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Lallands Peat Worrier: The light on the hill

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-light-on-hill.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. The light on the hill. While Andrew Wilson has been away on his summer holidays, the folk at the Scotland on Sunday. Asked me to fill in a couple of columns. Last week I wrote. About feeling a bit frazzled by Scottish politics, and the unremitting pace of stuff. The theme also came up at the Traverse in Edinburgh, at playwright David Greig's Two Minute Manifestos. Having looked backwards last week, today, in my final fill-in column in the Scotland on Sunday. Seriously ...

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Lallands Peat Worrier: December 2014

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2014_12_01_archive.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. Have a very peaty New Year! Admissible tipples include: Benriach, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Ardbeg, Caol Ila, a fag and a jeroboam of Glayva - or the Big Peat. Alternatively, pop your artisanal hand-shaped "durty" burger in a blender along with its charcoal mayonnaise, blackened gherkins and scorched molasses relish - and quaff with just a tincture of pineappleade and a liberal dusting of bisto granules. Who the hell knows. So for 2015, let's aspire, all of us, to emit lit...

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Lallands Peat Worrier: Will the SNP's foxhunting gambit actually strengthen EVEL?

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2015/07/will-snps-foxhunting-gambit-actually.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. Will the SNP's foxhunting gambit actually strengthen EVEL? Last night, the SNP broke cover. To indicate that they would vote against this proposal. From the Tory government on relaxing the rules on hunting with hounds under the Hunting Act of 2004. Predictably enough, the contents of the proposal have been widely misreported. After the Nationalist volte-face. Anticipating defeat, this afternoon's vote has been dropped by government whips. Proposals. Indeed, it may ...

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Lallands Peat Worrier: Murphy expects: Ritual disembowelment?

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2014/10/murphy-expects-ritual-disembowelment.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. Murphy expects: Ritual disembowelment? Just a short and grubby blog today. With the news that Jim Murphy intends to enter the Scottish Labour leadership fray comes the intelligence that, according to the Guardian. Some senior colleagues believe that a Labour MSP who plans to retire in May 2016 from a safe Labour seat could be persuaded to stand down earlier and allow a byelection to take place on the same day as the general election in 2015.". And we're not talking abo...

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Lallands Peat Worrier: The long Scottish Parliament, and the short

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-long-scottish-parliament-and-short.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. The long Scottish Parliament, and the short. Speaking of seemingly technical but politically pregnant choices. We need to talk about the Fixed Term Parliament Act. The 2011 legislation. Has fallen out of the headlines after the election of the Cameron majority, but its echo will continue to be felt in Scottish politics for years to come. Why? This would schedule future Holyrood elections for 2016, 2019, 2023 and 2027. Under the five year plan. The implications of the c...

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Lallands Peat Worrier: What are fatal accident inquiries for?

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2015/08/what-are-fatal-accident-inquiries-for.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. What are fatal accident inquiries for? It's a fundamental question - but listening to tonight's news headlines on BBC Radio Scotland, I found myself wondering if the answer to it is well understood. The airwaves have been crackling with stories about the health and lies of Harry Clarke for some weeks now. And listening to and reading the coverage of the proceedings before Sheriff Beckett, I can understand why the casual listener might find it easy to mistake the inquir...

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Lallands Peat Worrier: February 2015

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2015_02_01_archive.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. Professor Chalmers: The law "cannot be stated with any degree of certainty whatsoever.". As my regular readers will know, I’ve a raging hymenopterous beastie in my bunnet about the criminalisation of assisted suicide in Scotland. Two recent. Have examined Holyrood’s scrutiny of the late Margo MacDonald’s proposals to definitively legalise assisting suicide, and found it wanting. What does the Lord Advocate think about these things? To offer any guidance whatever on its...

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Lallands Peat Worrier: Be critical, have patience

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2015/07/be-critical-have-patience.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. Be critical, have patience. If you are serious about securing Scottish independence, beware of passion. Beware of the unselfcritical and the impatient. Beware projection. Beware the thought that other people think as you think. Be suspicious of your motives. Test your claims. Follow the evidence. And many families in this country, have campaigned for this old idea for it to be consigned under the sod forever in a doomed spasm of feeling unsupported by any analysis.

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Lallands Peat Worrier: Universal, meet particular

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2015/07/universal-meet-particular.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. Universal, meet particular. Politics is sometimes hard. You are right in front of me.". The German Chancellor's viral encounter with a young Palestinian woman likely to be is a disturbing, pregnant piece of telly. I've been trying to work out why it has been preying on my mind today. Angela Merkel has been criticised for being cold in her response. If Merkel had been stern, and glacial, and had rebuffed the child's cry of distress unmoved, we might think of her as inhu...

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Lallands Peat Worrier: Lost: Labour's love

http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2014/10/surviving-johanns-farewell.html

Cogitations from a Cranachan Cairn. I can understand those of you who feel a significant measure of cynicism about the Smith Commission process. And its capacity to deliver meaningful new autonomy for Scottish institutions. I'm cultivating pessimism of the intellect, but optimism of the will. There are real gains to be secured here, but they will only be won by the deft application of political pressure, exploitation of our opponents' anxieties, and some cold-hearted lawyering. Focussing on two areas whi...