I spent a long day yesterday getting back from Edinburgh. Storms blew train timetables asunder, but in fairness to the rail system, I got here, and I am grateful for that. The sea north of Berwick-on-Tweed was quite a sight.
The whole process reminded me of how disruptive of work travel really is. I travelled extensively from 2005 to 2019. I am glad that I do not do it anymore. For most purposes, Zoom does very well. There will be no more Taxing Wealth Report 2024 contributions this week because of that disruption.
These were not, however, the only lessons learned from Wednesday night's outing.
The Twitter trolling was pretty significant. I am not a woman, and so at least I avoided all the added abuse that would have happened if I was, but it makes me appreciate just how large the sad population of those who get their kicks from being anonymously rude from their phones really is. If they really think that this is what politics is all about, we are in trouble.
And then there was the Scottish Daily Express. It reported:
Amusingly it noted:
Mr Murphy, ... received applause from the audience when he made the comments. He said: "Let's be realistic, independence isn't going to happen yet because Labour and the Tories are united in their desire to retain Scotland as a colony, the same as they are united in their desire to keep Wales under London control."
I note they decided not to refer to me as Prof. It's usually women that they fail to acknowledge in this way, but what the quote made clear was that in front of a politically representative audience I won applause for my comments, in Edinburgh at that.
Despite that, they went on to make wild claims about my being wrong, including because the SNP lost a Supreme Court hearing last year and because I had apparently not shown respect for the term colony during Black Lives Matter month, which I found quite surprising as arguments go.
For the record, an Oxford dictionary defines a colony as:
A country or an area that is governed by people from another, more powerful, country
You will find something very similar in many other dictionaries.
Examples given include Australia, Canada, the thirteen former British colonies that founded the USA and of course many former British territories. I would add Ireland to the list, pre-1922.
So, Scotland is a colony on this basis. It is a country and Westminster most definitely wants to rule it, and does so because it is more powerful. I do not regret what I said. It was factually accurate.
One thing I did note though was a comment suggesting that I would never be back on Debate Night. For the record, I have been asked if I would do it again, and have agreed. So, 'see you soon' is my response to that suggestion.
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Thanks Richard
I tried to get clips from the show yesterday from youtube without success. I’ll keep trying.
I wish that some of the independence supporting politicians in Scotland had your’ flair and eloquence in understanding and explaining these things. Sadly we’ve voted in a complete bunch of numpties.
Keep up the good work
Your post reveals something that I have become extremely aware of and also intolerant of – that somehow certain groups wish to claim certain ‘suffering statuses’ for themselves only. There has been a lot of this recently on TV with certain events in the Middle East and people here might remember my antipathy to the notion of ‘white privilege’.
Thinking like this often ignores more common forms of suffering or oppression that actually link the groups together such economic inequality or pollution.
This sort of thinking makes me really angry as it prevents progress and resolution. The strategists who promote this sort of thinking are lower than infected yeast in terms life for me.
All we seem to be able to do at the moment is just think of new forms of how to describe our problems as we compete with each other for fewer and fewer resources and spend too little time generating ideas about how to actually solve them.
Instead of sticking together, groups seem to be segmenting themselves as ‘special’ which simply prevents a more unified majority from forming in opposition to how we are being made to live now.
Ah, PSR. Welcome to the world of feminist study. Rather American in flavour. But definitely missing in a lot of the UK’s “special interest” groups.
Intersectionality.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality
Hello again Richard. These last 4 words of your phrase leapt off the screen at me “I won applause for my comments, IN EDINBURGH AT THAT” .
Not ALL residents of Edinburgh are of a colonial mindset. Just a large proportion of those who vote. As with Rutherglen, the low turnout at by-elections yesterday will be partly as a result of Voter ID being required. But more important is the need to have something positive to vote FOR.
In that regard, Labour is sadly lacking. All of us who are remotely left-leaning need to (re)read ‘The Courageous State’. Let’s make it a Christmas best seller!
Thanks
My reference was to the fact that Edinburgh is rather more English than mpst Scottish cities in its outlook
But it has three SNP MPs. The fourth is Labour, the notorious Ian Murray, Scotland’s only Labour MP until Rutherglen. All four have decent majorities in the 10-12000 area.
So?
It is still where you are most likely to meet English accents and attitudes, barring the Borders, perhaps
I love “my” city (Edinburgh) but truly detest the fact that it’s disproportionately inhabited by Tory voting English sounding Scots. The parcel of rogues in a nation.