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Radley, Radley... Please. This isn't the "British Olympic soccer team" giving the Nazi salute in 1938, it's the English soccer team. You may think this a minor matter, but I assure you it makes all the difference in the world. But yes, it's rotten that the British Olympic Association should be wanting to gag athletes who might - albeit improbably - feel like protesting China's, er, mixed human rights record from doing so.
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Have I mentioned that this (admittedly old) ghastliness is enough on its own to make me wish Democrats select Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton? Well, it's enough to make me reach for my Browning anyway: Bill Clinton suggested during a TV appearance that, should his wife be elected president of the United States, he be referred to as the “first laddie.”Clinton jokingly suggested the moniker during an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday."My Scottish friends say I should be called 'first laddie' because it's the closest thing to 'first lady'," he said.
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This is a depressing paragraph: William Wallace was a failure who only won one key battle; Robert the Bruce was a usurper struggling to retain power; Scotland was a willing entrant into the Act of Union. Such claims will infuriate nationalists and unionists alike when the BBC seeks to explode myths in Scottish history in a landmark series. It is, of course, depressing that such judgments might be considered "controversial". Why they should infuriate anyone remains a mystery given that they are, well, true. I don't think I need re-iterate my objections to the Braveheart fetish. Suffice it to say that it is all too typical that we should concentrate upon the noble failure (Wallace) rather than the complex - and oft conflicted - victor (Bruce).
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This being Hogmanay it's appropriate to post a New Year's address from the one and only Reverend I.M Jolly. For anyone who grew up in 1980s Scotland, the late, great Rikki Fulton's annual appearance on Scotch & Wry was an annual highlight.
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All good things come to an end. As some readers know, I'm leaving Washington DC this week (tomorrow in fact!) to return to Caledonia, stern and wild. Bittersweet reflections on some times in America will doubtless follow in due course, but in general blogging will be light for the next few days as I adjust to life back in the old country and try, more or less, to get organised. In the meantime - and as a break from gruesome packing - here's a classic Tennents Lager ad from way back when which gets to the guts of the matter. While one sometimes thinks it would be nice to quit Scotland for good, in the end that's not as easy to do as it sounds.
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My favourite comment of the year was left in response to Ross Douthat's reply to this post of mine: This has to be the most useless post of the year. Why do conservatives like scottish independence? because they are as malevolent as the SNP. I mean, I like Slovakia, but breaking up Yugoslavia was, well, not the best thing in the world.Fairness demands I acknowledge that once his geography had been corrected, the same commenter rephrased his point thus:NDM, quite correct about my Slovakia/Slovenia mixup. Up there with Mauritius and Mauritania. However, to judge the disaster that was the breakup of Yugoslavia by observing the Slovenia has done well -- and it has -- is disingenuous. Somebody always comes up on top in these struggles.
From our UK edition
As part of its rather odd Call Yourself British campaign The Daily Telegraph has sent the novelist Andrew O'Hagan to tour the country and take its temperature. There'll be plenty to say about this over the next few days. But, beginning in Edinburgh, O'Hagan writes: Despite the work of centuries, an intellectual Enlightenment, an Industrial Revolution, the formation and decline of Empire, and two world wars, Scotland still feels nervous of its relationship with England, the same nervousness that Defoe objected to and hoped might have come to an end as he walked up the High Street in the 1720s. But to make that journey today is to fall into step with the revival of an old song: when will the Union be over?
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Scotland is already a semi-detached member of the Union and the question, it now seems, is whether the delegation/repatriation of further powers to Holyrood results in a Scotland that is 75% detached from the rest of the UK, or one that decides for whatever constitutes independence these days. Regardless of what the country decides, the momentum towards having to make that sort of decision seems all but irresistible (I'd add that logic adds its weight to the process too, but that's a different matter).
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Yeah, so Megan can't find New York style pizza in Washington. Well, I can't find Scottish pizza here either. I forgot to ask earlier if any readers know of anywhere on the eastern seaboard that does a good, proper deep-fried pizza*? *Photos from a fine chippie I used to frequent regularly: Piccante on Broughton Street in Edinburgh. We were spoilt for choice, in fact, since we also had the Rapido 100 yards down the road. Their traditional - that is, only cooked once - pizzas were better but Piccante took the palm for deep-frying. It's also one of the few places I know where, honoring the spirit of Scottish invention, you can purchase a kebab pizza which is then deep-fried. This, I think, must count as one of the culinary wonders of the modern world.
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Not to intrude into private grief or anything, but how can you children not be amused by this? Croatia rose to the occasion in their crucial Euro 2008 defeat of England - after an apparent X-rated gaffe by an English opera singer at Wembley. Tony Henry belted out a version of the Croat anthem before the 80,000 crowd, but made a blunder at the end. He should have sung 'Mila kuda si planina' (which roughly means 'You know my dear how we love your mountains'). But he instead sang 'Mila kura si planina' which can be interpreted as 'My dear, my penis is a mountain.' UPDATE: Commenter Damir suggests a more accurate translation is: "Mila kuda si planina" means "You (Croatia) are dear to us where you are mountainous.
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'Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,Welcome tae your gory bed,Or tae Victorie! 'Now's the day, and now's the hour:See the front o' battle lour... Scotland vs Italy, Hampden Park, 1200 (EST), 17/11/07. Game on. UPDATE for DC readers: The Lucky Bar on Connecticut Avenue and N St NW is showing the game.
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OK, this is obviously extremely odd behaviour. But where's the crime here? There's no victim. There's no lewd or offensive public display. Nothing at all. And yet this poor sod is now on the Sex Offenders' Register for three years. Madness. If they can convict you of this, what can't they convict you of? A man caught trying to have sex with his bicycle has been sentenced to three years on probation. Robert Stewart, 51, admitted a sexually aggravated breach of the peace by conducting himself in a disorderly manner and simulating sex.Sheriff Colin Miller also placed Stewart on the Sex Offenders Register for three years.
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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.
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Appropriately enough - this being Halloween don't you know- Slate has this week been running a series of dispatches from my own native heath (Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here). Kate Bolick asks, essentially, why are there so many haunted castles and ghostly apparitions in Scotland? Think what you want. I'm not here to convert you. Either you believe in ghosts or you don't, and if you don't—well, it's probably because you haven't seen one. They say the best believers are those who began as skeptics. Take Bella Beck (not her real name; she asked that I not use it), a suitably matter-of-fact academic at the University of Edinburgh's School of Scottish Studies.
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As someone who has, er, fond teenage memories of being barked at by NCOs from the Black Watch during hours of drill on the parade-ground and rather fonder recollections of cricket matches against the regiment, I've been looking forward for months to seeing Gregory Burke's prize-winning play about the regiment's experiences in Iraq during its current run in New York. Today's good news then is that - hurrah! - I snagged one of the two remaining tickets for the shows' final performance on, appropriately enough, Remembrance Sunday. So it's really just a bonus that the New York reviews have been tremendous. Here's Ben Brantley in the NYT: “Black Watch,” which was the hit of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year and runs through Nov.
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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 is just about as strong. So, why not just tell them they were evil?
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"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
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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 response to the increasing power of the EU itself.
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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.
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Yes, I'd noticed this part of Cameron's speech too: And those changes have brought us success, in local elections we have taken Plymouth, we have taken Lincoln, we took Chester, we took the council right here in Blackpool and as William reminded us in that great speech on Sunday we are back in the North of England, a force to be reckoned with in every part of our country. Daniel Larison raises an eyebrow and asks: Except Scotland. Or maybe this was an intentional oversight? My sense is that it was an unintentional slip. It's true that neither Scotland nor the Union were mentioned in Cameron's speech but that's understandable for a number of reasons. First, and most practically, the next British general election will not be won or lost in Scotland.