11 March 2013

Vote Yes, or the Kitten Gets it...

Pin back your ears, comrades! The latest episode for the For A That podcast is here.  We're now up to episode seventeen of the show, while Michael has hit nineteen with his Scottish Independence Podcast series. We're very grateful for all your continued interest and support. 

Earlier on in the week, we heard from Pat Kane, on independence, toxic masculinities and the high road and low roads which open before us in the independence debate.  

On Sunday, our guest this week was Lynda Williamson from Newsnet Scotland (@snowthistle). Up for discussion this week, I asked Lynda about why she had moved from being an SNP sympathiser to greater enthusiasm about the Scottish Greens, from which a short organic discussion grew about the virtues and vices of localism, and Nicola Sturgeon's pledge last week, that the SNP would entrench local government in the constitution of an independent Scotland. 

Michael had his suspicions about Alistair Darling's reported qualms about written constitutions. Cui bono, we wondered? 

On more critical form, I put some Marxist-inspired doubts about Scottish independence from the Red Paper Collective to Lynda and Michael.  Leftie independence supporters often suppose that regaining Scottish sovereignty will be a way to challenge the political power of capital. Is this a plausible contention? 

In the context of Chris Huhne's sentencing today, we also had a wee chat about whether the punishment meted out to folk in the public eye should be the same as that imposed on Joe Bloggs convicted of the same conduct.  Per my Nemo Me Impune Lacessit post of last night, I contend there might be a case for harsher penalties being imposed. Lastly, our cynical coven had our doubts about whether sending folk kitten memes are really the best arguments available to us to persuade still-skeptical Scots of the virtues of the independence. Oughtn't YesScotland to toughen up and ditch the cutesy felines? 

As usual, you can press the "play" button and loaf around here, or alternatively, download the show to your favoured device from iTunes, or from Spreaker.  For those of you who prefer to lie back and let the podcast come to you, you can access our RSS feed here.


3 comments :

  1. I think the kitten thing is quite clever. We can only win this with the support of people who are not political.

    There are probably more pictures of cute kittens on the internet than anything else - apart from porn of course................. Hmm. No, don't think Yes Scotland should go quite that far.

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  2. Anonymous,

    Not sure I agree. Certainly, if we're to scale the mountain of reaching 51% of those who vote, we're going to have to corral the disengaged into the Yes camp. My contention is not that folk don't like fwuffy wuddle kittens. I just can't see how the devil that liking could be instrumental in persuading a cluelessly apolitical citizen to exercise their franchise in independence's favour. If you can demonstrate the causal connection, I'd be more than content to recant my hostility...

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  3. I like it. Lolcats are one of the most popular things on the internet. They're cute, fluffy an unthreatening. In the context of all the smears about the evil bile-spewing cybernats, and the fascist haters who support El Presidente Salmondo, this does no harm at all to the image. Where can I find more?

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