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March 28, 2005
New blog subtitle
This blog has a new subtitle ‘Notes on Scottish politics, environmental issues and modernization etc.’ This replaces ‘An independent weblog for the Scottish National Party (SNP), Scotland and Europe’.
The Skakagrall has been going for eight months (it was launched on 24 August) so I thought this would be a good time to review what I have been doing.
I’ve written more than I expected - and less. I haven’t had time to do long opinion pieces, instead I’ve tried to keep up with the news on particular topics, putting sources together to try to get a grip on the relevant facts. To that extent The Skakagrall has become a kind of notebook, hence ‘Notes on …’
I’ve listed ‘environmental issues and modernization etc.’. Given a different design (not something I want to spend my time on now!) this might have been a longer list, something like ‘Scottish politics: environment issues, energy, modernization, infrastructure, the arts, the European dimension and beyond … ‘. But maybe nobody would have made anything of such a long list anyway!
So I’ve reduced it to the environment and modernization. These are the two key groups of issues. On the one hand, Scotland must play its proper part in preventing climate change by lowering emissions and developing clean sources of energy and means of transport. On the other, Scotland needs higher productivity, more dynamism in business, a healthier labour force, better education, and an improved infrastructure.
It’s the function of government to promote, and at the same time balance, environmental protection and modernization, but we have to ask whether present government structures are capable of doing this. An independent government, in my view, would be better at solving Scotland’s problems and be more energetic in effecting reform and change.
There are two problems with government from London. One is that the Scottish economy (and population) are too small to matter much in a wider British context, so policies (on reserved matters) are designed for England not Scotland.
The other is that reform has become so difficult in England. Nowhere else in Europe are there so many out-of-date political institutions - the parliamentary electoral system, the un-elected House of Lords, the monarchy and the established church etc. - a hotch-potch establishment of of vested interests. In my view Scotland would be better opting out of this.
When I started this blog I imagined it as a kind of informal SNP member’s publication for inter-party communication. My project was to encourage participation in the ‘blogosphere’ by providing an example of a blog interreacting with other news sources etc.
While I am delighted by the success of Stuart Dickson’s pro-SNP Independence blog (and there are a couple of student websites which may develop into something), the party remains reluctant to get involved in new media, preferring to work through the familiar mainstream print and broadcasting organizations, even if these are almost all fundamentally hostile to SNP policies.
Meanwhile, the British political net is becoming exciting. Development has been fast and blogging especially has become more sophisticated. I still doubt whether this coming general election will be the one where it all happens (as it did last year in the states), but it is a possibility. I hope The Skakakgrall will make a contribution to whatever can be achieved.
Posted by Simon Holledge at March 28, 2005 01:31 AM
Comments
I prefer the new subtitle. As you say, it's more fitting, and I think more enticing. Mentioning the SNP by name right at the top might turn off some people.
Keep up the good work, and hopefully the SNP (and the other parties) will catch up eventually. Considering how much American campaign style has influenced British electioneering tactics, I'm surprised the parties haven't become more web savvy.
Posted by: Amy at April 2, 2005 01:11 AM
Thank you for the encouragement. I would be pleased to have a wide readership on the environment topics etc.
Regarding political web savviness etc., I am hoping a critical mass of internet political activity will build up and carry us forward, but we will have to see if that really happens.
Britain has a strong bias, perhaps the strongest bias, in favour of traditional mainstream media and against net publications. I have found that doing my international opera website. It's much easier to get cooperation (from opera companies press departments etc.) in America and almost any country in Europe than in Britain.
Posted by: Simon Holledge at April 2, 2005 10:37 AM
Sorry to hear the "SNP" name puts people off. Many English people are becoming major supporters of the SNP because we are tired of the Scottish Raj in England and the fundamental injustice of the present constitutional arrangements. We want Scotland to be independent and to stop taking our money while denigrating us. We like you guys, but you just don't like us back. Fair enough. 200 years of unrequited love should be enough for anyone to get the point. B^)
Nice site, by the way. Good luck with it. I look forward one day to taking my holidays in an independent Bonnie Scotland, without having to listen to maundering nonsensical racism (or do you intend to keep the "loserism" up for decades afterwards, like the Irish).
Posted by: Tom Paine at April 10, 2005 08:09 AM
Thanks for the kind words about this blog!
There are still only two SNP bloggers, myself and Stuart Dickson of Independence, so to that extent a wider designation may attract more readers, although I haven't noticed much difference so far.
Scottish Nationalism of the kind I support is NOT anti-English. The leadership of the party has gone out of its way to be inclusive of the different communities here, including the significant 12 per cent or so who were born in England. (Militant anti-English groups have been expelled from the SNP.)
Nevertheless England's economic, social and political priorities are different from Scotland's, and because of the disparity in size (9:1 or 10:1?) we can't expect England to make policies that address Scottish problems.
We aspire to be a small, well-governed country with representation in Europe - like Ireland, Finland, Denmark etc. Would Denmark want to be part of Germany or Sweden? Would Finland want to be ruled from Stockholm? Surely not! So it's natural for Scotland to want independence.
Posted by: Simon Holledge at April 10, 2005 11:57 PM