Scotland

Sometimes it is useful to be reminded that the English are often barely more knowledgeable about Scotland than Americans are about Canada.Today’s Guardian piece “Life Without Scotland” is by turns juvenile, irritating, superficial, irritating and ignorant. It’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek funny but it misses each and every one of its targets. Nonetheless, the most interesting element of the piece is that it was published at all. It is rather odd to see the English slowly waking up to the fact that Scotland is now officially a semi-detached member of the Union. They don’t seem to like it much. Complaints about lavish spending on health and education north of the

James Fallows’ blog is normally a treat. But in the midst of slapping Congress for the supposed foolishness and self-indulgence of the Armenian genocide resolution he writes this (emphasis added): Why not go all the way? How about a resolution condemning China for the millions who suffered in the Cultural Revolution and the tens of millions starved during the Great Leap Forward – right as we’re seeking China’s help on Burma, North Korea, the environment, etc? I mean, for each Armenian the Ottoman Turks slaughtered, at least ten Chinese citizens perished at the hands of the regime whose successors still rule the country. And the government’s official stance of denial

Ages ago – light years in blog terms in fact – Megan noticed The Economist pointing out that the euro has lessened the pressure that Belgian politicians might otherwise face to settle their differences and observes: Now that the European Union has taken over the currency, as well as many of the trade and customs functions of traditional federal governments, Belgium as a state suddenly looks a lot less necessary. One wonders if the current era of economic integration (assuming it continues) might not bring increasing political balkanization. Well, yes indeed. The same might be said of the United Kingdom. Moves towards greater regional autonymy across Europe are a direct

Bugger. Time to go and talk the game over with Mr John Walker and Mr Macallan. Mr Bruichladdich may also be asked his opinion. I’d consult Mr Highland Park but he’s exhausted.

Iain McWhirter at The Guardian reminds one why Edinburgh is perhaps the world’s best city every August: Now, here’s a cultural success story of truly epic proportions. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe alone has sold 1.7m tickets this year – that’s more than twice the number sold by the Manchester Commonwealth Games. It does this every year. And the official Edinburgh International Festival hasn’t even finished yet, so its figures are still to come. The Edinburgh Book Festival has attracted 200,000 to its Charlotte Square tent city, which means that the Edinburgh culture-fest’s final score will be well over 2 million… This is an astonishing achievement and gives the lie to