Wings Over Scotland

5 April, 2018 at 10:33 am

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cearc says:

Chick,

Sssh,I’ll let you into a secret. Capella looks a tad older than her avatar photie but it doesn’t worry her.

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Smallaxe says:

5 April, 2018 at 11:01 am

For Nana
link to youtube.com

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Tinto Chiel says:

5 April, 2018 at 11:50 am

I see the trolls on the M/T are now talking to each other. Either that or it’s the one wee guy in his Winceyette dressing gown with a multiple-personality disorder.

It’s a funny old game, Saint.

*Attains Zen-like state by staring at a silver birch*

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Smallaxe says:

5 April, 2018 at 12:54 pm

Macart,

Nana sends her regards, my friend, she is in quite a bit of pain with her hands and mentally pained by the amount of trolling on the M/T. She is taking some time off for a bit of RnR.

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Macart says:

5 April, 2018 at 1:13 pm

@Smallaxe

Thought that might be the case. Give Nana my best if you’re in touch.

As for MT? Yes there is a fair amount these days and in a twisted way it’s quite a good thing. It lets people know two things.

1. Just what a threat the opposition consider the site to be
2. That they’re just as aware of what’s likely to happen in the very near future as we are and need this site either spoiled or taken out altogether

The latter is unlikely and the former would take a great deal more than a handful spoilers. Best advice to follow is the REVs. Don’t react to them directly. Don’t even refer to them via a secondary post. Send him an email if you’re at all concerned and I’d personally add walk on by.

Spoilers thrive on contact and notice. They don’t care about debate. Refutation of their thread busters won’t phase them in the slightest. They are kept current throughout a thread by constant reference to their posting. You can’t get rid of them easily either, but you can limit their visibility by no giving them any. Readers choose the kind of experience they can have. Probably the most pissed off person at this point will be the Rev himself.

Anyroads, have a good one Smallaxe.

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Smallaxe says:

5 April, 2018 at 1:21 pm

Macart,

We’re on the same page with that, my friend. I will tell Nana that you send her your best next time I speak to her.

Keep on keepin’ on.

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Smallaxe says:

5 April, 2018 at 1:49 pm

Internet Trolls: The Musical;
link to youtube.com

Handsome bastards, int they!

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Liz g says:

5 April, 2018 at 1:57 pm

Smallaxe @ 1.21
Can you also pass on my best wishes to Nana as well please Smallaxe?

Good to see you posting too,hope you are keeping well.
Tell Mrs Smallaxe I’m askin for her.X

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Smallaxe says:

5 April, 2018 at 2:13 pm

Liz g,

Will do, Liz, I hope you and yours are well my friend.

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Ruglonian says:

5 April, 2018 at 3:14 pm

Hiya, just popping in to say that I’m coming up to Glenrothes on Saturday – can’t wait to see you all

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Cactus says:

5 April, 2018 at 4:30 pm

Excellent, shaping up good for Glenrothes.

Cheers for the model song TC.

Be visible this weekend.

On the roads.

Yes.

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Tinto Chiel says:

5 April, 2018 at 5:56 pm

“Cheers for the model song TC.”

Mon plaisir, Cactus, mon vieux.

WARNING: NEIL OLIVER ALERT (GLASGOW AREA).

I was out at a West End “small plates” hip ‘n’ hipster joint for lunch today (I will ignore any pert, smart-arse remarks like, “Wrong joint, Methuselah” and “Shurely shome mishtake!”)

Anyhow, a red Glasgow City tour bus pulled up at the stop near the front door, full of tourists enjoying the cool spring sunshine. So far, so normal.

It was then I noticed the poster on the top deck: there was Silvrikin Boy in all his smirking glory, wearing a preppy wee tweed jacket and a groovy knotted scarf his mammy probs gave him for his Christmas, and the fateful words “With Neil Oliver historical commentary.”

By the time I had got to the old affogato, five of these bloody buses had stopped, causing mixed feelings of rage and queasiness. Fortunately, I had a carafe of the old vino tinto to calm my confused feelings.

People of Glasgow: be warned.

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Tinto Chiel says:

5 April, 2018 at 6:14 pm

Oh! In that case, can I do this again?

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CameronB Brodie says:

5 April, 2018 at 8:39 pm

How’s about some anti-Semitic vibes to shake your beetroot to. Nice.

Stan Getz (with Charlie Byrd) – Samba de Uma Nota Só
link to youtube.com

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Brian Doonthetoon says:

5 April, 2018 at 9:25 pm

Hi CameronB.

My Dad left in 2001. I know what you’re going through.

Onnyhoo, your “anti-Semitic vibes” mention.

I always thought it somewhat ironic that the “anti-Semitic vibes” crowd embraced this song, which was put together by a couple of Jewish guys.

“Kander’s and Ebb’s greatest acclaim came from the musical Cabaret (1966) and the 1972 film version. The musical, directed by frequent collaborator Harold Prince, was a major success, with a Broadway run of over 1,100 performances. It won a Tony Award as the season’s best musical, and its original cast recording won a Grammy Award. The film, directed by Bob Fosse, won eight Academy Awards.”

5 April, 2018 at 10:32 pm

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Lucia Daines says:

5 April, 2018 at 9:55 pm

Paula is insisting on turning up on Saturday I think she’s staying at the Holiday express somewhere – can you please look after her, she’s mad.

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CameronB Brodie says:

Brian Doonthetoon
Cheers mate.

British nationalism and Zionism have many similarities, so it will come as no great surprise that British Christian Zionists who conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, really twist my bits.

@ BLiS____d
You support an Israeli state so why not a Scottish state? That not a bit prejudiced of you against Scots?

Zionism: A Critical Account 1897-1948. The Development of Israel and the Exodus of Palestine from A “New Historian” Perspective.

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyse the traditional Israel viewpoint of its establishment against that expressed by “new historians.” Since the declassification of Israeli and British military documents new evidence has brought to light an alternative Israeli history. Told by new historians, this history offers a compelling alternative to that told by Zionists showing Israel as an aggressive colonial movement intent on establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine whilst transferring its Arab inhabitants across the borders. This paper will aim to show the development of Zionism as an ideology to its establishment in the State of Israel whilst assessing new historian claims.

link to polis.leeds.ac.uk

ABSTRACTS

From Post-Zionism to the Renewal of Zionism

The discussion regarding post-Zionism has turned into one of the major focal points within Israeli society. The debate involves claims which can be defined as negative post-Zionism and positive post-Zionism. This paper deals with the positive post-Zionism which is not anti-Zionist. It raises important issues concerning the existence of the State of Israel, the collective existence of the Jewish nation and the relevance or irrelevance of a contemporary Zionist ideology. Responding to these issues the author starts by presenting three angles for examining the Zionist movement as a historical phenomenon: 1) Comparison with other national movements; 2) Reviewing internal developments and crises in the history of the Zionist movement; 3) Surveying the relations between the State of Israel and the Diaspora.

link to in.bgu.ac.il

Unamendability in Israel – A Critical Perspective

Abstract

This chapter explores unamendability in Israel. Even though Israel has no full or formal constitution, and no specific amendment rules, two forms of unamdenability could be identified. The first form is concealed unamendability, which prevents certain kinds of amendments through controlling the composition of the Knesset (the legislature which also has the power enact and amend constitutional Basic Laws). The second is judicially-introduced unwritten unamendability. Unamendability in both cases aims to protect Israel’s definition as a Jewish and democratic state. The chapter will examine both forms of unamendability and the functions they serve, highlighting the expressive and the preservative functions. It will also examine the implications of unamendability for constitutionalism in Israel emphasizing the impact of entrenching particular values such as the Jewish definition and its contribution to creating a hierarchy among the citizenry and the entrenchment of favourable status for certain groups.

link to papers.ssrn.com

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Daisy Walker says:

6 April, 2018 at 10:31 am

Hello Ronnie Anderson,

re contacting Lindsay Bruce, what would be the best way of doing that?

For your info, I’ve gone ahead and placed an order for the items discussed, should have delivery (all going well) about 3 weeks time.

Its nothing sinister folks, or illegal, in case folk are wondering.

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CameronB Brodie says:

6 April, 2018 at 11:55 am

What Pat Robertson Teaches Us

From the late seventies to the mid-eighties, the Christian Broadcasting Network grew increasingly political. But what it offered wasn’t ordinary political discourse: Robertson intentionally crossed the line separating legitimate and illegitimate political opinions, at least as they were understood by mainstream influencers and authorities. Importantly, he did so in ways that were strategic and appealing to his target audience, even when his opinions appalled the gatekeepers of mainstream culture. Heaton recounts this anecdote from the early eighties, emblematic of The 700 Club’s risky political commentary:

Pat told Ben Kinchlow and Danuta Soderman during one off-the-cuff, unscripted conversation on the air live that only Christians and Jews were qualified to hold public office in the United States. Many people — including NBC News — pointed to this moment as evidence that Pat was far outside what journalist Daniel C. Hallin calls the “sphere of legitimate debate,” but Pat was speaking directly to his constituency and didn’t care how his critics would interpret it. To those who believe the US was built on Judeo-Christian principles, it’s easy to accept a statement that only Jews and Christians would be qualified to run it, but this concept is foreign to those who believe the Founding Fathers were more open and tolerant. More often than not, this was the case with statements that might seem outrageous to others, especially liberals.

link to jacobinmag.com

Eugene Chadbourne & Camper Van Beethoven – Evil Filthy Preacher
link to youtube.com

Re. Eugene Chadbourne. Once referred to as a direct threat to the American way of life, by Whitehouse spokesman for President Ronald Reagan.

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ronnie anderson says:

6 April, 2018 at 1:29 pm

@ Daisy Walker Lindsey’s number AyeMail 01578740242 business hours Mon Frid . Are U going to Wings nite out

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CameronB Brodie says:

6 April, 2018 at 3:03 pm

In an age of fake news and media bias (see the new Lourdes of Salisbury, for example), it’s important to remember that making political decisions based on lazy thinking, generally leads to right-wing authoritarian governments. I’d wager the Tories depend on this ‘feature’ of human psychology, for a healthy proportion of their votes. Also, ‘common sense’, right-wing populism (i.e. reactionary conservatism), can appear attractive even to the moderate individual, if they are primed correctly.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior
Routes to Persuasion, Central and Peripheral

Two Routes to Persuasion
An overarching theme in psychology over the past few decades has been that people do not always operate at their full processing capacity. That is, people sometimes think carefully about things, but they can’t possibly think carefully about every piece of information or message that they encounter. Instead, people often rely on heuristics, or decision-making shortcuts. These varying levels of thought, or elaboration, have consequences for how information is received and its persuasive impact.

The ELM is an early example of what became an explosion of dual-process and dual-system theories of decision making and judgment. However, rather than proposing that people think either in one way or the other, it proposes a continuum of thinking (elaboration) with a different persuasion process (or “route”) occurring at each end of the continuum and a combination of the respective processes under each route at moderate levels of thinking. In the ELM, persuasion based on relatively high degrees of thinking is called the central route to persuasion, whereas persuasion that occurs with relatively little thinking is called the peripheral route to persuasion. These different routes mean that different people can respond to the same information quite differently or the same people can respond differently to the same information under different circumstances. Importantly, whether persuasion results from relatively high or low amounts of thinking will result in very different consequences….

link to psy.ohio-state.edu

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chasanderson200 says:

6 April, 2018 at 8:44 pm

See over on 24 little hours on main thread for latest on WINGS NIGHT OUT tomorrow in Glenrothes.

Posted there in error

See you tomorrow.

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cearc says:

6 April, 2018 at 10:28 pm

Ms. Daines,

I think so. I don’t seem to have Paula’s phone no. on my new phone. Perhaps you could text it to me.

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Daisy Walker says:

7 April, 2018 at 9:07 am

@ Ronnie Anderson – thanks for that, I’ll phone Lindsay on Monday.

Wish I could come to the night out, but other commitments, sorry.

Have a great time all.

Cheerie the noo.

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cearc says:

7 April, 2018 at 12:32 pm

Hmm, very quiet in here this morning. Plumps cushions, exits stage left (no bears).

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CameronB Brodie says:

7 April, 2018 at 1:03 pm

Is it logical to hope the Conservative party will govern in the interests of the majority, given the nature of the party’s ideological core – the “philosophy of inequality”?

An introduction to Social Policy
The politics of welfare

Conservatism

Conservatives believe in the importance of social order. This is reflected in a respect for tradition, an emphasis on the importance of religion, and a stress on the importance of inequality – such as inequalities of class or caste – as the basis for structured social relationships. Welfare is a secondary issue, but the kinds of concerns which conservatives have are likely to impose restraints on welfare, with a particular emphasis on traditional values in work, the family, and nationhood. Welfare does raise concern where it is seen to have implications for public order – one British conservative commented, in commending the Beveridge report, that “if you do not give the people social reform they are going to give you revolution.”

Christian democratic thought is closely related to conservatism, but it also has important distinguishing features. Like conservatives, Christian Democrats place a strong emphasis on order; but order is to be achieved, not primarily through state action, but by moral restraints. These moral restraints have principally in Europe reflected the influence of the Catholic religion. Catholic social teaching has emphasised both the limits of the state and the responsibility of people in families and communities for each other; christian democrats tend, then, to favour limitations in the role of the state while at the same time accepting moral responsibility for social welfare.

link to spicker.uk

Conservatism: A Philosophy of Inequality?

Conservatism is often described as a philosophy of inequality, Dean Blackburn writes. Whereas socialists and social democrats are concerned, above all else, with achieving egalitarian objectives, conservatives, it is argued, are committed to preserving disparities of wealth and status. In a recent article, which has been published by Political Studies (see link below), I challenge this description of conservatism. Central to my argument is a particular understanding of the way that Conservatives understand politics. Conservatives are suspicious of rationalism. And in turn, they are reluctant so suggest that any methods or organisation of society are universally valuable. Instead, they use the past as a guide to appropriate political action. And if particular practices are able to demonstrate that they are conducive to ‘organic’ forms of change, the conservative is willing to accommodate them. It follows that there are no logical constraints on the conservative’s engagement with concepts like equality. Put simply, if an egalitarian measure can demonstrate that it is conducive to organic forms of change, the conservative will be compelled to endorse it.

link to blogs.nottingham.ac.uk

Should we care about inequality? A Critical Analysis of Pinker’s Optimism

….Some people defend the intrinsic value of equality on the grounds that being treated equally is important in order to respect the agency/capacity of the individual. Shlomi Segall, for example, has argued that inequality in outcomes is intrinsically bad whenever it results from forces beyond the individual’s control. This implies that inequality might be tolerable when it results from forces within the individual’s control. What matters is that individual effort and responsibility determine one’s share in the social surplus. When this is not the case, inequality of outcomes is intrinsically bad.

link to philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.co.uk

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CameronB Brodie says:

7 April, 2018 at 1:42 pm

An “organic social structure” sounds like a good thing, right?

Social System: Elements, Classification and Pre-requisites and Mechanism

The concept of social system is closely related to the concept of social structure. We have already defined the meaning of social system and distinguished it from social structure. As remarked therein social system refers to the functional aspect of social structure. Social structure is the means through which social system functions.

link to sociologydiscussion.com

Social Structure in the Global Perspective

Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

In a society exhibiting mechanical solidarity, its cohesion and integration comes from the homogeneity of individuals. People feel connected through similar work, educational and religious training, and lifestyle. Mechanical solidarity normally operates in “traditional” and small-scale societies, and it is usually based on kinship ties of familial networks.

Organic solidarity is social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals have on each other in more advanced societies. It comes from the interdependence that arises from specialization of work and the complementarities between people—a development that occurs in “modern” and “industrial” societies. Although individuals perform different tasks and often have different values and interest, the order and very solidarity of society depends on their reliance on each other to perform their specified tasks. “Organic” refers to the interdependence of the component parts. Thus, social solidarity is maintained in more complex societies through the interdependence of its component parts (e.g., farmers produce the food to feed the factory workers who produce the tractors that allow the farmer to produce the food). As a simple example, farmers produce food to feed factory workers who produce tractors that, in the end, allow the farmer to produce more food.

The two types of solidarity can be distinguished by formal and demographic features, type of norms in existence, and the intensity and content of the conscience collective.

link to courses.lumenlearning.com

ORGANIC SOCIETY
Social Classes

The Natural Candidate to Exercise Power

Power or command is metaphysically a good. Normally it results from a great service rendered to the community. In the past, three or four families in a country represented the glory of that country, giving it great saints, generals, artists and men of good taste who helped the country acquire a civilized tonus. Should such a country become independent, the future king would normally be chosen from one of those families. It is service rendered that gives birth to leadership, and leadership normally merges with royalty.

In these conditions, leadership or royalty is considered a good per se and not a fruit of a certain economic situation. A norm like this would be wrong and undignified: “Whoever has the most money in a country, so long as he is the wealthiest, is the king.” Human nature would be insulted by this norm, because human society is not a commercial enterprise.

link to traditioninaction.org

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Tinto Chiel says:

7 April, 2018 at 3:40 pm

Hope everyone has a great night at The Otter Inn tonight and celebrates the huge success of the crowdfunder.

Maybe this will get you in the mood: exclusive footage of my last day at work…..

link to historytothepublic.org

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Quinie frae Angus says:

7 April, 2018 at 3:45 pm

Hi Wingers, is anyone driving up from Glasgow to Glenrothes leaving at about 5.45/6pm?

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jdman says:

7 April, 2018 at 6:33 pm

Sorry I cant make it tonight guys,
I haven’t been feeling too well for the last couple of day, nothing serious, just a very sore throat and a sore head, been cooped up indoors too long I think.
enjoy your night.

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CameronB Brodie says:

7 April, 2018 at 7:36 pm

@Sick of socialism
“Because tories are smarter than communists”

Erm, do you really equate socialists with communists and do believe Tories actually value reason? Are you a bit of a snob, perhaps? I take it you are aware that the British identity and British nationalism, are expressions of Tory tradition and ethos?

@BBC in Scotland
Take note!

Anti-intellectualism at the Heart of British National Identity

‘I think people in this country have had enough of experts’, proclaimed prominent Leave campaigner Michael Gove in a live Q&A session during the recent Brexit debate in the UK. This statement became the most notorious example of what Dominic Shellard, Vice-Chancellor of De Montfort University, criticized as the ‘pernicious anti-intellectualism’ that characterized—and impoverished—much of the debate. Shellard also expressed the concern, shared by a number of academics, that the Leave campaign’s victory was at least partly due to its use of such anti-‘expert’ rhetoric….

THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE OF REASON: HOW
ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM, DENIALISM, AND APATHY THREATEN
NATIONAL SECURITY

ABSTRACT

This thesis explores the roots and manifestations of anti-intellectualism, denialism and apathy. Philosophical in its design, this research explores the following question: What are the potential effects of cultural anti-intellectualism on the construction and execution of national security and homeland security policy? Specifically, it focuses on how anti-intellectualism can affect how a course of action is created, presented, messaged, supported, and executed. The thesis amasses a review of previous research on the nature and manifestations of this issue and offers an account of the prospective
implications for the securities field.

Utilizing a case study model, this research explores three examples to highlight the manifestation of this current problem. The findings indicate that anti-intellectualism impacts the highest levels of the political, media, and security processes and, as such, requires practitioners to acknowledge and address its influence. This thesis concludes by arguing that widespread ignorance of objective reality poses a threat to the democratic process. It provides three overarching strategies designed to limit the impact of anti-intellectualism in the policy process and demonstrates that, in the intricate and dynamic matters of our nation’s security, there is an ethical imperative for “reason” and factual discussion to rule the policy process.

link to hsdl.org

Fighting Back Against Anti-intellectualism
We shouldn’t rely on intellectuals to eradicate anti-intellectualism

….First, let’s rebut a common misperception about anti-intellectualism: that the only real opponents to anti-intellectualism are intellectuals. In fact, contrary to this elitist view, ordinary working men and working women are quite capable of recognizing the political idiocy, fear-based messaging, emotional manipulation, religious pandering, and other irrational tactics and actions that are commonplace in our anti-intellectual culture. In fact, especially in a democracy, the fight against anti-reason can ultimately be won only at the grassroots, via a general population that recognizes it, rejects it, and demands more rational public policy that reflects real human interests.

With this in mind, the primary role for intellectuals and activists in the fight against anti-intellectualism is simply to raise awareness among ordinary people of the existence of the problem and its cultural and political consequences. If it seems to average citizens that the system is rigged, serving large institutional interests rather than real humans, they need to realize that anti-intellectualism is a major reason why.

link to psychologytoday.com

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CameronB Brodie says:

7 April, 2018 at 7:40 pm

I’m afraid I’m the same as jdman. I’ll catch folk at the next one though.

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Tinto Chiel says:

7 April, 2018 at 7:55 pm

This old favourite is for Boris and Strong ‘n’ Stable:

7 April, 2018 at 10:50 pm

Thanks again, Cameron B, who posted it originally.

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Fred says:

Superb Tinto!

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Thepnr says:

7 April, 2018 at 11:34 pm

@Tinto Chiel

I’m smiling because I’m sitting outdoors on a balcony of an apartment at 12:30 in Italy and playing this LOL wonder what the neighbours think

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CameronB Brodie says:

8 April, 2018 at 1:56 am

This is what happens when I’m stuck at home with nothing particular to do.

‘Had enough of experts?’ Anti-intellectualism is linked to voters’ support for movements that are skeptical of expertise

The success of politicians (e.g., Donald Trump) and political movements (e.g., Brexit) that express skepticism toward experts raises important questions about the political implications of declining trust in expertise. Research from Matt Motta shows that anti-intellectualism – the distrust and dislike of experts – is associated with support for political candidates and movements who share those feelings. It is also linked with opposition to scientific consensus on climate change and nuclear power.

In June 2016, outspoken Brexit advocate Michael Gove claimed that the United Kingdom has “had enough of experts.” Gove was apparently “glad” that his campaign failed to win the support of European Union economists; echoing the catchphrase of America’s most-prominent Brexit supporter in telling them, “you’re fired!” On the campaign trail, President Trump – who frequently expressed skepticism towards economic and scientific expertise – returned the favor by declaring himself “Mr. Brexit.”

link to blogs.lse.ac.uk

Sociology of Culture and Cultural Studies: Towards a Postsocialist Reconciliation

This paper investigates the relationship between the sociology of culture and cultural studies. It is argued that the relationship calls for a more in-depth inquiry because the two strands of analysis of culture bear much in common; yet, due to mutual misconceptions and misunderstanding of the research goals, their common agenda is often ignored (or even opposed). In addition, the shared legacies are often obscured by geographic and intellectual cultures that fall within the dividing lines between Western (democratic capitalist) and Eastern European(postsocialist) epistemological orientations in studying social change. As a result, both fields are losing in their theoretical power and practical pedagogy. The paper points to the origins of some of the mutual misconceptions with the goal of showing the potential for the mutually enforcing intellectual energy if the sociology of culture and cultural studies shift their relationship from practicing ignorance to embracing a dialogue.

link to hrcak.srce.hr (opens as pdf)

Organic social change

ABSTRACT

The distinctness of each person’s life and experience is an important consideration in dominant accounts of how democratic institutions should distribute basic rights and liberties. Drawing on recent social movements, philosophers like Iris Marion Young, Miranda Fricker, and Axel Honneth have nonetheless drawn attention to the distinctive claims and challenges that plurality and difference entrain in democratic societies by analysing how the dominant discourses on rights and justice tend to elide, obscure, or reify the lived experiences of individuals belonging to disadvantaged and oppressed groups.

In this essay, I offer an independent justification for why we should take such lived experiences seriously. I show how the lived experiences of disadvantaged and oppressed individuals can be a resource for deep and meaningful social change. I propose a distinctive kind of social change in which the disadvantaged and oppressed themselves drive the process of transformation whereby they change the oppressive frames of difference relating to their race, class, sex, or ability. I call this kind ‘organic social change’. I also show that organic social change is distinctively important in that the disadvantaged and oppressed get to enact an empowering mode of cooperation that harnesses their singularities when they are the ones driving the process of their own and one another’s transformations.

8 April, 2018 at 10:10 am

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K1 says:

8 April, 2018 at 2:53 am

The referendum lead up itself ‘fits’ with that ‘organic social change’ model imv. We in Scotland are disadvantaged and oppressed politically, have been for centuries, by the simple fact of our neighbours dominating our educational and cultural institutions and imposing ‘their’ belief system upon us. We cannot ever get the government we vote for under any circumstances because of the population difference between our two countries, and that has defined our sense of powerlessness…as a nation/polity.

We wish to harness our own potential and make Scotland the place that reflects the outlook of those living and working here, we cannot continue to be dominated and denigrated by another country’s ‘cultural supremacy’ because of ‘numbers’.

We did drive our own process of transformation in the lead up to the vote and the subsequent dismissal of a level of governance in 2015 that we hitherto had ‘automatically’ previously voted in. That nvolved a mass cooperative effort for us to achieve that phenomenal result in one fell swoop.

Yeah, sure they fought back in 2017…but what did that accomplish really? Nothing…as we see by the teaming up of the old guard in all structures of our governance from council through MSP to MP to thwart our continuing transformation from ‘put upon’ to ‘not putting up with’. We’re still in the middle of our ‘organic social change’ and there is nothing that is going to stop this momentum.

They should be studying Scotland’s recent political landscape as a first class example of that very concept.

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Tinto Chiel says:

8 April, 2018 at 9:08 am

Thepnr: not quite sure what the Italian is for “stooge of the Kremlin.”

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cearc says:

8 April, 2018 at 9:20 am

TC,

Oi, you weren’t in Glenrothes last night, no velvet loon pants to be seen!

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Tinto Chiel says:

8 April, 2018 at 9:46 am

cearc: hope you had a good time with the other vile seps. Sorry I couldn’t be there but I’m dry-cleaning my gorgeous troosers for 5/5. Tbf, I was in Glenrothes in Feb, when I had my Yew Tree Experience. I’ve always been a trail-blazer, me.

While you’re here, I was flicking casually through Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica, vol. 6, page 22 (as you do) and noticed, under “broc” that he says badgers like carrots. I’ve got a wee one who comes into the garden at night on his nocturnal circuit and so I put a couple of nice ones out for him. Unfortunately, he was unimpressed and left them after a careful sniff.

Has Cactus been bailed yet?

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Tinto Chiel says:

Fts, Fred: *wipes away a silent tear*, eh?

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Smallaxe says:

8 April, 2018 at 10:37 am

Tonto Chief,

“Hi Ho Silver”
link to youtube.com

Hi Tinto.

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Daisy Walker says:

8 April, 2018 at 10:49 am

I wanted to reply on Scot Goes Pop (but technical issues won’t allow) re the latest comment about Pete Wishart. I am deeply concerned about Pete’s current stance.

I know many people here read his blog…. so

Pete Wishywashy. If the purpose of his current view, is ‘party before country, business as usual, a gradualists approach and keep his job down in London’. He’s on a very sticky wicket. I live in his constituency, I’ve always voted SNP, I will NOT vote for him again if he continues in this vein.

And here’s why I think he’s wrong, Indyref1 was a ‘no change or a big change’ choice. Brexit changes everything. The UK is truly ”cked with Brexit, and if we remain with it, we’ll be ”ucked x 2 as they screw us over even more to keep afloat.

If the SNP want to move position from full EU membership to EEA/EFTA I’m OK with that, remaining in the single market is the biggie for the economy, at least in the first instance. But what they have not done, what they continue to fail to do, is keep educating their constituents. We don’t have the BBC, so we have to be educating every day, at local level.

There is no point at all in producing SNP Car Bumper Stickers saying ‘stronger for Scotland’ – this tells no-one anything.

What they should be producing is posters like the ones IndyPosterBoy does and making them car window size (billboards cost too much and take too long).

They should have a theme, for several months at a time. By the end of the year, no-one in Scotland should be in ignorance of the facts of Scotland’s natural wealth and how it is stolen. The next theme is the sell off of our NHS, the next the devastation in jobs e Brexit, etc, etc.

And Brexit is project fear (real and big time) we need to make people aware of this, in the private sector, in education, in our emergency services (shift workers will get royally screwed re removal of working time directive), for our NHS, and farms and fishing industry.

In this way, what was previously Brexit/Immigration argument – becomes much, much more.

Indy for Scotland is now the life raft.

Our backs are to the wall now, its not about could we/should we, its about NOW WE MUST. Heaven help us if we don’t start to fight for it.

And that’s no up tae Pete or Nicla or Alex…. that’s on us. YES WE CAN – NOW WE MUST.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

8 April, 2018 at 11:07 am

Daisy Walker,

Well said, Daisy.

“Yes We Can”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

8 April, 2018 at 11:09 am

Morning, kemosabe.

One just for you.

8 April, 2018 at 11:26 am

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Morning Tinto,
We don’t want to finish up like this!

8 April, 2018 at 11:28 am

And we Won’t!

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

@ Prof. Tom Gallagher
Are you aware that three quarters of Scots born Scottish residents, identify as Scottish only. Can you suggest how the full English Brexit might respect this demographic, along with Scotland’s vote to remain in the EU? Do you support the principle of universal human rights, or are you a Tory?

Political Process Theory and Collective Action for Social Change by John Burdick
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

8 April, 2018 at 11:38 am

Hi CameronB,

Sorry to read about your loss, my friend. My thoughts are with you.

Reply

Breastplate says:

8 April, 2018 at 11:48 am

Daisy, I totally agree about Pete Wishart, it seems many of us see it as a slap in the face.
Regarding Scot goes pop, I’ve attempted to post comments on his site for years unsuccessfully and I’ve no idea what I’m doing wrong.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

8 April, 2018 at 11:58 am

Smallaxe
Thanks mate.

Reply

Fred says:

8 April, 2018 at 12:42 pm

@ Daisy, Westminster changes some people, it’s an exclusive & well-paid gentleman’s club with leather seating, cheap grub & booze on tap. From heraldic beasts to durty beasts it’s ambience has sucked in & changed greater men than Wishart.

@ Tinto, are U no confusing Brock with Buggs Bunny?

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

8 April, 2018 at 1:52 pm

Fred: no but I think this badger wasn’t a Gaelic speaker and didn’t know he was supposed to like them. He also knocked back a sweet potato I had cut up for him. Just back from “haunts of coot and tern” and heard my first willow warbler of the season: thought you should know.

Smallaxe: never heard that track before. I think I was in P7 or mebbe S1 when some of my class sneaked in to see “Soldier Blue”. They were mighty subdued when the came back to school. Previously they had thought the 7th cavalry were all dashing heroes…..

Reply

Smallaxe says:

8 April, 2018 at 2:33 pm

Tinto,

I went to see Soldier Blue one afternoon at the Odeon in Glasgow and nearly got PTSD.
“SOLDIER BLUE” BUFFY SAINTE MARIE TO ALL TRIBES LOST
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

8 April, 2018 at 2:57 pm

Smallaxe: and the same kind of psychos tried to do the same to half of us after 1746. I see SB was released in 1970 so I was well into secondary by then. I’ve only seem bits but they were pretty horrible.

I noticed auld highlander provided a link on the M/T this morning to Forbes’ Jacobite Memoirs. Pp.164 and on are generally gruesome.

All for our own good, of course.

Great living in The Last Colony, intit?

Reply

Cactus says:

8 April, 2018 at 3:14 pm

Hey chasanderson200, cheers for organising last night, good to be with you all and good times all round. I think an open mic in the top level of the Yes bar in Glasgow (if they don’t already do) would be a really good thing, btw ah was only finger-picking me guitar on me finger-pads, apols to the sleepy guests, also gotta high five from one of the maids in the morning, ah’ll be back hehe

Passion X.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

8 April, 2018 at 3:15 pm

How did we get here, Tinto?

This?
link to youtube.com

That^
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

8 April, 2018 at 3:32 pm

Cactus,

“Rockout Whatever You Feel Like”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Cactus says:

8 April, 2018 at 3:42 pm

Excellent rockin’ music Smallaxe

All new to me, checked some of their other ones.

I am going to buy the album now, one way… or another.

All the best bro.

Passion X.

Reply

Flower of Scotland says:

8 April, 2018 at 3:43 pm

@Daisy Walker

I agree. I feel guilty about criticising Pete Wishart because I like what he says at Westminster. I watch English Parliament TV! However his attitude is stressing me out.

A politician makes a statement on Twitter about the timing of a new IndyRef. Said politician then receives a lot of feed back mostly folk not agreeing. Politician gets annoyed and blocks other Yessers and creates a stuchie. Why did he do it? He is either naive or out of the loop of Scottish Politics.

I thought that maybe he wanted people to start talking about it but obviously not. You don’t block people if you want them to discuss.

I’m really annoyed. It’s got Yessers arguing amongst themselves. What kind of Politician does that?
Some SNP folk have said what a great guy Pete is. So what!

This whole thing stinks! I’ve always got behind every decision of SNP politicians but this! Argh!

Reply

Smallaxe says:

8 April, 2018 at 3:50 pm

Keep on keepin’ on, Cactus.

We’re all: “ROCK N ROLL CHILDREN”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

8 April, 2018 at 4:56 pm

K1
I’m glad to see someone picking up what I’m laying down. Thanks for your interpretation.

Reply

cearc says:

8 April, 2018 at 4:56 pm

Home Sweet Home! Thanks Chas, great evening.

Reply

Daisy Walker says:

8 April, 2018 at 5:14 pm

@ Flower of Scotland. (sorry for not replying sooner, I’ve been out).

I’m very loyal to the SNP believe it or not, in spite of my last post. I even have a lot of time for Pete (although maybe’s no just at the minute).

But it is deeply, deeply, concerning that anyone within the SNP does not realise the danger we are in from Brexit.

I say again, last time was a simple choice – change or no change. This time the economic destruction (long term according to forecasts) will devastate the UK as a whole and Scotland twice over as they double down on the asset stripping and destroy devolution / Holyrood.

There will be no majority SNP Party after Brexit, (anyone in the SNP who thinks that, is deluded – they will have even less credibility than Scottish Labour) and no new mandate for a new ref either.

The ‘Can we / should we? attitude is a luxury position we’ve gone beyond. Now we must.

Once this is realised, the concept of losing is simply not an option.

Once this is understood by the public, they will be onside, provided there is a clear and consistent path ahead – which is where the SNP and all within it have got to start providing the clear message.

It is not enough now to simply say ‘when the time is right or when we can win it’ (Shades of Brexit means Brexit). That is a missed open goal to bang home the consequences of Brexit if we do not.

I completely understand there will be posters here that think the above constructive criticism should be only for the meetings, not on a public forum. You have a point, but clear voices and clear criticism can clear the path and right just now Pete Wishart is the one doing the muddying.

Peace and love… and a wee bit chocolate if yir good.

Reply

chasanderson200 says:

8 April, 2018 at 5:35 pm

Cearc, Cactus, and all at Woodside, eh

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

8 April, 2018 at 9:38 pm

I’m really sorry for being a space-hog.

Inclusive Growth, Development and Welfare Policy: A Critical Assessment

The recent global financial crisis has increased the scope of poverty and inequality. The gap between the richest and poorest nations has become wider. National income inequality has also been on the rise. The prospect of a shift in designing and implementing development and welfare policies is strong in this new environment. The neoliberal policies of the Washington Consensus are giving way to development models which look to a more active government role in both economic and social policies. Meanwhile, in the parallel universe of welfare policy a fundamental realignment is already taking place. Faced with the current economic and social challenges, policy communities have turned to a variety of instruments to ensure that growth and social inclusion go together.

This book offers a systematic analysis of the growing convergence on these matters in the development and welfare state literatures, utilizing the experiences of a myriad of jurisdictions around the world. Drawing upon the expertise of leading international policymakers, practitioners, and academics in the field, this book critiques the theoretical underpinning of growth and development, examine welfare state perspectives on inclusive growth and social/economic development, and presents lessons learned and best/worst practices from the experiences of developing and developed nations.

link to routledge.com

UNDP’S STRATEGY FOR INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

2. WHY IS INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH CRITICAL TO AGENDA 2030 AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS)?

“Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” is Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In September 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change. In so doing, the world committed itself to achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social, and environmental – in a balanced and integrated manner.

Creating the conditions for inclusive and sustainable growth then is precisely an attempt to bridge these three dimensions of sustainable development. As noted by the SDG Outcome Document, “sustained, inclusive, and sustainable growth is essential for prosperity. This will only be possible if wealth is shared and income inequality is addressed. We will work to build dynamic, sustainable, people-centred economies, promoting youth employment and women’s economic empowerment, in particular, and decent work for all. […] We will strengthen the productive capacities of least-developed countries in all sectors, including through structural transformation. We will adopt policies that increase productive capacities, productivity, and productive employment, financial inclusion, sustainable agriculture, pastoralist and fisheries development, sustainable industrial development, and universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy services.”

link to undp.org

The Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2017

Policy Framework and Metrics

The ultimate objective of national economic performance is broad-based and sustained progress in living standards, a concept that encompasses wage and non-wage income (e.g., pension benefits) as well as economic opportunity, security and quality of life. This is the bottom-line basis on which a society evaluates the economic dimension of its country’s leadership. Many countries have had difficulty in satisfying social expectations in this regard. For example, in the last five years, annual median incomes declined by 2.4% in advanced economies, while GDP per capita growth averaged less than 1%. To borrow from a business concept, growth can be thought of as the top-line measure of national economic performance, with broad-based or median progress in living standards representing the bottom-line.

Inclusive growth can be thought of as a strategy to increase the extent to which the economy’s top-line performance is translated into the bottom-line result society is seeking, i.e., broad-based expansion of economic opportunity and prosperity. However, inclusive growth is more than that. An economy is not a business, and history and scholarship have shown that there is a feedback loop between the bottom- and top-lines (growth and equity) in a national economy. This feedback loop can run in either a positive or a negative direction. The extent to which it is a virtuous circle is influenced by a diverse mix of structural and institutional aspects of economic policy, going well beyond the two areas most commonly featured in discussions about inequality: education and redistribution.

link to www3.weforum.org

Reply

Ruglonian says:

9 April, 2018 at 12:33 am

Hey Chas, thanks for organising such an excellent do for us all!

Great to see everyone, and for those who couldn’t make it last night, I hope to see you in Glasgow next month

Special thanks to Cactus and Ronnie for the transportation and to Quine, Cearc, Liz and Craig Murray for a good gab x

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

9 April, 2018 at 1:28 am

@ Prof. Tom Gallagher
Seriously, do you honestly support the principle of universal human rights?

Defending Democracy Through Social Movements
link to youtube.com

Reply

Betty Boop says:

9 April, 2018 at 10:01 am

@ chasanderson200

Great night Chas. Hope all is well with your daughter.

Great to see the gang, old and new, for a relaxing, enjoyable evening. Thanks also to the Otter’s Head and staff who were superb. Buffet really good.

Sure I’ll see most, if not all, of you next month!

Reply

Fred says:

9 April, 2018 at 11:08 am

@ Daisy, keep on keepin on hen!

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

9 April, 2018 at 12:57 pm

Intit?

Reply

Fred says:

9 April, 2018 at 2:47 pm

@ Tinto, Aberdeen on a flag day?

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

9 April, 2018 at 2:50 pm

It should come as no great surprise that British nationalism and Zionism exhibit many of the same hegemonic traits and a similar pathology of outlook, as both are ideological belief-systems that are of the same ‘bloodline’.

The British left and Zionism: History of a divorce

The British left’s realignment from support to an increasingly critical stance towards Israel and Zionism has developed primarily in response to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and to the related implosion of Labour Zionism. But other factors have played their part, too. As anti-racism and human rights have assumed greater prominence in the left’s political outlook, its opposition to Zionism’s ‘blood and soil’ nationalism and to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories has intensified.

link to jstor.org

Zionist hegemony, the settler colonial conquest of Palestine and the problem with conflict: a critical genealogy of the notion of binary conflict

ABSTRACT

Describing the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories as a ‘binary conflict’ is taken as a value-free and academically neutral depiction. This article challenges the objective nature of the notion of binary conflict. Contributing to scholarship that prioritizes subjugated knowledge, this article poses that the depiction of the situation entirely in terms of conflict – and the rigid alterity that such a perspective tacitly transmits – should be recognized as a paradigm with an inherently Zionist bias. A genealogy of the notion of conflict shows how early Zionist leaders consciously advocated a framework of binary conflict in order to counter accusations of settler colonialism and garner the support of non-Zionist Jews and other potential allies.

This exposition draws out how the notion of binary conflict is instrumental in obscuring settler colonial dispossession and Palestinian lived experience; in forging the hegemonic unification of Zionist Jews; and in negating critique from third-party others. An understanding of how this perception of Israel–Palestine came about offers fresh insight into the strategies adopted by the early Zionist movement. Furthermore, acknowledging the power-nexus behind the binary conflict perspective has the potential to deepen our understanding of the discursive and oppressive mechanisms of contemporary settler colonialism.

link to bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk

What do we talk about when we talk about ‘national identity’?

Jewish-Israelis in Britain negotiating ‘national identity’ between Zionist ideology and diasporic reality

Abstract

This is a psychosocial research project investigating ‘national identity’ amongst middle class Jewish-Israelis in Britain. Its aim is to map key contents and highlight social categories that subjects draw on in their construction of
‘national identity’ and to study how they negotiate these categories and contents when narrating a story of ‘who they are’ as Israelis in Britain.

The first part of the thesis provides historical and theoretical background to the
study of national identities, with a focus on Jewish-Israeli identity in the context of Zionism. An empirical study is then presented, in which twelve Israelis living in London were interviewed in depth about their views on Israeli national identity, what it meant personally to them to be ‘an Israeli’, and what it meant to be ‘an Israeli in London’. Interviews were transcribed and a critical narrative approach was used to analyze the resulting texts, taking account of reflexive interview processes as well as exploring links with the broader cultural and political context.

The findings reveal the elasticity and fluidity of ‘Israeli identity’. Subjects drew on a shared cultural reservoir – Zionist images, preconceptions and signifiers – to describe their personalized experience of belonging to or alienation from an acceptable notion of ‘Israeliness’ while living abroad.

‘Israeli identity’ was constructed against stereotypical images of ‘the others’ which, at times, applied racist discourse. Subjects constructed ‘Israeliness’
differently depending on the context they referred to (e.g. Israeli or British society). Each context had its distinct ‘others’. Within the British context Israeliness was constructed against the images of ‘the local Jews’, the
‘English’ and the ‘local Arabs and Muslims’.

Constructing an Israeli identity was also influenced by the social position that subjects were implicated in, in relation to their class, ethnicity, gender, or occupation. This also shaped their experience of dislocation in Britain.

Most of the participants conformed with a mainstream perspective on Israeli nationalism and refrained from criticizing it. This was interpreted as a discourse reflecting their privileged socio-cultural position in Israel and their commitment to a Zionist ethos which condemns emigration. Such a portrayal of Israeliness both initiated and contributed to a sense of unsettledness characteristic of this middle-class group. Subjects moved back and forth between two identificatory positions (‘Ha’aretz’ and ‘Israel’) as their points of identification constantly changed. The research contributes to the analysis of nationalism phenomena and as sociated concepts such as diaspora and belonging among a middle class group of migrants. It outlines cultural, material and political forces that sustain nationalism yet also demonstrates ways through which subjects negotiate or resist the discourses and social categories offered to them for the construction of a ‘national identity’.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

9 April, 2018 at 3:05 pm

Sorry, I don’t won’t folk to think me an antisemitism, as well as a vile sep.

It should come as no great surprise that British nationalism and political Zionism exhibit many of the same hegemonic traits and a similar pathology of outlook, as both are ideological belief-systems that are of the same ‘bloodline’.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

9 April, 2018 at 3:43 pm

You knew what I meant (cleans new specks before putting them on).

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

9 April, 2018 at 6:15 pm

“@ Tinto, Aberdeen on a flag day? ?”

Ahead of a certain Glasgow cultural event on Saturday involving my wee diddy team, Fred, I couldn’t possibly comment: not too keen on the Rev’s hammers.

CameronB: one of the most offensive ideas peddled by the MSM und so weiter is that criticism of Israel’s actions is automatically anti-Semitic. I usually counter remarks by Zionist Exceptionalists by saying that my views merely coincide with those of many left-wing members of the Knesset, so how can they be anti-Semitic?

Your contributions are always interesting but I struggle to understand them, I’m afraid.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

9 April, 2018 at 7:07 pm

Tinto Chiel
I’m glad to hear you don’t tolerate Zionist exceptionalism, as I hadn’t taken you to be a racist. Sorry if the material I’m posting is tricky, there’s just no simple way of examining the ideological morphology of nationalisms, without making use of different ‘ologies’. Is there anything is particular that has you stumped?

@British Labour
Your support of the Israel state betrays the intellectual bankruptcy of your opposition to Scottish self-determination. In doing so, it also highlights the neo-colonial nature of your politics. Get it sorted!

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

9 April, 2018 at 7:56 pm

“Is there anything is particular that has you stumped?”

Nothing but my level of intellect, I’m afraid. I sometimes think some sociological/psychological/political terms obscure rather than clarify an idea/argument.

Hat off to you, or chapeau bas, as we say in the steppe country of Upper Darkest Lanarkshire.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

9 April, 2018 at 8:47 pm

Tinto Chiel
I’m no Brain of Britain mate, I simply have the advantage of having had a formal introduction to this stuff. I’m simply trying to pass on some of that insight, in the hope that some folk might get a better understanding of their circumstances. After all, British nationalism is a ‘false consciousness’ that is sustained through ignorance and tradition.

Understanding Ideological Change in Britain
Corbyn, BREXIT, and the BES Expert Surveys
link to nottingham.ac.uk

Reply

Fred says:

9 April, 2018 at 9:50 pm

@ Tinto, as a former Diddy I take your point! Anent “Cloacal” pearls before swine kid!

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

9 April, 2018 at 11:07 pm

Cameron B: keep on trucking, mate. Pebbles/ripples in a pool: you never know their effect. I agree with your direction of travel, though I miss some of the steps.

Fred: it’s my Joycean training. Glad a Left Bank intellectual like yourself spotted it.

I love that Peter Finch clip: it’s how I start most mornings!

Reply

Ruglonian says:

9 April, 2018 at 11:49 pm

Anyone take any photos in Glenrothes on Saturday?

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

9 April, 2018 at 11:54 pm

Tinto Chiel
Sorry mate, that last post might have come across as my being a bit defensive. It wasn’t meant to be.

I’ve got bigger fish to fry. ;(

Faust – J’ai Mal Aux Dents
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

10 April, 2018 at 12:05 am

Not at all, Cameron.

Mair pooer tae yir elbuck (and your dentist).

Dormez bien, j’espere.

Reply

Cactus says:

10 April, 2018 at 12:17 am

Hey mornin’ Ruglonian, yeah ah remembered to take a few, I’ll send you, just crowd shots mind, no close ups (well ah did take one selfie backshot, but that one is just for me, hehe.)

See y’all 05/05/2018.

Yes Glasgow.

Reply

Cactus says:

10 April, 2018 at 12:48 am

You have (1) new e-mail Ruglonian ~

Reply

Cactus says:

10 April, 2018 at 1:34 am

Disc 1 of TRUEBLOOD The Complete Fifth Season is in the drive.

The Complete Fourth Season kicked ass, many fae.

Going back to Sookie!

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

10 April, 2018 at 1:54 am

Some suggested reading for those with the time.

Ideology and the History of Science
link to philosophy.uchicago.edu

Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach
link to oxfordscholarship.com

Ideological Quietism? Ideology and Party Politics in Britain
link to journals.sagepub.com

Reply

Fred says:

10 April, 2018 at 11:13 am

@ Tinto, is there a Rive Gauche oot Motherwell wey?

This is an interesting wee tale of the entire staff of the Lerwick Post Office being jailed at the start of the Great War, hope this works, the hazards of being a Postie!

link to scotiana.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

10 April, 2018 at 1:10 pm

@BLiS____d
Do you support the principle of universal human rights or do you give preference to modern day colonialism and apartheid? Want to bomb the shit out of Syria? Comfortable in your nationalism?

Israel: Trauma, Oppression, and the Politics of a Fascist State
link to stopimperialism.org

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

10 April, 2018 at 4:13 pm

There’s a lot of gauche things oot that airt, Fred. I believe The Electric Bar near Airbles station has a lounge where philosophers, linguists and all manner of artists (!) can meet to discuss ontological and metaphysical matters, but I have never crossed its threshold.

Good Shetland story: nice to see the Scots word “arles” being used.

Hope Strong ‘n’ Stable Preying Mayntis doesn’t get any ideas and builds us all a gulag.

Reply

Fred says:

10 April, 2018 at 4:53 pm

The Heathery Bar, noo how gauche is that?

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

10 April, 2018 at 6:21 pm

Re. the haunted look on Blair. I reckoned he’s been mentally ill all his life. I don’t think he was programmed to make political decisions, frankly.

Cognitive Neuroscience and the Moral Mind

….Moreover, insofar as one can take modularity as evidence for innate structure, the fact that psychopaths exhibit relatively normal cognitive function along side dramatic deficits in emotional empathy suggests that normal empathic responses may depend on something like an innate “empathy module.” (See also Tooby and Cosmides on innate motivation (Tooby and Cosmides, this volume).) Finally, the fact that psychopathic tendencies, unlike ordinary violent tendencies, appear to be unaffected by differences in parenting strategy (Wootton, et al., 1997) and socioeconomic status (Hare, et al., 1991) suggests that psychopathy may result from compromised genes….

link to pdfs.semanticscholar.org

The Neurobiology of Decision-Making and Responsibility: Reconciling Mechanism and Mindedness
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOSED AND OPEN MINDEDNESS, RATIONALITY, AND DEMOCRACY
link to tandfonline.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

10 April, 2018 at 6:28 pm

I have not entered its precincts, Fred. I’m a clean-living kinda guy *Tony Blair rictus*

A charming rural establishment, if you’re ever droit of Glesca, is The Wee Thackit in Carluke, famous for its thatched roof and introspection. It is owned by a cup-winning former player from MFC.

Ian B and Lenny Hartley have got me worried about nuclear annihilation so I’m having a vino tinto to get some perspective.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

10 April, 2018 at 9:37 pm

I don’t think these need an introduction.

Do Others Bring Out the Worst in Narcissists?: The “Others Exist for Me” Illusion

THE “OTHERS EXIST FOR ME’ ILLUSION

We propose that narcissistic thinking about the self in relation to others is characterized by the “Others Exist for Me” illusion. At the core of this illusion are self-centeredness and self-admiration, perceptions of others as vastly inferior, and the belief that others care or should care as much about the narcissist’s psychological welfare as the narcissist does. Other persons are expected to bow to narcissistic superiority, are exploited for personal gain (i.e., the affirmation of narcissistic perceptions of superiority), and are met with hostility when they display behaviors that the narcissist finds uncongenial.

We begin by providing a rationale for the “Others Exist for Me” illusion. We proceed with reviewing four classes of evidence that support the illusion. These are (a) narcissistic perceptions of one’s own superiority, (b) narcissistic manifestations of one’s own superiority in independent tasks, [c] narcissistic perceptions of others’ inferiority, and (d) narcissistic use of others for self-enhancement in interdependent tasks….

link to southampton.ac.uk

Understanding Narcissism
link to illimitablemen.com

Fear and decision-making in narcissistic personality disorder—a link between psychoanalysis and neuroscience
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Reply

Fred says:

10 April, 2018 at 9:47 pm

@ Tinto, I was once in a wee Carnwath pub which was thackit?

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

10 April, 2018 at 10:02 pm

I’ve only been in Carnwath to research St Mary’s Aisle (q.v.), so haven’t been in licensed premises there.

St Bride’s in Douglas (where the Douglases and some Homes are interred) is very spooky and I unfortunately chose Dec 31, 1999 to go in there. I eventually came out again, which was nice .

If I see you @5/5, I’ll tell you all about it.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

11 April, 2018 at 12:20 am

Someone should perhaps let Dunc know that three quarters of Scots born Scottish residents identify as Scots only. He might reflect on that when considering Scotland’s future, particularly in relation to Brexit. He probably won’t though.

Narcissism and identity-determinism

Narcissism is now – according to the New York Times – ‘the go-to diagnosis’ for commentators. Why has cultural narcissism become so deeply woven into the fabric of contemporary society? Why has individualistic self-preoccupation with identity become dominant at the very time when individual autonomy and agency are so weak? Are there any positive aspects in constructing Brand Me and a ‘Narrative of Self’ in terms of reclaiming subjective selfhood? Is narcissism too clichéd a concept to help us understand today’s crisis of identity?

link to academyofideas.org.uk

Organizational Narcissism and Virtuous Behavior

Abstract

Extreme narcissistic organizations are unable to behave ethically because they lack a moral identity. While such organizations are not necessarily unethical intentionally, they become self-obsessed and use a sense of entitlement, self-aggrandizement, denial, and rationalizations to justify anything they do. Extreme narcissistic organizations might develop formal ethics programs, but such programs will have little effect on behavior.

link to digitalcommons.unl.edu

Critical Study of the Concept of Public Identity as Manifested in Postmodernist Versions of Critical Pedagogy

On the Political Foundation of the Concept of Identity

The unique view of the public identity inherent to the critical paradigm can be identified in the basic train of thought that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels lay out in the initial pages of The Communist Manifesto (1848). As is well known, Marx argued that history should be viewed from the standpoint of the exploited public rather than that of the powerful, since only in the hands of the oppressed masses, whose voices were silenced throughout history, lies the key to the establishment of a true perception of reality. The positioning of the epistemological standpoint of the oppressed as a basis for the act of liberation has been critical for two main reasons: firstly, because it stresses the formative status of identity in the process of liberation; and secondly, because it exposes its political, formational and dialectical nature.

Thus, in contrast to the tendency of liberal and progressive pedagogies to overlook the issue of public identity, critical theory focuses on the political and existential complexity of the collective identity. According to this logic, the concrete identity of the public is embodied in the complex dialectical tension between personal and group identity.2 Unlike the positive concept of identity held by liberal theory, which views identity as a given, independent, and harmonious entity, radical critical theory emphasizes that the public identity must be understood as complex, political and dialectical in relation to other identities, which limit it, on the one hand, and constitute it, on the other hand.3 Accordingly, identity is shaped as a border concept, which vacillates dynamically and dialectically between its internal, positive limit (what it is, namely, its identity or similarity) and its external, negative limit (what it is not, namely, its difference, or otherness).4

link to cedar.wwu.edu

Reply

Fred says:

11 April, 2018 at 10:15 am

Tinto, been at St Bride’s years ago but locked and key holder unavailable, were the Douglas tombs not trashed by an English excursion?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

11 April, 2018 at 10:34 am

Fred,

Could this be your Motherwell Rive Gauche?
link to phillipscollection.org

Reply

Fred says:

11 April, 2018 at 10:38 am

You’re way ahead of the curve as usual Smallaxe!

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

11 April, 2018 at 11:27 am

Most things were, Fred but not sure about the tombs themselves: they looked pretty whole. The carving on Lady Lucy’s alabaster tomb is mighty fine. I think the crypt is still used to inter members of the Douglas-Home family via the steel doors on the floor.

I think at the time the key-holder was in Clyde Road but you can phone to arrange. Info on HS website.

Mofftaepitlochry to hug a Pictish stone.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

11 April, 2018 at 11:53 am

Tinto,

You’re,
“Stone Mad”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

11 April, 2018 at 12:02 pm

Guilty as charged, Smallaxe.

Big Brends, eh? Wottawummin.

Reply

Fred says:

11 April, 2018 at 12:27 pm

@ Tinto, have you seen the other Douglas tombs at Durisdeer? phenomenal Italian marble confection of the Duke of Queensberry & his missus. This is the guy who sold Scotland in 1707. His heir Lord Drumlanrig was an imbecile who escaped his close-confinement & killed & roasted the kitchen boy while his parents were off celebrating the Union. Enjoy Pitlochry, a good chippy on the hill up to the Coop kid.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

11 April, 2018 at 2:19 pm

The BBC is a culturally endorsed information provider, so its not unreasonable for the public to accept it as truthful and honest. This places a huge onus on the BBC to ensure its business practice is ethical. Unfortunately, given the BBC is Charter bound to promote the cohesion of Britain, the probability of the BBC adopting such an approach is vanishingly small. About the same as for Israeli Defense Force finding a moral identity, IMHO.

De-Phazz – Saw it on the radio
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

11 April, 2018 at 5:56 pm

Yes, Fred, all those riches amassed by the labour of his poor tenants, no doubt, and his 1707 Judas Geld. The term Scots Nobility is the ultimate oxymoron.

Apparently yon piscine establishment is “the plaice to be”!

Dunfallandy Stone tomorrow: phwoarrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

11 April, 2018 at 7:07 pm

Tinto Chiel
Trick? Next to impenetrable the way I’ve been going at it at times. This is (post-modern) critical social theory though, so I have absolutely no illusions that folk will be grasping all, or any, of it. I’ll feel I’ve achieved something positive though, even if folk only manage to get essence of meaning, or appreciate that there is a bigger picture than the BBC suggests. A better one, as well.

Of course, just as with second arousal, a second reading brings a deeper fulfillment to completion.

Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács,
Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet
link to uwestminsterpress.co.uk

The Impressions – “People Get Ready”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Bevrijdingsdag says:

11 April, 2018 at 8:50 pm

@chazanderson200 and fellow wingers.

Thanks for the warm welcome at my first Wings night oot
Thoroughly enjoyed the company of like minded people.

I hope tae see youse all next month in Glasgow.

Glenrothes… It was a pleasure.

Reply

Thepnr says:

11 April, 2018 at 10:54 pm

@Bevrijdingsdag

Welcome, cracking handle

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

12 April, 2018 at 1:54 am

tbh, I’d forgotten the significance of narcissism.

Nostalgic recollections of high and low narcissists

Abstract

Two functions of nostalgia are consistently documented in the literature: self-positivity and social connectedness. These reflect agency and communion, respectively. Such dimensions are polarized no more than in narcissists, who are high in agency and low in communion. In three studies we tested whether high and low narcissists differ in the content of nostalgic recollections, whether they become nostalgic about different objects, and whether nostalgia serves different functions for them. High (versus low) narcissists made more agentic references in their narratives and manifested nostalgic proclivity toward agentic objects. Furthermore, nostalgia served a self-positivity function, but not a social connectedness function, for high (versus low) narcissists. Findings highlight the relevance of personality—narcissism, in particular—for the experience of nostalgia.

link to southampton.ac.uk

‘Who put the “Me” in feminism?’
The sexual politics of narcissism
link to journals.sagepub.com

The role of narcissistic entitlement, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, conformity to masculine gender norms, and religious orientation in the prediction of prejudice toward lesbians and gay men
link to repositories.lib.utexas.edu

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

12 April, 2018 at 8:21 pm

I hate politics, or rather, politics as it has been transformed by the unholy congress between mass media conglomerates and our political elites, the banks and the military-industrial complex. Indeed, it is now difficult to separate politician from media, bank and the necessity to arms, in the war machine that represents contemporary western civilisation.

My reading of the crises in Syria is that forces outside of Syria, hijacked popular opposition to Syria’s secular and democratically elected government.

ISRAEL’S VIEW OF THE SYRIAN CRISIS

Executive Summary

For decades, Israel viewed Syria as its most bitter Arab enemy. Syria’s Arab nationalist ideology was fiercely anti-Israel, and border disputes left the two nations perpetually on the brink of conflict. After the June 1967 war, Israel’s occupation of the Golan heights became the most important issue separating the two countries, and when Syria joined the peace process launched in Madrid in October 1991, the future of the Golan heights became the main bone of contention between the adversaries. The Israeli-Syrian negotiations came close to fruition but ultimately failed. During the early years of Bashar al-Assad’s reign, relations with the United States became tense and Israeli-Syrian contacts were severed. The Ehud Olmert years in Israel saw renewed peace talks with Syria via the Turkish channel, again raising hopes of an end to hostilities but again ending in failure.

In early 2011, the outbreak of the Syrian crisis that has since descended into civil war sparked a rethink of Israel’s policy toward its neighbor. While Israel may have once preferred the Assad regime to remain in power rather than take its chances with an unknown successor, this “the devil we know” approach is no longer valid. After Israel had found itself frustrated by developments beneficial to Iran and its “resistance axis” throughout the Arab spring—most notably the fall of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak—the increasing pressure on the Syrian regime has represented a blow to Iran and its allies. Thus, while recognizing that Israel has little to no influence on the course of events in Syria, Israel’s leaders have largely reached a consensus that Assad’s departure from power is preferable.

As it rages on, Syria’s civil war complicates a variety of Israel’s foreign policy priorities. Clearly, the uncertainty in Syria has put the question of the Golan heights on hold indefinitely. It may be a long time until Israel can readdress the prospect of giving the Golan back to Damascus, as many hawkish (and in fact some dovish) Israelis have seen Bashar al-Assad’s actions in his domestic crisis as proof that past efforts at a Golan-for-peace deal were misguided. Israel’s efforts to challenge Iran over its nuclear program are also affected by the instability facing Tehran’s ally in Damascus. If Israel or the U.S. were to launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, a desperate and beleaguered Assad could conceivably seek to transform his domestic war into
another Arab-Israeli war by taking the opportunity to attack Israel on Iran’s behalf. However, the Syrian conflict has the potential to bring the damaged Israeli-Turkish relationship closer to normalcy; if the two nations can resolve their dispute over the Mavi Marmara incident, they can find common ground in seeking to foster a stable post-Assad government in Syria.

Overall, Israel would prefer regime change in Syria, but has concerns about what type of government would succeed Bashar al-assad. It hopes for a secular regime to emerge, but due to limited influence —and the likelihood that support for any faction would backfire due to Israel’s toxic reputation in the Arab world—it is maintaining a passive stance. Without changing this greatly, however, Israel should build discreet channels to the emerging actors in Syria to prepare for future outcomes. And with several neighbors—such as
turkey, Jordan, and the Gulf states—sharing some common goals for the outcome of the Syrian crisis, Israel must seek to cooperate with them to advance its interests, which requires building trust with those actors. Thus, to avoid being a bystander in the Syrian crisis, it would serve Israel well to re-engage with Turkey and earn good will in the Arab world by seriously restarting the Palestinian peace process.

link to brookings.edu

Reply

Ian Brotherhood says:

12 April, 2018 at 9:51 pm

@Smallaxe –

Thanks for the supporting comment on the MT. Appreciated.

Methinks a lot of folk are finding Rev’s latest post somewhat ‘conflicting’. There’s a lot of denial about – simple fact is, conflict is inevitable and the major question is – or at any rate, should be – what form we want to see that conflict take?

No easy answers, but a lot of self-reflection is required before the questions can be addressed honestly. I’m afraid too many of our fellow travellers aren’t up to that task. There may be all sorts of reasons for such wariness, and many will be perfectly understandable, but millions of people have lost their freedom, friends, families and anything else they valued in an effort to get away from WM rule. That so few of us seem prepared to offer anything more than allegiance to a political party is shameful.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

12 April, 2018 at 11:13 pm

Ian,

No problem, brother, you know what I think about our ‘situation’.

I agree with you that it’s a shameful pittance of effort just to support a political party, some situations need more than a vote to change them, a vote that will be ignored or outvoted by the rUK.

Peaceful protest will eventually be resisted by force if the ‘powers that be’ think it necessary, I have often found this to be the case personally, as you know. However, I don’t think that this should be a deterrent to any person who would want to see our Nation regaining Her independence. I am sure that it is more than obvious that W/Minster will do everything in its power, up to and including violence to subdue any peaceful direct action if that action is seen to be getting results.

You know what they say about making omelettes.

Nothing would please me more than Scotland taking back control of Her own affairs peacefully and I still hope that this will be the case but sadly I fear that this may be wishful thinking on my part.

Reply

Ian Brotherhood says:

12 April, 2018 at 11:31 pm

@Smallaxe –

Hoots brother, as aye.

Watched a great documentary on Netflix last night called ’66 Days’. It’s a fresh treatment of the Bobby Sands story, and is very well done.

Made me maudlin, and a wee bit ashamed.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

12 April, 2018 at 11:55 pm

Ian,

There has been a multitude of things that the UK government have perpetrated on people that shame all right-thinking human beings.

Try listening to this man, I think you’ll like him;
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

13 April, 2018 at 12:37 am

Re. MASKIROVKA. Essentially an embrace of reflexive creativity. Not that I’m a Kremlin stooge like.

MASKIROVKA: SOVIET CAMOUFLAGE CONCEALMENT AND
DECEPTION

Analysis and Prognostication

The term creativity—tvorchestvo—is laced throughout Soviet military writing, and most especially in respect to surprise and deception, e.g.:

It is inconceivable to achieve surprise on the defensive without a creative approach to creating the groupings of forces and weapons and to organize the entire defense and to avoid rectilinear configurations of the position and zones….59

link to dtic.mil

The Soviet theory of reflexive control in historical and psychocultural perspective: preliminary study
link to calhoun.nps.edu

“The Hidden Path to Creativity” | Stephan Schwartz | TEDxOrcasIsland
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

13 April, 2018 at 1:26 am

If folk are serious about wanting world peace, I think the first step is some serious self-reflection. The second is to recognise Westminster for the carbuncle that it is. Third, press for change, don’t simply bump your gums.

What is the relationship between critical thinking, creative thinking, and reflective thinking?
link to researchgate.net

Creative thinking and critical thinking
link to dcu.ie

Critical Reflection and Reflective Practice
link to drjodietaylor.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

13 April, 2018 at 1:38 am

We can press for change Cameron and we can play for change.
Peace and Love*
“One Love” Playing For Change… Song Around The World;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Liz g says:

13 April, 2018 at 2:16 am

Smallaxe & Iain Brotherhood
There are those who will indeed offer more,please don’t doubt that!
But only at the end of this road.
We are on it and we must in all honour travel it till we can go no farther.. Now hopefully that’s because we are finally out of this accursed Union,but even if we are not,I don’t know anyone who will ever accept Westminster rule anymore.
By hook or by crook the Union is over..

They’ve, nae choice really anyway, we have Nana….They don’t want to get Her dander up…

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

13 April, 2018 at 2:18 am

Well played Smallaxe.

Ripple | Playing For Change | Song Around The World
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

13 April, 2018 at 4:41 am

I think the contextual setting presented by the broadcast will determine its impact and may shed light on the motivation for broadcasting it, if unstated.

Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ Speech: A Rhetorical Political Analysis

Abstract

This article exploits the developing political science literature on rhetorical political analysis (RPA) and applies it to one of the most controversial speeches of the post-war era in British politics. Alongside an analysis of the roots and impact of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech the article deconstructs Powell’s rhetoric and oratory. In doing so the article moves beyond the traditional modes of analysing the speech, which focus on the reproduction of ‘new racisms’ and which are prevalent within the sociological and social psychology academic literature. By using RPA the paper considers the speech through the use of the rhetorical techniques of persuasion i. appeals to ethos – i.e., the persona of the speaker; ii. pathos – i.e. the range of emotions evoked; iii. or logos – i.e. the evidence that supports the arguments underpinning the speech. This type of analysis showcases how and why Powell’s speech made such an impact when just as inflammatory comments had been uttered by other Conservatives prior to 1968.

link to eprints.whiterose.ac.uk

Reply

Liz g says:

13 April, 2018 at 5:04 am

Cameron B Brodie..
Hey Cameron..
How are you doing?
Do ye think that ye will make it along to the march on May 5th?
Either way … All my best to you and yours, time is a great healer..Been thinkin of ye my friend. x

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

13 April, 2018 at 12:09 pm

I’m well Liz, thanks for asking. I’ll certainly do my best to make it along on May 5th.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

13 April, 2018 at 12:34 pm

How do you make a ripple without a stone? How are new forms of racism established in the public consciousness, and how can we address them?

Anthropological perspectives on the new racism in Europe
link to tandfonline.com;

Ideology, identity and interaction within discourse and society dialectics
link to lancaster.ac.uk

Pointless Diversity Training: Unconscious Bias, New Racism and Agency
link to journals.sagepub.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

13 April, 2018 at 1:30 pm

IDEOLOGY, RACISM, AND CRITICAL SOCIAL THEORY

As the above epigraph from Du Bois suggests, it is critically important to recognize that forms of social consciousness (or at least some elements of them) may be held without full conscious awareness.

link to sfu.ca

More than Prejudice: Restatement, Reflections, and New Directions in Critical Race Theory
link to citeseerx.ist.psu.edu

Racism as Abjection: A Psychoanalytic Conceptualisation for a Post-Apartheid South Africa
link to journals.sagepub.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

13 April, 2018 at 3:41 pm

Will the “Rivers of Blood” broadcast promote a new appreciation of national sovereignty or will it simply stoke the prevailing current of xenophobic, right-wing populism?

If the BBC are selling Enoch Powell’s brand of conservatism, then perhaps it’s a sign they are becoming amenable to Scottish self-determination? Perhaps we need to be kinder to (t)Ruthless?

Enoch Powell and the Cold War
link to blogs.lse.ac.uk

Theories of Nationalism: A Brief Comparison of Realist and Constructivist Ideas of the Nation
link to inquiriesjournal.com

Nationalism and International Relations Theory
link to onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

13 April, 2018 at 4:50 pm

Fred: the M/T is really getting on my nazzums big-style, so this is just to let you know the Dunfallandy Stone is worth a visit if you’re in the Pitlochry area.

The carving on the stone is still pretty good, and its profile is slender: about 4″ at the base, tapering to about 2″ at the top, really elegant. You can’t hug it to experience the focused Earth-energy (I had half a Snickers and a swig of Tizer instead) because it is now behind glass/Perspex like Sueno’s Stone in Forres, making good photos almost impossible.

1200 years old and still here, though Orange Man-Child and The Preying Mayntis might change all that, and not a cheep of the truth from our compliant, mendacious MSM.

Haven’t been as uneasy and queasy as this since I watched “Threads”.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

13 April, 2018 at 10:54 pm

The fundamental weakness of British nationalism: identity is fluid, ideology isn’t.

Nouvelle Vague – Dance With Me
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 2:17 am

On the ~~racist~~ ~~British nationalist~~ cultural content of Brexit.

English Nationalism and Brexit

English Nationalism

Examining Brexit in light of contemporary English nationalism requires an understanding of English nationalism itself. Since devolution in the late 1990s politicians, commentators and academics questioned the very existence of ‘English nationalism’. Englishness was perceived as an ‘absence’.[1] But this was an a-historical understanding of English nationalism that rested on a narrow understanding of nationalism as principally a secessionist phenomenon. In this conceptualisation, England was expected to look and behave like Scotland. But English nationalism was never historically about secessionism or even unification. In its formative years in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, ‘English nationalists’ concerned themselves with legitimising the operation of British sovereignty, within the United Kingdom and throughout the Empire. This contributed to its blurred boundaries, making Englishness and Britishness harder to distinguish than for other nationalities in the UK and throughout the Empire.[2]

This outward focus is important. Trying to understand English nationalism by looking only at the UK will provide only a partial picture of English nationhood. Like Krishan Kumar we must look at English nationalism ‘from the outside in’ to gain a full understanding of the dynamics that animate dominant expressions of English identity and inform the world-view of those that explicitly or implicitly adhere to such identities.[3] Far from being ‘parochial’, English nationalism has long been one of the most ‘global’ nationalisms on the planet.

Politicised English Identity

There are, of course, many different English identities that have been articulated over time: Thomas Paine’s England was quite different to that of Enoch Powell’s.[4] But nationalism is a homogenising ideology and if homogeneity is unobtainable then there are certainly dominant versions of any given national identity that emerge in the contestation of ideas and symbols that constitute both ‘hot’, ‘banal’ and ‘everyday’ nationalisms.[5] The dominant version of English nationalism is what Andrew Gamble has called ‘Anglo-British’; one that fosters the integration of the United Kingdom using the language of Britishness but which is delivered in a very English register.[6] In this way Britishness does not subsume Englishness, but is instead merged with it….

link to networks.h-net.org

English Nationalism and Brexit: Past, Present, and Future
link to pdfs.semanticscholar.org

The Social Consequences of Brexit for the UK and Europe

Abstract

This article examines the 2016 Referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union and draws on initial research into the reasons that the UK voted to leave and demographics of the leave vote. This initial analysis suggests that the Brexit (British Exit) vote reveals wider and deeper societal tensions along the lines of age, class, income, and education (Goodwin and Heath 2016). By providing an account of the background and events of the referendum, this article asserts that the vote was a case study in populist right-wing Eurosceptic discourse (Leconte 2010; Taggart 2004), but it also reveals strong elements of English nationalism (including British exceptionalism and social conservatism) in parts of British society (Henderson et al. 2016; Wellings 2010). Given this, the article begins to make sense of Brexit from a social quality perspective and outlines a possible social quality approach to the UK and Europe post-Brexit.
link to hira.hope.ac.uk

Reply

William Wallace says:

14 April, 2018 at 2:30 am

Eh’ve been thinking.

Could we no tie blockchain democracy into the SCoTcoin (SCT) as a replacement currency to sort oot the currency question and genuine democracy at the same time?

As an aside, eh wiz thinkin that the UK gov was responsible fir manufacturing the chem attack in Syria in the same wey as the Salisbury poisoning.

Now that Vlad has come right oot and said it eh cannae help but question what is what. Do you think we should write to him and ask him to keep Scotland oot o this shite Tell him Faslane is there against wir will.

Hiv yiz seen that squirrel ower there?

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 3:47 am

Scotland is about to have it’s world turned upside down, as a consequence of the British state’s failure to ensure a mechanism for a pluralist sharing of power between the nations. Subsequently, we’re all English now, in a British sort of way. And measures are being taken to make this arrangement permanent.

Hora for Powellism, your time looks to have finally arrived.

Perspectives on Brexit – strategic considerations and planning

Since the result of the EU referendum on 23 June, organisations have been buffeted by market forces and other factors beyond their control. With some commentators predicting a continuing “decade of uncertainty” what do organisational and people leaders see as the key areas of priority? How can they remain resilient and prepare for immediate and longer term change?

CIPD hosted a webinar, Perspectives on Brexit, Strategic Considerations and Planning, which brought together a panel of industry experts to discuss medium-term strategic and planning considerations following the EU referendum. Our panel shared their experience and insight on:

– the issues and challenges that businesses and organisations are expected to face following the referendum result

– strategies for responding to immediate and medium-term uncertainty

– leading an organisation through a period of fluctuating demand and unpredictable economic and trading circumstances.

Our guest speakers included:

Danny Mortimer – Chief Executive, NHS Employers
Alan Price – Chief Executive Officer, Croner Group Ltd
Steven Toft – Director, Crucible
Ian Brinkley – Labour Market Economist
Ben Willmott – Head of Policy and Public Affairs, CIPD

link to cipd.co.uk

PERSPECTIVES ON BREXIT
The impact on business, law and everything in between
link to annualreview2017.allenovery.com

UK Youth Perspectives and Priorities for Brexit Negotiations
link to lse.ac.uk

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 4:15 am

Brexit Negotiations Series: ‘Brexit and Corporate Governance – An Economics Perspective’
link to law.ox.ac.uk

Walking into the Footprint of EU Law: Unpacking the Gendered Consequences of Brexit
link to cambridge.org

Listen to the Music | Playing For Change | Song Around The World
link to youtube.com

Reply

William Wallace says:

14 April, 2018 at 5:37 am

@ Cam

CameronB Brodie says:
14 April, 2018 at 3:47 am
Scotland is about to have it’s world turned upside down, as a consequence of the British state’s failure to ensure a mechanism for a pluralist sharing of power between the nations. Subsequently, we’re all English now, in a British sort of way. And measures are being taken to make this arrangement permanent.

PISH

Reply

William Wallace says:

14 April, 2018 at 5:54 am

That’s the shit kicked off folks.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 6:26 am

I don’t mind being English William, so long as I can be a English woman. How they getting on with prosthetic wombs, btw?

Bags being the queen.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 6:45 am

P.S. Though my nature is not to be a queen, my intention must be taken seriously. Shirley?

Philosophy of Action and Agency

Overview

What does it mean to act? Do animals act? What is the difference between bodily movement and action? Is all action intentional action? What motivates our actions? What is the nature of the causal process of acting, and are intentions independent components in the explanation of action? What role does reason take on, what the passions? At the very heart of our self-understanding as persons is the idea that we are self-determining agents with distinctive rational and volitional capacities. We experience ourselves as causal agents that deliberately bring about changes in the world. In this course we will engage in the study of human agency and examine the nature of actions and intentions, the role of desire and belief in reason explanations, voluntariness and human freedom, the process of decision-making, and the nature of deliberation for action. The philosophy of action – although a distinct area of enquiry – will have us tap into such diverse fields as practical reason, metaphysics, ethics, the behavioural sciences and the philosophies of language and mind.
link to conted.ox.ac.uk

Agency of belief and intention
link to philpapers.org

The Nature of Legislative Intent
link to oxfordscholarship.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

14 April, 2018 at 7:21 am

Good morning, Shirley.

14 April, 2018 at 7:38 am

Reply

Liz g says:

Cameron/Shirley
Jist so long as ye know….
I’m Happy for you to be the next English Queen if ye like!
But I’ve tae be the next queen of Scotland.
I am qualified because
A…I asked first
B….Apparently Scotland has needed an Elizabeth the II for quite some time.
C…. The names already on lot’s of stuff so the transition will clearly be nae bother!

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 7:43 am

Liz g
Thrifty.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

14 April, 2018 at 7:49 am

Too late, Liz, I was promised the throne in 1971;
link to youtube.com

Bow down, serfs.

Reply

Liz g says:

14 April, 2018 at 7:55 am

Ah but the BBC have been telling Scotland how great Elizabeth the II is since the 50s
How strong and stable will ah be…

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 7:55 am

Smallaxe.

Chaka Khan – I’m Every Woman [The Reflex Revision]
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

14 April, 2018 at 8:23 am

Cameron,

Finally,
link to youtube.com

Reply

Scotrock says:

14 April, 2018 at 2:00 pm

Put on a bet in the National, my once a year bet, on a horse called “Bless the Wings” it is 40/1 Come on the Wings

Reply

Smallaxe says:

14 April, 2018 at 2:46 pm

I’m on a Horse!
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 3:05 pm

Only me. So how should we judge if British nationalism is worth the harm that Brexit will cause to Scotland’s civil society?

Postcolonial Liberation Theology

Postcolonial theology and Liberation theology share an essential raison d’etre: to deconstruct the oppressive nature of the monolith of religious dogma, by calling attention to the plight of the oppressed, to systemic injustice . As an academic discipline, postcolonial theology questions and critiques structures of power, dominant systems, and embedded ideologies in order to suggest social transformations that recognize and validate the perspectives of marginalized peoples, cultures, and identities. Postcolonial theology recognizes differences and allows for a multiplicity of voices with a goal of creating a reciprocal exchange of perspectives from all voices. Postcolonial theology seeks emancipation and authenticity for all marginalized or oppressed identities….

link to globalsocialtheory.org

A Christian Reflection on Postcolonial Theology for the Postmodern World

….Postcolonial theology seeks to deconstruct the oppressive nature of the “ivory tower,” which often ignores the plight of the oppressed and therefore negatively influences society. We can look at postcolonial thought as a form of liberation/communal theology that serves as a catalyst to destroy the inequalities of class, race, gender, and other deplorable acts….

link to postcolonialnetworks.com

@Church of Scotland
Over to you.

Barry White – I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby [The Reflex Revision]
link to youtube.com

Reply

Jim Thomson says:

14 April, 2018 at 4:48 pm

@ruglonian

There’s a couple of photies in this dropbox:

link to dropbox.com

I’ll leave them there for a week or two then delete the link contents.

#302 – the heidmaister working on the exam results
#303 – the heidy wi’ the exam champs
#304 – the faimly
#305 – some bloke in blue misbehavin’ (we know who ye are!)
#306 – closer proof of the miscreant’s behaviour

’nuff said.

Awfy guid night. (nearly went the wrong way round a glenrothes roundabout but stopped when the screams of “we’re all going to die!” got too loud.)

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 6:49 pm

Re. the rush to condemn President Bashar al-Assad a murderous tyrant. On what basis is this assertion made? Are folk not perhaps thinking of his dad?

As far as I’m able to establish, the ‘civil war’ kicked off on March 15, 2011, at an anti-austerity demonstration in the city of Daraa. Live rounds were fire at the demonstrators, allegedly by Syrian security forces. Has it been established that it was indeed the security forces? Might it not have been some other player who fired into the protesters? Syria’s secular society has been under attack from western backed Islamist terrorists, for a very long time now.
link to dw.com

Muslim Brotherhood
link to oxfordbibliographies.com

The Muslim Brotherhood
A Failure in Political Evolution
link to belfercenter.org

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 7:28 pm

Re. Bashar al-Assad’s methods. The first duty of any leader is to defend the nation’s sovereignty, at all costs.

Political Realism in International Relations

….The keystone of Morgenthau’s realist theory is the concept of power or “of interest defined in terms of power,” which informs his second principle: the assumption that political leaders “think and act in terms of interest defined as power” (5). This concept defines the autonomy of politics, and allows for the analysis of foreign policy regardless of the different motives, preferences, and intellectual and moral qualities of individual politicians. Furthermore, it is the foundation of a rational picture of politics….

link to plato.stanford.edu

Reply

William Wallace says:

14 April, 2018 at 7:50 pm

Cam “Queen” Bee
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 9:29 pm

I’m no al-Assad fanboy btw.

William.

Charles Bradley – The World (Is Going Up In Flames)
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

14 April, 2018 at 10:27 pm

Ever wondered why we internalise the dominant social structures of power?

Internalization: How culture becomes mind

Abstract

Internalization, the process by which culture becomes mind, is a core concept in cultural psychology. However, since the 1990s it has also been the source of debate. Critiques have focused on the underlying metaphor of internal-external as problematic, and it has been proposed to rename this process appropriation, a term that focuses attention more on behavior and less on psychological processes. The present article reviews the debate and introduces the recent concepts of position exchange and symbolic resources. Position exchange focuses on the societal side of culture, on the way in which social situations shape people’s experiences. Symbolic resources focuses on culture in
terms of heterogeneous elements, books, films and so on, which also shape people’s experiences. The key idea common to both concepts is that people move through culture, both physically and psychologically, that culture shapes a series of experiences across the lifecourse, and that these
experiences ‘layer up’ within individuals, forming a sedimentation of culture within individuals. In so far as culture is heterogeneous and fragmented, so the sedimented layers of experience will also be heterogeneous and fragmented, thus creating the tensions that underlie the psychological dynamics of mind.

link to eprints.lse.ac.uk

Culture: by the brain and in the brain?

Abstract

Since the 1990s, several disciplines have emerged at the interface between neuroscience and the social and human sciences. For the most part, they aim at capturing the commonalities that underlay the heterogeneity of human behaviors and experiences. Neuroanthropology and cultural neuroscience, or the “neurodisciplines of culture,” appear different, since their goal is to understand specificity rather than commonality and to address how cultural differences are inscribed in the brain. After offering an overview of these disciplines, and of their relation to endeavors such as cultural psychology and social neuroscience, this article discusses some of the most representative studies in the area in order to explore in which ways they are relevant for an understanding of culture.

link to scielo.br

Chumbawamba – Amnesia
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

14 April, 2018 at 10:44 pm

Looking for Freedom?

Here it is;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

14 April, 2018 at 11:34 pm

Itchy Fingers?
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

14 April, 2018 at 11:40 pm

Bagpipe Blues?
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

15 April, 2018 at 12:24 am

Why Worry?
link to youtube.com

Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.

Trouble no one about his religion.

Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours.

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.

Seek to make your life long and of service to your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.

Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength.

Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.

If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.

Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes wise ones turn to fools and robs their spirit of its vision.

When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.

Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

TECUMSEH
– Tecumseh, Shawnee

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

15 April, 2018 at 4:57 am

On the morality of ideologies. This is also why some of my intros fail. I’m wary of allowing my own prejudices to bias reader’s interpretations, while also looking to provide a snappy, informative frame at the same time.

Rusty and biased, Edinburgh

Morals and Moralities: A Critical Perspective from the Social Sciences

Philosophers have always been interested in moral questions, but social scientists have generally been more reluctant to discuss morals and moralities. This is indeed a paradox since the questioning of the moral dimension of human life and social action was consubstantial to the founding of their disciplines.

A clue to this paradox resides in the tension between the descriptive and prescriptive vocations of social sciences: is the expected result of a study of moralities a better understanding of social life, or is the ultimate goal of a science of morals the betterment of society? At the beginning of the twentieth century, the German sociologist Max Weber, following the first line, pleaded for a value-free study of value-judgment, examining, for instance, the role played by the Protestant ethic in the emerging spirit of capitalism. His French contemporary Emile Durkheim, more sensitive to the second option, strongly believed that research on morality would not be worth the labor it necessitates were scientists to remain resigned spectators of moral reality, a position that did not prevent him from proposing a rigorous explanation of why we obey collective rules. This dialectic between exploring norms and promoting them, between analyzing what is considered to be good and asserting what is good, has thus been at the heart of the social sciences ever since their birth….

link to ias.edu

How Ideology Colors Morality
link to psychologytoday.com

Ideology, the state and welfare in Britain
link to catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk

Reply

Smallaxe says:

15 April, 2018 at 9:07 am

Spooky Tooth;
link to youtube.com

“Don’t you think the joker laughs at you (Ho ho ho, hee hee hee, hah hah hah)
See how they smile like pigs in a sty
See how they snide”

Reply

Smallaxe says:

15 April, 2018 at 9:16 am

The Hooters:”500 miles”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

15 April, 2018 at 10:27 am

Hey, Smallaxe, you’re on a philosophical roll today, I see.

Better a Tecumseh than a Tonto.

I’m on a (bacon and SBP) roll myself.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

15 April, 2018 at 11:26 am

Tinto,

Enjoy your roll;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

15 April, 2018 at 12:47 pm

Went down a treat, thanks, old mole.

Great day at the fitba yesterday. Met these charming young ladies afterwards but then it all got a bit hazy. I remember the tree, I remember the jetty but I fear these racy lassies led me astray. Woke up in Gowkthrapple this morning with a chanter in my pocket.

15 April, 2018 at 4:15 pm

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Tinto,

Yer lucky ye’ve still goat a chanter, my uncle goat his shot aff during the war.

“Scotland Will Rise” Gaberlunzie;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

15 April, 2018 at 4:46 pm

Honi soit qui mal y pense, Smallaxe, mon vieux.

Think it’s French for “Ooh, matron!”

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

15 April, 2018 at 4:59 pm

I don’t know if folk remember me suggesting that constructedness with scope allows for flexibility of approach?

~~The fundamental weakness of British nationalism: identity is fluid, ideology isn’t.~~

The fundamental weakness of British nationalism: identity is fluid, ideology, not so much.

Creative Synthesis: A Model of Peer Review, Reflective Equilibrium and Ideology Formation

Abstract

The formation of ideology can be modeled as a communication game that combines actors’ psychological predispositions and their rational self-interest. I argue that we can explain ideological development by modeling the way in which political thinkers reason from first principles, and how they fail to ignore their own psychological and interest-based biases. I begin with a distributive model to provide a structure for people’s interests and their psychological traits, and add in a model of reason (Rawls, 2001) to explain how those interests and traits will shape the development of ideology. The model develops the framework, based on the practice of peer review. This framework creates a tournament of potential ideologies and traces whether such a mechanism can explain the development of multiple competing ideologies.

link to faculty.georgetown.edu

The Ideology of Creativity and Challenges of Participation
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Reflexivity in the transdisciplinary field of critical discourse studies

Abstract

This article outlines an agenda for critical discourse studies that reserves a place of honour for the notion of reflexivity. It draws on four concepts of reflexivity developed in the social sciences: reflexivity as a general feature of interaction and subjectivity; as a methodological praxis; as a property of discursive and non-discursive systems; and as a key feature of late modernity. Reflexivity is considered in terms of acts of interpretive movement.

Social actors, organizations and systems throw reflexive loops around themselves, around others, as well as around spatial, temporal, linguistic, cognitive, social and historical dimensions of contextual reality. All social entities engage in the Sisyphean task of fixing social reality, trying to grasp it with a porous and amorphous semiotic net, shaping interpretive reality in the process. Reflexive loops can leave ripples on the surface of language and communication for others to pick up and engage with. Through metadiscursive acts, interlocutors can then engage with the meanings that fix who and what they are in an unequal and power-infused world whose boundaries can only be imagined through interpretive and critical praxis. Reflexivity is a precondition for the articulation of critique and should be considered as a key concept in the field of discourse studies. This paper is published as part of a collection on discourse studies.

Introduction

The phenomenon of reflexivity lies at the heart of many discursive processes and discourse analytical questions. At the same time, discourse analysts rarely make explicit use of the word. Reflexivity has been theorized explicitly in disciplines such as anthropology and sociology that have informed many approaches to discourse, but the notion is frequently absent or merely peripherally present in introductions to the field of discourse studies (Robinson, 2006; Sidnell and Stivers, 2013; Wodak, 2013a; Angermuller et al., 2014a). The principle of reflexivity nevertheless offers a unique way to deal with the main issues around which this field establishes itself. It is relevant for understanding language use, context, social practice, but also for analyses of subjectivity and power….

link to nature.com

It is unfortunate that the British state has failed to provide the political infrastructure needed to allow all the ‘home nations’ to create ideological and moral frameworks that reflect their cultural identities.

Events have taken a despotic turn in Westminster, and now Scotland appears to be the powerless agent within an increasingly homogenised, neo-liberal, neo-fascist, neo-racist, English/British identity. One that is being actively promoted through contemporary public discourse.

N.B. Culture becomes the mind that generates future culture.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

15 April, 2018 at 5:03 pm

Tinto,

Ah think this is French fur a wumman singin’ a wee song;
Edith Piaf: “Non, Je ne regrette rien”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

15 April, 2018 at 6:10 pm

Regret come from self-doubt and inaction.

Hindi Zahra – Stand Up
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

15 April, 2018 at 6:19 pm

Garbo: “I want to be alone!”;
link to youtube.com

“I’ve never been in style, so I can’t go out of style.”
Lillian Gish Moment;
link to youtube.com

Marlene Dietrich Blue Angel screentest 1930
link to youtube.com

Settled.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

15 April, 2018 at 6:26 pm

James:”Sit Down”
link to youtube.com

Hi Cameron.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

15 April, 2018 at 6:45 pm

The Chocolate Watch Band – Sitting There Standing
link to youtube.com

Hi Smallaxe.

Reply

Ian Brotherhood says:

15 April, 2018 at 8:15 pm

@Smallaxe –

Ah!

Excellent argument-settling clips there, for which many thanks.

What did the depressed bit of cartilage say?
‘I want to be a bone…’

Reply

Smallaxe says:

15 April, 2018 at 8:49 pm

Ian,

Your most welcome, my friend.
Joke: Ah Lassie phoned her Da tae come and pick her up fae the dancin’ cause it wis bucketin’ doon wae rain, her Da says “wher’ ur ye ringing fae?” The Lassie says “fae ma heid right doon tae ma knickers Da!

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

15 April, 2018 at 9:25 pm

Mair nonsense:

How to become a poet: stand in front the fire until your rabbie burns.

How to become an actress: stand in front of the fire until your googie withers.

Eh thenk yaw…

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

15 April, 2018 at 9:50 pm

@David Leask
I am rather partisan supporter of Scotland’s self-determination, so I hope you don’t see this as a distraction. I wonder if you would care to respond in print to this essay? That might prove hard for you, as the British world view is predicated on the practice of Orientalism.

A Postcolonial Critique of Responsibility to Protect in the Middle East

Abstract

This article is a postcolonial critique of the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in the Middle East. It problematizes a selective, arbitrary and punitive implementation of international law in Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Libya and Syria. It proposes that the hegemonic neo-liberal discourse of Humanitarianism and a paternalistic legacy of Orientalism have reinforced policing language of human rights and widened the gap between the ethical norms and their practice in global politics.

A postcolonial critique of R2P calls for decolonizing and emancipating global ethical norms from the hegemonic discourse of neo-liberal order; striving for a consistent, just, people-centered, and fair implementation of norms; pushing for radical reforms in the UN; empowering regional and subaltern organizations; mobilizing world public opinion; and democratizing the world order. It suggests that a just implementation of the R2P doctrine is pending on the accomplishment of R4J: Responsibility for Justice.

link to sam.gov.tr

Reply

Smallaxe says:

15 April, 2018 at 10:31 pm

“I went to the butchers to buy a leg of lamb. ‘Is it Scotch?’, I asked. ‘Why?’ the butcher said in reply. Are you going to talk to it or eat it?’. ‘In that case, have you got any wild duck?’. ‘No’, he responded, ‘but I’ve got one I could aggravate for you’”
Chic Murray

Reply

Ian Brotherhood says:

15 April, 2018 at 11:59 pm

@Smallaxe –

Chic Murray, FFS, we could be here for days.

Outside the B&B in Largs when he missed the last ferry, can’t get an answer, chucks a wee stane at the upstairs windae.

Big missus opens the windae:

‘Whit you wantin?’

‘I want tae stay here!’

‘Aye, okay. Stay there then!’

*Shuts windae*

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 12:27 am

Ah saw a hitchhiker wance wi’ a’ great big backpack sitting oan a guys back gon doon the road past me. The hitchhiker wis sayin’ tae the punter “Ah wis really hopin’ tae get a lift aff sumdy wae a motor.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 2:40 am

Only me. How’s about some more brainwashing with nationalist bollocks.

@Der Oberst #BREXIT
The first indyref may have appeared to follow democratic process to those living outside Scotland, or to those without an ounce of critical reasoning power. In practice, the British state hardly supported the principle of liberal democracy, did it?

Education for autonomy and open-mindedness in diverse societies

Abstract

In recent years, democracies across the globe have seen an increase in the popularity and power of authoritarian, nationalist politicians, groups, and policies. In this climate, the proper role of education in liberal democratic society, and in particular its role in promoting characteristics like autonomy and open-mindedness, is contested. This paper engages this debate by exploring the concept of autonomy and the obligations of liberal democratic societies to promote it. Presenting the conditions for the exercise and development of autonomy, I argue that the intellectual virtue of open-mindedness is necessary (though not sufficient) for possession of the capacity for autonomy and the motivation to exercise this capacity.

In considering the importance of autonomy in liberal democratic societies, I argue that education for autonomy and open-mindedness can be justified by appealing to several liberal democratic aims: ensuring fair opportunity in the pursuit of the good life and preparing students for citizenship in diverse society. My analysis of the relationship between autonomy and open-mindedness aims to contribute to the literature by identifying a conception of autonomy that explicitly acknowledges its connections to intellectual virtue, thus clarifying one aspect of its value and identifying an important component of education that supports autonomy.

link to tandfonline.com;

Decolonising geographies of democracy and participation

Abstract

The events of 2016, from Brexit to Trump’s victory in the US election, have led many to claim that democracy is in crisis (e.g. Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2016). In particular, the project of multiculturalism has been held up by Western commentators and theorists of democracy, such as Jürgen Habermas (discussed in Bhambra, 2016), as a potential threat to genuine democratic participation and as fuel for right wing populism (cf. Lentin, 2016; Wilson, 2016). Post-colonial perspectives counter that these arguments fail to recognise the long histories of global interconnectedness through the European imperial project, which laid the foundations of liberal democratic institutions and practices (Bhambra, 2015; Jazeel, 2011).

These ‘democracy in crisis’ arguments are often based upon universalising and fixed models of democracy and assumptions about the public. For example, deliberative democratic theories are widely evoked, envisaging a harmonious deliberative public sphere enabled by a relatively homogenous and well-informed populous. Though, agonistic theories of democracy are also evoked and equally make normative assumptions about democracy and the public, emphasising discord and debate. By perpetuating fixed assumptions about democracy, participation and the public, these kinds of approaches fail to recognise the relational and interconnected way in which democratic practices and ideals are produced – discursively, spatially, materially and institutionally – and the global diversity of existing ways of understanding and practicing democratic participation. Furthermore, these fixed assumptions shape the way in which we study and intervene in democratic practices, potentially excluding certain knowledges and bodies (Spivak, 1988) and foreclosing what can be said or done within such processes (Chilvers & Kearnes, 2016).

link to pygyrg.co.uk

The Heavy – Same Ol’
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 6:13 am

Look, Scotland running its own affairs and behaving as any normal nation does, won’t be the end of the world. To the contrary, from the perspective of post-colonial theology, it would certainly help improve the chances for world peace and global sustainability. Decolonising the UK’s democratic geography does not mean that present generations of British Scots will have to stop identifying as being British. They can hold on to their world view and moral identity for as long as they want to. That’s what an open society is all about.

Zahra Hindi – oursul
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 7:24 am

Ye kno’ this place kin git lonely at times, sometimes ah’m typin’ tae masel sometimes ah’m cuttin’ aboot fur oors an’ naebdy appears.
A’ve even startit talkin’ tae masel which is bad enough but noo a’hm gettin’ a reply an’ ah don’t kno’ whit tae make ae it, wan minute a’hm happy, next minute a’hm depressed.
Sumtimes ah feel as if a’ve goat aff the bus at the wrang stoap, it’s like bein’ in a play and naebdy’s gied me a script.
Ah think ah might hiv a split personality but a’hm in two minds aboot it.
Aye, that must be it, ther’s nae two wies aboot it!
“the bi-polar national anthem”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 8:20 am

Smallaxe
I met Bobby the last time I was in Edinburgh. Nice guy, very open minded. He’s doing a degree in French, so I suggested he check out the concept of negritude. I’m sure I’ll bump into him again.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 8:31 am

P.S.
link to youtube.com

Reply

cearc says:

16 April, 2018 at 9:05 am

smallaxe,

cheer up, winter’s over.

contemplate the daffodils.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 9:05 am

Cameron,

I’m pleased to hear that Bobby’s as nice a guy as he seems on his videos if you do bump into him again please give him my regards.

“I salute you in silence!
In your image, hear me!
Now dies the Africa of empires—the dying of a pitiable princess
They call us men of cotton, coffee, oil.
They call us men of death.’
We are men of dance, whose feet take on new strength from stamping the hard ground”.
Léopold Senghor

“Our Day Will Come” Bobby Nicholson;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 9:16 am

cearc,

Contemplating daffodils now, it seems to be helping, thanks.

The Cranberries:”Daffodil Lament”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 9:18 am

Only me. I think I’ll just leave these here.

Rethinking the role of the arts in politics: lessons from the Négritude movement

Abstract

The arts can be a powerful tool for emancipation, community building and political expression. This article makes the argument that artistic and cultural expression should be viewed by politicians and policy makers as an effective form of political engagement and an important feedback loop for understanding the political dissatisfaction of the electorate. It draws on one particular historical example, the Négritude movement, to highlight the value and strength of cultural movements in responding to questions of politics and to draw out lessons for current policy makers in recognising the value of culture in effecting political change. Against a contemporary political and scholarly narrative of disaffected citizenship, this article demonstrates that a lack of trust in a political model does not necessarily demonstrate a disinterested citizenry; rather it can suggest a citizenry who have found new and innovative ways to engage. The Négritude movement provides one such historical example.

link to ardfilmjournal.wordpress.com

Negritude versus Assimilation

Abstract

‘Assimilation’ is a term used to describe the French colonial policy in Africa. The policy was aimed at turning Africans into ‘Frenchmen’ through the process of education. The French educational policy in Africa was therefore meant to make the Africans culturally French. According to P. C. Lloyd, ‘French educational policy lay in the establishment of schools with similar curricula to those of the metropolitan country. Indeed, local languages were not taught in primary schools.’ The educated Francophone African thus ‘embraced French culture, and his loyalty to it far exceeded any parallel felt by his counterpart in British territories.’1 To make this policy attractive to the Africans, the French ‘proclaimed that Africans could assimilate French culture and that those who did so would be accepted on terms of full social equality by all Frenchmen.’2

link to link.springer.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 9:36 am

Cameron,

Your posts on Negritude belong to the few that I can overstand, I’m usually baffled by most, ’cause I can be…
“Thick as a Brick”
link to youtube.com

And that’s really thick!

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 10:05 am

Smallaxe
Perhaps I should have been more forthcoming in my proselytising of post-colonial theology? Can you see the light?
link to youtube.com

Reply

Fred says:

16 April, 2018 at 10:27 am

@ Smallaxe, playing catch-up, James brilliant, “Oh Sit Down!” my manky mate!

Decision time! is it to be a Lillian Gish or a Gladys Knight?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 10:31 am

See the light, Cameron? I’m…

“Blinded by the Light”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 10:31 am

Smallaxe
You’re not thick, I’ve just been out of practice for thirty years.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe – Up Above My Head
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 10:33 am

Smallaxe
You’re not thick, I’ve just been out of practice for thirty years.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe – Up Above My Head
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 10:38 am

Fred,

It’s got to be Gladys;
link to youtube.com

Izat ok?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 10:45 am

Thanks, Cameron,

“No More the Fool”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Dave McEwan Hill says:

16 April, 2018 at 12:30 pm

Every now and then I like to improve things by putting this absolutely spectacular piece of work up.

16 April, 2018 at 1:08 pm

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Hi Dave,

Myriam Makeba:”The Click Song”
link to youtube.com

Ladysmith Black Mambazo:”United We Stand” ft Salif Keita
link to youtube.com

Reply

Fred says:

16 April, 2018 at 3:11 pm

Dave & Smallaxe, some good stuff guys, certainly beats bombing the shit out of people!

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

16 April, 2018 at 5:58 pm

“Decision time! is it to be a Lillian Gish or a Gladys Knight?”

Fred: you’re being cloacal again and a very naughty boy.

Good job Smallaxe and I are here to monitor moral standards…..

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 7:25 pm

@ David Torrance
I find it best not to offer an oppinion when I have limited comprehension of the topic at hand, you might want to follow the same practice. You might also want to clue yourself up on ethical norms of practice. Oops, I forgot you’re a Tory fanboy, so I doubt you comprehend the properties and value of ethics, nor respect the biological rights of individuals.

R2P: “State of Play”

ABSTRACT

Is R2P the most effective tool the international community has to prevent genocide, or the newest neo-imperial norm perpetuated by the most powerful states? In a dramatic performance of the key debates within R2P, each of these views is presented before Aristotlean and Tocquevillean insights are drawn upon to find a middle ground rooted in citizen resistance against mass atrocity crimes. R2P can both become a more effective tool of prevention and gain needed political legitimacy by drawing on the rich historical tradition of citizen resistance to empower local actors defying regimes engaged in mass
atrocity crimes.

link to politics.ox.ac.uk

The “responsibility to protect” our answer to “never again”? Libya, Syria and a critical analysis of R2P

Abstract

….Adopted by the UN in 2005, much has been critically written about the norm on all sides. However, not until the Libyan civil conflict in 2011 did we see an actual case in which R2P was specifically invoked to justify military intervention, and thus one where we could test its merits. Many argue Libya shows successful application of R2P, while some say its mandate was overextended. Nonetheless, it has prompted comparisons and contrasts to the situation in Syria, where over 100,000 people have died but where military intervention has not been pursued. This paper analyzes the decisions in both of these instances and the resulting deficiencies of R2P that were highlighted by Libya and Syria: first, the continued subservience of humanitarian norms to political concerns, and second, the lack of conceptual clarity surrounding operational aspects of military intervention. Libya and Syria have both wounded the credibility of the norm.

Assessing the influence of the Responsibility to Protect on the UN Security Council during the Arab Spring

Abstract

This article challenges those perspectives which assert first, that the Security Council’s engagement with the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) during the Arab Spring evidences a generally positive trend, and second, that the response to the Arab Spring, particularly Syria, highlights the need for veto restraint. With respect to the first point, the evidence presented in this article suggests that the manner in which R2P has been employed by the Security Council during this period evidences three key trends: first, a willingness to invoke R2P only in the context of Pillar I; second, a pronounced lack of consensus surrounding Pillar III; and third, the persistent prioritisation of national interests over humanitarian concerns. With respect to veto restraint, this article argues that there is no evidence that this idea will have any significant impact on decision-making at the Security Council; the Council’s response to the Arab Spring suggests that national interests continue to trump humanitarian need.

16 April, 2018 at 7:57 pm

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

@ David Torrance
I challenge you to prove your not simply a shallow and self-centered shill.

Human rights in international relations

Reader’s Guide

Human rights have become firmly enmeshed in both the practice and study of international relations. Dominant theories of international relations explain the role of such rights in significantly different ways, and it is evident that their major claims carry persuasive arguments, indicating an uneasy juxtaposition of state sovereignty with ideas of a universal moral order. While the Cold War prevented the immediate focus on human rights that the United Nations system warranted, the growth of the UN’s international human rights regime and the rise of international non-governmental organizations and human rights activists enabled a closer insertion of human rights into state diplomatic practices, a development that revealed the existence of human rights contestation itself as part of the Cold War.

The ending of the Cold War heralded a ‘springtime’ for human rights and liberalism, but the advent of the ‘war on terror’ has also shown that the cascade of human rights norms might also be open to reversion, as particular states reinterpret or reject previously espoused principles. These developments raise important questions about state practice and human rights. While some norm reversion is occurring, it remains the case that states continue to be confronted with human rights challenges and display, to varying degrees, evidence of human rights protection at home and promotion abroad. Although much attention is rightly focused on changes to the internalization of such norms (such as reinterpretations of the Convention Against Torture or the restrictions of civil liberties in domestic arenas), we are also seeing an important evolution of concepts and practices on protecting human rights at the international level. This is visible in formulations such as the ‘responsibility to protect’ and
its attendant focus on intervention to protect human rights, and also in the recognition that the prevention of human rights abuses is vitally important.

link to socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk

Human Rights in the Context of International Relations

Sixty-six years after the founding of the United Nations, human rights looks like an insular world unto itself: A system with its own standards, institutions and mechanisms, a world of experts still far from being intrinsically connected to people’s daily life worlds. Insofar as the mass media pay attention to human rights questions and issues, their focus is primarily on international relations and foreign policy. This would not give any reason for concern if the emphasis were just on human rights as an end to be achieved. What permeates international relations is, however, human rights as an instrument to uplift a state’s own credibility while undermining that of other states. In that respect two distinctive ways of twisting human rights may be discerned: Offensive and defensive human rights….

link to e-ir.info

A Critical Investigation of the IR Theories that Underpin the Debate on Humanitarian Intervention

Western liberal democratic states’ pro-humanitarian intervention stance is often criticised as, “the violent externalization of the project of liberal democracy under the label humanitarian intervention” (Owens, p.57). On the other hand, it is argued that non-western states’ opposition to humanitarian intervention is a self-interested attempt to protect their sovereign status – and resist the universal human rights movement evident in international society (Janse, 2006). Through critical analysis, this essay will investigate the theoretical foundations that structure these arguments. It may be that state preference with regard to humanitarian intervention is selfish in practice. However, in terms of the academic debate, it will be demonstrated that many of the disputed questions within the topic derive from theoretical dispute and not the motivation of states….

link to ucl.ac.uk

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 8:24 pm

Tinto,

Worry not! I knew what our #Manky Mate Fred was trying to introduce into the stream, I felt it in my water. Lillian Gish, single fish, nice try, Fred.

I also feel it in my fingers.”Love is All Around”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 8:45 pm

Sovereignty, International Law and Democracy

Abstract

In my reply to Jeremy Waldron’s article ‘Are Sovereigns Entitled to the Benefit of the International Rule of Law?’, I draw upon and in some ways expand Waldron’s important contribution to our understanding of the international rule of law. First of all, I suggest that Waldron’s argument about the international rule of law can be used to illuminate how we should understand the legitimate authority of international law over sovereign states, but also how some of sovereign states’ residual independence ought to be protected from legitimate international law. Secondly, I argue that the democratic pedigree of the international rule of law plays a role when assessing how international law binds democratic sovereign states and whether the international rule of law can and ought to benefit their individual subjects. Finally, I emphasize how Waldron’s argument that the international rule of law ought to benefit individuals in priority has implications for the sources of international law and for what sources can be regarded as sources of valid law.

link to academic.oup.com

A Critical Evaluation of the Concept of Human Security
“…the world is entering a new era in which the very concept of security will change – and change dramatically. Security will be interpreted as: security of people, not just territory. Security of individuals, not just nations. Security through development, not through arms. Security of all the people everywhere – in their homes, in their jobs, in their streets, in their communities, in their environment.”[1]

link to e-ir.info

Charles Bradley – Ain’t It A Sin
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 9:03 pm

“It’s an Illusion”: Julia Zahra
link to youtube.com

It really is!

Reply

Fred says:

16 April, 2018 at 9:15 pm

Thought I’d slipped that wan past Smallaxe there! Sorry to drag the thread to a new low guys. Suitably contrite! Double-entenrde’s are unavoidable at times!

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 9:39 pm

Fred,

When I was a publican a woman came into the bar and asked for a double entendre so I gave her one.

“The Marrow Song” Kenneth Williams;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

16 April, 2018 at 9:41 pm

Fred: “Sorry to drag the thread to a new low”?

Impossible!

It’s why we’re all here!

I think Smallaxe is one of the Illuminati, masel. And he’s been seen hingin aboot in Roslyn too…..

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 10:01 pm

It’s a fair cop, Tinto, here’s my confession;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

16 April, 2018 at 11:35 pm

This one is for Thepnr who’s suffering from a cold atm.

“The Point of No Return”
link to youtube.com

I hope you’re feeling better my friend.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

16 April, 2018 at 11:48 pm

The reason I have an extremely strong antipathy towards shills such as Davy. These ignorant wanks are creaming in extremely good incomes disseminating bigotry and undermining the biological security of the vulnerable. At least their not partisan though.

Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach

Theorizing About Conservative Ideology

Both conservatism and liberalism have, on one dimension, been accorded similar treatment by some of the salient schools of ideological analysis, in that they have been denied the status of a fully fledged ideology by those who would restrict the phenomenon to total, closed, and cohesive views of human beings in society. However, whereas liberals challenge, most conservative ideologists, as well as most exponents of conservative ideology, go out of their way to dispel any suspicion that theirs is an ideology. Obviously, if the notion of ideology is confined to an a priori, abstract, closed, and total system of mass?consumed political thinking, then a creed that claims (as conservatism usually does) to be experiential, concrete, and delimited is not an ideology.

Consideration of conservative thought, however, may query whether conservatives escape the features of that very definition of ideology, and it could not escape categorization within the approach that this book has already advanced: that of presenting ideology as a structural configuration of political concepts. After asking why there is such a dearth of capable and sophisticated enquiry into the nature of conservatism, this chapter addresses the issues outlined here in three sections: (a) [Michael] Oakeshott: conservatism à la carte; (b) The chameleon contra the status quo: two discarded theories; and [c] The conservative core: resolving a morphological puzzle.

link to oxfordscholarship.com

On what grounds do conservatives defend authority?
link to mytutor.co.uk

Does Biology Justify Ideology? The Politics of Genetic Attribution
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 1:01 am

@David Torrance
Can you honestly claim to support liberal democracy and the principle of universal human rights? Which is more valuable to you, tradition or experiential reality? Comfortable in your nationalism?

The self-control consequences of political ideology

Abstract

Evidence from three studies reveals a critical difference in self-control as a function of political ideology. Specifically, greater endorsement of political conservatism (versus liberalism) was associated with greater attention regulation and task persistence. Moreover, this relationship is shown to stem from varying beliefs in freewill; specifically, the association between political ideology and self-control is mediated by differences in the extent to which belief in freewill is endorsed, is independent of task performance or motivation, and is reversed when freewill is perceived to impede (rather than enhance) self-control. Collectively, these findings offer insight into the self-control consequences of political ideology by detailing conditions under which conservatives and liberals are better suited to engage in self-control and outlining the role of freewill beliefs in determining these conditions.

link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Conservatism: History, Ideology, and Influence
link to study.com

Culture, Knowledge and Power: What the Conservatives have Learnt from E.D. Hirsch

Abstract

British Conservatives happily acknowledge the debt that they owe to E.D. Hirsch. To understand the nature of their curricular project, and how it is located within the wider goals of education and social policy, we need to attend carefully to the character of this transatlantic borrowing. Its emphases and omissions reveal much about the exclusionary reimagining of national identity that informs the continuing counter-revolution in education.

17 April, 2018 at 1:26 am

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

Sorry to be a space hog again folks, but I’ve still not sorted out my internet. I’m heading back to Edinburgh tomorrow, so you’ll not be hearing much from me for a while. I’ll try and get things sorted soon as, sorry RN.

Gabrielle Aplin – Home
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 3:55 am

Only me. I just thought of a topic that might interest some while I’m away.

Organization Studies and the Subjects of Imperialism

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter attempts to outline an account of anti-imperialist scholarship that has emerged within the humanities and social sciences, and that has subsequently been deployed by organizational theorists. The chapter begins by elaborating on postcolonialism, a tradition that analyses the experiences of colonialism as well as the resistance to it. It then discusses subaltern studies, a Gramscian reading of colonial historiography against the grain and critical transnationalism, a methodology that challenges the tendency to take the nation state as a proxy for ‘society’. Finally, the chapter discusses the emerging scholarship on political society, which attempts to theorize the actions of those subjects that do not have access to either the state or ‘civil society’. The intent of this chapter is to not only inform organizational scholars about these theories, but also to make a case for their wider use.

Reflexivity and post-colonial critique: Toward an ethics of accountability in planning praxis

Abstract

In her important essay ‘Praxis in the time of empire’, Ananya Roy (2006) calls for planning theory to confront imperialism and colonialism as the constitutive ‘present history’ of planning and to substitute a liberal ‘responsibility for’ others with a postcolonial ‘accountability to’ them. This article takes up Roy’s appeal with reference to the disciplines of anthropology, critical development studies and feminist studies. It argues that in order to move beyond the limits of ‘liberal benevolence’, planners need an ethics of accountability that recognizes the conditions of postcoloniality, to be sure, but that can also foreground the relational subjectivities of planners and beneficiaries more generally with an eye to broaching the normative terrain of ‘what is to be done?’.

Through a review of literature at the juncture of planning and critical development studies, and reflections on my own cross-disciplinary travels, the article identifies four theoretical concepts that planning needs to recognize and engage in order to strengthen both its critical and normative orientations: the structures of imperialism, agency and resistance among the ‘beneficiaries’ of planning action, the subjectivity of planers and the conditions of collective action. The article argues that, cumulatively, these concepts can inform an ethics of accountability that encompasses both postcolonial critique and a ‘reflexive relationality’.

link to neighbourhoodchange.ca

How to understand power – Eric Liu
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 3:58 am

Link
link to oxfordhandbooks.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 4:55 am

@David Torrance
Just admit to yourself the may harbor fascist sympathies, that way you’ll be more able to deal with your apparent psychological deficiencies.

What is the Right to Development?

“The right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.” (Article 1.1, Declaration on the Right to Development)

“The human right to development also implies the full realization of the right of peoples to self-determination, which includes, subject to the relevant provisions of both International Covenants on Human Rights, the exercise of their inalienable right to full sovereignty over all their natural wealth and resources.” (Article 1.2)

link to un.org

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 4:58 am

..that you may harbor…. Bugger.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 5:56 am

Only me. I don’t know way but I’m thinking of graphs for some reason. Funny that.

Bhaskar’s Critical Realism and Educational Knowledge

Abstract

As a critical realist Bhaskar is concerned with ‘emancipatory social practice’. For him the world cannot be changed rationally unless it is interpreted adequately and this interpretation has as its prerequisite the philosophical idea of the independent existence of the natural and the social world; he extends his ideas from the sciences directly into the social sciences. His organising theme is: the nature of, and the prospects for, human emancipation. This article is an attempt to give Bhaskar’s ideas some exposure among those working in the sociology of education. It opens with a brief history of recent social epistemological thought in education, using critiques of Quine, Dewey and Popper as a backdrop to introducing Bhaskar. It concludes with an expository account of Bhaskar’s conception of discovery, points to its strengths and relevance for education, and presents an interpretation of its stages.

Prediction, Regressions and Critical Realism

Abstract

This paper considers the possibility of prediction in land use planning, and the use of statistical research methods in analyses of relationships between urban form and travel behaviour. Influential writers within the tradition of critical realism reject the possibility of predicting social phenomena. This position is fundamentally problematic to public planning. Without at least some ability to predict the likely consequences of different proposals, the justification for public sector intervention into market mechanisms will be frail. Statistical methods like regression analyses are commonly seen as necessary in order to identify aggregate-level effects of policy measures, but are questioned by many advocates of critical realist ontology. Using research into the relationship between urban structure and travel as an example, the paper discusses relevant research methods and the kinds of prediction necessary and possible in spatial planning of urban development. Finally, the political implications of positions within theory of science rejecting the possibility of predictions about social phenomena are addressed

Critical Realism and the Self

Abstract

This piece outlines the opportunities and obstacles to the application of critical realism to the study of the self. Based on a recent seminar on the subject, the paper discusses a number of diverse approaches to the application of critical realism to selfhood, identity and psychology. It is argued that for the social sciences, the political dangers of essentialism in studying the self require clear explication of how critical realist approaches do not necessarily lead to reductionism or determinism.

17 April, 2018 at 6:09 am

Done and probably not much chance of a second arousal, I wouldn’t think.

Reply

CamerornB Brodie says:

Only me. Must have been the oysters.

Developing Social Theory Using Critical Realism

Abstract

How should critical realists do social theory? This paper considers several issues raised by this question, in response to Jamie Morgan’s recent article in this journal, and comments on his discussion of norm circles.

17 April, 2018 at 9:46 am

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

“Thanks” for your 1001, Smallaxe.

I couldn’t sign in to watch it ‘cos I’ve forgotten my password so I may have dodged a bullet there.

Oh, well another day of quilt-making and raising conscientiousness in the revolutionary collective.

Reply

cearc says:

17 April, 2018 at 10:32 am

TC,

Got a big, big carpet to clean, have you?

Reply

cearc says:

17 April, 2018 at 10:40 am

Don’t see thepnr struggling with a cold ATM. He’s good at moving stuff. Now, the ‘hot’ ATM that he had hidden in the garage, that was another matter!

Myself, I’m struggling with the furious plague from Fife which I brought home with me. I actually had to withdraw (with my last tiny thread of dignity) from my Garden Gala Snail Race when I noticed that one of the snails was about to lap me for the second time.

The wood anemones are coming out (fortunately not the wooden enemies though).

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

17 April, 2018 at 11:01 am

cearc: sorry you have the Lurgi. Can I recommend a strict regime of organic porridge, spring water and bending exercises?

Lots of few-flowered leek out near Pitlochry last week.

Moschatel/Wee Toon Knock anyone?

Reply

Fred says:

17 April, 2018 at 11:27 am

That Roslyn, ye widnae be up tae her!

Reply

cearc says:

17 April, 2018 at 11:29 am

SPRING water! S P R I N G water!!

What’s the point of being poorly if all you get is spring water? (Actully I’ve borehole water now – all mod-cons).

Uisge beatha on my porridge and a bit less of the exercises bending or otherwise.

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

17 April, 2018 at 12:15 pm

I like that uisge beatha-porridge combo but Mrs TC would not allow it.

Borehole would be a great name for a M/T troll.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

17 April, 2018 at 12:35 pm

Whit a day,

Tinto’s dodging bullets while he’s making a revolutionary quilt after having a leek in Pitlochry.
cearc has caught the black death in fife and now she’s got wood anemones and water coming out of her borehole.
Fred is still being a naughty boy with Roslyn.

It’s not often that I come across as the sensible one but it’s easy to feel like that today amongst this…
“Chain of Fools”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

17 April, 2018 at 2:39 pm

Windrush:
link to archive.is

“Where is the Love?”
link to youtube.com

To love an be loved
To ave peace an nuh war
mi wish dis fi all people
Nothing less nothing more

Smallaxe

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

17 April, 2018 at 2:41 pm

Smallaxe: pwoud, vewwy pwoud to be a link in the chain.

Don’t know why I wrote conscientiousness instead of consciousness, though, unless taking off my tin-foil fedora made my brain function susceptible to alpha-waves.

It’s a stammy-gaster richt eneugh, as my great, great, great, great grandfather said before Culloden.

At least my sanity hasn’t been affected…

Reply

Smallaxe says:

17 April, 2018 at 5:34 pm

I’m glad that you still have your sanity, Tinto, as you know;

“You Are My Sunshine”
link to youtube.com

LINK;
link to newsthump.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 6:08 pm

Only me. PTSD can make it difficult to turn intention into reality sometimes. Still, it gives me the chance to examine the mechanism of Torrance’s moral positioning, in a bit more detail.

@James Bartholomew
Bit of a fanny, perhaps?

I invented ‘virtue signalling’. Now it’s taking over the world

To my astonishment and delight, the phrase ‘virtue signalling’ has become part of the English language. I coined the phrase in an article here in The Spectator (18 April) in which I described the way in which many people say or write things to indicate that they are virtuous. Sometimes it is quite subtle. By saying that they hate the Daily Mail or Ukip, they are really telling you that they are admirably non-racist, left-wing or open-minded. One of the crucial aspects of virtue signalling is that it does not require actually doing anything virtuous. It does not involve delivering lunches to elderly neighbours or staying together with a spouse for the sake of the children. It takes no effort or sacrifice at all.

link to spectator.co.uk

Virtues, Values, and Moral Bullying
Critical thinking in social media psychology.

….One particular social media behavior that has caught my attention, over the past year or so, is “virtue-signaling.” A term originating within signaling theory, virtue-signaling denotes a behavior, often costly or unpleasant to the individual conducting it, which represents a commitment to a belief system, such as religion (e.g., fasting). However, the term has received quite a deal of press in the past couple of years with a new, often negative, connotation. In its new context, there is no consensus conceptualisation of the term; but it is usually used to describe publicly expressing (often through social media activity) opinions or values to demonstrate one’s good character or moral correctness with the (implicit or explicit) intent of enhancing social standing. The negative connotation derives from the benefits of such action; that is, being rewarded through enhanced social standing without high cost (e.g., showing support for a social cause by applying a filter to a Facebook profile picture). In “traditional” social psychology, this action can be viewed as a function of social desirability, impression management and/or ingratiation; but it is also, in some cases, a function of false consensus.

link to psychologytoday.com

Virtue-signalling as a route to social status: instances from the semi-periphery

…Not all issues are ‘worth’ representing to the same extent. Some issues are presented as the cutting edge of human rights struggle and hence get more media attention and funding. Nancy Fraser’s analysis about how different groups (e.g. blacks, women, homosexuals) are situated with respect to matters of redistribution as well as of recognition, help to explain why groups experiencing more recognition- than redistribution-related injustices have become increasingly central to the human rights discourse of recent decades. Such issues can be more easily presented as mere questions of tolerance and humanity and therefore have more potential to be instrumentalised while legitimizing the current socio-political system.

link to opendemocracy.net

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

17 April, 2018 at 6:26 pm

“You Are My Sunshine”.

Shucks, Smallaxe, shucks. That was pure plangent.

*wells up, blows nose*

Meanwhile, in other news: while making Mrs TC her Tuesday seven-course gourmet tasting menu, I made the mistake of switching on Pravdasound4 to hear that the Home Office had quite recently and controversially destroyed landing cards from the Windrush era, cards which could have proved the date an individual arrived in Good Old Blighty.

I’m beginning to think Icke might have been onto something with his Lizard People stuff…..

Does Maggie Mayhem eat live young?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

17 April, 2018 at 6:43 pm

Tinto,

T.May doesn’t eat live children, she either starves them to death or blows them to bits first.

I agree with Shaggy on these matters;
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 6:46 pm

Only me. Ever wondered what sort of effects our mental shortcuts have on the social consciousness?

Social psychology and media: critical considerations

In this paper, we argue that media saturate everyday living, and that people engage with and are engaged by media in diverse and complex ways. We suggest a need for an informed social psychology of media that conceptualises media as social practice, and attends to media practices as they occur. We propose that much media psychology research is limited because it: (i) focuses too strongly on documenting causal, and usually negative, media effects; (ii) continues to apply unsuitable research methodologies and theories to investigating media and ignores advances in media research and theory arising outside the discipline; and (iii) largely ignores the social contexts in which media engagements occur. These arguments are illustrated by studies that take a more social and critical approach to media research and that show possibilities for overcoming these limitations and developing insights into psychological concerns enmeshed in media practices.

link to researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz

The conflict mindset: How internal conflicts affect self?regulation

Abstract

Internal conflicts are inherent to individuals’ everyday experience. In this paper, we present the idea of the “conflict mindset.” We argue that internal conflicts evoke a unique information processing strategy that builds on the simultaneous accessibility of two (or more) conflicting alternatives. Once a conflict is activated, the procedure underlying it is primed and can be applied to any relevant subsequent judgment that need not overlap in content with the conflict that originally gave rise to the mindset. We present research demonstrating that the conflict mindset broadens cognitive scope, as well as serves a proactive function for resolving subsequent conflicts. We further describe both intra?personal and inter?personal implications of the conflict mindset on an array of variables. We briefly discuss other mindsets that share common features with the conflict mindset, elaborate on the uniqueness of the conflict mindset compared to other cognitive and motivational processes, and present lingering questions and future directions.

Becoming us and them: Social learning and intergroup bias

Abstract

In recent years, research has demonstrated that the basic features of prejudice and discrimination emerge early in children’s development. These discoveries call into question the role of social learning in intergroup bias. Specifically, through what means do we learn to distinguish “us” from “them?” Here, we explore this question, focusing on three key issues: how children respond to biased information they receive from others, how children selectively seek out certain types of biased information, and how children communicate biased information to others. We close by discussing the implications of this research for interventions to reduce stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.

17 April, 2018 at 6:47 pm

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

Wise words, mate.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 7:28 pm

Only me. Anyone up for ~~second~~ third arousal?

The Problem of Othering: Towards Inclusiveness and Belonging

….We define “othering” as a set of dynamics, processes, and structures that engender marginality and persistent inequality across any of the full range of human differences based on group identities.13) Dimensions of othering include, but are not limited to, religion, sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (class), disability, sexual orientation, and skin tone. Although the axes of difference that undergird these expressions of othering vary considerably and are deeply contextual, they contain a similar set of underlying dynamics.

link to otheringandbelonging.org

Orientalism as Cultural Practices and the Production of Sociological Knowledge

Abstract

Since the 1990s, sociologists and others have increasingly used the term orientalism to refer commonly to ethnocentrism, Eurocentrism, prejudicial stereotyping, and cultural misrepresentations of non?‘western’ societies, particularly those influenced by Islamic knowledge and practices. I chart how theorist Edward Said has helped initiate the sociology of orientalism by emphasizing the relationship of orientalism as a set of cultural practice and discourse to modern empires and global imperialism. I discuss the prominent clusters of studies published in English in the sociology of orientalism: (i) cultural representations and (ii) cultural regulation and social?identity formation. I argue that these studies have examined the ways orientalisms have deployed signifying practices of abstraction, difference, and desire in constructing problematic images and social relations. Furthermore, I contend that sociology as an intellectual endeavor still needs to confront seriously the issues raised by critics of orientalisms.

Neo-Orientalism? The relationship between the West and Islam in our globalised world

Abstract

Orientalism, as Edward Said used the term, can be defined as an ideology which promotes the ‘West-and-Islam’ dualism and the idea that ‘Others are less human’. Since Said first published his ideas in 1978, however, the world seems to have become much more interdependent and political interrelations between the West and Islam have changed dramatically. Consequently this dualism, though more or less in place, has been influenced by escalating waves of globalisation and redistributed and reshaped in a different form. Some promising changes, as well as some additional dualistic tendencies, that can define neo-Orientalism are found in this new era. This paper attempts to analyse elements of change in traditional Orientalism. To portray a better future for our interdependent world some new approaches to identity, global ethics and global civil society are suggested. Eradicating the roots of Orientalism and Occidentalism alike and accepting, protecting and even promoting diversity are first steps towards countering the devastating threats that endanger humankind as a whole.

17 April, 2018 at 7:43 pm

#hardcore #post-colonial #theology

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

Link
link to onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

17 April, 2018 at 7:44 pm

More wise words, Tinto.

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”
‘Bruce Lee’

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. That’s the way I get when I drink Lanliq or Eldorado.

link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 8:00 pm

Tinto Chiel
Racism is ingrained in Anglo-American culture, I’m just doing what I can to change things.

Racism on the Street
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 8:21 pm

Re. Jacob Rees-Mogg. His father may not have approved of provactive racialist language, but is that sufficient evidence of him not holding racist views? Party discipline and public image appeared to be his concerns over Powell’s sacking.

N.B. Right-wing Tories like JRM, tend to view society and social order through prejudiced, social Darwinist, eyes.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

17 April, 2018 at 8:32 pm

Let him come forth who disagrees!

“Strength of A Woman”;
link to youtube.com

Well, where are you?

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 8:46 pm

Some reading for those with the time and interest.

Basic Human Values: Theory, Methods, and Applications
link to segr-did2.fmag.unict.it

Politics, Trust and Networks: Social Capital in Critical Perspective
link to lsbu.ac.uk

Good Governance, Neoliberalism, Inequality within International Organizations
Discourse: a Critical Approach Lidia Lo Schiavo and Pierre Vercauteren
link to jsspi.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

17 April, 2018 at 8:59 pm

“Let him come forth who disagrees!”

“Well, where are you?”

I was going to say something on this matter, Smallaxe but SWIMBO wouldn’t let me .

Cameron: I was in the USA for a fortnight last May and noticed much more tension than in 2014, both between black and white and pro- and anti-Trump. I met some tough African-American guys from Compton who were really nice to me once they discovered I was not an American and we talked about music for a wee while. I also met quite a few homeless in LA and SF who were without any safety net and looked really destitute. The “haves” show them very little sympathy. Macarthur Park (of song fame) is often full of homeless, even in daytime, desperate for a few dollars.

Worst story I heard was when I got back home. A friend of a Glasgow friend is returning to the city from Brooklyn because of the nasty racism directed at his A-A wife in NYC. Yes, not Alabama, NYC. On the subway after Trump got in a creep said to her she would be able to go back home soon, and he meant Africa.

Farage and Rudd would be proud.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

17 April, 2018 at 9:45 pm

Just good music;

Diana Ross:”Theme From Mahogany”
link to youtube.com

Joan Osborne:”What If God Was One Of Us”
link to youtube.com

Tracy Chapman:”Give Me One Reason”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

17 April, 2018 at 11:05 pm

@David Torrance
I’ve done your homework for you.

R2P: Implications for World Order

Abstract

According to supporters of R2P the principle now enjoys almost universal acceptance and the remaining challenges concern operationalization and implementation. In contrast, this article argues that R2P remains controversial both as a principle and in terms of its application, and these controversies reflect broader tensions in international politics related to international order and normative authority. Diplomatic debates related to R2P suggest that rising powers are resistant to aspects of the normative ‘rules of the game’, and that there are fundamental disagreements regarding the relationship between human rights and international order. This can be understood as a tension between pluralist and solidarist worldviews, but also a manifestation of friction regarding control of international institutions and decision-making. Although R2P is defined narrowly, therefore, this article argues that the controversies surrounding the principle must be understood within a wider political context. In conclusion, the article offers a number of suggestions as to the future of R2P based upon this analysis.

link to booksandjournals.brillonline.com

Whose responsibility to protect? The implications of double manifest failure for civilian protection

Abstract

Civilian protection has become an increasingly urgent issue with which humanitarian practitioners and policy-makers must contend, particularly in relation to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). In a number of recent crises, both the host state and the international community have failed to uphold their respective primary and secondary responsibilities to protect under R2P. In such double manifest failure settings, the actors to whom a disproportionate civilian protection responsibility is most likely to fall are humanitarian actors. This article explores the concept of manifest failure, examines Security Council responses, and analyses the implications for civilian protection. I argue that humanitarian actors cannot reasonably be expected to fulfill a tertiary responsibility to protect that aligns with the United Nation’s civilian protection agenda goals, and conclude by discussing how humanitarian actors can work within the limits imposed by double manifest failure cases.

The responsibility for the other and The Responsibility to Protect

Abstract

This article analyses various ways to articulate the ethical investigations of French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas with the doctrine of the responsibility to protect. In response to genocide and mass atrocity, an imperative to understand responsibility in a broader and more forceful way entails in both cases a new and analogous revision of the related concepts of identity and sovereignty. A basic complementarity of Levinas’ ethics with the responsibility to protect is ascertained: while Levinas’ ethical investigations can indeed bring a philosophical basis to the responsibility to protect, the latter can, in a limited way, be construed as practical policy implications of the former.

17 April, 2018 at 11:17 pm

#hardcore #post-colonial #theology

Reply

Fred says:

Thought provoking stuff the night so it is! The guy with the wings brings to mind the foreign proto-aviator who made himself a pair of just such wings & jumped from the battlements of Stirling Castle, he crashed & burned of course but survived to tell the king that the problem was using hens feathers instead of swans! Just thought I’d mention it!

Reply

Smallaxe says:

17 April, 2018 at 11:34 pm

I jumped off Barlanark primary school roof with a cotton supply parachute that had hairy ropes instead of para-cord and it hit the ground just before I did. True!

Patsy Cline:”I Fall to Pieces”;
link to youtube.com

The bit after the = end of that link is mocking me!

Reply

Thepnr says:

18 April, 2018 at 12:25 am

I never jumped just fell and bounced off the pavemnet

Jist made me stronger LOL

Reply

Smallaxe says:

18 April, 2018 at 12:53 am

It made me…wait a minute…it’ll come to me…

“Dizzy”
link to youtube.com

It still hasn’t worn off!

Reply

Thepnr says:

18 April, 2018 at 1:20 am

@Smallaxe

A real modern version and from the Cavern too. Daughter tells me that is a good place to go on an afternoon, I’ve never been yet but will do sometime.

I’m over the cold but not the cough, the good news is though that I haven’t had a fag, can’t even take a draw so that’s four days now.

OK I’m using patches cause I need the nicotene but if I can break the habit I might just be off them. To be honest anybody that smokes is a mug, you too and me,

We’ll see how it goes wish me luck LOL

Reply

cearc says:

18 April, 2018 at 1:50 am

Yep, you’re doing a grand job on the MT.

Glad you’re on the mend.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

18 April, 2018 at 5:31 am

Only me. So are we serious about wanting Scotland to become a better place to live in? Is Scotland likely to achieve inclusive, sustainable development, bound within a post-Brexit Britain, without political sovereignty?

Overcoming Organizational Inertia:
A Tripartite Model for Achieving Strategic Organizational Change

This paper suggests that insight, action, and psychological inertia are natural barriers to implementing strategic, high impact organizational change. As agents of learning, managers must identify features of the system open to influence which might interrupt cycles of failure and transform them into benevolent points of leverage. This paper explores the nature of resistance to high impact organizational development and institutional change. A “Tripartite Model for Achieving Organizational Change” and overcoming institutional inertia is illustrated and explained.

link to na-businesspress.com

Overcoming Behavioral and Institutional Inertia
link to siteresources.worldbank.org

Emotional inertia and psychological maladjustment
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

#hardcore #postcolonial #theology

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

18 April, 2018 at 6:31 am

Only me. Having the ability to pump out sprogs isn’t the defining characteristics of womanhood but it’s certainly one of them.

SEX AND GENDER: A CRITICAL REALIST APPROACH

Caroline New

Much gender theorising, I shall argue, is in an impasse from which critical realism indicates a way out. In the heyday of second wave feminism, structural inequalities such as women’s under-representation in political and economic leadership, their lower pay, sexual objectification, and widespread violence by men against women, were seen as in need of explanation, the better to transform them. ‘Radical’ or ‘revolutionary’ feminists saw these inequalities as symptoms of the enduring differences between women and men, while liberal, Marxist and socialist feminists understood them as resulting from a motivated refusal to acknowledge the similarities. All saw womanhood as a basis for grounded solidarity – at least while the oppression of women persisted. To end it, different sources of power had to be mobilised.

For radical feminism, the power of women, united across all differences to refuse co-operation with the patriarchy, could bring about a cultural revalorisation of the subordinate terms in the repeated dualisms of Western thought: man, woman; culture, nature; human, animal; reason, emotion. For liberal feminism, women united had to harness the power of the state to render its laws and practices consistent and gender-equal. For Marxists and socialists, women had to unite with men to seize the state, and at the same time use female solidarity to ensure that the interests of half of the working class did not get forgotten.

Similarities, differences. From the 1980s, feminist critics of second stage feminism argued that the call to ‘sisterhood’ obscured the differences between women, making middle-class white Western womanhood the default position, and membership of other oppressed groups mere ‘add-ons’ (Spelman, 1988, Mohanty, 1992). ‘Woman’ was a fragmented identity, not a unitary one. It was doubtful whether it was a usable basis for political solidarity, since so many oppressive relationships took place between women themselves. Feminist politics became increasingly fragmented, with single issue campaigns and coalitions replacing the broad sweep of a movement – corresponding to the ‘anti-foundationalist’ epistemological theory that allows an ontology of parts but forbids one of wholes, and views abstraction as a dangerous betrayal of concrete particularities. The politics of ‘recognition’ (of subordinate identities) became increasingly important, and with it the idea of struggle as situated primarily in the discursive realm (Fraser and Honneth, 1998). But how could
subordinated identities be revalorised while leaving hegemonic identities intact?

link to 131.111.165.101

Feminism and critical realism – demonstration of a lack of dialogue
link to pdfs.semanticscholar.org

Critical Realism, Gender and Feminism: Exchanges, Challenges, Synergies
link to tandfonline.com;

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

18 April, 2018 at 6:49 am

Only me. Marginalising voices damages the global social fabric. Scotland is a marginalised nation lacking political voice and agency. Westminster plans on strengthening this position against Scotland’s best interests.

BAM Joint Event: Think-Space for Gender Theory: Considering a Critical Realist (Rather Than Social Constructionist) Approach To Gender Research

Description

Social constructionism undoubtedly advanced thinking about gender. Recently, however, researchers have asked if social constructionism gives a full account of gendering. Critical questions include:

• If gender has nothing to do with the body, how do we honour and account for physiological capacities exclusive to people with female reproductive organs like pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause?

• If the body is taboo due to an ontology that centres discourse, how do we talk about bodily implications of gender oppression like pain and violence and material inequalities?

• If ‘women’ is a discursive category devised to oppress, how can we speak of women’s interests and solidarity?

• How do we conceptualise and account for the experiences of transgender, agender, nonbinary people and cis women (assigned female at birth) without acknowledging the body as well as social processes?

• If we are all produced by society’s discourses, how do we theorise women’s agency and a process of emancipation?
link to bam.ac.uk

Reflexivity and women’s agency: a critical realist morphogenetic exploration of the life experience of Sri Lankan women
link to tandfonline.com

Module Intro: Sociology Of Health and Illness
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

18 April, 2018 at 7:40 am

Thepnr,

Well done with the fags but take an air freshener with you next time your farting to C.A. on the M/T.
As for me stopping;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

18 April, 2018 at 9:25 am

A song for Heed:

18 April, 2018 at 10:09 am

Haste ye back, just ignore the bacon rolls.

Reply

Fred says:

@ Tinto, bout time!

@ Thepnr, honey n whisky till it goes kid!

Reply

Clapper57 says:

18 April, 2018 at 10:39 am

WOS is without a doubt the best pro Indy website.

However the constant never ending bickering between certain individuals detracts from the Rev’s postings and also the responses from regulars on this site.

As someone who knows how well informed posters are on this site I can only imagine someone new to the site could be put off which is a shame because this is one of the most important sites for independence supporters.

I rarely comment on here now but still read the main posts from the Rev.

When I start to read the comments I spend a lot of time scrolling past the tit for tat posters but then get bored and move onto another site.

It does anger me because a lot of effort has went into the Rev’s post and it ends up lost through certain individuals deflecting attention away from the post and onto their own petty disputes.

Sorry needed to get that off my chest….hopefully may meet some of you in Glasgow on May 5th.

Have a good day everyone.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

18 April, 2018 at 11:54 am

Ach, it wis a hell o’ a day the night the lum fell in.

Arlo Guthrie & Pete Seeger:”If I Had A Hammer”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

18 April, 2018 at 1:18 pm

Clapper57: hope to see you hanging about Big Ronnie’s Wings banner with the rest of the motley crew on 5/5. Does anyone know if the terminus is Glasgow Green rather than FS?

You’re right: my scroller has been getting rid het recently and some sensible, regular posters have taken a powder.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

18 April, 2018 at 1:29 pm

Tinto,

Matters pertaining to your ‘scroller’ have given me cause to worry, please make sure that you take it out into the fresh air to decrease the temperature forthwith.
link to youtube.com
I’ll see you okay for bail money if they catch you.

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

18 April, 2018 at 1:50 pm

Smallaxe, your entendres have never been so doubles.

18 April, 2018 at 2:05 pm

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Ya thaaink?

18 April, 2018 at 2:08 pm

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

Before I get on with my ironing, I leave you with His Supreme Perpetual Bon-ness:

18 April, 2018 at 2:24 pm

Hope Chic(k) enjoys this.

Have pressing matters to attend to.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Also, it’s a long way to the bottom.

18 April, 2018 at 2:37 pm

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

Right, that’s my strides pressed.

“Also, it’s a long way to the bottom.”

Where fae?

Reply

Clapper57 says:

18 April, 2018 at 2:51 pm

@ Tinto Chiel

Yep. My excessive scrolling has now removed my fingerprint on my index finger….LOL.

However you really really do have to….
Scroll past a Troll.
Ignore a bore.
Blank a W**k………

Then by the time you get to decent posters you have lost the f**king will to live !!

Have a good day .

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

18 April, 2018 at 2:59 pm

Only me. Marginalising voices damages the global social fabric. Scotland is a marginalised nation lacking political voice and agency. Westminster plans on strengthening this position against Scotland’s best interests, and those of the wider global comunity.

Anglo-American neo-liberalism and Anglo-American exceptionalism poses two of the greatest threat to world peace and global sustainability. The decolonisation of Britain’s democratic geography will make a significant contribution to ending the continued colinlity of global power and benefit humanity as a whole.

Orientalism is bad, mk.

Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America

What is termed globalization is the culmination of a process that began with the constitution of America and colonial/modern Eurocentered capitalism as a new global power. One of the fundamental axes of this model of power is the social classification of the world’s population around the idea of race, a mental construction that expresses the basic experience of colonial domination and pervades the more important dimensions of global power, including its specific rationality: Eurocentrism. The racial axis has a colonial origin and character, but it has proven to be more durable and stable than the colonialism in whose matrix it was established. Therefore, the model of power that is globally hegemonic today presupposes an element of coloniality. In what follows, my primary aim is to open up some of the theoretically necessary questions about the implications of coloniality of power regarding the history of Latin America.1

link to edisciplinas.usp.br (2000) Colinality of power.pdf

Race, Nation, Class
Ambiguous Identities
link to edisciplinas.usp.br

What is COLONIALITY OF POWER? What does COLONIALITY OF POWER mean? COLONIALITY OF POWER meaning
link to youtube.com

#hardcore #post-colonial #theology

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

18 April, 2018 at 3:24 pm

@Clapper57: hee, hee!

You too.

Reply

Liz g says:

18 April, 2018 at 5:36 pm

Tinto Chiel @ 1.18
The march on the 5th – IS- going to Glasgow Green.

The plan was originally to go to Freedom/,George’s Square,but apparently its gotten too big so the Police and the Organisers,have agreed it should now go to Glasgow Green!

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

18 April, 2018 at 5:54 pm

Thanks, Liz. Good news it’s moved because of pledges to come, and lots of folk like me and my “supervisor” don’t do Twitter/FB so will be extra.

I saw on on-line RT (stooge of Putin, me) that 700000+ Catalans were at the demo last weekend, with some saltires and Yes flags on show.

Really looking forward to 5/5…..

Reply

Dave McEwan Hill says:

18 April, 2018 at 7:25 pm

Liz g at 5.36

Doesn’t work well at Glasgow Green. Rethink please.

Reply

Fred says:

18 April, 2018 at 10:20 pm

Aye, “Better on the Square” as they say in Masonic circles.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

18 April, 2018 at 11:38 pm

And on the level, Fred.

Level 42:”Mr Pink”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

19 April, 2018 at 1:18 am

Only me. Not a lot of Scots know this but the viability of England’s water security is questionable. Read what you might want into that. Personally, I don’t see Brexit improving the prospects for a democratically and socially inclusive resolution to the potential crisis looming.

Sorry for the length of this post.

Resilience of UK Infrastructure
Background

The government defines the UK?s national infrastructure (NI)as “facilities, systems, sites and networks necessary for the functioning of the country and the delivery of the essential services upon which daily life in the UK depends”.1 It identifies nine areas as NI: energy, transport, water, communications, food, health care, emergency services, financial services and government itself. This POSTnote considers some of the issues surrounding the resilience of the first four, which provide the core infrastructure on which the remaining five depend. Issues include:

Short-term hazards: flooding during the summer of 2007 (see Box 1) cost an estimated £3.2 billion. The subsequent report, The Pitt Review: Learning Lessons from the 2007 Floods,2 has set out the need to address resilience to current hazards.

Long-term climate change:climate change may increasingly affect NI. The Climate Change Act 2008 requires the government to report on climate change risk and prepare adaptation strategies.

Interdependence:the national infrastructure is a highly interconnected network both within and between sectors. Failure in one area can spread unexpectedly to others. The need to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets, such as the 80% emission reduction by 2050, to replace ageing infrastructure and respond to population rise and changing patterns of demand are also key motives for investment.

link to parliament.uk

Water supply and resilience and infrastructure
Environment Agency advice to Defra
October 2015
Executive summary

This advice report sets out information to support Defra in delivering the Water White Paper1 commitments related to assessing future needs for water resilience and associated strategic water infrastructure.

In this document, we treat resilience as the capacity to maintain essential services under a range of circumstances from normal to extreme. Our advice is based on a review of the available evidence across sectors which rely on water and encompasses the economic, social and environmental impacts which would result from compromised supplies.

The review has focused on supply pressures associated with severe and extreme droughts, although it does note some non-drought hazards. The options to enhance resilience levels to drought could have wider benefits in terms of other threats to security of supply.

Our review of the evidence has concluded seven key findings:

1. Large parts of society, industry and commerce are currently exposed to the risk of emergency water restrictions (stand pipes, rota cuts etc.) at a likelihood in the order of 1% every year. The risk is often uncertain and is probably understated in some water company plans. The future risk of emergency water restrictions is likely to increase due to a combination of growth pressures and changes to droughts associated with climate change, unless water companies and other businesses invest to maintain current resilience.

2. The consequence of emergency water restrictions has the potential for severe economic, societal, reputational and environmental impacts – particularly in large conurbations. One study estimated the monthly cost for London alone at £7–10 billion2. Although the evidence is not well developed it is possible that the societal impacts of such restrictions could include break-down of social cohesion and serious impacts on public health. One estimate of the economic cost of an extreme, three year drought in England in the 2050s could be up to £80bn if it leads to serious demand restrictions in London and the South East, although this does not take into account adaptation and investment already planned by water companies3.

3. Initial work shows that the benefit of enhancing water resilience is likely to exceed the cost. Further work is required across sectors to understand better the cost-benefit ratio under a range of future scenarios, against a scale of resilience outcomes.

4. The planning processes to ensure suitable levels of resilience for public water supply are in place at a water company level, for example the water resources management planning process. They have delivered improvements in companies’ plans for managing supply and demand but have had less impact on increasing resilience as they focus on maintaining the supply-demand balance at the same level of risk. A number of barriers appear to have limited any significant progress on resilience and strategic infrastructure since privatisation. These include lack of:

• supporting evidence around risks
• incentives for improving resilience in the longer-term
• knowledge of the costs and benefits of mitigation actions.

There are also real or perceived regulatory barriers and limitations in customer support, affordability and planning across multiple companies. There are similar perceived concerns about barriers to collaborative planning with other sectors, although it is not clear whether this is due to barriers or lack of incentives.

5. While many individual businesses plan their future needs, there is no strategic sectoral planning for the risks associated with water for energy security, agriculture, industry, commerce and private water supplies reliant on direct abstractions.

6. Severe droughts would cause significant deterioration in the environment, partly due to continued or unplanned emergency abstraction. Properly planned water supply resilience solutions are likely to reduce the frequency and impact of drought measures on the environment in both severe and less severe droughts. Therefore increasing resilience is likely to benefit the environment.

7. There are a number of gaps in the evidence which could be addressed to assist resilience planning. These include a more detailed understanding of the multi-sector costs and benefits of increasing resilience.

Based on our assessment it is our advice to Defra that a next phase of this work should be undertaken to provide a clear evidence base to support the planning processes for water. The work would present the case for enhanced levels of water supply resilience both for public water supply and other major sectors through an assessment of options for alternative levels of resilience. It would set out the potential role for strategic infrastructure for multiple sectors.

link to assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

CCRA2: Updated projections for water availability for the UK
Final Report

7. Discussion and conclusions
7.1. What does all this mean?
7.1.1. Implications for Public Water Supplies
Total supply-demand balance
Short-term: 2030s

The supply demand balance at the end of the water company resource planning horizon, based on the water resource system as at the baseline period (i.e. does not include for planned interventions set-out in the water company resource plans, so is in effect a ‘no action’ scenario) reports that a total of 27 WRZs exhibit a supply-demand deficit of greater than 5 Ml/d in the water company resource plans in the 2030s. These comprise one WRZ in Wales, two in Northern Ireland and 24 in England. The largest reported deficit is in London, followed by Yorkshire Water’s Grid Zone.

At a national level, England and Northern Ireland are reported to be in deficit at the end of the planning period (-1% and -4% respectively). By contrast, Wales and Scotland report surpluses overall at this time (10% and 22% respectively). Population changes by the 2030s are projected to vary significantly across the UK. The total demand for public water supplies increases by the greatest extent, in general, in the South-East of England and Northern Ireland. In Wales, northern, central and south-west England and some WRZ’s in Scotland, Distribution Input is projected to decrease by the 2030s. This is primarily due to PCC reductions and improvements in leakage rates.

Climate change impacts on Deployable Output reported at the end of the water company resource plans varies significantly across the different WRZs. Thirty-five percent of the WRZs included in this analysis report impacts from climate change (51% in England; 54% in Wales; 23% in Scotland; and, 71% in Northern Ireland). In absolute terms, the greatest impacts are reported to be in England (in London and the north of England). The large absolute impacts projected are for a couple of reasons:

Thames Water’s London zone:

The population is high and therefore the absolute water requirement is also high. Even small percentage changes equate to relatively large volumes.

Abstraction from the Thames River supplies more than one WRZ. However, the licence restrictions on abstractions from the Thames river are not equally spread between the receiving zones. Therefore, the London WRZ carries proportionally more risk, with respect to climate change, based on the licence conditions than the other WRZs served.

Severn Trent Water’s large Strategic Grid WRZ, Yorkshire Water’s Grid zone and United Utilities Integrated WRZ:

The large geographical area means that the population is high and therefore the absolute water requirements are also high. Similar to the London zone, even small percentage changes equate to relatively large volumes.

Abstractions are largely from surface water sources that are relatively severely impacted by climate change, especially when compared to zones that have greater groundwater resources.

link to theccc.org.uk

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

19 April, 2018 at 2:01 am

Only me. Some selected reading for those with the inclination.

Challenges for Water Use in UK Industry
link to imeche.org

Towards Water 2020 – meeting the challenges for water and wastewater services in England and Wales
link to ofwat.gov.uk

A Critical Financial Analysis of the Performance of Privatised Insustries: The Case of the Water Industry in England and Wales
link to sciencedirect.com

I think I’ve battered that one enough.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

19 April, 2018 at 2:33 am

Only me. Sorry folks, I’m on a roll/bap. Has anyone hear from Prof. Gerry Hassan lately?

Cultural Studies, Critical Theory and Cultural Governance

Abstract

It can be argued that, in the light of the `cultural turn’ in sociology, the search for new sources of critical theory, might profitably begin by considering the contributions of the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies, particularly the lessons to be learned from the Frankfurt School and then from British cultural studies in dealing with the problem of reconciling radical critical theory with the demands of cultural policy and administration. The contributions of these two traditions in cultural theory to debates about cultural governance are used to illustrate the dilemma.

link to rowmaninternational.com

Who Is The Left?

Why Social Movements Matter reminds us how the struggles and imagination of past generations have shaped our world. It encourages us to join with others to find creative responses to the stacked-up crises of our times – and to embody, within our struggles, the values of the world we want to bring forth. But it also engages with the complexity of social change, the disappointments and betrayals that face movements as they interact with the wider socio-political systems they are part of. The accessible style draws us into rigorous reflection on the tensions between movements and political institutions, the meaning of ‘the left’ today, and the interplay between collective agency and social structures. Never ducking the challenges involved, Cox inspires us towards the building of counter-power and the creative potential that lies in “learning from each other’s struggles”.

Laurence Cox co-directs the MA on Community Education, Equality and Social Activism at Maynooth University in Ireland and runs a PhD-level programme of participatory action research in social movement practice. In 2014 he co-edited the volume Understanding European Social Movements.

POSTMODERNISM, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

The new spatial logic of the simulacrum can now be expected to have a momentous effect on what used to be historical time. The past is thereby itself modified: what was once, in the historical novel as Lukacs defines it, the organic genealogy of the bourgeois collective project-what is still, for the redemptive historiography of an E. P. Thompson or of American “oral history,” for the resurrection of the dead of anonymous and silenced generations, the retrospective dimension indispensable to any vital reorientation of our collective future-has meanwhile itself become a vast collection of images, a multitudinous photographic simulacrum. Guy Debord’s powerful slogan is now even more apt for the “prehistory” of a society bereft of all historicity, one whose own putative past is little more than a set of dusty spectacles. In faithful conformity to poststructuralist linguistic theory, the past as “referent” finds itself gradually bracketed, and then effaced altogether, leaving us with nothing but texts.

link to warwick.ac.uk

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

19 April, 2018 at 4:39 am

Only me. On the character of the Prime Minister’s character. She’s a product of a particularly pernicious strand of Anglo-American culture, innit.

P.S. One of my mates is black.

White Skin, Black Friend: A Fanonian application to theorize racial fetish in teacher education

Abstract

In Black Skin, white masks (1967, Grove Press), Franz Fanon uses a psychoanalytic framework to theorize the inferiority-dependency complex of Black men in response to the colonial racism of white men. Applying his framework in reverse, this theoretical article psychoanalyzes the white psyche and emotionality with respect to the racialization process of whites and their racial attachment to Blackness. Positing that such a process is interconnected with narcissism, humanistic emptiness, and psychosis, this article presents how racial attachment becomes racial fetish. Such a fetish reifies whiteness by accumulating fictive kinships with friends of color; hence, the common parlance of ‘But I have a Black friend!’ The article, then, overlays this theoretical interpretation onto the subject of teacher education in the US, specifically urban teacher education programs that are predominantly comprised of white middle-class females who claim a desire to ‘save’ urban students of color. Ending with the dangers and hopes of a more humanistic friendship, this article offers emotional ways one can self-actualize the racialization process.

19 April, 2018 at 5:57 am

Entangled Others – Other Entanglements: Critical Perspectives on the Relationship of Racism and Antisemitism
link to hsozkult.de

Through the Crucible of Pain and Suffering: African-American philosophy as a gift and the countering of the western philosophical metanarrative
link to tandfonline.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

I feel better for that. Morning Smallaxe.

Lee Scratch Perry – Megaton Bomb
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 7:26 am

Good morning, Cameron,

Alt-J: Taro
link to youtube.com

Reply

Fred says:

19 April, 2018 at 10:28 am

Anything by Joan Boaz Smallaxe?

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

19 April, 2018 at 11:22 am

Only me. I’m not sufficiently skilled to pull this apart much further.

@ Rev.
I did suggest you employ some critical practitioners. Proper ones.

Expanding the Definition of Privilege: The Concept of Social Privilege

Abstract

Examinations of privilege have historically focused on gender and race. By placing privilege within the context of oppression, the authors offer an expanded view of the domains of privilege that include sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, differing degrees of ableness, and religious affiliation.

Los exámenes del privilegio se han enfocado históricamente en el género y la raza. Colocando el privilegio dentro del contexto de la opresión, los autores ofrecen una vista ensanchada de los dominios del privilegio que incluye la orientación sexual, la posición socioeconómica, la edad, difiriendo los grados de habilidad, y de la afiliación religiosa.

Resisting whiteness’ rhetorical silence

Abstract

This essay explores the rhetorical dimensions of whiteness in public political discourse from an ideological perspective. It analyzes a debate between Carolyn Moseley Braun and Jesse Helms over a patent extension for the United Daughters of the Confederacy insignia containing a Confederate flag. In this essay I argue that rhetoricians must do the critical and self?reflexive ideological work necessary to make whiteness visible and overturn its silences for the purpose of resisting racism. To do this, scholars must locate interactions that implicate unspoken issues of race, discursive spaces where the power of whiteness is invoked but its explicit terminology is not, and investigate how these racialized constructions intersect with gender and class.

link to sociology.yale.edu

White space, white privilege: Mapping discursive inquiry into the self

Abstract

Since the end of the Civil Rights Movement, large numbers of black people have made their way into settings previously occupied only by whites, though their reception has been mixed. Overwhelmingly white neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, restaurants, and other public spaces remain. Blacks perceive such settings as “the white space,” which they often consider to be informally “off limits” for people like them. Meanwhile, despite the growth of an enormous black middle class, many whites assume that the natural black space is that destitute and fearsome locality so commonly featured in the public media, including popular books, music and videos, and the TV news—the iconic ghetto. White people typically avoid black space, but black people are required to navigate the white space as a condition of their existence.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 12:00 pm

Fred,

I can tie one of them as well as you can.

Boaz:”The Fire In Your Eyes”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 12:06 pm

Fred,

Do you know this one?
link to youtube.com

Reply

Fred says:

19 April, 2018 at 1:05 pm

Abif? Smallaxe, clever stuff kid!

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 1:27 pm

Fred,

It takes two balls to play this, for the ‘forger of all instruments of bronze and iron’.
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

19 April, 2018 at 5:40 pm

“When Labour played the racist card”

British nationalism is unadulterated blood-and-soil ideology. It may have cultural finery attached to it, but the ideological kernel is pure racism born, out of the fear of cultural degeneration.

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

19 April, 2018 at 6:11 pm

Evening, sophisticates and intellectuals.

I got so fed up listening to the metrovincial whines of Pravdasound4 this morning that I flicked over to Radio 3 to hear some music. Donizetti was the composer of the week so I was stymied by the verbal biographical content.

Predictably, I began to froth when it was announced that his Maria Stuarda, based on Schiller’s play “Maria Stuart”, was “one of the few operas to deal with the Tudor period”.

It’s what we’re up against daily, campers.

I wish I weren’t so artistic and sensitive.

Ya bass.

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

19 April, 2018 at 6:28 pm

Btw, re Level 42: Mark King can really spank his plank, can’t he?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 6:35 pm

Tinto,

Listening to Pravdasound my erse, as you will see below, I found out on Facebook just what you’d been up to. Pant’s on Fire!

Tinto Chiel keeping his t-shirt on in the sun;
A chiselled God of a man is maintaining an annoying level of public decency while lesser men walk around shirtless.

Tinto works out hard and eats a carefully balanced, protein-rich diet, while his dark hair and well-groomed beard bring to mind a younger Jason King.

The sudden heat wave has inspired many men of questionable aesthetic appeal to take their shirts off while waddling down the local High Street

“But of course Tinto’s kept his kit on, so we just get to look at all of the Brian Taylor lookalikes wandering around with their bellies out,” grumbled Tinto’s colleague, Ruth Davidson.

“It’s not fair. I came to work at the smoothie bar today specifically hoping to catch a glimpse of him laying on the grass at lunch, but he’s going to sit indoors and read Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Bell Jar’ instead because of course he’s intellectually enlightened too; the well-mannered, gorgeous hunk.”

Tinto replied, “Oh, this is all very flattering, thank you.”

“I just don’t really want to take my shirt off today. I don’t really tend to do that unless I’m at the beach or if I’m swimming or if I’m about to make passionate yet considerate love to a sober woman for several hours.

“Fair play to all these other lads who want to get their tops off at the merest glimpse of the sun, though. They should be embracing their bodies whatever their shape. In a way, they inspire me.”

“Too Sexy”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Marie Clark says:

19 April, 2018 at 6:52 pm

Hi all, nice to see Smallaxe back in action, hope your doin okay.Regards to Nana if your in touch with her, I hope she’s feeling a bit better too.

I see on the MT that the Rev has been oot wi the hammers. Well he did warn folk twice to stop engaging wi’ the trolls, but some folk widnae be telt. Well, they ken better noo.

I’m just doing a bit of catching up here, Tinto, thank you, thank you for his Supreme Perpetual Bon-ness. I was having a bad day yesterday, ( we all get those ) and I clicked on that track. Well, that wiz me off, jivin aboot like a young thing, fair lifted the spirits,yes.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 7:58 pm

Hi Marie,

I’m doing fine, thanks, I hope you and yours are well.

I spoke to Nana today and apart from anything else she’s been overdoing all the many things that she does for our cause without a real break and really needs to take it easy for a while, However, she is in good spirits and enjoying a well-deserved rest…until we untie her.

I’ll play one of Nana’s favourite singers and I’ll give her your best wishes Marie;
“Forever Young” Joan Baez;
link to youtube.com.

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

19 April, 2018 at 7:59 pm

“A chiselled God of a man…his dark hair and well-groomed beard bring to mind a younger Jason King…he’s intellectually enlightened too; the well-mannered, gorgeous hunk.”

Shucks! So true, so true, my dearest Smallaxe and I am pure overcome by your encomium (peotry). It’s not easy being this gorgeous, believe me, although it’s always worth it to please The Laydees.

*twirls deep auburn moustaches with highlights of marron (yer actual French) roguishly*

Marie, I’ve been having a bad day on here for weeks. Too many bacon rolls are bad for the constitution. Can’t wait for 5/5 and the start of Indyref2 to blow away the cobwebs. I remember that tune from School of Rock but didn’t know ACDC had written it and I’d never seen that footage before. Seeing His Perpetual Bon-ness with the pipes really cheered me up too.

Great to see you back to top form, Smallaxe.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

19 April, 2018 at 8:00 pm

Only me. Did folk really imagine colonialism is what happened over there? Not at home? Imperialist, colonialist, racist, attitudes permeate the English/British psyche.

‘Race’, Racism and Psychology: Towards a Reflexive History
link to simbi.kemenag.go.id

Race, Racism and Education: inequality, resilience and reform in policy & practice
link to soc-for-ed-studies.org.uk

Minority Report
Race and Class in post-Brexit Britain
link to runnymedetrust.org

#hardcore #post-colonial #theology

Reply

Daisy Walker says:

19 April, 2018 at 8:17 pm

Smallaxe, Nana, and all – Peace and Love, and a wee song (well the words anyway) to cheer ye.

HENRY THE EIGHTH

CHORUS
HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY THE EIGHT
A PSYCHO BAMPOT, WITH A PROBLEM WITH HIS WEIGHT
AND LETS NOT FORGET ABOUT HIS POOR WEE WIVES
AN AWFUL LOT WEE’ER SINCE THEY MET HIS KNIVES

HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY THE EIGHT
THOUGHT THAT WAR, WOULD MAKE HIM GREAT
BUT HE WAS A BIT SHITE, AT WAGING WAR
INSTEAD HE GOT THE BAILIFFS KNOCKING AT HIS DOOR

CHORUS

HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY THE EIGHT
BUILT THE BIGGEST WAR SHIP THE SEA COULD EVER TAKE
BUT IT WAS TOO HEAVY TO EVERY FLOAT
BRICKS HAVE SUNK SLOWER THAN THAT AWFUL BOAT

CHORUS

HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY THE EIGHT
TRIED TO GET TO HEAVEN BUT DIDN’T LIKE THE WAIT
NOW HE SITS IN PURGATORY
WELL HE SHOULDN’T HAVE BURNT DOWN ALL THE MONASTRY’S

CHORUS

HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY HENRY THE EIGHT
THOSE POWERS YOU’VE LEFT DON’T SEEM SO GREAT
DEMOCRACY THAT’LL DO ME
BUGGER OFF HENRY, SCOTLAND WILL BE FREE
BUGGER OFF HENRY, SCOTLAND WILL BE FREE
BUGGER OFF HENRY, SCOTLAND WILL BE FREE

CHORUS

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 8:51 pm

Don’t get too worked up, Tinto, I plagiarised most of that out of an old Woman’s Weekly magazine and then I tried to steal the old Woman’s Weekly pension, turned out she was a WASPI woman!
A bloody disgrace, intit? Worked all her life and her pension had already been stolen by the DWP.

Tracy Chapman:”Talkin’ bout a Revolution”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 9:03 pm

Hi Daisy,

Peace, Love and Harmony to you and to those to whom you give your Love.

Thank you, for the song, is there a tune?

Here’s one for you and there’s nothing funny about it;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

19 April, 2018 at 9:15 pm

So, to summarise, Smallaxe: you crossed a WASPI woman?

Be afraid, be afraid. Half of them are in Sheboom!

Got terrorised by them at the Iraq war demo in Glasgow and can’t look a snare in the eye now.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 9:22 pm

This good weather has brought out a lot of big effen bees;
link to youtube.com

Feeling stung?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 9:37 pm

I am afraid, Tinto.I married one! Here’s some home video of us both. Guess whit wan’s me.

link to youtube.com

Did you guess right?

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

19 April, 2018 at 10:22 pm

Finksae: you’re looking very distinguished, btw.

Is yon lassie no A*sula Undress? Jeezo!

This is the most depraved filth I’ve ever seen. be warned!

19 April, 2018 at 10:24 pm

Mofftaemapit in disgust.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

Only me. Honestly folks, scratch beneath the surface of British nationalism’s BBC varnish, and it really is shite all the way down. Don’t mind me though, I’m a vile sep distraction.

Psychological perspectives on racism
Racism and psychology
There has been a tendency within psychology to use the terms prejudice and racism interchangeably. Prejudice is typically regarded as an individual phenomenon, whereas racism is a broader construct that links individual beliefs and behaviour to broader social and institutional norms and practices that systematically disadvantage particular groups. At an individual level, people can display prejudice, but this in itself does not necessarily constitute racism. Central to racism is the ability of dominant groups to systematically exercise power over out-groups. Importantly, the power one group has over another transforms prejudice into racism and links individual prejudice with broader social practices (Jones, 1997).

link to psychology.org.au

Racism in the Structure of Everyday Worlds: A Cultural-Psychological Perspective

Abstract

Theory and research in cultural psychology highlight the need to examine racism not only “in the head” but also “in the world.” Racism is often defined as individual prejudice, but racism is also systemic, existing in the advantages and disadvantages imprinted in cultural artifacts, ideological discourse, and institutional realities that work together with individual biases. In this review, we highlight examples of historically derived ideas and cultural patterns that maintain present-day racial inequalities. We discuss three key insights on the psychology of racism derived from utilizing a cultural-psychology framework. First, one can find racism embedded in our everyday worlds. Second, through our preferences and selections, we maintain racialized contexts in everyday action. Third, we inhabit cultural worlds that, in turn, promote racialized ways of seeing, being in, and acting in the world. This perspective directs attempts at intervention away from individual tendencies and instead focuses on changing the structures of mind in context that reflect and reproduce racial domination.

link to eprints.lse.ac.uk

Towards a Critical Social Psychology of Racism: Points of disruption Caroline Howarth and Derek Hook

One of the questions that the papers here as a whole invite is what is or what should be the point of a critical social psychology of racism? What questions should such an approach propose? What this special issue contributes to the study of racism is a focus on disruption, resistance and transformative practices.

While social psychology has often preferred approaches that account for the expression of racism (whether this is located in individual minds, social institutions or cultural practices) and/or the psychological consequences of racism (on attitudes, stereotypes, representations, identities and self-esteem)1, we have chosen empirical projects and the oretical discussions that focus on the moments in which racist and racialising practices are made visible, unsettled and so disrupted. This invites analysis into the opportunities for transgressing racialised networks of power, the social psychological dynamics of resistance and so the possibilities for challenging racism and social change. Hence what is valuable about thesepapers is that they begin a discussion of how we may find ways to contest and so undermine racism – and what subject positions there are available in different social contexts for this endeavour.2

N.B. Biologically deterministic, social Darwinist beliefs are a common characteristic of right-wing outlooks.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 10:32 pm

Pure dead sad this;
link to youtube.com
Brekyerhert soitwid.

Reply

Daisy Walker says:

19 April, 2018 at 10:35 pm

Smallaxe, glad you liked it. Yes there is a tune, very catchy, but difficult to type.

Night night all.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 10:49 pm

I’ll just make up my own tune, Daisy.

Good night.
OLD CELTIC & NORDIC LULLABIES;
link to youtube.com

Reply

William Wallace says:

19 April, 2018 at 10:58 pm

@ Sma 9:22pm

They wirnae big effin Cam “Queen” B’s beh any chance wir they?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

19 April, 2018 at 11:19 pm

They could have been Wull, good to see you posting, my friend.

“Strong Will Continue”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

19 April, 2018 at 11:28 pm

Only me. The study of the human brain is begging to suggest the capacity to make compasionate political decisions, boils down to genes and innate brain structure. IMHO, socially conservative right-wingers are possibly biologically incapable of genuine empathy. Scary.

Conservatives’ Politics of Fear a Biological Response
link to psmag.com.

The Politics of Biological Determinism
link to libcom.org

Biological Determinism and LGBT Tolerance: A Quantitative Exploration of Biopolitical Beliefs
link to questia.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

20 April, 2018 at 12:21 am

William Wallace
Just doing my thing William. Time to put the beetroot down, I suppose, and chill out to some cool vibes. Nice

Astrud Gilberto – One note samba
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

20 April, 2018 at 5:12 am

Only me. Tory ideology really is the epitome of the anti-social. Anglo-American neo-liberalism both demands and produces social inequality. Anglo-American neo-liberalism is a form of fascism, as it seeks to change the meaning and nature of human liberty through the power of economic force.

Social Stigma and its Consequences for the Socially Stigmatized

Abstract

This paper presents an integrative review of current and classic theory and research on social stigma and its consequences for the socially stigmatized. Specific attention is paid to stigma?related processes surrounding race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. The origins and perpetration of social stigma are discussed alongside perspectives on how stigmatized groups and individuals experience stigma?related stress. Consideration is given to responses to stigma in the form of coping, social support, and meaning?making processes. Both the potential negative and positive consequences of social stigma are highlighted in this review through the integration of predominant social psychological theory with emerging critical and feminist theories of positive marginality and resistance. The paper culminates in a theoretical process model designed to provoke future theory and research that share its integrative aims.

20 April, 2018 at 6:09 am

The barriers of stigma for service users: A critical realist viewpoint
link to magonlinelibrary.com

“Promoting Social Inclusion and Combating Stigma for better Mental Health and Well-being”
link to ec.europa.eu

@(t)Ruthless Harrison
I’ll say it again, you’re a fascist!

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

@(t)Ruthless Harrison
Your nationalism is of the blood-and-soil verity and your politics those of an opportunist. Anglo-American neo-liberalism creates biological discrimination and destroys lives. Have you no shame?

The white essential subject: race, ethnicity, and the Irish in post-war Britain

Abstract

This article focuses on the history of Irish migrants in Birmingham in an attempt to enhance historical understanding of race, ethnicity and ‘whiteness’ in post-war Britain. To do so, it will look at two Birmingham histories: the Young Christian Workers’ Association’s report on the Welfare of Irish migrants in 1951, and anti-Irish violence in the aftermath of the Birmingham Pub Bombings of 1974. It will consider the extent to which Irish immigrants were victims of racism, what this meant in terms of discrimination and identity, and, in particular, how Irish experiences corresponded to that of black and Asian migrants.

Welfare and Moral Economy

ABSTRACT

The paper offers a wide-angle view of ethics and welfare through the lens of ‘moral economy’. It examines economic activities in relation to a view of welfare as well-being, and to ethics in terms of economic justice. Rather than draw upon abstract ideal theories such as Rawlsian or Capabilities approaches, it calls for an evaluation of actually existing sources of harm and benefit in neoliberal capitalism. It argues that we need to look behind economic outcomes in terms of how much money different people have, examine their economic relations to others, and evaluate the justifications of these relations and their associated rights and practices. It distinguishes three sources of income – earned income, transfers, and unearned income, and argues that the last of these has no functional or ethical justification but has major implications for welfare. It then comments on the policy implications of the argument, including brief comments on asset-based welfare and universal basic income policies, and concludes.

‘Living Well’ vs Neoliberal Social Welfare

Abstract

As a disabled activist, I much prefer Aristotle’s concept of ‘eu zen’, or ‘living well’ to that of ‘well-being’. ‘Eu zen’ is part of Aristotle’s treatise on ‘eudaimonia’, which Grayling describes as: ‘…. a strong and satisfying sense of well-being and well-doing, of flourishing as only a rational and feeling human individual can flourish when his life and relationships are good’ (emphasis added). Aristotle’s concepts are preferable because they promote ‘well-being’ through familial, social and civic activity, whilst recognising that such activity requires resources, both human and material. These concepts are akin to those advocated by disabled people within the ‘independent living movement’; i.e. that the individual’s ‘choice’, ‘control’, ‘dignity’ and ‘freedom’, over their lives and lifestyles, are supported by an inclusive community. However, both sets of principles are now being undermined by neoliberal managerial social work practice, which not only deny basic human rights which underpin ‘eu zen’, but lead to fear and a sense of ‘commodification’ or de-personalisation among disabled recipients. Relevant examples will come from experience, both personal as well as that from other disabled people.

20 April, 2018 at 7:15 am

Scotland, where is you self-respect?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Nattali Rize:”One People”
link to youtube.com

Iration = Creation, seen?

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

20 April, 2018 at 8:40 am

Seen.

She’s a Tory’s nightmare, isn’t she?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

20 April, 2018 at 8:54 am

The Tories are the nightmare, Tinto, Nattali has the same dream as we have.

“Generations Will Rize”
link to youtube.com

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

20 April, 2018 at 11:33 am

Only me. Anglo-American neo-liberalism was introduced to Britain by Margret Thatcher’s government, much to the delight of Enoch Powell. That should tell you all you need to know about the ideology’s illiberal nature. Anglo-American neo-liberalism is essentially a re-working of the 18th century economics of slavery.

The Not So Odd Couple: Margaret Thatcher and One Nation Conservatism

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between Margaret Thatcher and One Nation Conservatism, and suggests that they were not such an odd couple. Though not a One Nation Conservative herself, Thatcher always viewed One Nation Conservatism in terms of patriotism rather than paternalism. This was an equally potent tradition of One Nation thought which could also be traced back to Disraeli. Thatcher recognised this and she was quite prepared to exploit the alternative Disraelian ideal for her own purposes. One Nation Conservatism, conceived as a form of patriotism, enabled Thatcher to domesticate the ideas of the American-led New Right: it was one nation of property owners which she wanted to create in 1980s Britain.

link to social-policy.org.uk

The Big Society: A Critical Perspective

Introduction

The two objectives of this paper are to subject the ‘big society’ concept to critical scrutiny and to propose a democratic alternative. After describing some big society proposals, we discuss the concept’s philosophical and ideological roots. We argue that, while Red Toryism (Blond, 2010) and libertarian paternalism (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008) influence big society thinking, its main driver is neo-liberalism. In contrasting political rhetoric, policy pronouncements and the big society’s philosophical underpinnings however, there is some value to be found in aspects of the big society analysis; namely those that provide a critique of both state and market, and a rediscovery of ‘the social’ in political discourse. Nevertheless, in practice, these elements have been swamped by the neo-liberal imperative to down-size the state and open-up public services to market competition. We also compare the big society notion with Margaret Thatcher’s denial of the existence of society. This is necessary because of the strategic role of Cameron’s flagship idea in re-modelling the Conservative Party to expunge the politically alienating aspects of Thatcher’s legacy. On close inspection the two policy approaches are remarkably similar even though the main thrust of their rhetoric is not, lending further credence to the claim that the big society is a political fig-leaf for neo-liberal policy. Finally, we suggest that if Labour is to re-engage with the social, it will need to embrace participatory democracy, based on the principle of ‘attached equals’ instead of the ‘attached un-equals’ of the Conservatives’ big society (Hughes-Tuohy, 2011).

An Ethical Analysis of Neoliberal Capitalism:
Alternative Perspectives from Development Ethics

Abstract

In this paper, the author submits the position that the worldwide capitalist economy has taken the route of neoliberal capitalism. The main distinction among market capitalism and neoliberal capitalism is the role of the private market mechanism to economic and non-economic activities. The evolution of neoliberal capitalism is historically specific. In turn, specific aspects of the free-market economics, here mentioned as neoliberal economics, are the intellectual defender of the neoliberal capitalism.

The purpose of the paper is to explore neoliberal capitalism in deeper ethical terms and to offer an ethical alternative. Development ethics is an important alternative perspective to neoliberalism, which is often neglected even in the heterodox economic literature. In particular, an original ethical model, on the basis of ‘social ethics’, is suggested for the discovery of the meta-ethical, normative-ethical and applied-ethical orientations of an economic system and of an economic analysis. After the ethical evaluation of neoliberal capitalism and neoliberal economic analysis the development ethics alternative is recommended.

link to papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca

I’ll get out the door one of these days.

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

20 April, 2018 at 12:41 pm

Heard this in my local coffee-house and eventually outraged the local matrons with my rhythmic interpretations.

20 April, 2018 at 1:36 pm

Ever seen a rickle o banes dance? You have now.

Taught him all he knew about M&G…

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Tinto,

Did you forget that your dance instruction videos are still up on youtube?
link to youtube.com

Reply

Gary45% says:

20 April, 2018 at 3:47 pm

Anybody in Edinburgh looking to see a gem of a musician tonight Fri 20/4/18.
James Kirby is playing at the Cannons Gait.
Please check out his website for details.
Saw him in Glasgow last night, fantastic.

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

20 April, 2018 at 4:06 pm

Only me. Conservative voters in Scottish need to appreciate that neo-liberalism is far from being an organic solution to the challenges facing society. Indeed, neo-liberalsm is a revolutionary ideology which threatens individual free-will and the cohesion of our social fabric. Neo-liberals are not moderate individuals, they are far-right extremists. Neo-liberalism pays scant attention to human rights. In fact, you could get away with suggesting neo-liberalism is social Darwinism in economic form.

The New Right, Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism: Analysis

It has been pointed out that the political thought of the New Right actually consists of two separate elements which are sometimes complementary and sometimes contradictory:

An economic liberal element which emphasises both the importance of individual freedom and responsibility and the superiority of the market mechanism as a means of resource allocation which in turn means that government intervention in economy and society should be limited and confined to the creation of the conditions in which the private sector of the economy can operate most efficiently;

A neo-conservative element which “involves a traditionalist reaction against progressive liberal permissiveness.” Thus, neo-Conservatives are likely to call for a reassertion of traditional values in relation to issues surrounding the nature of the family, the output of the mass media, the education system, religion, law and order, controls over the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs, defence of national sovereignty [for example in relation to the EU], the protection of the environment , calls for stricter immigration controls and opposition to the growth of multi-culturalism in UK society..

From the check list of issues provided at the beginning of this document it is clear that within the New Right considerable tensions are likely to exist as between economic or market liberals and neo-Conservatives such that whereas neo-Conservatives would support government intervention in the form of planning controls to protect the environment, immigration controls to protect the “British way of life”, censorship to defend public morals and legislation to limit the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and. especially hard drugs, for market liberals , these are matters which can be left primarily to the market mechanism.

link to earlhamsociologypages.co.uk

The New Right’s View of Education

The New Right introduced the 1988 Education Reform Act and believe in Marketisation and Parentocracy within the framework of a National Curriculum and with teaching and learning monitored by OFSTED.

Underlying principles of the New Right

They believe the state (government) cannot meet people’s needs.

The most efficient way to meet people’s needs is through the free market – through private businesses competing with each other.

Economic growth is an important overall goal – to be achieved by allowing individuals the freedom to compete with each other.

The New Right View of the Family

This post is designed to help you revise for the AS Sociology Families and Households Exam (Perspectives on the Family)

In the 1980s New Right thinkers argued that government policy was undermining the family so policy changes were needed. Their thinking dominated policy development from 1979 to 1997.

Like Functionalists, the New Right hold the view that there is only one correct or normal family type. This is the traditional or conventional nuclear family. Again like Functionalists, The New Right sees this family as ‘natural’ and based on fundamental biological differences between men and women. In their view this family is the cornerstone of society; a place of contentment, refuge and harmony. Finally the New Right argue that the decline of the traditional family and the growth of family diversity are the cause of many social problems such as higher crime rates and declining moral standards generally…

20 April, 2018 at 4:06 pm

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

Only me. Conservative voters in Scotland need to appreciate that neo-liberalism is far from being an organic solution to the challenges facing society. Indeed, neo-liberalsm is a revolutionary ideology which threatens individual free-will and the cohesion of our social fabric. Neo-liberals are not moderate individuals, they are far-right extremists. Neo-liberalism pays scant attention to human rights. In fact, you could get away with suggesting neo-liberalism is social Darwinism in economic form.

The New Right, Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism: Analysis

It has been pointed out that the political thought of the New Right actually consists of two separate elements which are sometimes complementary and sometimes contradictory:

An economic liberal element which emphasises both the importance of individual freedom and responsibility and the superiority of the market mechanism as a means of resource allocation which in turn means that government intervention in economy and society should be limited and confined to the creation of the conditions in which the private sector of the economy can operate most efficiently;

A neo-conservative element which “involves a traditionalist reaction against progressive liberal permissiveness.” Thus, neo-Conservatives are likely to call for a reassertion of traditional values in relation to issues surrounding the nature of the family, the output of the mass media, the education system, religion, law and order, controls over the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs, defence of national sovereignty [for example in relation to the EU], the protection of the environment , calls for stricter immigration controls and opposition to the growth of multi-culturalism in UK society..

From the check list of issues provided at the beginning of this document it is clear that within the New Right considerable tensions are likely to exist as between economic or market liberals and neo-Conservatives such that whereas neo-Conservatives would support government intervention in the form of planning controls to protect the environment, immigration controls to protect the “British way of life”, censorship to defend public morals and legislation to limit the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and. especially hard drugs, for market liberals , these are matters which can be left primarily to the market mechanism.

link to earlhamsociologypages.co.uk

The New Right’s View of Education

The New Right introduced the 1988 Education Reform Act and believe in Marketisation and Parentocracy within the framework of a National Curriculum and with teaching and learning monitored by OFSTED.

Underlying principles of the New Right

They believe the state (government) cannot meet people’s needs.

The most efficient way to meet people’s needs is through the free market – through private businesses competing with each other.

Economic growth is an important overall goal – to be achieved by allowing individuals the freedom to compete with each other.

The New Right View of the Family

This post is designed to help you revise for the AS Sociology Families and Households Exam (Perspectives on the Family)

In the 1980s New Right thinkers argued that government policy was undermining the family so policy changes were needed. Their thinking dominated policy development from 1979 to 1997.

Like Functionalists, the New Right hold the view that there is only one correct or normal family type. This is the traditional or conventional nuclear family. Again like Functionalists, The New Right sees this family as ‘natural’ and based on fundamental biological differences between men and women. In their view this family is the cornerstone of society; a place of contentment, refuge and harmony. Finally the New Right argue that the decline of the traditional family and the growth of family diversity are the cause of many social problems such as higher crime rates and declining moral standards generally…

20 April, 2018 at 4:07 pm

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

# beamer

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

20 April, 2018 at 4:25 pm

@Smallaxe 1.36: gosh, yes, that’s a bit awkward.

I need to borrow Cameron’s beamer…..

Reply

CameronB Brodie says:

20 April, 2018 at 6:23 pm

Only me. British Scots need to consider whether they value tradition over human rights and civil liberties. These are not necessarily compatible and certainly not under the prevailing paradigm of Anglo-American neo-liberalism (see Brexit). Reliance on the free-market to produce socially ethical solutions to social problems, is a strategy that is doomed to failure.

Positive and Negative Liberty

Negative liberty is the absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints. One has negative liberty to the extent that actions are available to one in this negative sense. Positive liberty is the possibility of acting — or the fact of acting — in such a way as to take control of one’s life and realize one’s fundamental purposes. While negative liberty is usually attributed to individual agents, positive liberty is sometimes attributed to collectivities, or to individuals considered primarily as members of given collectivities.

The idea of distinguishing between a negative and a positive sense of the term ‘liberty’ goes back at least to Kant, and was examined and defended in depth by Isaiah Berlin in the 1950s and ’60s. Discussions about positive and negative liberty normally take place within the context of political and social philosophy. They are distinct from, though sometimes related to, philosophical discussions about free will. Work on the nature of positive liberty often overlaps, however, with work on the nature of autonomy….

link to plato.stanford.edu

A critical analysis of right to life and personal liberty under article 21 of indian constitution

Abstract: Right to life and personal liberty is the most cherished and pivotal fundamental human rights around which other rights of the individual revolve and, therefore, the study assumes great significance. The study of right to life is indeed a study of the Supreme Court as a guardian of fundamental human rights. Article 21 is the celebrity provision of the Indian Constitution and occupies a unique place as a fundamental right. It guarantees right to life and personal liberty to citizens and aliens and is enforceable against the State. The new interpretation of Article 21 in Maneka Gandhi s case has ushered a new era of expansion of the horizons of right to life and personal liberty. The wide dimension given to this right now covers various aspects which the founding fathers of the Constitution might or might not have visualized.

The above stated revolution in the basic concept makes it imperative that the concept of right to life and personal liberty should be examined a new with reference to development, meaning, width and depth, along with judicial interpretation, justification for such liberal newlineInterpretation, and relation of Article 21 with the provisions of Article 32 and Directive Principles of the State Policy and International Human Rights Instruments. Further, the protection of this right is burning topics of the day. Hence an attempt has been made in this essay to examine the modern day standards adopted for protecting the right to life and personal liberty.

link to echr.coe.int

REFLECTIONS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES IN AN AGE OF COUNTER-TERRORISM

The philosophical formulation of the question of rational law – the question of how an association of free and equal citizens can be constructed through the means of positive law – forms the emancipatory horizon of expectation within which the resistance to what appears as an unreasonable reality becomes visible. (Jurgen Habermass, The Postnational Constellation).

link to lse.ac.uk

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

20 April, 2018 at 7:35 pm

Since CameronB has made this the thread for finer minds, a kind of Caledonian Brains Trust if you will, I offer this as a humble contribution. I came upon it serendipitously and just knew you would all love it:

link to en.wikipedia.org

If you don’t, it may aid restful sleep.

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CameronB Brodie says:

20 April, 2018 at 7:37 pm

Right, that’s me away out the door.

Lee Scratch Perry – Scary Politicians
link to youtube.com

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Tinto Chiel says:

20 April, 2018 at 8:32 pm

CameronB

Enjoy your evening in the great outdoors.

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Ian Brotherhood says:

20 April, 2018 at 8:37 pm

Did anyone ever listen to Richard Park on Radio Clyde, the early days? He was very good, and very very smutty. One of his favourites lines was to announce that whoever got the question right would win the latest single by ??? and he would personally be going around to their house to put that 12-incher through their letterbox.

McFadden & Whitehead, ‘Ain’t No Stoppin Un Now’ (12-incher!) –

20 April, 2018 at 9:07 pm

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Ian Brotherhood says:

Bit early to get soppy, but just stumbled across this. Have posted it here before, but it’s always worth another look. What a voice the guy has, just makes it look totally effortless.

Billy Ocean, ‘Suddenly’ –

20 April, 2018 at 11:12 pm

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Michael McCabe says:

Hi Lynn Happy Birthday. Hope you have and are having a great day. link to youtube.com

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hackalumpoff says:

20 April, 2018 at 11:18 pm

Quiet in here for a Friday.

Doesn’t Aly Bain pop up in the strangest places.

20 April, 2018 at 11:22 pm

The song is a metaphor for Wings, being choked to death by trolls.

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William Wallace says:

@ Sma 11:19pm Likewise
@ Cam “Queen” Bee 12:21am

Glad that you are Cam. Some of what you post is really interesting to read and is really informative too. I try to read as much of it as I can but, sometimes it get’s a wee bit taxing on my rather simplistic heid. You certainly raise some interesting philosophical points though. Credit where it’s due.

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Michael McCabe says:

20 April, 2018 at 11:32 pm

hackalumpoff great song choice. here is one right back at you. link to youtube.com

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Ian Brotherhood says:

20 April, 2018 at 11:39 pm

@William Wallace –

You going to Glasgow on the 5th?

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Smallaxe says:

20 April, 2018 at 11:59 pm

DeMent…DeMent…

Demented are go: “Be Bop A Lulu”
link to youtube.com

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CameronB Brodie says:

21 April, 2018 at 1:51 am

I missed the bus. Spanner.

Europe Programme Paper 2011/01
Perspectives on the UK’s Place in the World
link to chathamhouse.org

DIRECTIONS FOR BRITAIN OUTSIDE THE EU
link to iea.org.uk

Black Brexit: What Opportunities And Challenges Does Brexit Offer For Britain’s Black Community?
link to blackhistorymonth.org.uk

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CameronB Brodie says:

21 April, 2018 at 1:59 am

Critical political economy, free movement and Brexit: Beyond the progressive’s dilemma

Abstract

The progressive’s dilemma suggests that a trade-off exists between, on the one hand, labour and welfare rights underpinned by solidarity and shared identity and, on the other hand, open immigration regimes. With reference to debates on EU free movement in the United Kingdom, it is argued (1) that a progressive European critical political economy literature of the Left has a tendency to accept this dilemma and resolve it in favour of the former; (2) that it does so because it erroneously conflates the free movement of people with the (increasingly neoliberal) free movement of goods, capital and services; and (3) that it could and should treat human mobility as qualitatively different and, consequently, need not accept the terms of the progressive’s dilemma. The argument has important implications for a progressive politics in general and for the Left’s (particularly the Labour Party’s) position in the United Kingdom on free movement (and, by extension, on Brexit).

21 April, 2018 at 2:02 am

Brexit, Labour Rights And Migration: What’s Really At Stake
link to socialeurope.eu

Young people are highly critical of Brexit and fear the insularity it could bring
link to blogs.lse.ac.uk

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Cactus says:

Mornin’ Wingers.

05/05/2018.

Be there.

X.

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CameronB Brodie says:

21 April, 2018 at 2:16 am

Did I mention that the narcissistic entitlement inherent in English/British exceptionalism, really is the pits.

Most Europeans judge Brexit as bad for EU and UK

A year ago, voters in the United Kingdom narrowly approved beginning a process of leaving the European Union. Today, publics across the European continent think the UK exit will be detrimental for both the EU and the UK. For their part, Britons agree that their country’s exit will be bad for the European project but are divided on what it means for the UK.

A median of 70% in the 10 EU nations surveyed think Brexit will be a bad thing for the EU. This includes 86% of Swedes, 80% of the Dutch and 74% of Germans. Notably, 36% of the French and 26% of Italians say the UK leaving will be good for the Union. Young people in France, the Netherlands and the UK are more worried about Brexit’s consequences for the EU than their elders. And those on the left in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK are more concerned than those on the right.

link to pewglobal.org

The Government of Migration through Workfare in the UK
Towards a shrinking Space of Mobility and Social Rights?
http://movements-journal.org/issues/04.bewegungen/08.alberti–government-migration-workfare-uk-mobility-social-rights.html

An ‘undeliberate determinacy’? The changing migration strategies of Polish migrants in the UK in times of Brexit
link to tandfonline.com

@BBC in Scotland
How about a special on the likely impact of the full English Brexit on Scotland’s civil society? Prove you’re capable of broadcasting more than British state propaganda. I’ll not hold my breath.

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CameronB Brodie says:

21 April, 2018 at 3:23 am

Women’s sex based rights need protecting from the colonising nature of power, as do the human rights of Scots.

The right to culture and the culture of rights: a critical perspective on women’s sexual rights in Africa

Abstract

The opposition of ‘culture’ and ‘rights’ is not uncommon in feminist legal discourse. This article argues that such an approach is fraught with danger as it creates an extremely restrictive framework within which African women can challenge domination; it limits our strategic interventions for transforming society and essentially plays into the hands of those seeking to perpetuate and solidify the existing structures of patriarchy. Drawing examples from a parallel research on Gender, Law and Sexuality, I propose that a more critical and interpretative approach to these two concepts may present a different perspective to portrayals of ‘tradition’ as constraining and/or fixed often displayed in mainstream feminist legal thinking.

link to link.springer.com

Third Committee Debate on Women’s Rights Critical to Achieving Gender Equality, Goal That Should Receive Wide Global Support, Says General Assembly President
link to un.org

CONNECTING PERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
link to opendocs.ids.ac.uk

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Smallaxe says:

21 April, 2018 at 7:39 am

I-Wayne:”Living In Love”
link to youtube.com

Give I’n’I strength to survive another Day in Babylon.

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Smallaxe says:

21 April, 2018 at 8:46 am

Gil Scott Heron:”We Almost Lost Detroit”
link to youtube.com

“Just thirty miles from Detroit
stands a giant power station.
It ticks each night as the city sleeps
seconds from annihilation.”

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Smallaxe says:

21 April, 2018 at 8:51 am

Curtis Mayfield:”Move On Up”
link to youtube.com

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Tinto Chiel says:

21 April, 2018 at 9:26 am

I’ll raise your Curtis Mayfield with this from the Scottish band who famously installed groupies and a chocolate fountain in their hotel suite:

21 April, 2018 at 9:45 am

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Smallaxe says:

I’ll Squeeze your Primal Scream up a bit,
link to youtube.com

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Fred says:

21 April, 2018 at 10:09 am

@ Hack n Mick, Iris Dement, superb, unique voice!

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William Wallace says:

21 April, 2018 at 2:22 pm

@ IanB

I was all set for coming but, I have just sold my camper and the car and replaced it with a newer car and caravan last week. My original intention was to come up (I am still down saarf) and bide in the camper overnight so I could have a night oot afterwards.

The last one I came to in September, I traveled up on the coach. Although the overnight journey coming up was not too bad (was able to get stretched oot across the seats to get a wee kip) the return journey was on a fully packed bus with sitting room only. This was after a few bevvies throughout the day and evening in the Counting house and Clutha respectively. It’s not a journey I’d be happy to do again (it was hell tbh).

I thought about driving up with the caravan in tow to sort out the accommodation issue so I could stay for a proper night oot but, I’m not entirely sure if there are any campsites close enough to central Glasgow that would not involve a £50 taxi ride to get there when the evening’s shenanigans are done. The additional cost of towing the caravan on top of that means it’s not really worth bringing the caravan as it would be cheaper to book a room somewhere.

This leaves driving up in the car. The problem there obviously is finding some long stay parking if I am staying for the night oot, as well as accommodation. I wouldn’t really want to chance driving until late Sunday in case I was even remotely over the limit from the previous day/nights shenanigans. Also, with the early start time I would probably have to travel up on the Friday which means booking 2 nights accommodation (although this would help deal with the long stay parking).

Having said all that, I don’t really want to miss it either. I’m pretty sure I’ll be coming but, it’s just a matter of logistics at present as my camper-van plan is obviously redundant now. I’ll see what I can come up with and will in an all honesty more than likely be there.

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Fred says:

21 April, 2018 at 3:06 pm

@ William, how about enquiring at the Red Deer Caravan Site in Stepps, handy for the train @ Stepps Station into Queen Street or the bus on Cumbernauld Road. Gated site,

link to reddeervillage.co.uk

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Fred says:

21 April, 2018 at 4:27 pm

Spring! Pod of Orca’s reported in the Clyde off Wemyss Bay today!

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Smallaxe says:

21 April, 2018 at 4:34 pm

I hope to see you there, Wull.

“What a Day for an Icecream” (Daydream)
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

21 April, 2018 at 4:41 pm

Eddie Cochran:”Summertime Blues”
link to youtube.com

Suns oot

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Smallaxe says:

21 April, 2018 at 4:47 pm

Orca music video;
link to youtube.com

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CameronB Brodie says:

21 April, 2018 at 4:54 pm

Re. the potential to reform Westminster. Why would a racist organisation give up it’s outlook and identity, if that means undermining it’s power-base? Power does not like to be diluted.

Right, I’m finally off now.

L’Indécis – Homebound
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

21 April, 2018 at 5:16 pm

Live long and prosper, Cameron.

“Red Shirt Boogie Blues”
link to youtube.com

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Dave McEwan Hill says:

21 April, 2018 at 5:18 pm

A piece from the most phenomenal music talent to come out of Nigeria Fela Kuti
It’s a scathing attack on the Nigerian ladies who used cream to lighten their skin colour. Musically superbe

21 April, 2018 at 7:09 pm

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Fred says:

@ Smallaxe, good to see U back in form kid! Regards to Nana nananananana! etc’.

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Tinto Chiel says:

21 April, 2018 at 7:25 pm

Fred: do you mean this?

21 April, 2018 at 8:27 pm

Sung around football grounds throughout the 70s in various versions, he said diplomatically.

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Fred says:

The very same Tinto, along with “You all live on the shite side of Fife! nana nana nana nana!”

On the last chapter of “A Thorn in their Side!” by Robert Green, nephew of the brutally murdered anti-nuclear campaigner Hilda Murrell. This is the book the British state doesn’t want you to read & its author, a naval commander, suffered 27 years of intimidation & surveillance to publish, & only completed it by moving to New Zealand where he had some government protection.
Hilda Murrell, an 80 year old, was abducted & tortured using an Ulster style MI5 snatch-squad. Harrowing stuff! A must-read if you haven’t already done so kid!

Proud to be British? NOT!

Rata Books 2012, cheap on Amazon.

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Tinto Chiel says:

21 April, 2018 at 8:50 pm

Thankfully, Fred, Nana is too much of a lady to have heard such ditties. I think she is taking a rest from the troll madness on the M/T and has a young adept at the mo who does all the beefy links

I’ve read a lot about Hilda but not that specific title: an appalling story. Who’ll do the Willie MacRae equivalent?

We really just live in a police state, once you strip away the Agatha Christie chintz-covered Festival of Britain crap they try to fool those ablaw the dyke with.

What a state we’re in, pun intended.

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Fred says:

21 April, 2018 at 8:58 pm

@ Tinto, there’s an Abraham Sasa mentioned in the book who was murdered in Bath, sometimes I worry about our interlocutor who might be safer back hame!

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Smallaxe says:

21 April, 2018 at 9:33 pm

MankyMates,

Hilda Murrell;
link to youtube.com

“The Rose Grower”
(The banned song about the murder of anti-nuclear campaigner Hilda Murrell)
link to youtube.com

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Ian Brotherhood says:

21 April, 2018 at 9:48 pm

@Lynne –

If you see this, hope you had a good birthday – enjoy this belated chunk of funky disco!

Patrick Hernandez, ‘Born To Be Alive’ –

21 April, 2018 at 11:18 pm

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Fred says:

@ Smallaxe, strewth a sleuth! well done that man!

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Smallaxe says:

22 April, 2018 at 12:21 am

Eek-a-Mouse:”Wa-Do-Dem”
link to youtube.com

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Ian Brotherhood says:

22 April, 2018 at 12:40 am

@William Wllace –

So sorry, I didn’t even see your message until now. Had an early crash last night and have been mostly Twittering today.

Anyway, I’m just about to crash again, but just to say you’re very welcome to crash here if you don’t mind kipping on a sofa. It would mean a train journey (30-40mins) from Glasgow to Stevenston, but you’d be very welcome. Please keep it in mind.

Hoots mon!

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Tinto Chiel says:

22 April, 2018 at 9:38 am

@#Mankymates: thanks for those vile sep/lefty conspiracy-theory grievance-mongering references. Will chase those up, like a young deer in a burning forest.

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Smallaxe says:

22 April, 2018 at 12:15 pm

Tinto Chiel says:

“Will chase those up, like a young deer in a burning forest.”

Tinto, the proper name for a young deer, is dinner!

Fantasy Three: “The Buck Stops Here”
link to youtube.com

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Tinto Chiel says:

22 April, 2018 at 3:57 pm

“Is it true or did you hear it on the BBC?” No. 27.

While making Mrs TC another wonderful Sunday breakfast, I had the radio on (or wireless as we still say roon here). It was Pravdasound4 and the Broadcasting House prog, where metrovincial Oxbridge twallies get to expatiate/vent ad boakiam.

Lots of fuss being made about a blackbird singing in some BBC dude’s garden with a recording thereof.

Any fule new rite away it was a song thrush singing, or mavis, ya bass, and not a blackbird.

I new, I was that fule.

“After such knowledge, what forgiveness?”

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Smallaxe says:

22 April, 2018 at 4:18 pm

Think now, Tinto,
History has many cunning passages, there for all to see but there are none so bloody cunning as the lying BBC.

“Fules Rush In”
link to youtube.com

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Daisy Walker says:

22 April, 2018 at 4:44 pm

THE WIND OOT MA SAILS

To all who are concerned, and to Pete Wishart MP (who should be).

Like a good many others, in Scotland, and around the globe, I woke up on 19/9/14, as one bereaved.

And tragically, even a lot of those people who voted No, were also gutted. On some level they must have known the YES group were the goodies. But they had not been convinced. They admitted it, Project Fear worked on them.

But here was the thing, before the dust settled on the day, before the next sunset, the whole country, the whole country, had a plan, a solid, clear road map to Indy, and the wind was in our sails.

First SNP Membership rose from 15,000 – 100,000 in months. The 3rd biggest party in the UK. Wow.

Then the GE. Lend us your vote, said Nicola, and Yes, No’s and Mibbaes Aye did, overwhelmingly – 56 out of 59. And not only that but real human beings got elected. Mharie Black, Tommy Shepherd, Pippa Whitford. Fresh voices, fresh ideas. Right in the face of WM and boy did they know it. And then adjusted… Westminster is the oldest hand at taming its subjects, practice makes perfect.

And in spite of their best efforts, how little did their presence achieve.

And then Brexit, no clear literature, mixed messages from HQ, poor leadership on many a level, and the Yessers divided.

On a UK l’vote leave’ level a campaign overwhelmingly Racist, dumbed down to the most simplistic base instincts, with a big lie on a bus as a salve for their conscience – How much for the NHS a week? … aye right.

And no-one, not even the most hopeful, devoted Yesser, could have believed the outcome. Every part of Scotland voted to stay, a 62% majority. The democratic contrast between Scotland and England could not be more clear cut.

And Brexit, a mystery, wrapped in a soundbite, Brexit means…. blah blah.

(Its April 2018 now, and the only clear thing about Brexit, is what a total ClusterF*ck its going to be. For the economy, for the prices of everything, for Farming and Fishing and Manufacturing, and Human Rights, the environment, employment. Nothing, nothing good is coming from Brexit.

It’s Brexshit and Bad all the way, except for the already rich, who will carve up the NHS, and keep their Tax Havens.)

And still we had a plan, the leadership say ‘hold, hold’ and we get that, ‘patience, there is a plan’.

And a snap GE, snap for us, well planned in advance by the Unionist Parties. And not just one, but 2 terrorist incidents in the middle.

And still we had a plan, a mandate, a get out of jail free card, a cast iron ‘we’ve damned well had enough’ mandate, ‘we reserve the right to call another referendum in the event of extraordinary circumstances, such as Scotland being pulled out of the EU against her will’.

Doesn’t get much clearer than that, does it. Didn’t put it in small print, thinking no-one would read it did they. I was conscious of voting for it, with that in mind.

3 times, 3 times they tried to scupper it, and 3 times, the people of Scotland voted for this mandate. (2 x GE,s and 1 x SE).

And still, in the face of all that WM and its complicit whoor – the Medial, could throw at it, we won, still the biggest party in Scotland. Still the wind in our sails and the road rising up to meet us. Never losing faith, never loosing courage, never losing site of the plan, and never stopping the campaign.

And for those of us, worried that there seemed to be a lack of urgency at SNP party level, a complacency, a quietening on the urgency for another Referendum. Well we put our concerns to one side, with their brilliant governance (and I do on the whole think it has been brilliant), and the promise of a Peoples’ Energy Company – wow, a Peoples’ Bank superb – (set up by someone from Tesco’s no less – sure to be radical yeh right, fingers crossed) We took comfort from the quiet insistence, ‘hold, hold, patience’. There is a plan, once Brexit is known.

And we put to one side, concerns that there appears to be no plan to countenance the non stop Propaganda from the BBC – it exists, that at least is acknowledged, but nothing to hit back at it, nothing. No leaflet drops, no public meetings, no poster competitions to get the message out, no car posters for every member – with info on them, not some mindless slogan, not a bloody thing. An open goal totally ignored.

So we take stock and re-assure ourselves with certain facts, that a party in Governance has responsibilities and has to behave in a certain manner, and we go off and use the grass roots movement to try and plug the gap.

And still the road ahead is clear, there is a plan.

And then one day, one week, one month, 3 things happen, and all is changed. April 2018:

War – war is waged, on the thinnest and most dodgie of evidence. And the clear siren voice of decency, of common sense and common reason, that voice that rung out in protest over Iraq, that voted in unison against the vote to bomb Syria the first time, that voice, this time became the muted, muffled, so, so, politicians double speak of a bland bank manager.

And next up, Pete Wishart goes to press, ‘Now is not the time’ Maybeas later if yir all good boys and girls, after another GE, if you stop being naughty and vote for us again. And the song being sung, has backing singers, Jim Sillars and Robin McAlpine, even the Tory party like it.

And the third blow, Wings Over Scotland publish the article ‘Elephant in the Courtroom’ – that even if we want to use our mandate, WM could stop us, unless we win the right in court, or at any rate exhaust that avenue.

And devastatingly, on this issue, the SNP are deathly silent. Is there a plan, have they considered this, are they even aware of it and just have their heads in the sand. Questions, questions, and of answers there are none. The silence is deafening.

And this is truly devastating – the grass roots can’t fill this gap. Only the SNP, in government can implement this. On this issue we fall.

3 things, 3 things together, have brought me to my knees in a way the IndyRef1 vote never did. The wind is out of my sails, I’m bailing out water, and days ago I was sailing on at a good steady pace, plotting a course and making good progress. The shore has never seemed so close, and at the same time so far away.

On 21/4/18 Pete Wishart reiterated his argument, and I welcome the fact he did so in a more reasoned tone. And I am more certain now than ever, this is Policy, policy being finessed and sold to us, whether we like it or not.

And so the purpose of this essay, is to address his arguments, in a polite manner. There are some who say any disagreement should be done at branch level, behind closed doors. Pete’s article was public, therefore the arguments against should be public also.

PW ‘debate seems to centre round whether we should proceed with a referendum simply because we currently posses a mandate or whether we hold one when there is good evidence it can be won.’

There was nothing simple about obtaining that Mandate, that 3 times won Mandate. If we lose it by waiting for another GE, we lose it forever.

PW’ ‘I want to see evidence it can be won, and I want to see it held at the time of our choosing, when optimum conditions are in place for success’.

Well, I want to win the lottery, I want the full boona, and I’d like it to happen pretty much now, or at a time when it would suit me best.

Dear Pete, you will NEVER see evidence it can be won, WM Establishment will burn any such evidence, destroy any person who can present such evidence, and take the country to War to distract from any hint of evidence of this kind.

‘At a time of our choosing’ – what fantasy planet do you live on? When ‘Optimum Conditions are in place for success’ – there’s no such bloody thing, optimum conditions my arse, what a fair wind, sunny weather, Scotland winning the football?

PW, ‘go over what these ‘optimal conditions’ are not’

‘Less than a year from having lost one third of our indy supporting MP’s’

Dear Pete – remember Nicola’s phrase, ‘lend us your vote’. Well they did, and they were disappointed. To go from 6 MP’s to 56 in one vote and then think that’s your new normal is incredibly foolish and presumptuous.

‘we cannot ignore the fact the SNP lost half a million votes’

No you can’t, but where’s your analysis, your evidence, your polls and your research to identify the whys of the loss. Hmmm, pretty big on insisting others show you evidence, you show yours, and do so as a matter of urgency. You have people campaigning on the doors, this evidence, would be bread and butter to assist them.

‘Optimal Conditions are not when a significant gap exists between support for indy and support for an early indy ref’.

Really, you whit!!!! Imagine for a second, that for the second time in Scotland’s history, we get a second chance to vote for Independence for Scotland, and on voting day, do you really think someone is going to go,

‘that’s it, I’m voting No – told them to hold it a week on Tuesday, but would they listen, no, well this’ll teach them’.

And that Tory voter you met, who previously voted for Indy, bet they voted for Brexit, Hmm, bet they did. And like a lot of them at the time, never gave it much thought beyond the simplistic message about immigration!

Speak to Brexiteers now and a significant number of them, now know its a damned site more complicated than that, with zero good news coming through. Immigration has been knocked off the poster board as an issued when it comes to Brexit.

Immigration, for those who have that fear, is going to get an awful lot bigger under a Tory Government desperate to strike any kind of deal with India, for which ‘free movement of people’ will be an absolute condition. Fancy that do you, with workers rights Binned under Brexit.

If you want to win back the Yes/Leave voters I ‘d strongly suggest the above hard fact might be one to start shouting from the rooftops.

Pete, you say that support for Independence is holding strong at 45%, and then in the next sentence talk about it being opposed by a ‘significant margin’ – that margin is 5%.

You identify this 5% as the hardest group to convert. You say we ‘need a new case’ and we ‘have to get on their territory’, every day issues such as ‘pensions, currency, perceived deficits’ are to be addressed and to win, ‘we are going to have to be creative’.

On this I agree, and am pulling my hair out at your almost complete lack of ambition. You are aiming for 5%, 5%! Aim for 30%, aim for 40%. Damn well aim to win.

And where, where, where is your new case for pensions, your new case for currency, for perceived deficits. Anyone following the issues will know, Prof Richard Murphy has done more work on ‘perceived deficits’ than you – did you print it off, did you do a leaflet drop – did you hell.

Currency – look to the the Common Green, they’ve done all the heavy lifting there. Did you print it off, did you get billboards commissioned with the info. Did you hell.

Last time round the SNP produced a 500 page white paper, grass roots Wings Over Scotland produced The Wee Blue Book, thank god they did.

You ‘get creative’ if you want to, the rest of us would be better off putting a big simple message on the side of a bus.

You talk about returning to a ‘One Scotland’ approach to independence. I do hope you didn’t pay anyone money for that slogan. Money down the drain if you did.

You talk of Brexit, of not leaving those who voted Leave – Semi Detached from the Yes Movement, proceeding to another indyref with this unresolved will be like having one hand tied behind our backs.

Well Pete, lets hear you ‘get creative’ about sorting this one out eh. Suggestions, ideas, policies. Where are they. It’s been over a year since the Brexit vote, where are they? what are they? EFTA, EEA, what about it, argue the case.

You say,

’ Brexit will be an Unmitigated Disaster for our fellow Scots and when it properly hits our fellow Scots will want to review their constitutional options. It (optimum conditions) is hitting the sweet spot when Brexit Impacts and people actively want out of an isolated, desolated UK.

It means support for the SNP returning to the levels we achieved around the last referendum in electoral contests.’

So your going to let an unmitigated disaster befall us, a Brexit impact that will isolate and desolate us, and if we’re good boys and girls and vote SNP in enough numbers you might, mibees just honour the mandate we voted for the first time. Stronger for Scotland my arse.

Please, please listen, when I say this. If we do not hold another Indy Ref before the next General Election and before we lose our mandate. No-one, No-one, No-one is Ever, Ever, Ever going to Vote for you Again.

The mandate will be squandered, our single market membership to the EU will be lost, our economy, our businesses, universities, environment, NHS Scotland, our Parliament, ruined, and gone, gone, gone.

These are Desperate times, not chosen times, not optimum times, Desperate times.

Last time we had a choice, a choice for change or no change.

This time out we have a Fight for Survival and only a short window of opportunity to achieve it.

Your current stance has done, what the BBC, the Tories, the Labour Party and the No Voters could never do. You’ve taken the wind from my sails.

That’s me for now.

Now, where did I leave that pair of oars.

Yours in kindness and in commitment.

Daisy Walker

Reply

louis.b.argyll says:

22 April, 2018 at 6:07 pm

I hope that much of the wind now missing from your sails will return, also maybe to PW’s, once a date is set in stone.

Problem is, if we interfere with the Brexit process as they’ll claim, Westminster can delay and extend and delay any decisions on actual ‘permission’.

Another pragmatists ‘excuse’ is, we’ll be against the same corrupt media and institutions (as last time) unless we strive to create a level playing field first.

My sails can blow hard, or not at all, I choose to stay the course, to trust those whose record, not theory, holds more water.

Reply

Marie Clark says:

22 April, 2018 at 6:59 pm

@ Daisy Walker, my, my, my Daisy, gon yersel lass. That’s a stormer of a letter to Pete Wishart. I agree with every word you have said.

I couldn’t quite believe my ears when PW came out with that guff. I don’t know what planet he is on, but if the SNP don’t use the mandate before the next election, they’ll find themselves oot on their erse. Folk, including me, will not vote for them. What then Rooth the Mooth as FM, that’s if we still have our parliament. They’re doing their damnedest to shut it down just now.

If that’s what happens, I don’t think the SNP will ever be forgiven.

Reply

Dan Huil says:

22 April, 2018 at 6:59 pm

Very interesting post, Daisy. You might be feeling a wee bit deflated at the moment but I’m sure you’ll never give up on independence, even if you might give up on Pete!

I too was disappointed in his attitude. I don’t know how many in the SNP leadership agree with him. FWIW I’ll be voting for Chris McEleny in the depute election if only to send a message to the leadership that the Scottish government must use the mandates it has won for indyref2. McEleny has said it must be in the next 18 months.

The Brexit bourach is frustrating – for everyone – but I’m confident it will provide the opportunity for the Scottish government to call indyref2 well before the next Holyrood elections.

The SNP has done incredibly well over the years in its pragmatic, evolutionary approach. However, I strongly believe now is the time for revolutionary tactics.

Reply

Robert J. Sutherland says:

22 April, 2018 at 7:29 pm

Daisy Walker @ 16:44,

Pretty much says it for me too, Daisy.

There seems to be a section of the SNP, MPs and ex-MPs especially, with PW at their fore, that just can’t get past looking backwards.

Instead of using the crisis of Brexit as a lever, they desperately want Brexit to be over, done and dusted. Partly because they hope that the after-effects will convince the necessary 5%+ and because of the yes-leavers, whom they naively assume will all come back onside.

Well, both assumptions are deeply flawed, IMO.

The first because most ordinary people will just shrug their shoulders post-Brexit and accept a fait-accompli, no matter how bad it becomes. In fact, the worse it becomes, the more likely most folk will retreat into disengagement, not rally behind their sovereignity abused. Just like in the “good old” bad old days under NorthBritLab. That lot will probably slither back into power again as well, and goodbye any chance of indyref2.

Secondly because there are essentially two types of yes-leaver. The first (and I believe majority) rightly want independence, and can accept that an independent Scotland likely won’t agree with their EU reluctance (assuming that the real facts as being revealed haven’t already changed their own minds). They will continue to vote for indy regardless, knowing that sovereignity is the cricial issue and everything else comes second.

The other lot are the people for whom immigration and isolation are the crucial issues, with independence coming a distant second. The UKGov has outbid the SSG on that, not least because these Leavers can see that in an independent Scotland they would be in a minority.

Furthermore, virtually everything that Nicola has pronounced on the subject over the last while is complete anathema to that lot, so thinking they can be won over by some kind of EEA/EFTA appeasement (in flagrant contradiction to the majority wish) is frankly complete wishful thinking. These people have largely been lost to indy and are not coming back. Those in the SNP like PW had better get used to it, and instead of looking backwards, start looking forwards instead to all those who are rightly affronted by Brexit and are winnable, as that excellent series of videos by Phantom Power so well reveals.

It requires good timing, granted, but it also requires gumption, getting off the knees and actively making a case for indy. It will never happen just by folding arms and waiting for people to wake up all on their own.

Reply

ScottieDog says:

22 April, 2018 at 9:03 pm

@Daisy Walker,
Great post. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest reading Mark McNaught’s article..
link to indyref2.scot

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Lenny Hartley says:

22 April, 2018 at 9:03 pm

Daisy , well said, if there is not any Indy 2.Ref before next Scottish Elections, im outa dodge, will go and live my life out in a country that is not subversiant like Ireland or go and live in Catalonia.
One thing gor sure it wont be Scotland.

Reply

Fred says:

22 April, 2018 at 9:29 pm

Well done Daisy! stick it on the main thread also!

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Ian Brotherhood says:

22 April, 2018 at 9:55 pm

@Daisy W –

Your article on PW would make an excellent companion piece to Peter Bell’s latest:

link to peterabell.blog

Reply

Fred says:

22 April, 2018 at 10:10 pm

Peter Bell’s always worth the money. Westminster has been corrupting Scots politicians since 1707.

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Daisy Walker says:

22 April, 2018 at 10:17 pm

Thanks folks for the kind comments. I took quite a few hours to write it, and I did not do so lightly.

Pete’s position defies all logic, that it keeps getting repeated, smacks of Policy, not opinion.

I fear, Craig Murray’s criticism of the SNP may be correct.

I will be proved wrong, when very shortly we here from the SNP Leadership about a clear plan for ‘the elephant in the courtroom’ This one is entirely their remit, not a grass roots thing in any way.

And if they do nothing. Well we’re a bit stuck to be honest, as far as I can see.

I hope I am very very wrong.

But here’s a challenge, some people here still have absolute faith in the SNP, humour me for once. If I am right, what will be our plan B? We may never need it, but we do no harm in ensuring one exists now do we.

Kindest regards to all.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

22 April, 2018 at 11:00 pm

Right, all you people can go back to the M/T unless you want to listen to some decent music…But;
“Keep Talking/Talkin Hawkin” Stephen Hawking y Pink Floyd;
link to youtube.com

Reply

Dave McEwan Hill says:

22 April, 2018 at 11:14 pm

Fabulous, Daisy

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Smallaxe says:

22 April, 2018 at 11:31 pm

Randy Newman: “You Can Leave Your Hat On”
link to youtube.com

Do you know what Love is?

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Smallaxe says:

22 April, 2018 at 11:39 pm

For Daisy,
“Aint She Sweet”
link to youtube.com

Don’t be fooled, Daisy takes no prisoners.

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Smallaxe says:

22 April, 2018 at 11:51 pm

Make sure and order more…

“Popcorn” (Goes Metal)
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

23 April, 2018 at 12:02 am

Gladys Knight And The Pips:”Midnight Train To Georgia”
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

23 April, 2018 at 12:28 am

Goodnight, folks.

The Beatles:”I’m Only Sleeping”
link to youtube.com

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Liz g says:

23 April, 2018 at 12:29 am

Daisy Walker @ 10.17
Great post Daisy, really made me think….
Yes what would our plan B be if the SNP let us down ?
I must admit I didn’t take Pete Wisharts comments all that seriously at the time.
Not because of any faith in the SNP, but because I still think that we are on the path to a referendum.
But despite everything I think we have gone too far now
Even if self preservation was all the SNP were really about, we are as much their only hope as they are ours.
And plan B is no an option for them
Us on the other hand???

Reply

Liz g says:

23 April, 2018 at 12:52 am

Smallaxe @ 12.28
Goodnight my dear friend,I hope you are taking good care of yourself.
Looking forward to seeing you on the 5th.
Much love to you and dear Mrs Smallaxe XX

Reply

William Wallace says:

23 April, 2018 at 2:07 am

@ Daisy.

That is one of the best posts I have ever read on WoS and I share your sentiment in it’s entirety. Thank you for taking the time to write it and also to share it.

@ Ian

Thank you so much for the kind offer and it may well be one that I might wish to take up. Are you really prepared for that?

Could I just ask if anyone else is South of Glasgow and needing a lift up? I could make the effort to grab some bodies on the way. Would you have room at your place for meeting up in the morning or the night before the march Ian for any waifs and strays from here that I have picked up en route so that we could all travel into Glasgow by train together?

As an aside, what do you all think about booking places in the future for wings do’s and Indy marches accommodation wise (lodges and such) as a group?

I bet we could rent out some right swanky places for some weekend shenanigans that would cost a damn sight less than everyone making separate plans whenever there is a gathering. Just a thought like.

Did I forget to mention, I luv yiz ah.

William Wallace – Scottish Rebel

23 April, 2018 at 9:24 am

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Smallaxe says:

The Bangles:”Manic Monday”
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

23 April, 2018 at 10:14 am

Bob Marley:”Stiff Necked Fools”
link to youtube.com

“Destruction of the poor is in their poverty, destruction of the soul is vanity”

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Ian Brotherhood says:

23 April, 2018 at 10:33 am

@WW –

Sorry, but there really isn’t room. Haven’t even told the missus I’ve offered space for you!

Reply

William Wallace says:

23 April, 2018 at 5:47 pm

@ Ian

I thought it was a bit cheeky at the time of posting but, I thought there was no harm in asking.

I might end up taking the car to my mums in Dundee on the Friday and then getting the train/bus through to Glasgow on the morning of the march and the last train or bus back to Dundee to spend the night there. I’m going to have a wee look at various travel plans to see what works best.

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Ian Brotherhood says:

23 April, 2018 at 5:54 pm

@WW –

Too right, nothing ventured an aw that. I’d gladly host a fitba team ay Wingers anytime if I had an empty.

Offer still stands if you’re stuck, and in any event I’m looking forward to finally meeting you.

Hoots!

Reply

Dave McEwan Hill says:

23 April, 2018 at 8:01 pm

There are some important things that should be done for this march. Reliable people or organisations should be appointed to count the numbers marching and informative pictures should be taken to show the actual turnout.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

23 April, 2018 at 9:41 pm

Dean Martin:”Not Enough Indians”
link to youtube.com

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Daisy Walker says:

23 April, 2018 at 10:59 pm

Message for Ronnie Anderson.

Hey Ronnie, remember meeting at Edinburgh HOOP – and I told you my design for bespoke barrier tape.

Well its here. 2 designs. A start. Can I get a sample through to Dundee for you to show folks.

Let me know.

Kind regards

Reply

ScottieDog says:

23 April, 2018 at 11:38 pm

FWIW
I don’t think Pete Wishart has been ‘corrupted’ by Westminster. I think his logic is probabaly that a clear 60% pro YES in the polls would make the referendum basically fraud proof. A loss after such a lead would be extremely suspicious.
Like most here, however, I don’t think we will ever get the 60%, since the polls themselves are easily manipulated.

Reply

Fred says:

23 April, 2018 at 11:50 pm

If Pete Wishart wasjust an ordinary 5/8 with an income to match his views might be somewhat different!

Reply

Smallaxe says:

24 April, 2018 at 11:25 am

“Sun is Shining” Bob Marley;
link to youtube.com
So it is*

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Smallaxe says:

24 April, 2018 at 11:56 am

“Yesterday`s Papers” The Rolling Stones;
link to youtube.com

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Ian Brotherhood says:

24 April, 2018 at 1:05 pm

Just revisited this one after a long time – amazed it hasn’t had more views

The Waterboys, ‘Old England’ –

24 April, 2018 at 1:54 pm

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Smallaxe says:

It’s because of this Ian.

The Kinks:”Living on a Thin Line”
link to youtube.com

Click on ‘Show More’ below the video for lyrics.

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Thepnr says:

24 April, 2018 at 3:04 pm

@Ian Brotherhood

Yes I remember that one well from pre-referendum. So true and the reality of the lyrics missed by most. Especially British Nationalists.

An Independent Scotland will reawaken the English public to the fact there are alternatives to the Tory way, at least I hope it does.

Poor BBC watching, Daily Mail reading deluded voters.

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Tinto Chiel says:

24 April, 2018 at 11:33 pm

Thought Mike Russell was outstanding today and Welsh Labour, like all incarnations of Labour, were pathetic but predictable.

Other thoughts: does Salisbury have no video surveillance of its town-centre? If so, surely very unusual in Snoopy UK? Why would this be?

Are the Tories happy to destroy the town’s businesses just to perpetuate the laughable fiction that there is still dangerous nerve gas/poisonous liquid on “knobs”, benches, fings, whatever?

Sleep well. Don’t have nightmares. Check under the bed for Reds.

Reply

Dave McEwan Hill says:

24 April, 2018 at 11:48 pm

Peter A Bell interviewed on online Argyll Independent Radio from about 8.30 tomorrow evening after a meeting at the Forward Shop in Dunoon

Reply

Smallaxe says:

25 April, 2018 at 8:31 am

4 Non Blondes:”What’s Up”
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

25 April, 2018 at 10:47 am

“Who Killed Cock Robin” (and others)
link to youtube.com

“The Murder of Willie Macrae”
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

25 April, 2018 at 11:32 am

Imagine Dragons:”Whatever it Takes”
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

25 April, 2018 at 11:36 am

Rag’n’Bone Man:”Human”
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

25 April, 2018 at 11:43 am

For Nana;
“Will You Go Lassie Go” – Joan Baez (Edinburgh 1965)
link to youtube.com

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Fred says:

25 April, 2018 at 2:48 pm

@ Smallaxe requests! Howabout some Maura O’Connell kid, “Maggie or Shades of Gloria!” kid!

Reply

Smallaxe says:

25 April, 2018 at 3:29 pm

“Maggie”
link to youtube.com

Maura O’Connell “Shades of Gloria”
link to youtube.com

That okay, Fred?

Reply

Thepnr says:

25 April, 2018 at 8:31 pm

Don’t forget interview with Peter Bell by Dave McEwan Hill which has just started at 20:30.

link to internetradiouk.com

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Michael McCabe says:

25 April, 2018 at 9:00 pm

Fred a wee tune for you. link to youtube.com

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Fred says:

25 April, 2018 at 9:57 pm

@ Smallaxe & Michael, that was absolutely superb, what chanters eh!

Ah copy Urls oot with two fingers hence the requests!

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Michael McCabe says:

25 April, 2018 at 10:14 pm

Falling out of love. link to youtube.com

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Tinto Chiel says:

25 April, 2018 at 10:43 pm

I’m celebrating tonight’s colossal Yoon catastrofeck by playing a strangely prescient track which is about 40 years old, and yet bang up to date.

25 April, 2018 at 11:20 pm

Don’t have nightmares, now.

Reply

Thepnr says:

I haven’t posted a song for quite a while now. I seem to have ran out of tunes and really don’t want to be repeating myself.

I’m sure you know what I mean, still after the debacle exposed by the Rev with the Electoral Commission em! mistake.

This came into my head and I’m sure you will enjoy.

25 April, 2018 at 11:27 pm

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Strawbs:”Part of the union”
link to youtube.com

Ya thaaink?

Reply

Thepnr says:

25 April, 2018 at 11:38 pm

@Smallaxe

Yeh I believed in that so much. I’m older and wiser now.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

25 April, 2018 at 11:40 pm

“Who Are You” The Who;
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

25 April, 2018 at 11:46 pm

Thepnr,
Aren’t we all?

Jethro Tull:”Too Old To Rock’n’Roll Too Young To Die”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Thepnr says:

26 April, 2018 at 12:16 am

@Smallaxe

That was excellent the video had me smiling. You will have to make your own mind up about this one. I’d give him the benefit of the doubt.

26 April, 2018 at 12:25 am

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Thepnr,

Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull are one of my favourite bands, I’ve been to see them a few times, magic!

“She Said She Was A Dancer
link to youtube.com

Reply

Michael McCabe says:

26 April, 2018 at 12:55 am

Open your mind link to youtube.com

Reply

Thepnr says:

26 April, 2018 at 1:13 am

@Michael McCabe

That was brill, your still the man

Reply

Fred says:

26 April, 2018 at 9:52 am

Jist gets better!

Reply

Smallaxe says:

26 April, 2018 at 10:00 am

Velvet Underground:”Pale Blue Eyes”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Thepnr says:

26 April, 2018 at 11:35 am

Gets out of bed, have a vague memory and check my phone. Yep shit, it really happened and wasn’t a dream. Sorry Smallaxe

Reply

Smallaxe says:

26 April, 2018 at 11:49 am

Thepnr,

Not a problem, my friend, I’m always pleased to hear from you.

link to youtube.com

Reply

Thepnr says:

26 April, 2018 at 12:11 pm

@Smallaxe

Well that wee tune cheered me up. Tried to think of a good phone related tune, ELO or Dr Hook?

Thought why not stick with Blondie she’s pretty good.

26 April, 2018 at 12:39 pm

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Thepnr,

A change is as good as a rest.

E. L. O.:”telephone line”
link to youtube.com

Dr Hook: “Rings”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Thepnr says:

26 April, 2018 at 12:58 pm

The Dr Hook one I was thinking of was Sylvia’s Mother. OK its not punk but not everybody is into punk

Can some kind reader stick up a link, I’m using my phone and its proving difficult.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

26 April, 2018 at 1:03 pm

FROM A KIND PERSON!

Dr hook and the medicine show:”Sylvias Mother”
link to youtube.com

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Thepnr says:

26 April, 2018 at 2:23 pm

@Smallaxe

Cheers! That was even better than I remembered, here’s a tune for you and all Wingers.

26 April, 2018 at 3:15 pm

Reply

Elizabeth Sutherland says:

Just been announced polar bear cub born in Highland wildlife Park name is HAMISH.A pal for our own Cairnstoon Hamish lion.

Reply

Thepnr says:

26 April, 2018 at 3:31 pm

@Elizabeth Sutherland

Thanks for the info and welcome to wee Hamish

A song by Snow Patrol from the album “Songs for Polar Bears”

This is called JUST SAY YES I know that Snow Patrol are mainly Irish but they were born in Dundee and you can tell

26 April, 2018 at 4:55 pm

Reply

Dave McEwan Hill says:

Elizabeth Sutherland at 3.15

Is that the BRITISH bear we keep hearing about?

Reply

Tinto Chiel says:

26 April, 2018 at 8:39 pm

Amber Rudd’s pants are on fire: again.

27 April, 2018 at 12:26 am

Racist, fascist, lying, corrupt, cowardly, amoral, hypocritical Tories.

Feel free to add any adjectives I’ve missed, sophisticates.

This “rapist’s consent” thing is the biggest boot in the Scottish gonads since the last time, and all air-brushed out by our fearless Scottish press who are currently occupied on much more important matters, e.g. Davidson’s Sprog.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

Don Ricardo:”She’s Having My Baby”
link to youtube.com

It wisnae me!

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Smallaxe says:

27 April, 2018 at 9:06 am

Frankie Miller & Rory Gallagher: “Sense of Freedom”
link to youtube.com

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Michael McCabe says:

27 April, 2018 at 4:17 pm

A long way to fall. link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

27 April, 2018 at 4:54 pm

Smoking Time Jazz Club: ‘Charleston” & Dancers
link to youtube.com

Reply

Michael McCabe says:

27 April, 2018 at 5:18 pm

Cheers for that Smallaxe. Henri’s Boogie link to youtube.com

Reply

Smallaxe says:

27 April, 2018 at 5:33 pm

Hi Michael,

Les Paul & Chet Atkins: “Don’t Mean a Thing”
link to youtube.com

Reply

Michael McCabe says:

27 April, 2018 at 5:49 pm

Hi Smallaxe I am away for some food but I will leave you with this. I will look back in later. link to youtube.com

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Thepnr says:

27 April, 2018 at 6:03 pm

@Michael McCabe

Warning, stay away from the mushrooms!

“Gather in the mushrooms” Benny hill 1961 LOL It’s sheer class.

Reply

Thepnr says:

27 April, 2018 at 6:04 pm

Phuct forgot the link lol.

27 April, 2018 at 6:05 pm

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Smallaxe says:

Be careful with that cutlery, Michael;
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

27 April, 2018 at 6:12 pm

Thepnr,

“Don’t Look Back in Anger”
link to youtube.com

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Thepnr says:

27 April, 2018 at 6:26 pm

@Smallaxe

Cracker! A real foot tapper, head shaker and everything else I’m still dancing sitting here on meh settee

Reply

Dave McEwan Hill says:

27 April, 2018 at 6:32 pm

Our full house meeting with Peter A Bell in the Forward Shop in Dunoon went very well on Wednesday night as did the interview on the online ArgyllIndependentRadio after it. I’ll have this repeated shortly. I’ll mention the visit on my Roundabout Show tonight (from 7pm).
We intend to do a lot of live interviews on this little station as things hot up.

Reply

Smallaxe says:

27 April, 2018 at 6:55 pm

Dave McEwan Hill,

A link to your show, Dave;
link to internetradiouk.com

Dave’s on next, folks!

Reply

Thepnr says:

27 April, 2018 at 7:10 pm

@Dave

Must say I like your radio “persona”, you’re better than Terry Wogan I think lol. Will tune in tonight, I don’t often but when I do I have always found it worthwhile.

Reply

yesindyref2 says:

28 April, 2018 at 4:00 am

BOTH – Better Ones Than Hits – don’t get me wrong Streets of London is fine, but he did do better:

28 April, 2018 at 4:21 am

Reply

yesindyref2 says:

Better title for that maybe – BOTHY – Better Ones Than Hits, Yes? Sounds kind of cosy.

28 April, 2018 at 4:31 am

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yesindyref2 says:

Or even link to youtube.com

Probably one for Smallaxe

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yesindyref2 says:

28 April, 2018 at 5:01 am

Funny the things you find on the RHS you forgot all about

28 April, 2018 at 6:05 am

Reply

William Wallace says:

@ Ian (few days ago)

Thanks again for the kind offer. I am probably going to stop at my friends just outside Liverpool for the night on the Friday and I will drive up Saturday morning.

I have a couple of choices from there. Up to Dundee on the 23:40 to bide at my mums hoose or travel back on the Sunday morning at 11-00 am to Liverpool for some dinner and a trip back south.

As much as I’d love to come and bide at your place, I think it would be preferable to at least meet you first in Glasgow so you can decide if I am a suitable tenant or not

I also don’t know what time you are heading back home to bed and whether or not that contravenes my night oot policy (I am prepared to cover the taxi hame to your gaff btw). I am however, like yourself – looking forward to meeting you.

Additionally, I am so pissed off with the state of play I might start a riot and get myself arrested in Glasgow to demonstrate the point and get myself some free B&B

I am slightly pished, despite the hour (top night oot) so please take my comments with the serious they do not deserve

Hoots Mon

Reply

Smallaxe says:

28 April, 2018 at 6:31 am

Lou Reed:”I’m Waiting For My Man”
link to youtube.com

Still waitin’

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William Wallace says:

28 April, 2018 at 6:47 am

@ Sma

Nae invite tae the borders iy

Reply

William Wallace says:

28 April, 2018 at 7:00 am

In the mood
link to youtube.com

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Smallaxe says:

28 April, 2018 at 7:07 am

Hi Wull,

You’re welcome here anytime, I’ve got an hotel booked from the 4th-6th so that I can be at the march. I hope to see you there, but don’t ever pass my door without calling in.
link to youtube.com

Reply

William Wallace says:

28 April, 2018 at 7:15 am

On the subject of Louis

I’m “in the mood” for love

28 April, 2018 at 7:19 am

Reply

William Wallace says:

I’m in the mood for Luuuurve

28 April, 2018 at 7:22 am

Reply

William Wallace says:

@ Sma

I widnae dream o it

Can you no fit me in yir suitcase?

Reply

Smallaxe says:

28 April, 2018 at 7:27 am

Here you go, Wull;
link to youtube.com

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William Wallace says:

28 April, 2018 at 7:34 am

@ Sma

Hahahaha

I’m just a “man in a suitcase”

28 April, 2018 at 7:48 am

Reply

Smallaxe says:

My name is Bill and I’m a headcase;
link to youtube.com

I think that makes two of us Wull.

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William Wallace says:

28 April, 2018 at 8:05 am

@ Sma

And there was me thinking “I’m a Man”

28 April, 2018 at 8:27 am

Reply

Smallaxe says:

“We All Grow Up”
link to youtube.com

Unfortunately!

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William Wallace says:

28 April, 2018 at 8:54 am

So true Sma.

Wouldn’t it be great to be “Forever Young?”

Alas, I suppose

“Everybody’s Got to learn sometime”

Then again

“Who wants to live forever?”

28 April, 2018 at 9:34 am

Reply

Smallaxe says:

No matter how long you live, this is ALL you need;
link to youtube.com

True!

Reply

Smallaxe says:

28 April, 2018 at 8:32 pm

There is no Perfection but there is Aspiration.

His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings.( Born Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael)

Address to the UN General Assembly (4 October 1963)
Twenty-seven years ago, as Emperor of Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum in Geneva, Switzerland, to address the League of Nations and to appeal for relief from the destruction which had been unleashed against my defenceless nation, by the Fascist invader.
I spoke then both to and for the conscience of the world. My words went unheeded, but history testifies to the accuracy of the warning that I gave in 1936. Today, I stand before the world organization which has succeeded to the mantle discarded by its discredited predecessor. In this body is enshrined the principle of collective security which I unsuccessfully invoked at Geneva. Here, in this Assembly, reposes the best — perhaps the last — hope for the peaceful survival of mankind.

(In 1926, Italy and Britain attempted a joint commercial penetration of Ethiopia. By bringing pressure jointly upon Ras* (Duke*) Tafari, the Italians planned to exploit a railway and the British hoped to construct a mighty waterworks for irrigating the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. While Tafari yielded momentarily, he subsequently made a protest to the League of Nations so potent that British public opinion turned against the waterworks scheme and it was cancelled. This left the Italians in the lurch.
In March 1936, Hitler marched troops into the Rhineland, which had been prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles. The French were now desperate to get Italian support against German aggression directly on their border, so would not take any further action with sanctions.)

Address to the UN General Assembly (4 October 1963)

The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man: abjugation of force in the settlement of disputes between states; the assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion; the safeguarding of international peace and security.
But these, too, as were the phrases of the Covenant, are only words; their value depends wholly on our will to observe and honour them and give them content and meaning. The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man’s basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act — and if necessary, to suffer and die — for truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shall not go undetected and unremedied.
These lessons must be learned anew by each succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed which learns from other than its own bitter experience. This Organization and each of its members bear a crushing and awesome responsibility: to absorb the wisdom of history and to apply it to the problems of the present, in order that future generations may be born, and live, and die, in peace.

We Are Power:
link to youtube.com

Namaste*, my friends;
“The Spirit within me, bows to The Spirit within you”*

Reply

Smallaxe says:

28 April, 2018 at 8:51 pm

It’s A Beautiful Day:”Time Is”
link to youtube.com

It is time.

Reply

Marie Clark says:

29 April, 2018 at 1:02 pm

Smallaxe, you’re gon yer dinger wi a’ the links on the MT. Thank you very much for all of them, sometimes nearly into a fourth cuppa to read all of them. I only hope that you’re not overdoing things, take care. We need you, hope Nana comes back soon, we miss her too.

With all that’s going on just now politically by the very underhand Tories supported by the msm, I don’t think that if they get their way, that we’re going to be in a very good place.