Tuesday , March 19 2024

Effie Deans

Effie Deans is a pro UK blogger. She spent many years living in Russia and the Soviet Union, but came home to Scotland so as to enjoy living in a multi-party democracy! When not occupied with Scottish politics she writes fiction and thinks about theology, philosophy and Russian literature.

What is real feminism nowadays?

So, in the red corner we have Nicola Sturgeon the “real” feminist and in the blue Corner J.K. Rowling the defender of human rights against destroyer Sturgeon. The winner requires two falls, a submission or a knockout. The issue that is bothering everybody ought to be so boring and dull …

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The new hate-filled mob

In previous generations people like me wrote in obscurity. We wrote letters to friends and colleagues that were afterwards destroyed. We might have written pamphlets or contributed to small circulation political magazines. If we were very fortunate indeed, we might have been asked to write a column in a newspaper …

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We need a choice between socialism, social democracy and conservatism

Alas poor Liz. There were all sorts of reasons for the financial crisis in 2008, but Labour rightly got the blame. It got the blame even though Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling performed creditably and even though the crisis was a worldwide phenomenon. The public didn’t follow or indeed understand …

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Why independent Scotland would never join the EU

Since 2016 the SNP has consistently hoped that Brexit would make it easier for Sturgeon to argue for Scottish independence. Scottish opinion was in favour of remaining in the EU, so disappointed Remainers would support the SNP’s argument that the only way to have EU membership would be to leave …

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What Sturgeon won’t tell you about the Scottish economy

With the bridge over the Kerch Straight having just been blown up and Russia threatening “judgement day”, it is hard to believe that the SNP is still considering an unofficial independence referendum in a little more than a year. I know let’s abolish the British Armed Forces and leave its …

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Here’s what Liz Truss should do next

Being a Conservative voter involves one disappointment after another. We vote for free markets, small state, lower public spending, lower taxes and always end up with the opposite. David Cameron’s major achievement was granting the SNP an independence referendum which led to Scottish nationalism moving from a minority pursuit that …

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Ireland and the SNP are using Putin’s argument

Russia claims to have annexed four oblasts Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson of Ukraine after holding referendums despite Ukraine not giving it permission to do so. Naturally neither Ukraine nor anyone else in the West has recognised this annexation, but it is nevertheless significant. Russia can now say as with …

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This is what real Conservatism looks like

Liz Truss is attempting to rescue both Britain and the Conservative Party by a supply side revolution involving massive tax cuts. Suddenly after years of Tory centrism and wet mush we have got Friedman and Hayek back as the philosophy behind Kwasi Kwarteng’s thinking. It is not so much quasi-Conservatism …

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After independence, Sturgeon would need a wall

There are approximately 4.6 million adults in Scotland. Of these around 1.9 million or 41% pay no income tax. 48% of us pay between 19 and 21%. While 9.9% pay 41% and 1% pay 46%. Around 60% of revenue raised in Scotland comes from that top 10%. But this means …

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Does the Scottish people have the right to self-determination?

The reason it is so boring trying to have any sort of debate with Scottish nationalists, is that after a while you realise that they are repeating what they have read on a sort of crib sheet. Eventually any discussion either ends with swearing and insults or exactly the same …

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Mother Russia calls, but no one listens

Everybody including me got everything wrong about the war in Ukraine. The Germans and the French thought it wasn’t going to happen right up until the moment that it did. The British and the Americans thought that the Ukrainians would be defeated within a week or so. The fear was …

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Sturgeon is stuffed – and she knows it

The past couple of weeks have exposed a delightful contradiction at the heart of Scottish nationalism. When I point out that Scottish independence would mean the loss of the monarchy, I am contacted by numerous outraged Scottish nationalists eager to point out that in 2014 the SNP intended to keep …

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The prospect of a Labour majority changes the argument in Scotland

It may be that the Conservatives have already lost the next General Election. Labour has a 33 point lead. A Labour majority, which was unthinkable a short while ago is now a 7/4 favourite. I am obviously not a Labour supporter, but I look at the prospect of Labour winning …

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In what way would being a Republic improve Britain?

The UK is going through some tough times at the moment. We have just had the pandemic, followed almost immediately by an economic crisis and our Queen has just died. We have a new Prime Minister who most ordinary voters know nothing about. The coming winter may be the most …

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Why does the SNP pretend to support the monarchy?

When the Queen had her 70th jubilee in June I was surprised to discover the number of Union Flags that were displayed across Scotland. The SNP had done its best to erase the flag from public life and its supporters frequently described it in the most insulting ways possible. But …

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An open letter to the Queen’s haters

When Mikhail Gorbachev died recently, I didn’t notice any anti-Russian or anti-Soviet sentiment on Twitter or in the newspapers. Even those who have good reason to resent Soviet or Russian expansionism kept silent or offered only mild criticism. But somehow the death of a 96-year-old lady, very frail and much …

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Liz Truss must find Conservative solutions to the present crisis

In 2010 the Labour Party was kicked out by the voters and replaced with the Conservative Lib Dem coalition under David Cameron. It was natural for voters to blame Labour for the economic crisis of 2008 and to seek an alternative. Labour had been in power since 1997. If Labour …

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Who bears responsibility for the costly price cap?

I have been busily buying thermal underwear, fleece lined tops and down filled trousers. My intention is to use the central heating as little as possible. If I heat myself with clothing rather than heat the room where I am sitting, I will save a fortune. But in fact, I …

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How to make life harder for the SNP

The rumours that Liz Truss will make it harder for the SNP to both obtain a legal independence referendum and to win it, don’t so much matter in their detail but in the fact that they demonstrate that Truss is not willing to play the SNP’s game. The UK is …

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In Liz we Trusst

Politics is partly about opinions and persuading others to vote for those opinions, but it is much more about truth. In an election we are faced with a choice between Labour and the Conservative parties. Each puts forward a set of policies and personalities and the voters choose between them. …

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