Thursday , March 28 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.

Could the SNP avoid a hard border after Scexit?

While support for the SNP remains high and while many Scots support independence at least in theory, there is no question now that both face an intellectual challenge over EU membership. For this reason, the independence movement has become divided over how to overcome the challenges caused by Brexit. While …

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Three hundred and fourteen years of hurt

One lion on oor flag We’re still getting steamin Three hunner years of hurt Didna stop us scheming It’s comin hame, It’s comin hame. It’s comin. Fitba’s comin hame.   The English think that they invented football, but it’s not true. Everyone knows that it was invented in Aberdeenshire. It …

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How to make her unhappy

I have been writing less since the Scottish Parliament election. The mood has changed. It is partly because it is summer. I have been more interested in using the sunshine to travel around Scotland than write about Scottish politics. But it’s not just me. Both sides of the constitutional divide …

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She needs to defend UK sovereignty too

Yesterday there was a minor incident in the Black Sea when a Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender sailed close to the Crimean shoreline and was warned by the Russian coastguard to keep away. Some shots were fired, but no one was hurt and it is likely that no one was …

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Kneeling to an unjust God

There are lots of deaths everyday in the United States. People have guns and there is a lot of violent crime. Most of it is ignored even in the United States let alone here. Imagine if in May 2020 a person of Chinese origin had been killed by a policeman. …

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Macron’s geography lesson

France is a rather odd place. It is not merely the chunk of the European continent across the Channel. It also includes two islands in the Caribbean, Guadeloupe and Martinique, a little bit of South America, French Guiana, and two islands in the Indian Ocean, Réunion and Mayotte. These are …

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The SNP would make all Scots poorer

An organisation called The Social Justice and Fairness Commission recently published a report dated March 2021. We didn’t see it in March however, but rather it was only revealed after the Scottish Parliament Election. Of course, the organisation is another of the SNP’s front organisations. The authors of the report are …

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Cancelled for telling the truth

I have been on Twitter since March 2012. It is essential for my writing. Without Twitter and Facebook whatever I write would be read by almost no one. Think of the situation prior to the Internet. If you wanted to write you had to either work for a newspaper or …

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Why do they only demonstrate when Jews are at war?

What are the deadliest wars of the 21st Century? 1 The Syrian Civil War             2011-Present         535,000 deaths 2 War on Terror (including       2001-Present         493,500 deaths Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan) 3 War in Darfur                        2003-Present         286,827 deaths 4 Yemeni Civil War                  2014–Present        233,000+ deaths 5 Mexican Drug War                2006-Present         106,800 deaths By contrast the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948 has killed only 116,000 …

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Decolonising the curriculum

I have been asked to help decolonise the curriculum where I work. I take this to mean I must remove all subjects that benefitted from colonisers or colonialism, all writers who were involved in or benefited from the slave trade or indeed all books that nice people in 2021 should …

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The only difference between Hartlepool and Hamilton is nationalism

The North East of England is the place that feels most similar to Scotland. It is post-industrial like the Central Belt. The accent and dialect are similar as is the culture. If by an accident of history, the North East of England were part of Scotland no one would notice …

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How to beat the SNP next Thursday

I haven’t been writing much about the Scottish Parliament election lately. This is for a number of reasons. I am not very interested in election campaigning. I’m better at political argument. I have minimal interest in the peculiarities of the electoral system where we have one vote for the constituency …

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The hard border job creation scheme

It’s 2025 and I’m about to begin my latest journey to Berwick upon Tweed. Every month or so since independence I’ve had to get up early so that I can get to a giant hypermarket that has been built just over the border. But it would be unfair to suggest …

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The Sturgeon/Salmond Pact

It’s not very long ago that Alex Salmond was accusing Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government of conspiring to put him in jail. Now he wants her not only to continue as First Minister, but in a few years most likely to be the first leader of an independent Scotland. …

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Caught on the boundary

There are no longer very many people who served in World War Two like Prince Philip and Captain Tom. We are getting to the stage when soon there will be none at all. Captain Tom was born in 1920 and so when he joined the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment in …

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How to maximise the Pro UK vote in Scotland

It’s important to understand how the Scottish Parliament election system works to find the best way to defeat the SNP and other pro-independence parties such as the Scottish Greens and Alba. The latest poll is as follows SNP 42%    Cons 22%   Lab 17%     Green 8%    Lib Dems 8% The SNP has had around a …

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Freedom to speak, think and draw is crucial for all of us

There are two world views on display in Yorkshire at the moment where there are demonstrations because a teacher showed a cartoon of the Muslim prophet. The first view is commonplace in most countries of the world and was common in Britain too until relatively recently. This is the view …

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You’re not more Scottish than me.

In Scotland there are a group of people who want Scotland to be an independent country. But who are they and why do they want this?  They are frequently supporters of the SNP though some also support the Scottish Greens or other less well-known parties. Some don’t support any party but …

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Humza’s hate crimes

The Scottish Parliament has passed Humza Yousaf’s hate crime bill by 82 votes to 32. It has been modified considerably since being introduced. Attempts have been made to assure us that free speech is protected. But the whole concept of hate crime is fundamentally flawed, and this is not changed …

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Teflon Nicola

Nicola Sturgeon compared the legal case which the Scottish Government lost to Alex Salmond paying him more than half a million, with the case about minimum unit pricing for alcohol. She said that in every such case there is negative legal advice and if a Government ceased every case whenever …

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