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Wings Over Scotland


Latvian lessons 127

Posted on October 24, 2013 by

Latvia has been ruled by others for most of the past thousand years, with Riga even being the largest city in Sweden until they carelessly lost it to Peter the Great in 1710. Independence from Russia came in 1918 and then from the Soviet Union in 1991.

latvia

I arrived in Riga a few months later and stayed for a year and a half. At the time I joked that, apart from my paid work, I was there to observe what they were going through and to take notes for when Scotland became independent. It’s been a long time but some things, I hope, will be relevant to the process over the next year.

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    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “It’s all very well pointing out the obvious (in TURABDIN’s case) that “referenda have their limitations”. Like, no shit Sherlock,…” Oct 24, 10:11
    • factchecker on Faces In Sand: “Get says “Fact checker not checking their facts again. Scotland voted YES in it’s wee “open to all” pretendy opinion…” Oct 24, 10:10
    • Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: “In any event there is no democracy for a people who continue to be made subject to territorial alienation and…” Oct 24, 10:08
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““Don’t go preaching about fair democracy in the UK and claim it is a unitary State when there are not…” Oct 24, 10:05
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “@ Geri says: 24 October, 2026 at 9:35 am Way to go, Geri. Always educational and informative to read a…” Oct 24, 09:59
    • factchecker on Faces In Sand: “Geri says ” It wasn’t a democratic vote. You removed EU citizens & migrants from the vote … Democracy my…” Oct 24, 09:59
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “@Dan Electoral franchises and constitutional matters are hardly my area of expertise, but surely it’s obvious that EU nationals living…” Oct 24, 09:55
    • Factchecker on Faces In Sand: “Agreed. But most of the same reservations apply to actual elections. The turnout for the Referendum was higher than for…” Oct 24, 09:48
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““They’re a nobody” Yet somehow they’ve got Scotland crushed, oppressed, asset stripped, robbed blind, colonised and doun hauden. It’s so…” Oct 24, 09:45
    • Geri on Faces In Sand: “Slippery falsefact sassanach. The legal mechanism for Brexshit happened AFTER the Brexshit referendum. It was a glorified opinion poll that…” Oct 24, 09:35
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““diversity stress: a kind of constant, low-grade anxiety associated with having to negotiate normative and linguistic differences, public-resource competition, and…” Oct 24, 09:35
    • Captain Caveman on Faces In Sand: “Hotpot. HOTPOT ENGLISH HotpotTttt! EEEENGLISHHHHHH HOTTTTPOTTTTT!!!11!!!1!111!1!1!11 AARRRGH!! hotpothotpothotpothotpottttt FLIBBLE ANGLOS111 FRANG!!!!!” Oct 24, 09:27
    • Dan on Faces In Sand: “And how would the EU vote have gone if it had utilised the same open to all franchise used for…” Oct 24, 09:24
    • Geri on Faces In Sand: “I can’t wait for the day that it dawns on English that they’re colonised by the yanks & everyones favourite…” Oct 24, 09:11
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “@Alf Baird says: 24 October, 2026 at 12:05 am “That was an opinion poll using a local government franchise not…” Oct 24, 08:54
    • TURABDIN on Faces In Sand: “WHAT AN AI GEN ASSISTANT has to say on the matter of referendums. Reliability of Referendums Referendums are often viewed…” Oct 24, 08:53
    • factchecker on Faces In Sand: “The fact is that a majority of people living in Scotland and qualified to vote voted to stay in the…” Oct 24, 08:53
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Wee bit of the auld, colonised, cringe there, TURABDIN. Aren’t you thousands of miles away in a foreign country? You…” Oct 24, 08:47
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: ““Which people living in Scotland and paying taxes here would you want to exclude from a vote on their own…” Oct 24, 08:39
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “Sure, Bob, you and a few hundred other Scots have your very own special set of facts. It’s great that…” Oct 24, 08:31
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “What does all that matter, Confused, when we’re gonna be independent real soon now? BTW, still waiting for you to…” Oct 24, 08:25
    • factchecker on Faces In Sand: “A referendum is a national opinion poll. You didn’t like the franchise – Alex Salmond, a very shrewd and astute…” Oct 24, 08:23
    • robertkknight on Faces In Sand: ““The one where the people of Scotland voted to remain part of the UK.” That’s the one where the Scottish…” Oct 24, 08:23
    • Hatey McHateface on Faces In Sand: “What’s that you say, Sooty? Why doesn’t Dan include soup on his list of Scotland’s resources? Good question. It is,…” Oct 24, 08:18
    • Willie on Faces In Sand: “Yes and a local authority opinion poll where the franchise allowed non Scot – blow ins to vote with a…” Oct 24, 05:57
    • Alf Baird on Faces In Sand: ““I’d call the legal mechanism a referendum. Like 2014.” That was an opinion poll using a local government franchise not…” Oct 24, 00:05
    • factchecker on Faces In Sand: ““You get repeatedly told indy is a matter for the people of Scotland, yet find there is no “legal mechanism”…” Oct 23, 21:54
    • TURABDIN on Faces In Sand: “Andy (duck n dive, never a straight answer) Burnham thinks we all ought to stock up on food and, in…” Oct 23, 19:39
    • Bilbo on Faces In Sand: “What seems to be missing from these conversations of seasonality of our foodstuffs which is grown locally and doesn’t need…” Oct 23, 19:14
    • Confused on Faces In Sand: “of course there is no such thing as “equal partner in the union” – that’s the BULLSHIT THE ENGLISH TELL…” Oct 23, 18:54

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