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carmen_ljMy Read 50 Books yearly challenge thingie has got off to a RUBBISH start, cause the second book I picked up this year is a slightly dense history that claims it is for lay-people as well as actual history people but I HAVE MY DOUBTS. It's lucky it's about something I'm dead keen on, as otherwise I'd be so easy to give up since it takes about AN HOUR to read a page.
It's about LOVELY SCOTLAND. From the end of the Roman Iron Age to the end of the eighth century and so far it's been mostly, "well we don't REALLY KNOW what was happening, here are some BEAUTIFULLY REASONED POSSIBILITIES," which I quite love. The earliest woman mentioned in Scottish history is the wife of a tribe leader (except I'm not supposed to say tribe for some reason, but civitas instead, I forget the distinction - it's nice learning things, but this book is so full of THINGS I'm forgetting as much as I remember, probs more) who socialised with Emperor Septimius Severus' wife, Julia Domna, and was very witty. It's probably made up, but never mind.
And then Severus died. But that was while he was back in more southern Roman Britain and nothing to do with Scotland.
The most important thing is that there were these dudes called the Maiatai, who I'd never heard of before, but they lived in Scotland and they sound like a cocktail. So I think there should be a cocktail named after them.
Also there is something of a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS going on. Not in Roman times, but now. Sadly, I really like constitutional crises but only when they are In The Past, not when they are Right Now and about stuff I give a fuck about. I kept trying to write a post but mostly it went "fucking Tories, fucking, fuck-witted Tories." (Remember, these are the people who want to cut benefits to disabled children and cancer sufferers whilst letting Vodaphone off £8 billion in tax.) Here is what I managed with the least swears possible:
So the SNP want to have a referendum on Scottish independence. Since they won the last election you'd think they have a mandate to do that, but no! Westminister says that they may not have the legal authority to run a referendum, since that is not a devolved power. So the fucking Tories are saying "well, we could temporarily devolve the power" but we want control of when the referendum is, and to make it sooner rather than later, because if the SNP don't have any time to campaign, it's much more likely people will support the status quo.
Naturally, since the SNP won the fucking election, they feel that they can and should get to set the time of their referendum and the Tories should fuck off out of Scottish matters, since we vote for fuck-all Tories. Tories who, at the time of that election, failed to say anything like "oh, btw, nationalists, the foundation upon which your party is formed cannot be realised even if you win an absolute majority in a Parliment whose voting system is designed to prevent That Sort Of Thing, unless our Westminister colleages get to decide How Things Are Done." Cause if they'd said anything like that, perhaps they'd have got no MSPs at all instead of the 15 they have now. And only two of them got in via FTTP, that voting system the fucking Tories love so much.
In conclusion, I feel the Tories should fuck-off and let the Scottish Parliament get on with it. They're probably not going to win it anyway (hence murmurs of a second question of 'devolution max', or devolving further powers to Holyrood), and if the Tories think their interference is doing anything but reinforcing the general Scottish attitude towards their fucked-up party, they're wrong.
And, yeah, I support independence. I still voted SNP under Labour, but I was ambivalent about independence, but seeing just how fucked-up the Tories are in government has changed my mind to outright support. The only reason Scotland's education and NHS aren't as fucked-up as England's are devolution in general and the SNP in particular, and while it's possible we'd be a poorer nation on our own, I believe we'd be a fairer one.
One nice thing: in all the reporting of what's going on, it's rather heartening to see so many women at the top of Scottish politics: the Tories are led by Ruth Davidson (succeeding Annabel Goldie), Labour's new Scottish leader is Johann Lamont (previously deputy leader) and the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon is our Deputy First Minister.
One sort of hilarious thing: so the history of Scotland goes a bit like this: "fuck-up, fuck-up, fuck-up, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory." It is epic. This is why we still sing about Bannockburn 700 years later - that was an Proper Win, and those don't happen very often. Anyway, the reason that Scotland isn't independent, as I understand it and roughly speaking, is because at the beginning of the 18th century all our nobles had an AWESOME PLAN: they wanted Scotland to become a great trading nation like England and France and Spain and the Netherlands. So they invested ALL THEIR MONEY into a FOOLPROOF scheme to start a colony in Panama and nothing could possiby go wrong.
All the things went wrong: the leaders were rubbish, no-one wanted to trade anything and there were various epidemics, and practically all of Scotland's nobles went bankrupt. Then the Scottish and English governments got chatting about unification again, and England went and put a load of troops on the southern border to hint that maybe they would like this attempt to unify the two countries to work really well (it'd been tried unsuccessfully several times already in the 17th century) and the nobles and landowners were, like, fine then, cause, heh, they'd already lost all they're money, it wasn't like things could get any worse. For them, obviously. And England had lovely money. Or, as Robert Burns put it, ""We are bought and sold for English gold. Such a parcel of rogues in a nation." It was not the most popular move ever amongst the general population."
This looks like quite a long post. I must've been feeling v ranty. Less so now though. Hurrah! Out of my system! And if I want it back, I can always go watch Question Time.
It's about LOVELY SCOTLAND. From the end of the Roman Iron Age to the end of the eighth century and so far it's been mostly, "well we don't REALLY KNOW what was happening, here are some BEAUTIFULLY REASONED POSSIBILITIES," which I quite love. The earliest woman mentioned in Scottish history is the wife of a tribe leader (except I'm not supposed to say tribe for some reason, but civitas instead, I forget the distinction - it's nice learning things, but this book is so full of THINGS I'm forgetting as much as I remember, probs more) who socialised with Emperor Septimius Severus' wife, Julia Domna, and was very witty. It's probably made up, but never mind.
And then Severus died. But that was while he was back in more southern Roman Britain and nothing to do with Scotland.
The most important thing is that there were these dudes called the Maiatai, who I'd never heard of before, but they lived in Scotland and they sound like a cocktail. So I think there should be a cocktail named after them.
Also there is something of a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS going on. Not in Roman times, but now. Sadly, I really like constitutional crises but only when they are In The Past, not when they are Right Now and about stuff I give a fuck about. I kept trying to write a post but mostly it went "fucking Tories, fucking, fuck-witted Tories." (Remember, these are the people who want to cut benefits to disabled children and cancer sufferers whilst letting Vodaphone off £8 billion in tax.) Here is what I managed with the least swears possible:
So the SNP want to have a referendum on Scottish independence. Since they won the last election you'd think they have a mandate to do that, but no! Westminister says that they may not have the legal authority to run a referendum, since that is not a devolved power. So the fucking Tories are saying "well, we could temporarily devolve the power" but we want control of when the referendum is, and to make it sooner rather than later, because if the SNP don't have any time to campaign, it's much more likely people will support the status quo.
Naturally, since the SNP won the fucking election, they feel that they can and should get to set the time of their referendum and the Tories should fuck off out of Scottish matters, since we vote for fuck-all Tories. Tories who, at the time of that election, failed to say anything like "oh, btw, nationalists, the foundation upon which your party is formed cannot be realised even if you win an absolute majority in a Parliment whose voting system is designed to prevent That Sort Of Thing, unless our Westminister colleages get to decide How Things Are Done." Cause if they'd said anything like that, perhaps they'd have got no MSPs at all instead of the 15 they have now. And only two of them got in via FTTP, that voting system the fucking Tories love so much.
In conclusion, I feel the Tories should fuck-off and let the Scottish Parliament get on with it. They're probably not going to win it anyway (hence murmurs of a second question of 'devolution max', or devolving further powers to Holyrood), and if the Tories think their interference is doing anything but reinforcing the general Scottish attitude towards their fucked-up party, they're wrong.
And, yeah, I support independence. I still voted SNP under Labour, but I was ambivalent about independence, but seeing just how fucked-up the Tories are in government has changed my mind to outright support. The only reason Scotland's education and NHS aren't as fucked-up as England's are devolution in general and the SNP in particular, and while it's possible we'd be a poorer nation on our own, I believe we'd be a fairer one.
One nice thing: in all the reporting of what's going on, it's rather heartening to see so many women at the top of Scottish politics: the Tories are led by Ruth Davidson (succeeding Annabel Goldie), Labour's new Scottish leader is Johann Lamont (previously deputy leader) and the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon is our Deputy First Minister.
One sort of hilarious thing: so the history of Scotland goes a bit like this: "fuck-up, fuck-up, fuck-up, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory." It is epic. This is why we still sing about Bannockburn 700 years later - that was an Proper Win, and those don't happen very often. Anyway, the reason that Scotland isn't independent, as I understand it and roughly speaking, is because at the beginning of the 18th century all our nobles had an AWESOME PLAN: they wanted Scotland to become a great trading nation like England and France and Spain and the Netherlands. So they invested ALL THEIR MONEY into a FOOLPROOF scheme to start a colony in Panama and nothing could possiby go wrong.
All the things went wrong: the leaders were rubbish, no-one wanted to trade anything and there were various epidemics, and practically all of Scotland's nobles went bankrupt. Then the Scottish and English governments got chatting about unification again, and England went and put a load of troops on the southern border to hint that maybe they would like this attempt to unify the two countries to work really well (it'd been tried unsuccessfully several times already in the 17th century) and the nobles and landowners were, like, fine then, cause, heh, they'd already lost all they're money, it wasn't like things could get any worse. For them, obviously. And England had lovely money. Or, as Robert Burns put it, ""We are bought and sold for English gold. Such a parcel of rogues in a nation." It was not the most popular move ever amongst the general population."
This looks like quite a long post. I must've been feeling v ranty. Less so now though. Hurrah! Out of my system! And if I want it back, I can always go watch Question Time.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:26 am (UTC)Wife of a tribe leader?
"So I think there should be a cocktail named after them."
There are maitais. But they don't have the nice added A that makes me think of my friend's name, hmm.
I'm really interested in your talk about politics, but I don't understand what devolution is. The spirit of what you're angry about, though, I understand.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:47 am (UTC)I'm really interested in your talk about politics, but I don't understand what devolution is.
So, the UK Parliament (aka Westminister) is the biggie, the one that can, legally, do pretty much whatever it likes and passes the highest form of law in the UK: Acts of Parliament. But there was a vote in '97 asking the Scots if they'd like a parliament of their own which would be given limited powers by the UK Parliament and would be able to make laws in certain areas (these laws would affect only Scotland). The areas that the Scottish Parliament (aka Holyrood) can make laws in are known as 'devolved' issues (and while the UK Parliament retains the power to make laws in these areas, as a matter of courtesy, it doesn't) and the areas that it can't make laws in, and remain entirely in the power of the UK Parliament, are known as being 'reserved'. What's what is set down in the Scotland Act. The matter of a referendum is a constitutional matter (while the UK doesn't have a formal constitution, we do have constitutional matters), and constitutional matters are reserved. But, given the will of the Scottish people has been pretty clearly expressed in favour of the SNP, Westminister should quit being tossers about it and co-operate with the Scottish Government.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 10:05 am (UTC)I'm sorry, I swear a lot when the fucking Tories come up in conversation, but I believe that's a fairly common side effect of them existing.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 12:42 pm (UTC)I don't remember India, Canada or South Africa etc getting a vote on it either, Westminster just said goodbye to them when it was ready.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 12:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 09:26 pm (UTC)I'm not sure about distinctions, but it could be that "tribe" is out of fashion because it has so many stereotypes and connotations that go along with it (like "primitive")? Whereas "civitas" just means, IIRC, "society" or "people" (in the unified sense) or something like that, so is less judgmental.
I am excited about the possibility of Scottish independence! Maybe I am the worst kind of politics person, but I read a very good article on it in the student paper when I was at Edinburgh and I've been intrigued ever since. I don't want to be That Kind of obnoxious American, but I am crossing my fingers for you.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 11:53 pm (UTC)£8 BILLION. That's just mindbogglingly screwed-up. All these cuts to benefits, to pensions, they talk about figures in the hundreds of millions. £8 BILLION. I can't even talk about it. What the fucking fuckity fuck.
The only reason Scotland's education and NHS aren't as fucked-up as England's are devolution in general
Your country is sensible and nice. I want to move to Scotland. I want my ancestors to have not moved from Scotland. If my family still lived in Scotland, I wouldn't be 40 GRAND in debt for spending three years on a degree that, in this current climate, seems utterly worthless. (Excuse me while I grumble Englishly about the West Lothian question.) (If I lived in Wales, apparently I'd be a grand and a half better off because the Welsh government would write that off. Because...Welsh?) I'm just glad to have escaped the new and massively improved fuckery of the tuition fees. I simply cannot get over the idiocy of a government that strips universities of funding, says 'Hey, you can charge your students nearly three times as much', and EXPECTS THEM NOT TO DO IT. All their predictions and calculations based on the idea that universities would charge an average of £7500, WRONG. So the universities are charging three times as much, that's three times as much that the government has to pay out in loans, loans that, due to the new interest rates, are unlikely to ever be paid back by the average graduate over the entire course of their working life. HOW IS THIS HELPING?
Oh, get overwhelmingly elected on the independence platform, but we'll tell you if you can and when to have your referendum and then we'll probably not listen to it anyway because it's only advisory. If that doesn't get them to agree to stay under our ultimate rule, I don't know what will! Fuck right off, Tories. Personally, I think you'd be well off out of it. Selfishly, I want to cling kicking and screaming to the union, mainly because if Scotland gains independence and those MPs no longer sit in Westminster, I will spend the rest of my life living under a fucking Tory government. A government which is going to cut child benefit for a family with one breadwinner earning £45k a year, but hand it out to those with two working parents with a combined income of maybe £87k. Because cutting benefit for those better off is 'both popular and fair'. Because they have a warped definition of 'better off'. Because they 'can't' collect income data and are instead going with the lazy option of deciding by tax band. People have pointed out the hideous flaws in this and now they're saying 'Er, maybe we'll examine...stuff'. They are idiots and there are not enough Anglo-Saxon words for them. And this is a huge rant dumped in your journal, sorry.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-14 02:39 pm (UTC)curse our lack of written records!
I do like when we cause constitutional crises, I feel that's something to be proud of as a nation. I especially enjoy watching the unionists in Westminster panic, its nice to have my prejudices about them being totally out of touch about what's actually happening out in the nations confirmed.
I've been in favour of independence since...well ummm...as long as I've understood the concept so I'm rather bias but still surely if the Scottish Parliament could vote us into a union with England they should be well within their rights to give the people the chance to vote us right out of it again.
I'm inclined to agree with your poorer but fairer diagnosis (economic crises across Europe), but I'm more inclined to face our own fuck ups than deal with those inflicted on us by the heartless fucking Tories in Westminster. (I think that should be their official title you know, 'Fucking Tories', its what they're most commonly called...)