text:
Peter Geoghegan
Journalist, Writer, Failing Cricketer
Scotland's Independence Generation
On Wednesday lunchtime, a bagpiper heralded the arrival of Gordon Brown at a community hall in Glasgow. Once the music faded out, the former prime minister launched into a speech that has already been hailed by some as the oration that saved the union. Amid a cheering crowd waving 'no thanks' placards Brown, with a fiery intensity often missing in office, called on supporters "to stand up and be counted".
The following day, Scots did just that, voting stay in the United Kingdom by a margin of 55 to 45 on a record high turnout of over 84 per cent.
Historians might credit Gordon Brown's late intervention with swinging the vote back to the unionist side, but throughout Scotland's two-year long campaign nationalists consistently failed to convince Scots that they would be better off in an independent state. What the yes side did do – in towns and villages across the land, often using social media – was persuade thousands of political neophytes and old stagers to become actively involved in probably the biggest grassroots political campaign Scotland has ever seen.
On Wednesday, as the crowd was on its feet applauding Gordon Brown in Glasgow, councillor Willie Clarke and Michael Payne sat chatting about the referendum vote in the backroom of the Benarty community centre, fifty miles, away in the former Labour leader's Fife constituency. Both men had spent the past six months campaigning for a 'yes'. Almost every week hundreds of locals – some who had not voted for years – packed into the centre in this small, former mining village to hear visiting speakers and participate in debates.
"I've not seen anything like this in terms of public meetings. The last time I saw this community galvanized like this was the miner's strike,' said Payne, the community centre's manager. The 1984 miners strike – and its defeat – cast a dark shadow across Benarty. Unemployment is high and jobs are scare for those living in Benarty's rows of pebble-dashed terrace houses set on an escarpment below low, tree-topped hills. "The solidarity is still there. It died a bit after the miner's strike but it's back now," said Payne.
Scotland's referendum was a direct result of the Scottish National Party winning a majority in elections to the devolved parliament in 2011. But the roots of the disquiet that led almost half of Scots to vote to leave the 307-year-old union with England are etched in the landscape in places like Benarty. Deindustrialization has left this once self-sufficient community reliant on welfare and public sector jobs. Politics has changed, too. Labour no longer enjoys a monopoly on power in the old pit towns; Scottish nationalists, and the very idea of independence, has caught the imagination of a long-neglected population.
As everywhere else in Scotland, the pro-independence side was by far the most visible in Benarty on the eve of the referendum. Saltires hung in the breeze out of second floor windows. In the car park, half a dozen vehicles sported blue 'yes' stickers on their windows. There was just a solidary 'save the union' badge.
'I've never seen anything like it. You're going back to the 40 and 50s for a campaign like this,' said councillor Willie Clarke. When we last met in the spring, Willie Clarke seemed friendly but tired. On Wednesday, he was ebullient, taking at length about the campaign – and its aftermath. "I'm very encouraged by what's happening,' he said as we drove through the former mining towns of central Fife. Shops were boarded up. "I believe that Scotland will be an independent nation, if it doesn't happen now it'll be happen in the future. Maybe I'll not see it but it'll happen."
That evening, just twelve hours before polls opened, several thousand independence supporters filled Glasgow's George Square, transforming this normally rather staid collection of statues and grey asphalt into a carnival. A middle-aged woman meandered slowly through the crowd with a sign that read, 'Scotland don't be scared'. Hipsters walked across the square with 'yes' stickers in their beards, a young couple wearing matching 'Ja' badges pushed a pram. Conga lines started up; people chanted 'Scotland' to the tune of 'Hey Jude'. At one end of the square, political speeches gave way to rave music in the gloaming. Near the city chambers, rows of uniformed police separated a small group of far-right protesters waving Union flags from the much larger mass of yes supporters.
Few were talking about the referendum itself. Those that were thought the latest polls – showing a four-point lead for the no campaign – had underestimated the size of the yes vote. 'We can win this,' said a topless busker in a kilt.
Scotland's yes campaign was often characterised by an optimism that bordered on blind faith. Many supporters were drawn less to a Braveheart vision of Scottish nationhood, and more to a belief that the political system in London was beyond reform. The 20-somethings clambering on the George Square statues, chanting 'yes, yes, yes', on Wednesday looked like protestors in Puerta de Sol in Madrid or Istanbul's Gezi Park – with added Saltires and Scotland football tops.
"I'm absolutely disgusted by Westminster. Not by the UK, not by England, I'm disgusted by Westminster,' said June Dickson, 50, from Livingston in central Scotland. A Scottish flag by her side, Dickson complained about the expenses scandals and the war in Iraq. (Iraq was a turning point in modern Scottish political history: just over a decade ago, over 50,000 people marched in Glasgow against the war. Alex Salmond rarely failed to mention the Scottish National Party's opposition to the invasion – or Labour's support of it).
Ms Dickson's brother, Lawrence, was killed by the IRA in sniper in south Armagh in 1993. "My brother fought and died to protect his people, the people of the UK, a UK he thought was an equal, just country. I don't see how anyone can look at the UK now and say it's any of those things," she said, holding back tears.
Irish-born SNP Glasgow councillor Feargal Dalton stood under a plinth in the middle of George Square waiting for his teenage son to emerge from a sea of blue and white Saltires, peppered with Basque, Catalan and even Serbian flags. Nearby people posed for photos beside a life-size Loch Ness monster cuddly toy. "I'm nervous," Dalton admitted.
He was right to be. That the George Square party was more wake than celebration would only become clear in the small hours of Friday morning – as the results began to pour in from across Scotland – but even on Thursday morning, as polls opened, there were signs that the visibility was not the same as support for the yes campaign.
In Easterhouse, a sprawling 1960s—era housing estate on the outskirts of Glasgow, yes placards hung from almost every lamppost and seemed to occupy every second living room window. But most of the people trickling in and out of the St Rose of Lima primary school seemed, quietly, to be voting for the union.
"I think we're better together," said Marie Doherty, a local mother. She was worried about the prospects for North Sea oil and the economic stability of an independent Scotland. "My husband has voted no, too," she said.
Easterhouse is Scotland's political apathy capital: less than 35 per cent here voted in the 2011 Holyrood elections. The yes campaign hoped to win the day by coaxing the apathetic out of their stupor with promises that 'Another Scotland is Possible'. But for some the no campaign's negative messages – warning of the dangers of independence – won the day. "I don't normally vote at all but I was worried about this so I came out to vote no," said one local woman.
On Thursday, Easterhouse, like the rest of Scotland, was a story of quiet nos, and loud yeses. Just after lunch, a cavalcade of mothers pushing prams turned up the path to the polling station. In unison they sang "Flower of Scotland". They wore 'yes' t-shirts and badges, and waved flags as small children ran among their buggies.
"These past few weeks I think Scotland's found a voice. We know now that we don't have to settle for what the government give us," said Tracy, a mother who had organsied the group to come en masse to vote.
"I want to have a better future for my kids, for my grandkids,' she said. "Scotland is going to be very different tomorrow either way. If it's a no vote it gives these kids the chance to say "we can do it". If we don't do it they will.'
As Thursday night slipped into Friday morning, even the most ardent independence supporters were forced to admit defeat. No scored victories in all but four of Scotland's more more than 30 electoral areas. (Glasgow, however, did vote for independence). On Friday morning, a dozen or so independence supporters sat drinking beer and waving their flags in an empty George Square. "I'm devastated," said one teenager, in between sips of Tennent's. The mood was one of quiet despondency, not riotous anger.
The question now is where Scotland, and its newly mobilized generation, goes from here. It is too early to tell if Westminster can offer a devolution settlement to satisfy Scotland's growing sense of self-determination. If it can't, the Scots may be on the streets again, and next time rousing cries to 'stand up and be counted' might not be enough to save the union.
This article originally appeared in the Sunday Business Post 21/09/2014.
Author peterPosted on 21st September 2014 Categories independence, Scotland, Sunday Business PostTags Benarty, Gordon Brown, Independence, Scotland
'Is It Worse to Be Run from Edinburgh or London?'
In his book, the Making of the Crofting Community, the Scottish historian James Hunter quotes a small farmer in the Highlands as saying they "hate us in London but ignore us in Edinburgh." Standing on the windswept pier at Stornoway, the main town on the isle of Lewis, both metropoles feel like a world away. The twice-daily ferry takes almost three hours just to reach the mainland. From there, it is another 200 miles to the Scottish capital.
There are few places in the United Kingdom further from the corridors of power than the Western Isles, the scenic archipelago of fifteen inhabited ribbons off Scotland's west coast. Many of the islanders speak Scots Gaelic and rely on farming, fishing and tourism for their income. So what does the prospect of Scottish independence – or staying in the union – mean so far away from Westminster and Holyrood?
The Western Isles is a Scottish National Party stronghold. Both the sitting MP and the member of the Scottish Parliament are nationalists. But when it comes to the referendum Lewis, where the majority of the islands' population of around 30,000 live, seems as split as the rest of Scotland. "The island is 50/50," says one local journalist. "People seem pretty settled in their minds. I don't think the campaigns have made much impact."
One of the reasons the yes and no sides have struggled to make inroads on Lewis is that the major national concerns are not always the most significant for this island community. Ask someone walking the narrow streets of Stornoway what the big issues are for them and they will most likely mention fuel poverty, the removal of tax relief on ferry freight and local control of revenue levied on using the seabed.
For some there is wariness about whether independence would actually mean more local power for places such as Lewis. The SNP administration at the devolved parliament in Holyrood has displayed a fondness for centralization, bringing policing, emergency services and European funding under central government control. A council tax freeze mandated from Holyrood has left officials in the pebbledashed council offices, built in the 1970s to house a newly created Western Isles local authority, with less control over local affairs than they used to have.
"One of the worries is that it is worse to be run from Edinburgh than London," says Fred Silver, former editor of the Stornoway Gazette when we met for a balti in Lewis's only curry house. An Englishman who has spent more than two decades in the Western Isles, Silver sports a blue "Yes" badge but concedes that Edinburgh has not always done right by the islands.
"You can actually demonstrate that the best period for the island was under the Tory government in the 1980s," he says, citing the creation of a Gaelic television fund, the spread of Gaelic medium education and the establishment of a local enterprise company that has since been disbanded.
Brian Wilson, a former Labour minister in Westminster in Tony Blair's first administration, has long been one of the strongest critics of the SNP. "Nationalism believes in taking decision making to the centre. Their localism is Scotland," he says. "There is a very strong philosophy in Scotland just now of centralizing in order to bring everything under ministerial control."
"There are large areas of public policy that need completely different perspectives in island communities or in very peripheral communities and to be honest there is not a lot of interest in any of that. They will tick the boxes but there is no real understanding of how difficult things are or what is needed," says Wilson, who was a Labour MP in Ayrshire.
But Alastair Allan, local SNP member of the Scottish Parliament, says that only a "yes" vote would guarantee more powers for island communities. "The decision about what Scotland's budget is is not ours to make. We pay our taxes to the UK government and they decide what Scotland gets to spend."
The islands have certainly benefited from the creation of a separate Scottish Parliament, particularly when it comes to changing Scotland's almost feudal system of land ownership. Around 2500 people own about three-quarters of all private land in Scotland. Take a drive almost anywhere beyond the housing schemes of the Central Belt and you will soon run into vast private estates. The Duke of Buccleuch alone owns some quarter of a million acres.
In 2003, the Labour government in Holyrood introduced the Land Reform Act, which allows local communities to buy the land they live on. While the act has had little impact on the baronial estates on the mainland, it has transformed many island communities. Since its introduction, around 70 per cent of the Western Isles has come under direct community ownership. On islands like Eigg, the local community has been able to raise money to buy the entire island.
For some the community buy-outs on islands like Harris and South Uist are evidence of why Scotland needs independence to fulfil its potential. David Cameron (not the British prime minister – the chair of Community Land Scotland) disagrees. "We have community empowerment now and that has got cross-community support. Whatever happens next week won't make a whit of difference to us," he says at the end of a day-long conference on land reform held in the function room of a Stornoway hotel. Among the delegates are representatives from communities across the Western Isles that are at various stages in purchasing the land they live on.
For many on the Scottish islands, the referendum on Thursday is not so much about currency or European Union membership but what the communities themselves will gain either from staying with the UK or being part of an independent Scotland. In 2013, the Western Isles teamed up with Scotland's two northerly island chains, Shetland and Orkney, as part of the "Our Islands, Our Future' campaign" aimed at securing a better deal for island communities whatever way the vote goes.
In June, the Scottish government in Edinburgh offered island communities control of all income that comes from leasing the seabed for wind farms, piers and boats moorings – money that currently goes to the UK's Crown Estate – and the devolution of planning to local partnerships. The London government, so far, has promised little.
"The SNP has promised ownership of the sea bed," says one local. Westminster, on the other hand, has offered "an office and a phone line". On such modest proposals, perhaps, are islands (and nations) won and lost.
This piece originally appeared on Vice.
Author peterPosted on 18th September 2014 Categories independence, ScotlandTags britain, Edinburgh, england, Europe, highlands, Holyrood, Independence, London, politics, Referendum, Scotland, western isles, westminster
The View from Scotland's Islands
STORNOWAY, Scotland — Change comes slowly on the island of Lewis, 50 miles off Scotland's west coast. The island of 20,000 people has been a stronghold of evangelical Christianity for more than a century and a half. It was only five years ago that the first Sunday ferry docked at the quayside that dominates Stornoway, the windswept town that is home to around half of Lewis's inhabitants. Shops still obey the Sabbath. And beyond Stornoway's narrow streets mobile phone service is patchy and broadband more the exception than the rule.
But change could be on the way for this island community, suddenly and soon. On Thursday, Lewis, along with the rest of Scotland, will vote on independence from the United Kingdom.
The main focus of the referendum debate might be hundreds of miles south in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, but Lewis has not been left behind. Bright blue Yes signs are strapped to practically every second lamppost along the pier. Independence supporters are not the only ones displaying their colors: "Proud Brit Proud Scot" reads a sign in an upstairs window of one of the town's numerous pebble-dashed terrace houses. Nearby the red, white, and blue of the British flag flutters in the firm breeze.
When it comes to independence Lewis, like the rest of Scotland, is split. Nationwide, the no side has a slender lead, according to most recent opinion polls. A straw poll taken after a referendum debate in Stornoway earlier this month finished in a dead heat: 99 in favor of leaving the 307-year-long union with England, 99 against.
The national debate has been dominated by big-ticket issues, such as what currency an independent Scotland would use and whether it would be allowed to join the European Union, but for many here on Lewis the key question is what the islands themselves would gain, either from staying with the United Kingdom or being part of a new state.
Scotland's island communities all want more powers to be devolved to them and to have a greater say in how revenue raised in their areas is spent.
Scotland's island communities all want more powers to be devolved to them and to have a greater say in how revenue raised in their areas is spent. Last year, the Western Isles, along with Scotland's two northerly island chains, Shetland and Orkney, launched the "Our Islands, Our Future" campaign to bring the islands more autonomy during the referendum.While both sides appealed directly to the islands, Yes has certainly been the more energetic of the two campaigns, attracting political neophytes with promises of a new politics and a fairer Scotland. Stornoway, like many towns, has its own pop-up "Yes" shop, housed in an old storefront beside a bar on the main shopping street. Inside, Alasdair Allan, the area's local member of the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh, is confident of victory.
"There has been a real change in mood in the last month," says Allan, who moved hundreds of miles from Scottish Borders, which abuts England, to Lewis in 2006 specifically to contest the seat. The following year he was elected to represent Na h-Eileanan an Iar (the Western Isles), a constituency of less than 30,000 people that stretches almost 130 miles from the tip of Lewis in the north, to the remote island of Barra in the south.
A giant foam Yes sign sits on the floor underneath Allan's desk. "Vote Yes 18-09-14" is painted in blue on the shop window. In the space of half an hour, three local activists arrive for supplies, eating into a stack of campaign literature and stickers, fuel for their door-to-door canvasing.
When Allan joined the Scottish National Party in 1989, Scottish independence was a fringe pursuit. By this time next week it could have could have created Europe's newest state. "I've spent my entire life campaigning for this week. I have an enormous emotional interest in what happens," says Allan.
Next door, an elderly lady sits outside her house drinking tea, a copy of the fiercely pro-union London-based newspaper the Daily Mail on her lap. Above her door is a homemade poster in red with a single word: No.
There is no sign of discord between neighbors on the two sides of Scotland's constitutional debate, but the referendum has created tensions on the island, says Iver Martin, a local minister in the Free Church, a smaller Scottish denomination that split from the Church of Scotland in 1843 over the role of the state in religious affairs. "For some people it has really become an obsession to them," he says. "There will be a continual agitation for some time to come. I don't think that makes for a healthy society."
The minister is a committed no voter but his congregation is free to make up their own mind, he says. Martin has no problem entertaining opposing views, as the copies of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusionand Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes on his bookshelf attest. "The tradition I represent is not afraid of debate, not afraid of openness and honesty," says the minister.
In many respects, the Western Isles, also known as the Outer Hebrides, typify the diversity of culture and identity in the United Kingdom.
In many respects, the Western Isles, also known as the Outer Hebrides, typify the diversity of culture and identity in the United Kingdom. Of the 15 inhabited in the chain, those north of Benbecula are predominantly Protestant, those to the south Catholic. There is a strong Gaelic tradition on the islands; road signs are bi-lingual. And the islands bear traces of not just Scottish and British culture but also Norse influence dating back more than a millennium.For centuries, Lewis was the redoubt of small farmers and fishermen. Life here, as close to Reykjavik as to London, is still hard. Winters are long, and the flat, boggy plains around Stornoway offer little respite from the elements. Incomes are still below the Scottish average and more than one in four live in poverty, according to official statistics. Many struggle to afford fuel to heat their homes. Lewis's economy remains heavily reliant on the public sector — the Western Isles council and the local health board remain two of the largest employers despite shedding jobs in recent years due to decreased funding from the central government.
Still, there have been improvements in some areas. Harris Tweed, which by act of parliament can only be made on the island, is going through a renaissance: Once the preserve of elderly gents, everyone from Madonna to Gwyneth Paltrow has been spotted wearing the iconic hand-woven woolen fabric. Tourism has increased, too.
On the far side of Lewis, where flat bog gives way to sea cliffs and isolated sandy beaches, the biggest tweed mill on the island, Harris Tweed Hebrides stands a stone's throw from the Atlantic Ocean. The mill's chairman, former Labour minister Brian Wilson, says he is worried that independence could undermine the tweed industry across the island. Last week a number of business leaders including representatives from BP and Standard Life warned about the consequences of Scotland leaving the union.
Wilson, a longtime critic of the nationalist government in Scotland, is sure Scots will reject independence on Thursday. "I have to believe that the society I live in is not going to march to the precipice without noticing what is over the edge. It's taken a long time but now the economic realities are bearing in quite rapidly," he says.
For many on Lewis, the decision could come down to whether they believe staying in the union or going it alone will best serve the island's interests. So far neither the UK government nor the Scottish National Party (SNP) that is leading the Yes campaign have struck a formal arrangement with the trio of the Western Isles, Orkney, and Shetland on more powers for the islands but there have been talks. Revenue from the Crown Estates, a public trust that owns and levies a tax on the seabed, is crucial.
"The SNP has promised ownership of the sea bed," says one local. Westminster, on the other hand, has offered "an office and a phone line," he says. Last week, in an attempt to block the independence surge, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed that more powers would be devolved to the parliament in Edinburgh if Scotland decides not to go it alone.
Whether warnings from business leaders or the promise of more Scottish autonomy are enough to convince voters to back the union will become clear early on Friday morning. On Lewis, the expectation is that life will revert back to normal whatever the outcome.
"It's in our nature to just get on with it," says a journalist who has worked on the island most of his life. "Whatever happens you take it on the chin and you get on with it."
This piece originally appeared on Foreign Policy.
Author peterPosted on 18th September 2014 Categories independence, ScotlandTags Brian Wilson, Foreign policy, Lewis, Scotland, Stornoway
Showdown in Scotland
GLASGOW, Scotland — All of a sudden, Scotland has gotten very interesting. That Scots would reject independence from the United Kingdom in a referendum on Sept. 18 has been conventional wisdom from Washington to Westminster for practically every day of a two-year-long campaign on the matter. But not anymore.
On the evening of Sept. 1, the Scottish Twittersphere, febrile at the best of times, went into meltdown. A fresh poll had just been released showing the "No" camp just six points ahead of the "Yes" side. The same pollsters had put the No camp's lead at 14 points in mid-August, and a whopping 22 points earlier the same month, excluding undecided voters. Yet the Sept. 1 poll was no outlier, as Peter Kellner, the doyen of British polling,explains. As if on cue, a Sept. 6 poll now has the Yes camp holding a 51-49 percent lead.
The latest polls give a scientific sheen to what anyone who has spent time in Scotland in recent weeks has noticed: Support for independence is building. Looking out the window of my apartment in Glasgow, I can count half a dozen blue Yes stickers and a Scottish Saltire flag (a nationalist symbol) with the same motto across the street. Most have appeared within the last month. Across Scotland, particularly in poorer urban areas, the political landscape is shifting in the nationalists' favor. Rumors are rife that Rupert Murdoch's widely circulated tabloid, theSun, will declare its support for independence in the coming week.
To be sure, a Yes outcome is still an outside bet with the bookmakers. But the odds are shortening — and fast.
What makes this surge all the more remarkable is that the charismatic leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Alex Salmond, was widely seen as having lost a much-vaunted first debate with Alistair Darling, head of the No campaign, on Aug. 5. Salmond was hotly tipped — one of his own MPs predicted a "slaughter" — but in front of a TV audience of almost 2 million (in a country of just over 5 million), Salmond struggled to answer questions about what currency an independent Scotland would use and how it would transition from the United Kingdom to separate statehood.
Despite Salmond's televised travails, however, opinion polls rose slightly in favor of the nationalists after the debate. Then, in late August, he SNP leader wiped the floor with a lackluster Darling in the second and final live clash. Unsurprisingly, pro-United Kingdom spin doctors in the pressroom looked visibly worried.
Unionist solicitudes may have come too late. The "Better Together" campaign, as the No side is called, has maintained a relentlessly negative tone, which has earned it the nickname "Project Fear." Just days before the latest opinion poll, a Better Together video featuring a housewifeunable to think about independence amid the clatter of family life was roundly criticized for being sexist and condescending — which is particularly damaging, as the female vote could prove decisive in just under two weeks' time. The video went viral; even BuzzFeed picked upon the "Patronising BT Lady."
Moreover, a parade of (mainly London-based) celebrities calling on Scotland to stay in the union was more cringe-inducing than voter-swaying. Warnings against independence from international leaders — whether Barack Obama or Tony Abbott — have also had little effect on the Scottish electorate.
Opinion polls consistently suggest that most Scots favor enhanced devolution (that is, more powers for the Scottish Parliament) over full independence, but the three main parties — Conservative, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats — that comprise Better Together have failed to present a common program for greater devolved powers after a No vote. Instead, the parties' marriage of convenience has become increasingly strained as the referendum campaign has dragged on: Traditionally the dominant force in Scottish politics, Labour has been forced to share platforms with their gravest political foes, the Conservatives. David Cameron's Tories are pariahs in Scotland, holding just one of 59 seats representing Scotland in the UK's parliament and blamed for the savage de-industrialization of the Margaret Thatcher years that still scars the country today. The Liberal Democrats, once a significant presence north of Hadrian's Wall, were routed in the 2011 elections to the devolved Scottish parliament — punishment for their decision to go into a coalition with Conservatives in London.
Meanwhile, "Yes Scotland," the official independence campaign, has not exactly set the pulses racing. Its messaging has been vague and reports of internal splits have been rife. But pro-independence forces have something their unionist opponents largely lack: a dedicated, highly motivated grassroots political movement the likes of which Scotland (and possibly even Britain) has not seen in generations. In places like Easterhouse, a sprawling housing estate (or project) on the outskirts of Glasgow, the independence message is being driven not by the SNP, but by new groups such as the Radical Independence Campaign, a left-wing organization formed in 2012 that has proved effective at mobilizing disenfranchised voters.
Canvas returns now suggest that most Scots in working-class communities intend to vote Yes.
For many of those let down by the established political system, independence is seen as a risk worth taking.
For many of those let down by the established political system, independence is seen as a risk worth taking. (Glasgow, for example, hassome of the worst mortality rates in the whole of Europe. In the Calton district, infamously, male life expectancy is just 59 years.) That said, the nationalist clarion call to abandon a "broken Britain" does not just play in housing estates: Polls suggest that younger voters are coming over to Yes in ever-increasing numbers. Thousands of grassroots activists have been mobilized, many for the first time.How is the movement gathering activists and achieving these gains? The SNP has long aped the 2008 Obama campaign, asking whether Scotland wants hope or fear. In reality, the nationalists have used a liberal amount of both, seasoning the optimistic vision of an affluent, nuclear-free, Nordic-lite independent Scotland with a salutary dose of doom-laden rhetoric about never-ending Tory rule and the erosion of the devolved parliament's powers. But the key difference between this approach and that of Better Together is that the nationalists waited until the last month of the campaign to go negative — a tactic that seems to be working, judging by opinion polls.
Additionally, while unionists have the weight of the status quo behind them — and the advantage of incumbency — the nationalists have attempted to make this a referendum about not just Scottish independence, but also the Westminster political system. In calling for "Independence in Europe," the Yes campaign is expressing a populist opprobrium of establishment politics that resonates with many voters.
In late August, I spent an afternoon in Gretna, in southern Scotland. For centuries, this border town was a haven for eloping English couples taking advantage of Scottish law to legally wed at 14 (for boys) and 12 (for girls) without parental consent. Nowadays, a huge outlet store is the main attraction.
In a field just behind the shopping center stands a small pile of rocks. Some are colored in red, white, and blue — the shades of the union flag — and carry slogans like "Stay Together" and "Never Apart." Passersby are invited to stop a while and add a stone in honor.
This is the "Auld Acquaintance Cairn," the brainchild of Rory Stewart, erstwhile deputy governor in Iraq and now a Conservative member of parliament on the English side of the border. It is meant to symbolize the connections between the different parts of the United Kingdom. Stewart had said he hoped it would reach nine feet tall. But it was barely a third of that with less than three weeks to polling day. In the half an hour I spent at the cairn, nobody else stopped by.
The message is clear: The No side might still be the favorite to stumble across the finish line first in the coming referendum, but it has singularly failed to make an emotional case for the United Kingdom. A Better Together activist told me recently, "It is like a business transaction. I look at the sums; they don't add up, so you don't do it." This might be a good reason to reject independence, but such instrumentality hardly bodes well for the union's future health — and such sentiments leave plenty of room for uncertainty about what will happen on Sept. 18.
Nationalists have won the argument that Scotland could be a separate state. The question now is whether they can persuade their fellow Scots that it should be. If they can, what seemed unimaginable just a few months ago could become a reality.
Author peterPosted on 18th September 2014 Categories independence, ScotlandTags Better Together, Foreign policy, Referendum, SNP
On Saturday, with only days to go before the independence referendum, thousands of Yes supporters gathered on Buchanan Street in Glasgow, waving Saltires and singing 'Flower of Scotland'. At around the same time, more than ten thousand Orangemen staged a pro-union march in Edinburgh. The standards at the head of the flute bands hailed from Portadown and Coatbridge, London and Liverpool, Leeds and Stockport.
Elements of the Yes campaign – including the egg-throwing and name-calling – are disquieting. The Panglossian vision of a post-independent Scotland has been accused of silencing dissenting voices. But on the other side of the fence, Better Together has run one of the most vacuous, cynical campaigns in British political history. Beyond the tawdry threats to erect border posts at Coldstream or the ludicrous suggestion that the pandas in Edinburgh zoo would be deported if Scotland votes Yes tomorrow, the No campaign has failed to make a case for the union that wouldn't fit in the ledger of a Fife accountant. The 'Let's Stay Together' rally in Trafalgar Square on Monday was treated with contempt by everyone I met in Glasgow. 'If they love us so much why don't they come up here?'
On Sunday, I visited a stall festooned with blue Yes balloons on a street corner a mile from my flat. Passing cars beeped their horns. The organiser was a local SNP councillor, helped by a middle-aged woman who worked in a bio-tech firm. She said she'd never been involved in a political campaign before but had spent months knocking on doors, delivering leaflets and standing in the cold talking to people. Thousands of political neophytes with little or no party allegiances have mobilised in the largest grassroots campaign the country has ever seen. Activists at my local train station have been handing out flyers, balloons and stickers. I recently spent an afternoon in Easterhouse, one of Glasgow's most deprived housing schemes, with an eloquent 17-year-old socialist. He has spent months canvassing and organising voter registration drives in an area where fewer than 35 per cent voted in the 2011 Holyrood election.
On Monday, the former home secretary John Reid and the Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont held a press conference with shipyard workers and union leaders across the Clyde from BAE Systems' Govan yard. On a dreich morning, Lamont and Reid descended from 'the indyref express' to be met by banks of photographers and party hacks in matching blue Better Together rainwear trying to pass as concerned citizens. Reid did most of the talking to the press. Afterwards I grabbed a word with a 'continuous improvement coach' at BAE. He was voting No, but not because he thought he would lose his job: 'I'm saying no to division. I don't like the concept of nationalism.'
But what are the seemingly unending stream of 'emotional pleas' that David Cameron et al have inflicted on Scots in recent weeks if not nationalism? On Monday night, Tom Nairn made a rare public appearance, in a haar-enveloped Edinburgh. 'The moment is right for Scotland to have, in a relatively short time, the chance to contribute to nationality politics and not nationalism in the old, traditional sense,' he said. There was lots of passion from the floor, but a feeling, too, that most people there were preparing themselves for disappointment.
The choice tomorrow didn't have to be binary, but the third option – more powers for Holyrood without full independence – was left off the ballot paper. Then on Tuesday, just two days before the vote, Scotland woke to news that 'devo max' was back on if they voted No. The specifics of the additional powers seem both vague and unworkable, but the medium was more important than the message. The pledge, which could effectively usher in federalism across the UK, was delivered not after months of discussion, or even in person by the prime minister. Instead, 'the vow' was splashed across the Daily Record. If Westminster thinks that the front page of a tabloid is the best way to talk to Scotland in 2014 then it really has learned nothing from the referendum.
This piece originally appeared in the London Review of Books.
Author peterPosted on 18th September 2014 Categories independence, London Review of Books, ScotlandTags Brown, Labour, SNP
Scotland's 'Borderers' steadfast for 'No'
Coldstream, Scotland – Jock Law is in no doubt about which way he is going to vote in Scotland's independence referendum on September 18.
"I'm against, definitely against," the septuagenarian former soldier says, taking off his thick-rimmed glasses and shaking his head.
Few are as passionate in their support for the union with England as Law. A red, white, and blue Union flag with "Better Together" printed across it takes pride of place in the window of his onetime picture framing business on High Street, in the Scottish border town of Coldstream.
Just below, the faces of Scottish nationalist leaders Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have been superimposed onto a pair of cartoon sheep: "Don't let this pair pull the wool over your eyes," reads a handwritten sign.
But increasingly, nationalists are gaining ground across Scotland. The latest polls put the two sides neck-and-neck – a dramatic turnaround from just a month ago when the "Yes" side trailed by 22 points. A new poll released on September 10 placed the "No" camp only at 53 percent while the "Yes" side surged to 47 percent.
The referendum will almost certainly come down to economics – many Scots are wary of the financial impact of leaving the 300-year-old union – but in Coldstream these concerns are particularly hard felt. England is just a matter of metres away, across the babbling River Tweed that separates the two countries.
"I just don't think independence is possible, we can't afford it," says Law.
Law worries if Scotland votes yes, the stolid stone bridge at the end of the town would become an international border crossing. He has other fears, too.
"There are a lot of people here on the border who work in England and vice versa. How will they pay their taxes? How will that work?"
Coldstream – like many of the picturesque towns and villages dotted along the 154km-long border between Scotland and England that was legally established in 1237 – has long celebrated its location on the edge of two countries. The first road sign on entering the town declares: "Welcome to Coldstream – The First True Border Toon."
Locals often describe themselves as neither English nor Scottish, but "Borderers". Many have family or business interests on both sides of the invisible boundary. The referendum, however, is forcing them to choose whether to stay in the United Kingdom, or join an independent Scotland.
New divisions
As the "No Thanks" stickers and "Yes" posters dotting the neat High Street attest, Coldstream is as divided as the rest of Scotland.
"From my standpoint, I don't see what the benefit would be," says Trevor Brunning, a father of four from North London who runs an army supply store on High Street. "I'd be worried about my business if we vote for independence."
The border region has long been stony ground for Scottish nationalists. The area voted heavily against devolution in the ill-fated 1979 referendum. As many as 70 percent of those living near the border are opposed to Scottish independence, according to a poll conducted this summer.
In Dumfries, some 130km west along the border, Englishman Mark Frankland is an active campaigner for the "Yes" vote. "Independence would be good for Scotland – and for England," said Frankland.
Having moved north with his wife and two children in 1996, Frankland now runs First Base Agency, a charity based in a former bakery beside the River Nith in the centre of Dumfries.
The centre offers drug, alcohol, and family counselling services. "Food donations urgently required," reads a sign in the window. Last month, they gave out 450 food parcels. Eighteen-months ago, that figure was about 100.
This huge increase in demand was caused by the welfare reforms introduced by the coalition in Westminster, says Frankland. "There is virtually no policy in Edinburgh [the devolved Scottish parliament] that affects people's ability to buy food."
The independence debate has energised political neophytes such as Frankland as never before – particularly on the yes side, which has a huge manpower advantage over the pro-UK "Better Together" campaign.
'Don't change things'
On a busy Saturday in the prosperous market town of Peebles, the heart of the only constituency in Scotland represented by a Conservative MP, activists hand out "Yes" stickers and campaign literature from a large stall. Many locals walk by, but some stop to chat. Topics range from health and education to inequality and taxes.
"We have been packing out the halls all around," says "Yes" supporter David Kenyon from nearby Walkerburn. "The Scottish people realise this is the biggest decision we will make."
As if on cue, a teenage female bagpipe player breaks into a rendition of "Highland Cathedral", a popular melody composed by a pair of German musicians that has been mooted as a possible national anthem for an independent Scotland.
"This is the toughest part of Scotland for 'Yes'," says independence activist Calum Kerr, 42. "The Borders has a strong tradition of 'Aye Been' – it's always been you don't change things."
But Kerr, who combines a job in telecommunications with almost constant campaigning work, is upbeat about the prospects of pulling off a shock on polling day.
"From the very start I've been telling people, 'we're going to win this'. But now I really believe it."
'Functional not emotional'
A local "No" campaigner, who asked to be identified only as David, disagrees.
"For most Scots the union with England is functional, not emotional," he says. "It is like a business transaction for me. I look at the sums, they don't add up so you don't do it."
Alex Salmond has, he says, made too many unrealistic assumptions about everything from membership in the European Union, to sharing a currency with the UK.
"'Yes' Scotland are asking you to take a betting slip into the ballot box. 'See that horse, I'm going to put everything on it.' What will be the deciding factor on this will be economics. 'Yes' haven't made the economic arguments," he says.
Renowned for their reserve, many along the border with England are phlegmatic about the referendum. Where the independence debate in urban centres such as Glasgow and Edinburgh has often been heated, among the rolling hills and long valleys of "the debatable lands" between urban Scotland and England, the mood is markedly more temperate.
Traditionally, the region votes Liberal or Conservative, but the independence referendum is proving that in Scotland, old ideological ties are not as tight as they once were.
"I'm starting to get the feeling that it's going to be really close," says Jim Terras, chair of the Selkirk Conservative Club. "There are people in this club, even though it is a Conservative club, that are going to vote 'Yes'."
This piece originally appeared on Al Jazeera America.
Author peterPosted on 18th September 2014 Categories Al Jazeera, independence, ScotlandTags Borders
At Rory Stewart's Cairn
"We're looking for the cairn." The woman behind the counter in the Cadbury's outlet store in the Gretna Gateway shopping centre looks slightly bemused. All around her, piled precariously high, are clear plastic bags filled to bursting with 'Roses' chocolates and mini-Wispas. "Any 2 for £6" declare signs in red dotted across the shop.
"We're looking for the cairn," I try again. "Rory Stewart's cairn." There's a flicker of recognition. "Oh yeah, that." The directions aren't great, but they are good enough.
After wandering through the sprawling Gretna Gateway car park – past Ulsterbus coaches half full of visitors clutching Ralph Lauren shopping bags – myself and my companion, a hirsute Greenie from Edinburgh, finally spot a homemade sign on the edge of the road: 'The Cairn". An arrow points into a field.
When Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Border, opened "the Auld Acquaintances Cairn" in July he said that the independence debate has "been too much about politicians and celebrities and not enough about giving ordinary people the chance to show how they feel." Stewart's answer – a pile of rocks and scree behind a car park on the border – certainly owes more to Father Ted than Question Times.
Visitors are invited to add a fresh stone to the pile. ("If you are feeling strong spend 10 minutes taking handfuls of rocks to the cairn," suggests a sign.) You can even paint your lump of rock, if you like. Open tins of paint – red, white and blue – stand adjacent to a plastic bag filled with used gloves. On the ground, an orgy of spilt paint bears a passing resemblance to A-level student's pastiche of Jaspar Johns.
Stewart has said he hopes that the cairn will reach 9ft tall; at present it is not much more than half that. We spend half an hour wandering around the site. If I said we didn't laugh quite a lot, I'd be lying.
There is a gazebo in blue and white with Stewart's name above it and a pair of empty deck chairs. No one else comes to visit but there are signs of previous life. "DONT GO" (sic) implores a brick in white and blue. "Better Together" says one rock. "Let's Stay As One", another. The menacing "All One Blood All One Nation" is more the exception than the rule.
One particularly ornate slab of drystone, decorated with the union flag and the Scottish Saltire, declares "Proud to be Scottish Proud to Be British Please Let's Stay Together". "Please" is underlined, as if to emphasis the essential politeness of all this.
What indeed could be more civilised than the hope that a mound stones in Gretna can help pull the nations together? Where the campaign in Glasgow and Fife, Edinburgh and Dundee, has at times been heated (and,dare I say, it "over-egged"), the cairn has all the reserve for which the Borders are renowned. Even the "yes to independence" scrawled in the well-thumbed guest book seems more mischievous than malicious.
The Auld Acquaintances cairn is meant to symbolise the joyous connection between Scotland and England, to hark back to a time when Britain was really great, as David Cameron might say. But there is something doleful, pathetic even about this empty field with its hill of stones and half full tins of paint. I find myself feeling sorry for the people who have taken the time to come here, to park their cars and carry their stones. Do they know that nobody is making a case for their union?
Traffic whirrs by; the flags of the union flutter in the breeze coming in off the Solway Coast. But the reality is that this brand of unionism – of four nations, and four peoples united – seems mortally wounded, possibly killed off by the very campaign that has sought to save Britain.
During the final televised debate a week or so ago, I listened out for an emotional argument for the union, a case for why Scotland and England are existentially better together. All I, and the rest of Scotland, heard from Alastair Darling was currency, jobs, welfare. Where is the heart? Who speaks for Ken Moses, when he writes 'Never Apart' in the cairn guest book?
Unionism has become a baldly instrumental creed. As a Better Together campaigner in Peebles told me at the weekend, 'It is like a business transaction for me. I look at the sums, they don't add up so you don't do it.'
Rory Stewart is no idiot. Earlier this year, he gave possibly the most perspicacious political interviewI've ever read, in which he talked about powerless faced by modern politicians. But in reducing the union to pounds, shillings and pence the campaign to save Britain might end up killing it, regardless of the result in a couple of week's time.
From Sark Bridge, overlooking the cairn, there is a great view into England, the hills of Cumbria rise up in the distance. Down the road, at Burgh Marsh, is a monument to King Edward I who died attempting to invade and conquer Scotland in 1307. The English got a measure of revenge at Solway Moss, near Gretna Junction, in 1542 when they routed a Scottish army.
Before we left the cairn, my Greenie friend and I walked across a molehill-filled field to the River Sark. 'So this is the border?' I asked. 'I believe so, yeah.' We stood staring in silence at an inert stretch of water, about ten feet wide. It felt very peaceful.
This piece originally appeared on Newsnet Scotland.
Author peterPosted on 8th September 2014 Categories independence, ScotlandTags cairn, Rory Stewart, unionism
Poverty in Scotland's oil capital
Before the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, Aberdeen was a regional town and nationalism a marginal concern. With weeks to go until Scotland's historic vote on independence, Aberdeen is a city transformed. It's Scotland's oil capital and the city's resulting wealth is apparent. But not everyone has benefitted from those riches. As Peter Geoghegan reports, life for some is a daily struggle.
http://www.petergeoghegan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/D18DAE0B_1_dwdownload.mp3
Author peterPosted on 2nd September 2014 Categories Deutsche Welle, independence, ScotlandTags Aberdeen, food banks, Oil
Scotland's Two Referendums
Last Tuesday night, I watched, along with most of Scotland, two besuited, middle-aged men argue with each other on national television for the best part of two hours. In the main it was pretty unedifying stuff.
Alastair Darling refused to accept that Scotland could function as an independent country; Alex Salmond made the frankly bizarre decision to waste valuable minutes asking facile questions about 'Project Fear' scare stories. The crowd booed and cheered on cue. All in all there was little – if anything – to differentiate this from the 'Punch and Judy' politics that nationalists have, rightly, chastised Westminster for.
The most depressing aspect of Tuesday's debate was the message, not the medium. Gone was the rich discussion, the subtle ambiguities that have characterised a goodly portion of the independence debate beyond the podium and the dispatch box.
Referendums are, by their nature, notoriously Manichean things. Only two choices: yes or no; stick or twist; black or white.
But Tuesday's debate played into another independence referendum binary: that the whole business is a waste of time, a distraction that has siphoned valuable time and money away from dealing with 'real issues'. (In Britain, sadly, constitutional change has seldom been treated as a 'real issue' until far too late.)
This dystopian take on democratic politics has infused much of the media coverage of the Scottish debate over the past two years, and has been made explicit by political parties on both sides of the border. Watching Salmond and Darling slug it out in front of a live studio audience, such cynicism felt all too justified.
But there is another referendum happening in Scotland right now.
A few hours before the STV debate, this other referendum was alive and well and trundling up and down the streets of Govan on what looked like a cross between a milk cart and an ice cream van. Standing atop the 'Margo Mobile', Jim Sillars declared to anyone that would listen that 'we can make a better country than this'. A fleet of volunteers handed out badges and stickers.
Over the next five weeks or so, the Margo Mobile is due to call at housing estates and towns across the Central Belt. The whole enterprise was funded by donations. The conversations that take place won't be beamed live into the houses of millions – but they matter just the same.
Many of these discussions – the kind I have heard everywhere from Coatbridge to Cowdenbeath in recent months – will not have definite answers or end-points. 'How can Scotland become a better place to live in?' 'How can we make the best of the resources we have?' 'What constitutional set-up is best for a small nation in the 21st century?' None of these are questions that invite easy responses.
Undecideds, we are are constantly told, want facts. That's simply not true. We all know that there is only one certainty about the future. (It's called 'life assurance' for a reason.) The rest is guesswork, supported by various degrees of evidence and assumption.
What undecided voters – and everybody else – want is to believe what they are being told. When Alex Salmond tells them that there will be no hiccups on the road to statehood – that the EU, Westminster, and everyone else will simply fall into line after 'Yes' vote – they don't believe it. Most Yes voters I know don't believe really it, either.
If it is a 'no', the deciding factor could well have been the decision to assume that the referendum is about what took place on Tuesday night in the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow, not on Tuesday morning on the streets of Govan. That the electorate wants easy answers and soundbites, not a vision of the future ballasted by a recognition of the realities of the present.
Yes Scotland, implicitly or explicitly, decided two years ago that voters would reject nuance and complexity, that they would baulk at the first sign that independence was anything other than the merest of pin pricks. Hence the decision to keep the Queen, Nato, Sterling, etc.
As a political move in a post-New Labour era of triangulation this 'don't scare the horses' approach is understandable. But polls – and simple observation – suggest this strategy has not worked. Nobody really believes dismantling the union would be painless – but many could have been convinced that the discomfort would have been worthwhile.
The referendum campaign should make us more hopeful about democracy in Scotland. The people – 'ordinary voters' – can handle nuance and complexity. They could have accepted being told, 'independence is a big project. There will be bumps on the road but in ten year's time, 20 year's time, there will be a better future for you, for your children.' Some would have decided the risk was not worth other it; others would have the opposition calculation.
This referendum has engaged people politically in a way I have never seen before in my lifetime. The danger, though, is that this energy might be lost – or reduced to stale set pieces like we saw on Tuesday night. Whatever the result on September 18, if this is allowed to happen, Scotland will have lost.
Author peterPosted on 2nd September 2014 Categories independence, ScotlandTags Darling, debate, Salmond
Could Scottish independence realign Ireland, North and South?
What a difference a century makes. In 1912 Ireland's constitutional future seemed irrevocably bound up with that of Scotland. That year the Government of Ireland Bill was introduced by Liberal prime minister HH Asquith, shortly to be followed by a similar home rule measure for the Scots.
The rest, of course, is history. The first World War put paid to Irish and Scottish hopes of self-government within the United Kingdom. By the time the conflict was over, Ireland was fighting a war of independence. Scotland was only granted devolution in 1997.
Today, Scottish nationalists frequently adduce Ireland in their arguments for a Yes vote. On everything from sovereignty and citizenship to currency and border controls, Ireland is often held up as a model of how to sever a British union.
If the SNP view of Irish self-determination tends towards the Panglossian, official Ireland's take on what is fast becoming "the Scottish Question" appears rather myopic. Recently Irish Government Ministers were told to be "very careful about expressing views" on Scottish independence. Hopefully this public reticence does not extend to the backrooms of Leinster House. Because regardless of which way Scotland votes, constitutional change looks increasingly inevitable.
In the North, nationalists have been similarly muted about the possibility of what Tom Nairn termed "the break-up of Britain". Some excitable unionists have warned that a Yes in Edinburgh could spark a return to violence in Belfast.
Surely the prospect of a country roughly the same size as Ireland – one that is only 12 miles away at the shortest point – becoming an independent state could elicit a bit more than this curious mix of silence and shrillness? Scotland and Ireland share a long – and at times difficult – history; might they share a closer, more productive future, too?
The idea of an informal "Celtic alliance" encompassing Scotland and Ireland, North and South, is hardly revolutionary. The 6th century Gaelic kingdom of Dalriada, which stretched from Argyll to Antrim, was settled, according to myth, by Irish king Fergus Mór mac Erc.
The origin legend's veracity aside, Dalriada was unquestionably a lively, creative centre that flourished across the Sea of Moyle. It was, as Neal Ascherson writes, "a Gaelic-speaking Atlantic world connected rather than divided by the sea".
These connections did not end with the demise of Dalriada. During the Middle Ages, the almost independent Lordship of the Isles exerted power and influence on both sides of the Irish channel.
The Lordship of the Isles effectively ended when the clan Macdonald forfeited their estates and titles to James IV of Scotland in 1493. But three centuries later, United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken could still write gushingly that: "The Scotch and Irish friendly are/Their wishes are the same." Our relations with Scotland, however, have not always been so amiable. The Ulster Plantations were a disproportionately Scottish affair: between 1650 and 1700, anywhere between 60,000 and 100,000 Scots left for the north of Ireland. The hundreds of thousands of Catholic Irish migrants to Scotland from the mid-18th century were often met with bigotry and discrimination. In 1923, a report entitled Menace of the Irish Race to our Scottish Nationality was presented to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. But Scotland is a very different place from the 1920s. Orangeism has long faded as a political force. In 2002, the Church of Scotland apologised for "any part" it played in sectarianism.
Scotland's Irish Catholic community has changed, too – not least when it comes to politics. At the 1974 general election the SNP won 30 per cent, but less than one in 10 Catholics voted for the nationalists. Historian Tom Devine believes Catholics are now more pro-independence than any other group in Scottish society.
Scottish nationalists
Northern Ireland, with its strong links to Scotland, has provided inspiration for Scottish nationalists, too. The Belfast Agreement demonstrated to many in the SNP's upper echelons that moderation and pragmatism could produce seismic change.
Raasay-born poet Sorley MacLean envisaged Gaelic Scotland and Ireland as part of a single cultural continuity. The twin Gaelic cultures drifted apart for many years, but are arguably closer now than at any time since the 1940s. Perhaps the time has come for Dublin and Edinburgh to learn from this rapprochement.
Even a Scottish No vote in September is unlikely to signal the end of the constitutional story. Former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy and Scottish Tory Murdo Fraser are among those who have recently taken to uttering the dirtiest F-word in British politics – federalism – in polite society.
A new settlement for Scotland would pose practical questions for Ireland. Edinburgh could look to compete on corporation tax, and to usurp us as the cuddly Celts on the edge of Europe.
But political change in Scotland could also be a unique opportunity for Ireland – North and South – to forge a stronger relationship with its closest neighbour. A new Dalriada anyone?
This piece originally appeared in the Irish Times.
Author peterPosted on 2nd September 2014 Categories independence, Ireland, Irish Times, ScotlandTags Dalriada
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Part 1: Create a killer mix of media that will leverage maximum sales and profits.
When it comes to media, following the leader is a certain road to mediocrity. Some media are grossly overrated by the "experts." Other media that could help you may be underrated or discarded altogether. If you track this series of articles, I will show you how to use your ad dollars to create a media mix that works to increase traffic and cash flow.
First of all, understand that a medium delivers a message. That's all it does. There are no "good" media and "bad" media. There are situation-appropriate media, and media that are situation-inappropriate. When someone suggests the latest social media fad will solve all your media problems, don't believe them. When someone tells you that all you need is radio, or that ROP newspaper doesn't work," or direct mail never works, run, don't walk for the exit. For maximum results in your market, there are only strong, effective, evidence-based messages delivered in a timely, appropriate way. These messages may be delivered by a single medium, or a combination of several media. This does not only apply to independent home furnishings stores; it also applies to franchise stores that have some control over their media mix.
Why is this important? Because, a prospective customer will want to deal with you only to the extent that they see a unique advantage in it for themselves. The better you are at answering the WIIFM? question (compared to your competition), the more market share and business you will get. If you and your competitors are equally weak in your presentations, then the playing field is leveled. If you are brilliant in articulating your USP regardless of the medium, however, you will leave competition fumbling in the dust.
In a print ad, the power begins with the headline. A well-fashioned, benefit-rich headline can out-perform a weak headline by a factor of ten or more. If you can legitimately SAY something your competitor cannot say, and you neglect to do it, your competitor will rejoice. Moreover, if you can SHOW something that your competitor cannot show, and you fail to do it, your competitor will rejoice even more. But if you learn to leverage with the "Fusion Factor" you will make your competition irrelevant. The Fusion Factor is one of those powerful principles of effective, evidence-based advertising that has been generally lost on "modern" ad people. Yet, when I explain it you will see that it is so self-evident that it is astonishing that very few ad people are aware of it.
Home furnishings preprints and flyers are almost exclusively price-item presentations. The problem with price-item offers has always been the same. If a lady is shopping for a living room group and she sees a hot price and a beautiful full color illustration in a flyer, but she doesn't like the design, you have lost her. So the big boxes attempt to flood the market with as many different designs and offers as they can. In most cases they use label headlines and weak copy. They may brag about a huge selection, but all they illustrate is vignettes of groups, or single items. The little store down the street can rejoice because he or she can also show manufacturer illustrations and do price-item offers in his ads just as effectively.
The big box could show dramatic concept shots of their showrooms, but they do not. There are too many different showrooms involved and the copycat strategy of inundating the market with price item offers seems to work. And herein lies a huge opportunity for the smart independent.
What do women want? Selection for sure. So a headline that states: "30,000 square feet of famous brand bargains" that is illustrated with a dramatic showroom shot can be unique and very effective. There is an instant fusion between the headline and the illustration. Big box preprints and flyers are prepared in great haste by technicians who are good at what they do but who have no concept of evidence-based, effective print presentations. With all the talk about "branding," very little concept is presented in big box flyers. So take home this principle: Show things and say things your competitors cannot in every medium you use. It may be true that TV is potentially most effective and dramatic in establishing a brand, but it is also cost-prohibitive to dominate the fragmented TV market. All media should reflect your brand, not just TV. Walt Disney originally established the Disneyworld brand almost totally by means of People Media, the most powerful, most underrated, and least understood advertising force ever discovered. More on this in later articles.
Newspaper Preprints. This has been the favorite medium for home furnishings for some time, and for good reason. A full color preprint brings furniture to vivid life. Unlike TV, the prospect can linger over the offers. The reproduction is much better than ROP newspaper advertising. The downside for independents is the cost, and the growing clutter (especially on specific days) in many markets. Unfortunately, most independents who are able to produce their own preprints tend to copy the big boxes. They use label headlines, price-item offers, neglect articulating benefits, and fail to brand with personal messages, creative graphics, illustrations, and USP factors that their competitors cannot answer. Social media is fine, but why confine it to the internet? Why so few personal messages and fascinating home furnishings stories in preprints? It seems as though the ad departments and merchandisers believe that all women care about is price, price, price! These failures to leverage the power of preprints are also in evidence in ROP advertising.
Newspaper ROP Advertising. I am going to use the rest of this article to address newspaper advertising because it often gets a bad rap. One of the myths I have heard is that "no one reads the newspaper anymore." It is true that the readership of newspapers has drastically declined, especially among the young. However, a large segment of the older population still reads the paper. And, it should be noted that the over 40 group controls most of the buying power. They are also most likely to buy better home furnishings. ROP newspaper ads are also very effective in augmenting preprints. A preprint insertion begins to run out of gas after a week or so, and it is a proven fact that well-crafted "final days" ROP ads will turbo-charge final results. Some savvy big box entrepreneurs do use ROP in this manner, independent of their corporate programs. Their ROP efforts also use strategies that augment their hometown status and appeal.
There is also another very important value in ROP Newspaper. Immediacy.
ROP newspaper can do something that no other mass media can achieve as cost-effectively: It can turn on a dime. The only exception is radio. In fact, a combination of radio and ROP can convert a catastrophe into a victory.
Many entrepreneurs are feeling lost these days. It is tough out there. Being lost in a situation such as Gina's (or in a deep recession) is almost like being lost in the wilderness. Unfortunately, most people who get lost in the wilderness give in to fear. They fail to do the one thing that could save them. They fail to think. They are frozen in the headlights. There is an old adage by the famous psychiatrist, Alfred Adler: "Trust only movement." Gina thought things through and she began to move. First she got authorization from the local owner of the franchise store to take action.
Next, Gina ordered a full page newspaper ad for the weekend, just a few days away. (See exhibit on page 38). Then, in a flurry of activity, she took digital photographs of the situation in her store. She bought radio time. By the time the weekend arrived, thanks to the internet, she had a powerful newspaper ad in the paper, strong radio commercials, special sale tags, signs for her windows and a barebones strategy for the next eight weeks. There followed three full weeks of "Pre-Renovation Emergency Blowout," and then a "Renovation and Ultimate Selloff." Gina did two months of remarkable record-breaking business while she got her store ready for a Grand Re-Opening Sale and the resumption of regular business.
I know of no other media that could have gotten Gina's story out to the public as quickly and as cost-effectively as ROP newspaper and radio. The corporate management of this particular big box chain is wise enough to allow franchise stores the latitude to outsource advertising creation when time frames make it necessary. This leads to another weather-related story that took place a couple of weeks later, and a thousand miles away. This event took place in a rural area of Minnesota.
Presidents' Weekend Snowed Out In Minnesota!
It is virtually unheard of for Minnesotans to be stopped cold (literally) by the weather. But it happened last February. Coincidentally, this story is about another big box store, one belonging to a different chain. On Presidents' Weekend, record snowfall and high winds impacted the state. The Minnesota Department of Transportation recommended no travel for the southern half of the state due to high winds and heavy snow. 700 flights were canceled. 323 automobile crashes were reported statewide from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. High winds and freezing mix made some areas impassable.
Of course, the big sales volume the y hoped for on Presidents' weekend never happened. What to do? The local owner of a top-producing big box franchise in a rural area of southern Minnesota acted quickly. By the next weekend (thanks to the internet and FedEx) a "Snow Emergency Presidents' Day Extension" ad was created in the newspaper, plus supporting radio, point of purchase tags, signs etc. (See exhibit.) This brilliantly managed franchise store regularly uses newspaper and radio on a local level to augment the corporate efforts of the chain. In a rural market area of less than 20,000 people, the franchise regularly produces $400,000 or more a month in profitable business.
Aside from the immediacy factor and the proven ability to leverage the longevity and local appeal of a preprint, there is yet another compelling reason that newspaper ROP should be part of your advertising mix, whether you are a franchise or an independent home furnishings store. Preprinted corporate flyers lack warmth, personality, and the ability to connect on a local level. A local newspaper can use illustrations of the hometown store and its personnel, and offer limited stock "door-buster" items to augment corporate merchandising. Too often, there is an enormous amount of local store innovation and creativity that is stifled by restrictive corporate policies. A common complaint I hear from franchise stores is this: "Unless the idea originates in corporate, they quickly discard it." Control is important, but there is an alternative to crushing local initiatives and innovations.
This HF training center would conduct regular classes for other franchise locations. That big box would vault ahead and be very hard to catch. This is the technique of leaders training leaders that is used by the military. And this is why the late Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, declared that the U.S. military was the best in the world at training leaders. Not the Harvard Business School, or IBM, or Proctor and Gamble. The U.S. Military.
In Part Two of this series, we will examine Direct Mail, Radio, Television, Websites and the Internet. Then we will show how to create a killer mix of media that will leverage maximum sales and profits.
Larry Mullins is a contributing editor for Furniture World and has 30+ years experience on the front lines of furniture marketing. Larry's mainstream executive experience, his creative work with promotion specialists, and mastery of advertising principles have established him as one of the foremost experts in furniture marketing. His turnkey High-Impact programs produce legendary results for everything from cash raising events to profitable exit strategies. His newest books are, "The Metavalues Breakthrough" and "Immature People With Power… How to Handle Them", have recently been released by Morgan James Publishing. Joe Girard, "The World's Greatest Salesman" said of this book: "If I had read Larry Mullins' book when I started out, I would have reached the top much sooner than I did." Larry is founder and CEO of UltraSales, Inc. and can be reached directly at 904.794.9212. See more articles by Larry at www.furninfo.com or www.ultrasales.com.


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BARCS Aiming to Raise $500,000 for its New Facility in Cherry Hill
BARCS Beat | August 5, 2019 | 0 Comments
BARCS press release:
The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) is scheduled to relocate to a new facility located at 2490 Giles Road in the Cherry Hill community in southern Baltimore City. The relocation is set to take place in early 2020 upon completion of construction. BARCS has made great strides over the last decade increasing the live-release rate from 2% (in 2004 prior to BARCS) to more than 90% in 2018. The expansion of programs and staffing to support the increase in saving lives has left our current facility inefficient, run down and too small. The current facility no longer meets the standards for proper care and disease management of animals housed in the shelter, and lacks space to fully operate programs and provide resources and education to members of the community. The new shelter will provide BARCS with a much-needed upgrade for our deserving animals as well as our dedicated volunteers and hardworking staff members.
"BARCS strives is to enhance the quality of life in our community through compassionate services to animals and people. BARCS' goal in the new facility is to continue improving the state of animal welfare in Baltimore City, work with pet owners in crisis to find the best possible outcomes, and care for 12,000 homeless, abused and neglected animals annually. " said Jennifer Brause, founder and executive director for BARCS.
The new facility will have expanded space for BARCS' lifesaving programs, which enables our teams to work more efficiently towards the goal of saving more animals in Baltimore. An increase in building space will also give BARCS the opportunity to bring our dog intake (medical processing), fundraising team and Community Cats Program, currently hosted in trailers and offsite office space, back under one roof to ensure that all programs are run successfully. The structural layout of the new facility will also include separate entrances for adoptions and intake, which includes a resource center for pet owners in crisis. The separation of the two lobbies will allow for privacy and more intimate conversations with members of our community.
As a nonprofit organization, BARCS depends on the support of our community through private donations, volunteerism and fostering. While BARCS is fortunate that Baltimore City is providing the funding to cover the structure of the new building, BARCS will be raising private funds, in addition to our annual operating budget, in order to build or enhance the following areas of the new facility:
The outfitting of expanded veterinary exam space and surgery facilities. Our new surgery rooms require post-surgery recovery cages that provide animals recovering from surgery with a safe space to lay. BARCS' medical program supports 6,000 spay/neuter surgeries and 110,000 veterinary exams and follow-up exams annually.
Along with expanded medical holding cages, high-quality medical equipment, including a new X-ray machine and cold laser therapy device, will enable BARCS to more effectively evaluate and treat animals in need. This new medical equipment will help our team to perform more procedures and treatments in-house, keeping the costs of medical care down while treating the animals who need it most.
Free-roaming group cat rooms will give cats in our care the ability to run, jump, climb, perch and socialize. These behaviors afford cats a sense of control over their environment, thus eliminating a major source of stress for sheltered cats.
New spaces for farm animals, small mammals and reptiles. Rather than moving these animals to a rescue partner, we will be empowered to provide care and adoption services in house for interested adopters. Wildlife animals in our care will no longer be sheltered in mixed-use area, but space appropriate for their species until they can be returned to the wild or sent to a rehab center.
A newly constructed dog play yard that will give our dogs to have some much-needed enrichment outdoors. These play yards are critical to a dog's wellbeing, as it gives them the chance to combat their mental and physical stress. By running and playing, dogs become more adoptable and avoid deterioration in our shelter environment.
Newer and more up to date IT equipment, including computers, printers, an all in one copier/printer/fax so our staff can work more efficiently and effectively.
Expanded space allows for long-anticipated and fundamental growth of BARCS' programs. The overall expansion means that additional equipment, supplies, educational materials and more must be purchased and maintained.
The fundraising campaign, entitled From Hope to Home, has a goal of raising $500,000 by the conclusion of 2019 in order to support the projects and programs mentioned above. "We're doing incredible work despite the tremendous challenges our current facility presents," Brause added. "We are excited for what the future will bring for Baltimore's animals—and people—as we look forward to the new home."
Renderings courtesy of BARCS
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About the Author: BARCS Beat
Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, Inc. (BARCS) is a non-profit organization created in July 2005. BARCS takes in homeless and unwanted animals in Baltimore City as part of its mission to provide sanctuary for all animals and to promote a more humane community.
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At Least 15 Feared Dead After Torrential Rains Sweep Through Southern Japan
By Matthew S. Schwartz
Published July 4, 2020 at 11:00 AM PDT
Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images
Heavy rain has flooded in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto prefecture in Japan on Saturday.
At least 15 people are presumed dead and several more are missing after torrential rains pounded southern Japan on Saturday, flooding residential areas, causing mudslides and knocking out power for thousands. Officials asked more than 200,000 people to evacuate.
Fourteen of those found without vital signs were at a nursing home in Kuma village, where water and mud gushed into the building. Japanese medical officials declared that the victims were in "cardio-respiratory arrest" — a term used in Japan before death can be officially certified.
The flooding was centered in the Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures, where the Kuma River overflowed in at least 10 places. The southern island of Kyushu was also hard hit.
Over 33,000 phone lines were disconnected, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corp reported. The nation's top three mobile carriers were all reporting outages. Internet service was also affected.
STR / Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images
Members of Japan's Self-Defence Forces work at the site of a landslide caused by heavy rain in Ashikita, Kumamoto prefecture.
By evening, the rain had subsided and emergency responders were searching for survivors. At least 10 people were reported missing, and dozens were stranded on rooftops.
"It wasn't like normal rain," one woman told the Japanese news outlet NHK. "I honestly never imagined it could be so powerful."
Japanese weather forecasters had expected heavy rains. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued its highest warning before 5 a.m. Saturday, according to Kyodo News. The agency said the downpour that came was greater than any seen before in the region, the BBC reported. At one point, part of Kumamoto prefecture saw almost 4 inches of rainfall per hour.
"I saw large trees and parts of houses being washed away and heard them crashing into something," Haruka Yamada, 32, told Kyodo News. "The air is filled with the smell of leaking gas and sewage," he said.
Ten thousand members of Japan's defense force were mobilized to assist in rescue efforts, The New York Times reported. More heavy rain is expected through Wednesday.