Iain MacGilleBhràith

The sovereignty myth America First reminds us that sovereignty means a lot more than legislation

In an uncertain age, sovereignty is something we should care about. Unfortunately for the UK, EU membership has no bearing on sovereignty.
open.substack.com/pub/arthursn...

Sorry, but this stuff is just a progressive mirror image of the Covid conspiracies saying lockdowns and vaccines were all about making populations easier to control, too.

RFK Jr has sincerely-held but wildly dangerous views on vaccines that made him totally unsuitable for the job. That’s the story.

On the subject of Britain being in a terrible crisis, which JG is right about: it's nonsense.

On the fiscal side, we are a 5p rise in VAT from having sustainable fiscal policies. Throw in some tidying up of bad SME subsidies and a social care precept, and we could have nice public services too 1/

Excellent thread, this is the key point I think.

“As a promotional move, the North Coast 500 was a masterstroke — too much of one, by most accounts.”

A rare excellent NC500 piece, making good points: tourism offering used to be rubbish up here and has rightly improved, but at what cost? Infrastructure still terrible, land still unequally owned.

Exactly, it’s imprecise bs frankly…
…and also specifically suffers from the ridiculous British - simultaneously both aggrandising and devaluing - usage of ‘engineer’ for mere technicians.

A cynical/depressing/pessimisitic/realistic* 4th option is that she also realises that the SNP and independence are currently in zugzwag or, as we say in Scots, stymied; they have no good clear moves… and face a tough, financially constrained future. 🤷‍♂️

*del as appropriate based on political views!

And/or just concluded she’d rather concentrate on family life.
And/or realised she could have a much easier time in a (relatively much easier and definitely less high profile) quango job…

I’d guess a bit of all three? 🤷‍♂️

Kate Forbes to quit Scottish Parliament at next election Forbes was viewed by many in the SNP as a future leader of the party.

Big Holyrood news this morning: Kate Forbes, the Deputy First Minister, is quitting the Scottish Parliament

The Pan Drop is a traditional Scottish confection, but was industrialised and commercialised by John Millar & Sons of Duke Street in Leith (later, Causewayside). It was a favourite of reluctant church-goers as a way to stealthily sook away the long, dull sermons www.flickr.com/photos/cagiv...

FWIW, a speculation. I think a lot of them probably had mildly racist attitudes but these beliefs were not central to their politics or self-definition and they were a bit ashamed of them in the context of an anti-racist general and political culture…

Oh totally; there’s this *incredibly* naive belief that the US is like us bc of the shared language & they’re just not!

And Ireland? Well I would say your average Brit - and journo - believes they’re like “us” (indeed lots don’t know 🇮🇪 is independent!) but small, inferior & irrelevant (like 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿)… 🤷‍♂️

PS and watch the key point about balance; I absolutely recognise the importance of the US but the interest for many is say 90-99% US… I’m merely arguing for *some* more attention to EU pol!

Given the immense backlash against the effects of her small state, neoliberal, laissez faire approach to the very real challenges of post-industrial decline, you’d think the Tories would read the fecking room!

An important additional chart to keep in mind.

Building on Brett Christophers opinion piece "We must not mistake China’s success on green energy for a global one" - on.ft.com/3CwOxny

Code here - observablehq.com/d/20d13d84dd...

Yes!
America is undoubtedly incredibly important but the balance of interest is wrong; now partly that’s bc people can follow US fed level politics (but then overestimate the power of that) vs EU state level politics, but a lot of it is simply shared language…

The counter-argument (now) is Trump 🤷‍♂️

Let’s crowdsource a bribe for the best man’s speech to include some lines trolling Jonn about UK constitutional minutiae!

Europe must show its trade alternatives are a better mode... European governments must think about modern economies, rather than romanticise the past

I make my Observer debut this morning, covering a fair amount of ground around Trump's trade deals, why they won't bring certainty or more investment to the UK or be good for the US, and what governments should be thinking about instead... observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

The latter being entirely hypothetical of course James 😏

The still of your video makes it appear as if you’re driving a hair-raising road during a storm in which a tree has fallen across the road…

(I’ve now seen this twice and both times it’s taken me a while to realise that it’s the wiper!)

Yes “Wrong Answers Only’ seems an excellent name for the new Corbyn party 👍

The replies to this post, even on here, even moreso on X, are so depressing to me. We live in a world where cities have never been safer and a minority of people are denying themselves a lot of delightful experiences because they’ve gone mad online.

Yeah fucking time dilation…

I presume - me being the most local ADHD-haver to me 😂 - that you mean the bad superpower of getting distracted by something and suddenly losing HOURS…?

Govanhill festival opening today was magic as always and if you're in Glasgow you should totally go to something www.govanhillbaths.com/festival/

On similar lines?
It’s a massive yet someone quite difficult topic partly bc I think it requires grappling with the subjectivity of history! And not just personal bias/subjectivity but bc that is itself shaped by the milieu of national & pol bias (which are often ‘banal nationalism’ & hide much!)

He has now expounded on some points…
…but while I agree on their point re focus of history I don’t agree and I think goes too far/simplistic re core/periphery!
Or fails to acknowledge historical core… even if Lowlands later becomes core (govt/power).

bsky.app/profile/aeon...

Yeah now I just don’t agree with this!
I’m sympathetic to your underlying point re history thereof, but the much Lowlands is only a *later* core that develops from Scoto-Norman geopolitics (and Anglo-Normanisation)…
… Lothian was added late to the Scottish kingdom!!

All perfectly natural ingredients of Fresh Air™

Not just any old picnic either; there’s a stove for making the tea fresh! #standards
👍