Great and United Britannica, greatest empire that the world has ever known! Huzzah!!!
Clootie says:
“In the spirit of building bridges I will be quite happy to join them for a celebration drink on the 19th.”
You’re nae fussy aboot the company you keep, then?
Did Jean get her Saltire trailer then?
Nana Smith.
Always like hearing Craig Murray talk. Very honest man.
Muttley 79.
Looks like most of us will be up and online throughout the voting. Big supply of tea and biscuits ready
Poor D&G YES voters are the party poopers from hell. They will be able to hear the cheering of YESSERS from Aberdeen.
Feeling good today.
The MSM have tried to whitewash over the Darling collapse and are desperately trying to shift focus. Wonder what shit they will throw at us over the nest few days to ” balance” the argument for NO.
Usual drivel i expect and that’s fine by me. Scotland is awake and restless.
Roll on the 19th
Perhaps they needed to remove the word Scottish and replace it with British.
Charles Kennedy is another one that I used to admire, I felt sorry for him when he got shafted by his own party to make way for a clone.
But he is a BritNat like the rest of them, it seems that Westminster has the power to corrupt.
He must know the chat that goes on there and he must know that Scotland has been kept down over the years – shame on him.
Also the extreme ignorance of some of the audience – we will have to join the euro – give it a rest.
Cath – you absolutely hit the nail on the head! A monumentous opportunity to celebrate doing nothing.
@Nana
Tweeted that Craig Murray clip – hope you don’t mind – deserves wide audience.
@X_Sticks
Not at all, the more folk see & hear this the better.
I am waiting for my luncheon invite from Jim Murphy on the 19th.
Sorry no Champers on on the menu,but bring your own Irn Bru:)
D&G is getting there, but it’s tough down here and the national campaigns, tbh, aren’t exactly helping. Salmond hasn’t been down, Nicola came on one flying visit with very little publicity, Yestival barely touched the region and we’ve only just, as of last week, got a regional Business for Scotland group set up.
Half the region couldn’t watch the STV debate, we get our local itv news from Newcastle and half our local newspapers decamped to Glasgow not so long ago. Our landscape is now littered with No Thanks signs in fields thanks to the Duke of Buccleuch and Alex Fergusson, or so I believe. Frustrating doesn’t come close.
Remember Galloway was the first region in which the SNP took a seat off the Conservatives, it’s not a lost cause but low population density here makes us a low priority.
Things are starting to pick up, Spirit of Independence is in Kirkcudbright today with a visit from Richard Lochhead and I hear it’s been mobbed with enthusiastic yes people, Yes Dumfries had events last night, Women for Independence this morning, Farming for Yes yesterday. We’re getting there…
The enthusiasm for YES is huge, I’m almost at the accosting people in the streets to talk about it stage, supermarket queues are fair game though ( a handfull of WBB in my back pocket helps )onward and upward folks, one conversation at a time.
Maybe they’re just going to stick a maypole in Tory Rory’s big pile and have tea and scones whilst the morris dancers jangles their dangles.
Mind and clear up after you, stanes an’ a’.
geeo
they also claim that 63m people contribute to the pension pot but less than half of that number actually work and many that do live in poverty.
@ crisiscult
I, too, listened to GMS Scotland as the chairman or CEO (I cannot remember which) of the Weir Group was interviewed. At one point, he was asked how many his Group employed, to which he replied, “15,000”, and a little later, how many in Scotland? “600.” He then went on to describe the uncertainty and additional costs of dealing with rUK post-independence. There you have it in a nutshell. A man, whose company deals successfully with many countries throughout the world with all the attendant problems that brings, is worried about dealings with his next door neighbour. I sometimes wonder just what sort of intellect, if any, these so-called captains of industry really. What the interviewer ought to have asked is “when did you last donate to the Tory Party and how much was it?” Then, we might have got to the real purpose of this letter to the press.
By the way, Business for Scotland has in excess of 2,500 small businesses signed up, which, in my opinion, employs far more than the “50,000” quoted by these 130 signatories.
Stu – in the light of “as it emerged that he(Alistair Darling) and over 200 other MPs and Peers have received payments from companies involved in private healthcare” would it be possible to find out how many of the 130 Business Leaders who signed the open letter recommending a NO vote can actually vote on the referendum? Could be interesting.
@Ken500 says:
27 August, 2014 at 10:15 am
“No show
No tickets sold. Deposit about to lost.
Bring it on.”
Or they found out the YES party was to be bigger better happier event along with wanting to mingle with the winners
Postal votes heading into a Privatised Tory run Royal Mail system.
Much scope for fiddling about.
Personally, I wouldn’t risk it.
The mocker gawds are watching Dumfries tories.
@Douglas Macdonald
yes, I’m on your side on this. I’d just like to hear these guys challenged, or at least forced to go more into the logic and ‘science’ behind their comments. GMS admittedly go easier on non-politicians but this morning he was just allowed to funnel some ideas into the heads of those getting ready to go to work or on their way to work that business will flock south. This needs challenging quickly. I mean everyone given time to analyse this situation will realise that selfish businessmen who are already doing well out of the current arrangements will have no great desire to change it (whether or not they are British nationalists), even if there’s the chance they could be better off: why change it?
we already know that there are businesses basically threatening their staff. BT took a knock this week, and currency may have run out of mileage. Short of serious dirty tricks (wait till a week into the receipt of postal votes), new lines of attack must be used.
We need to redouble efforts to get the disaffected registered and voting. They’ll be less swayed by threats from well heeled, well connected businessmen.
No caviar for the CBI dinner BBC Scotland are reporting. Just heard on the radio that the CBI have been pulled up for spending too much on this event and exceeding the allowances for referendum spending. The Electoral Commission has mentioned the prosecution service and court proceedings apparently.
Those predominately Tory business signatories to that fright missive serving as the Unionist daily dose of scare/doom show a insouciant hubris almost comic in its Gilbert and Sullivan chorusing.
Dumfries and Galloway?!!!
Could they all be secret members of a certain satanic clan that burn folk they don’t like inside wooden effigies?
Presumptuous and arrogant. Would like to see them hoisted by their own petard. Schadenfreude but nevertheless joyful. They seem used to authoritarian language telling them what to do, going by this. One thing I DON’T understand, why are they so angry, combative and provocative all the time?
I would absolutely love to be at their champagne celebration the day after a resounding Yes vote. Imagine watching all the Tories drowning their sorrows in champagne… imagine the look on their faces. I want to go!
Dumfries is and was a Labour town, unlike the County. I was doonhame a few months ago to a couple of birthday celebrations and had to listen to BT bullshit from quite a number of working class attendees.
What became clear is that as the Scottish media has almost no presence because of Border TV and N.E. English domination, that people in D +G are starved of any real debate.
I listened to guys talking about’immigration’ and other Daily Mail inspired lies. I challenged them and pointed out that the area’s sad decline had happened because of the Union, not because loads of immigrants had flooded the area.
Grudgingly, I got affirmatives about that, but I had no time to spend really driving home all the arguments. What really shocked me was the basic lack of patriotism amongst these guys…not meaning Braveheart mode here, but just a desire to see Scotland better off appeared sadly lacking.
The place needs some heavy hitters down there to galvanise the ‘Yes’ vote. I couldn’t bear my home town to vote ‘No’!
Dumfries only Labour since the retirement of Hector Munro in 1997.
it has been Tory for more of my life has it has been Labour. There are still wealthy landowners in the area and a “doff your cap” attitude in the rural areas around the town. Also a great deal of retired people who came from further south with plenty of money to buy up property. Amongst the Labour voting, working class there does seem to be an overall attitude of “we cannae dae that”, “we’d be useless at that”. Not sure where that attitude comes from other than the historical suppression of culture and language and the encouragement of deference to “one’s betters”. A working class Doonhamer myself, I was lucky enough to have parents who taught me that no one was any better than me, although it did take me a long time to realise that it was true. I’ve though, since about the age of 5 that, a) The idea of royalty is abhorrent and b) that Scotland should run its own affairs. I’m just hoping in my lifetime I’ll see on independent socialist republic of Scotland.