tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post7161555909094360531..comments2024-03-28T07:16:39.621+00:00Comments on Lallands Peat Worrier: Devolution & the UK's accelerating "social disunion"Lallands Peat Worrierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18276270498204697708noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-86087673278610916792012-05-04T06:04:38.373+01:002012-05-04T06:04:38.373+01:00As always with LPW, elegantly argued, but the ide...As always with LPW, elegantly argued, but the idea of a specifically Scottish social union - in contrast to other polity entities - seems to me to be not right. An example: a few years ago we knew a really nice Dutch family who had settled well in Glasgow and then sold up and moved to Lewis, expecting the same sort of society. They had the neighbours round, everyone seemed friendly, but no one invited them back. Their children found the culture very strange and friends hard to make. One of the problems was clearly religion - the Dutch family were secular the neighbours were not.<br /><br />The family sold up and moved back to Glasgow, where they felt at home. Their experience mirrors that of most urban Scots. If I go to Liverpool I am immediately within a culture that I feel at home. North and west of Fort William - hmmm great place to visit, but will you fit in? <br /><br />This is all partly a universal rus et urb matter of course but there are distinct fault lines within our polity - not quite as brutal perhaps as in the days of the Fife Adventurers setting out to conquer Stornoway (with Jamie Saxt's blessing) or when the lodges banged their war drums outside Catholic churches in the 70s (1970s not 1670s), but there nonetheless.Edwin Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05317173893948248954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-87911626251604941392012-05-03T16:45:04.809+01:002012-05-03T16:45:04.809+01:00I was struck by Micheal Ignateiff's analysis i...I was struck by Micheal Ignateiff's analysis in the BBC interview that everything will change no matter the referendum result, his view appears to be that Westminster can not be sustained in its current form.<br /><br />Also interesting was his assertion that the Labour Party are heading for the dustbin of history through their complete failure to engage in the process of enhancing devolution after the SNP's rise to power in 2007.<br /><br />The reality for me is that on an individual level my links and relationships with relatives and friends in England Wales or Ireland will not change but in terms of 'society' (social and political) independence will bring the differences into sharp relief.<br /><br />The future problem lies not so much with an increasingly social democratic Scotland but for a Westminster, neo-liberal, London dominated England at odds with the majority of English people's views which tend to reflect the old fashioned ideals of 'One Nation' pre-Thatcher Tories and Liberals.Mad Jock McMadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17088238215251518226noreply@blogger.com