Postcard from the revolution

On Sunday there was a rally in George Square.  Labelled "Hope Over Fear", the aim was to have a family friendly day (fairground rides and face painting for the kids) with speakers talking about how to carry on the momentum from the YES campaign, and fight for a better deal for Scotland (ok, ideally everyone attending, still wants independence, and my own opinion is that now the "promises" are being seen to be lies, and the lies told by the Better Together campaign are being shown up for what they are, then it's not a case of IF, but WHEN).

The speeches were interspersed with bands, and the atmosphere was very upbeat.  Figures put the attendance at 6ooo in the square at any one time, with a total of about 10000 people in total, having attended.

Some quarters have made cynical comments about the fact that the whole thing was organised by Tommy Sheridan and his Solidarity party, as Tommy is pretty much persona non grata in certain political circles, but personally I don't think it's an issue.  I'm not one likely to vote for Tommy, although I do think he's a great speaker.  He know's his stuff, and doesn't rely on an autocue or script, like most of the more mainstream politicians.

The square was a sea of saltires, and YES flags.  There were the usual mix of stands, with pretty much every flavour of socialism being represented (apart from Labour, but hey, they haven't been socialist for a long time now), and CND.

The atmosphere was fantastic, and probably the highest profile speaker was Naomi Wolf

The bands were a great mix, with my personal favourite being the Trongate Rum Riots who were superb.  I need to check them out when they're playing again.

So, the genie is out the bottle and it's not going back any time soon.  As I say, it's not IF we get independence, it's a matter of WHEN.

Thoughts on the revolution

So it's been two weeks since Scotland voted to remain the in UK (55-45%), and a week since I got back from holiday.
When I woke up on the 19th and realised what the result was, my initial reaction was a mix of despair and anger.  I wanted out of the country, and fortunately I had a flight that afternoon to Crete.

While on holiday I managed to mull things over, and since I got back I've realised that what probably swung it for the NO side was the success of their campaign of fear, which actually included figures like Danny Alexander coming out with outright lies on live tv debates.  For example, he said that in the event of a YES, Lloyds bank would move their HQ from Scotland to England.  He had no response when it was pointed out to him that their HQ actually WAS based in England.  This was just one example of the many lies told.  Others included "You won't get your pension as you'll be in a foreign country".  Well, just how do ex-pats living in (for example) Spain get their pension then?

Now I'm back, I've calmed down, and I've realised, we lost the battle, not the war.  The various pro-indy groups are still fired up, and the pro-indy political parties have found their memberships swelling.

Watch this space, it's not over yet.

Wee book of bike routes

Picked up this wee book at the weekend.  It's got 40 routes in Central Scotland, all starting and finishing at railway stations, so they're all doable from Glasgow and/or Edinburgh.  Roll on the bike to work (for the mountain bike) and the better weather.

New Beanie

Those who know me will know where I stand on the subject of independence for Scotland.  If you don't know, the pic below should provide you with a clue. :-)