I wonder if they had biscuits with their tea

From The Scotsman:

FOR almost 13 hours, the woman had been held hostage at knifepoint by a convicted sex attacker who repeatedly raped her as police stood outside his home trying to negotiate her release.

But when Sean McKay fell asleep, his terrified victim finally saw the chance to end her horrific ordeal.

She could not risk wakening him by calling out to the police, but she was able to scrawl the message, "Force the door", in condensation on a window for officers to see. She then rushed to the front door, and began to haul at the furniture that McKay had stacked behind it as a barricade, while police pushed from the other side. The officers managed to pull her to safety just as McKay woke up, dashed into the hall and tried to grab her.

I do wonder if the Scottish police would have stood around all night drinking tea and "negotiating" if the woman had been a member of the royal family rather than a "foreign national".

Tonight's Music

Scotland The Brave.

Where are Wallace and the Bruce when you need them?

From The Scotsman:

Half of those surveyed considered the increasing number of Muslims in the country as a cultural threat . . .

I just have one question. What the hell is wrong with the other half?

St. Andrew's Day

Today is St Andrew's Day. St Andrew and his brother Simon Peter were both fishermen before joining Jesus to become disciples. It is believed Andrew was martyred in 70AD at Patras, Greece, by the Roman governor who ordered him to be crucified on an X-shaped cross known as a Saltire Cross. (from The Scotsman)

St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. This is why Scotland's flag consists of St. Andrew's cross on a field of blue.

Punishment - Not the answer!

From The Scotsman:

A SCOTTISH student said to be a "wannabe suicide bomber" was yesterday jailed for eight years, a sentence that triggered fears young Muslims developing extremist views would be driven "deeper underground".

You know there's something to this. Hash penalties for rape in the United States have only driven rapists underground. I mean if a man rapes a few women and then realizes that he has done wrong and needs to come forward to get psychological counseling he might very well be deterred from seeking the help he needs by the possibility of a prison term.

Keeping our Scotch pure

From The Scotsman:

IMITATIONS of Scotch whisky which describe themselves as Highland, Lowland, Speyside, Campbeltown or Islay, are to be made illegal, it emerged yesterday.

The steps to protect the industry against counterfeiting are being put in place by the Westminster government.

At present, the brand, Scotch, is protected as a geographical product, but the regional variations and the different types of whisky are not.

The tightened legislation would supersede the Scotch Whisky Act 1988 and the Scotch Whisky Order 1990, and allow certain designations of Scotch whisky to be added to an EU list of Geographical Indications, which members of the World Trade Organisation would be obliged to protect.

Hilary Benn, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, yesterday announced a consultation will take place on bringing in stricter definitions of Scotch whisky in UK law.

Such a move could help support action against counterfeiting in the industry, which has exports worth more than £2 billion a year to the Scottish economy, and employs around 40,000 people.

The consultation will take place later this year, and new laws could be in place by the spring.

If ratified, and applied in international trade agreements, it would mean products such as Islay whisky would enjoy the same protection under European trade law as Champagne, Parma ham, and Roquefort cheese.

The new legislation aims to curb increasing incidences of foreign distillers attempting to pass off inferior products as authentically Scottish, such as Highland Gold Finest Whisky, which is produced in Surinam and the Netherlands, and Islay Whisky Cream, which is distilled in Italy.

The need for revised regulation in the area has long been called for by the Scotch Whisky Association.

The thought of passing something distilled in Surinam off as genuine Scotch Whisky would have been all it would have taken to get my McIntyre ancestors to saddle up their horses and ride down the road with muskets and lit torches.

Then there's this:

Whisky has been distilled in Scotland for centuries. There is some evidence to show that the art of distilling could have been brought to the country by Christian missionaries. . .

Another gift the Church has given the world.

For those wishing to say thank you the line forms at the right.

At least they have their priorities straight

From The Scotsman:

THE Scottish Parliament resumes today, with an ambitious programme of work including reforming the law on rape, abolishing bridge tolls and outlawing airguns.

It's just so sad.

Those deadly Christians

From The Brussels Journal:

A quote from The Independent, 5 August 2007

We have nothing to fear from al-Qa’ida. Christian fundamentalists are the real extremist threat. That’s the message from the writers of a new play being shown at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. […] The writers said that, while there is public discussion about the dangers of radical Islamic groups, the influence of the Christian far right is underestimated. “I’ve been very sensitive to extremists in other religions, particularly Islam, being demonised,” said Badham. “I find the Christian right groups that are enormously powerful in our own culture a larger numerical threat than extreme Islam. […] Bush is from the religious right and he has the bomb; that terrifies me far more than the potential of other extremists to get their hands on nuclear weapons. In the religious right it is the self-appointed moral majority that sets its own rules, and anybody opposing them is labelled unpatriotic and shouted down.”

Normally I figure that when your opponents are making fools out of themselves the best thing to do is stand back and let them. After all when someone sends a link which suggests that America's surveillance of Islamist terrorists is EXACTLY THE SAME as Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe's spying on the opponents of his regime I let the comment stand. After all if the two things are equivalent that must mean that the Zimbabwean and American governments are no different. Which would logically mean that there was no difference between a Soviet dissident like Alexander Solzhenitsyn and an American "dissident" like Huey Newton (head of the Black Panther Party and convicted murderer and drug dealer) since both opposed illegitimate regimes.

Of course reasoning like that does nothing but prove that you are utterly and completely not to be taken seriously and that nothing else that comes out of your mouth after that should be paid the slightest bit of attention to.

However sometimes something so egregiously stupid comes along that it just begs to be answered and the above bit of Scottish foolishness is such.

How many times has the "Christian Right" used nuclear weapons? If George W Bush is motivated only by his extreme fanatical Christianity then why is he working closely with polytheistic, Hindu India to give them nuclear technology? Why is he extending the umbrella of American protection over Jewish Israel?

Some loon sent a link to a story about some Christians in Africa or Asia who cut the head off of a Muslim in response to anti-Christian violence committed by Muslims. Is that what the Left wants to stand on? The fact that somewhere some Christians were pushed over the edge and retaliated to Islamofascist murder by giving as good as they got?

Fact of the day

James VI of Scotland (and I of England) was born today in 1566. The son of Mary Queen of Scots, James became the first ruler of Britain in 1603, with the death of Elizabeth I of England (Mary's cousin). James was an intelligent and capable man but for various reasons was not a popular monarch in England. His son, Charles proved even less popular and became the catalyst of the disastrous Civil War that (temporarily) ended royal rule in Britain. For more information on King James visit heritage.scotsman.com

James the VI and I was also the royal patron who commanded the work of creating a revised and improved version of The Bishop's Bible which, when finished, came to be called The King James Bible.

Racism - Not just in America any more

From The Scotsman:

DUNOON is a rarity among rural Scottish communities. The presence of a US naval base at Holy Loch during the Cold War accounts for most of the black people living in the town.

So Paul Omoniyi, a born and bred Scot of Nigerian parentage, might have expected a warmer welcome when he travelled to the Cowal peninsula on October 2, 2005, with his under-13s Bishopbriggs boys' team West Park United.

The 11-year-old was excited about making an impression for a team he had joined only two months earlier, and hoped it would help him realise his dream of becoming a professional footballer like his brother.

In the stand at Cowal Stadium that day, there was a crowd to watch the Scottish Youth Club Association (SYCA) league match, made up of players from the under-14s Dunoon team who had played earlier.

A few minutes after kick off, Paul got his first touch of the ball - and was promptly greeted by monkey chants from the stand. "I heard the first monkey chant and I did feel hurt and wanted to do something," said Paul. "I was going to speak to the referee at half-time but when it happened again, he put the boys doing it out. He came up and said how sorry he was about it."

The referee that afternoon was Ian Cunning, a local man who shared the training facilities with various Dunoon teams. "I thought my ears must have been deceiving me, so I played on," he said. A minute later, Paul sent the ball for a corner and even louder monkey chants pierced the air. "I was absolutely raging and held up play, ran from the field to order the boys in the stand out of the park, and told them in no uncertain terms their behaviour was appalling."

West Park coach Martin Rafferty said: "I was bemused when I heard the first chanting. The referee came over to me and said: 'Am I hearing things?' 'Depends on what you are listening to?' I replied. 'If it is noises coming from the stand then you are hearing monkey chants.' A brief time later, no one could be in any doubts that there were monkey chants coming from that part of the ground and that was why the referee went through the boys who were making them and sent them out."

Nowhere in the article is "monkey chant" defined. I guess that the monkey chant is so well known in Scotland that everyone just knows what it sounds like. Sort of like blowing a razzberry or flipping someone off need no definition in America.

Scotland to become a "sanctuary nation" for criminals?

From The Scotsman:

THOUSANDS of criminals, including thieves, housebreakers, vandals and fine-defaulters, will be spared prison sentences under radical plans announced yesterday by the new Scottish Executive.

Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, said he wanted to adopt a more liberal approach to penal policy.

Apparently Mr. MacAskill thinks that Scotland needs a great many more thieves, housebreakers, vandals and fine-defaulters. Because Scotland will surely get them if the perceived cost of committing any of those crimes is reduced.

Fact of the day

From The Scotsman:

King Charles II is restored to the English throne today in 1660. He had previously been crowned King of Scotland on 1 January 1651 and had attempted to reunite the kingdoms by attacking Cromwellian forces in England. This led to a resounding defeat at the Battle of Worcester where, according to legend, he hid in the 'Royal Oak' until the coast was clear. Upon restoration, Charles acknowledged his thanks to his Scottish soldiers by making The Royal Scots the first regular regiment of the modern British Army. To read more about Scotland's past visit heritage.scotsman.com

It's called a "clue"

From The Scotsman:

HOUSE price growth in Scotland could slow to a standstill this year amid increasingly unaffordable prices and rising interest rates, property experts have warned.

The gloomy outlook came as the latest figures show house prices recorded their biggest seasonal dip for two years.

Registers of Scotland data revealed that the average price for a residential property in Scotland decreased by 2.2 per cent in the last quarter (January to March 2007) to £139,836. This compares with a figure of £143,055 in the previous quarter (October to December 2006).

I wonder if the socialist government of Scotland will realize that by reducing taxes and regulation and cutting out a large percentage of the nation's welfare state handouts and eliminating much of the bloated welfare state bureaucracy which saps the state's vitality like a tapeworm that they will create an economic boom which will allow far more Scots to afford far better homes?

Who am I kidding. They are socialists. They curse Margaret Thatcher's name to this day for taking away some of their goodies.

Well, socialists ultimately get what they deserve.

Al MacGore to the rescue

Are all left liberals the whole world over mean spirited hateful sore losers like the Democrats in 2000? I guess so. It appears that the Labor Party in Scotland is prepared to take a page out of the Sore/Loserman Florida playbook and challenge the results of last week's elections. From The Scotsman:

THE Labour party is planning to snatch electoral victory from the Nationalists by preparing a legal challenge over a Holyrood seat which the SNP won by a handful of votes.

Labour party lawyers are planning to contest the result in Cunninghame North, which the Nationalists won by just 48 votes, giving them a one-seat victory.

But with an estimated 1,000 spoiled ballot papers having been declared at the count, and amid allegations of missing ballot papers, the party has begun moves to have the entire election reviewed and, if necessary, taken to an Electoral Court.

Labour party managers in the constituency have also written to the count's returning officer to demand that all the spoiled ballot papers be made publicly available and re-examined.

They believe the errors disproportionately affected the party in the count, and led to their loss.

Any review of the result would throw last Thursday's dramatic election into chaos. If Labour managed to overturn the result in their favour, they would overtake the SNP as the biggest party, handing them four more years as the leading party at Holyrood.

The SNP branded Labour "sore losers" over the attempts last night, and insisted that there was no way that any legal challenge would be accepted.

That this will subject Scotland to the same kind of turmoil and breed the same kind of bitter feelings that the debacle of Florida 2000 created in the US is a matter of no consequence to Labor.

From Heaven Wallace is smiling

From The Scotsman:

THE SNP won the first election in its history in dramatic fashion yesterday, condemning Labour to defeat in Scotland for the first time in 50 years and changing the face of British politics for ever.

The Nationalists emerged as the largest party in the Scottish Parliament at the end of two chaotic and tense days of voting, counting and confusion.

The SNP secured a wafer-thin victory over Labour, by only one seat, with the result coming down to the final declaration from the Highlands and Islands.

In an election that was marred by the most serious problem with invalid voting papers that the country has seen, it took until 6pm yesterday - 20 hours after the polls closed - for Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, to claim victory.

His party won 47 of the 129 seats at Holyrood, with Labour one behind on 46. The Conservatives were third, with 17 MSPs, while the Liberal Democrats took 16 seats. The Greens were down to two MSPs, with Margo MacDonald, an independent, re-elected on the Lothians list.

The New York Times also takes note of the changing political scene in Scotland, as well as the rest of the UK:

LONDON, May 4 — In a historic reversal, the separatist Scottish National Party emerged Friday as the biggest political grouping in Scotland, ending 50 years of dominance there by the governing Labor Party and redrawing Britain’s political landscape.

The result was the most startling among a series of regional votes across Britain on Thursday, as Prime Minister Tony Blair began a long and choreographed farewell to British politics. The outcome represented a sharp rebuke to Mr. Blair and a troubled, embarrassing debut for Gordon Brown, a Scot who is expected to become Britain’s next prime minister.

Although he was not a candidate, Mr. Brown, currently chancellor of the exchequer, had traveled to Scotland to campaign vigorously against the Scottish National Party, staking his prestige on a Labor victory.

As the results were announced — after a chaotic night in which tens of thousands of Scottish ballots were ruled invalid — Alex Salmond, the Scottish National Party leader, hailed the “wind of change” in Scottish politics.

“Never again will we say Labor has a divine right to rule Scotland,” he said. “They have no moral authority left to govern.” With all votes counted in the balloting for the 129-seat Scottish Parliament, the Scottish National Party increased its seats to 47 from 25, while Labor fell to 46, down from 50, according to the BBC’s tabulation. The Scottish National Party’s other gains were at the expense of smaller parties.

The central plank of SNP's platform is a national referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom. That dream of undoing the Acts of Union has simmered beneath the surface of Scotland since their original imposition in 1706-7.

The Acts of Union dissolved both the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland and formed the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The crowns of the two nations had been united in 1603 when Queen Elizabeth I of England had died childless and left the crown of England to her cousin King James VI of Scotland (who became King James I of England). James had desired a union of the Parliaments to go along with the union of the crowns, but neither the Scots nor the English would tolerate the idea.

The English believed that their new Scottish king would attempt to subvert their independence by packing the new government with his Scottish cronies and the Scots believed (with very good reason) that the much larger English realm would dominate them by shear force of numbers and Scotland would essentially disappear.

It took a little more than 100 years for the proper circumstances needed to overcome both sides' hesitation. In England it was the desire to create a stable Royal succession that would prevent any disuniting of the crowns which could potentially leave an independent Scotland allied with another European power (especially a Roman Catholic one) against England.

In Scotland the desire for union (what there was of it) was driven by the hope that a full economic union with the much larger and wealthier England would help lift the nation out of an economic depression brought about by the disastrous Darien scheme.

The Union was not supported by a majority of the English people and was deeply unpopular with the Scots. In fact the Scottish Parliamentarians who voted the Act of Union were almost killed by a mob of enraged Scots after the results of their vote became known. The general feeling among the Scots was that their leaders had betrayed them because they had been bribed by English interests. A song about the Scots sense of betrayal and grief over their lost nation called "Both Sides the Tweed" remains popular to this day and is a staple of Celtic bands.

Although it took years for the economic benefits to become apparent in Scotland it would be hard to argue that the Union was not good for the Scottish people. However the desire to be a true nation never left the Scottish heart. This desire for independence manifested itself in a series of uprisings which culminated in the Jacobite rising of 1745 in which Prince Charles Edward Stewart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) raised an armed expedition, with French support, and landed with troops and supplies and raised his banner at Glenfinnan. Although many Scots, especially Highlanders, flocked to his cause the power of the English Army was too great for him to overcome and the Scottish forces were defeated at the Battle of Culloden in April of 1746. Charles fled to the Continent where he received asylum in one Royal Court after another until he wound up in Rome where he lived out his days.

The dream of nationhood did not die however and in 1997 the Scottish people's desire to once again control their own destiny manifested itself in the Scottish devolution referendum in which a majority of the Scots voted for the creation of a Scottish parliament with taxing powers. In response to this vote the United Kingdom Parliament passed the Scotland Act 1998 which created an Scottish Parliament which meets at Holyrood, the traditional seat of Scottish kings.

The new Scottish Parliament is not truly independent and Scotland remains a constituent part of the United Kingdom and the Queen of England remains Scotland's head of state. The Scottish National Party wishes to go ahead to full independence from the United Kingdom and the results of this week's elections show a growing sentiment for that in Scotland. Although there is not - yet - a clear majority for separation the steady growth of the SNP indicates that the idea of a reborn Scotland is gaining purchase.

Perhaps in 10 more years the world will once again see a Scottish King being crowned upon the Stone of Destiny.

History in the (un)making

The Scotsman's fact of the day:

On this day in 1654, at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh, Lt-Gen George Monck made the proclamations of the Protectorate and Ordinance of Union with England. These declarations were part of series of ceremonies marking Monck's entry into Edinburgh and they became stepping stones toward Scotland and England formally uniting 300 years ago this week. Read more about Scotland's great history and heritage here

Also in today's Scotsman - election results:

SNP take Glasgow Govan from Labour

SNP take Stirling from Labour

Alex Salmond wins Gordon for the SNP

Another SNP gain as Labour lose Kilmarnock and Loudon

SNP is the Scottish National Party and it believes in independence from the United Kingdom. No one is sure if the SNP has taken control of the Scottish Parliament (due to several problems with the voting which make Florida 2000 look like a well oiled machine) however they have at the very least made impressive gains.

It could very well be that we are seeing the unraveling of the union which was began 300 years ago.

I've been wanting to post something about this for some time. I think I'll try to put something together this weekend.

Going gentle into that good night

Mark Steyn writes an advanced post mortem for Scotland:

For example, consider the following headline from the Scotsman the other week: "Teaching jobs in doubt as pensioners set to outnumber pupils by 2009."

This was a story by Peter MacMahon, the paper's "Scottish Government Editor", and it begins thus: "Scotland's demographic time bomb will explode in three years, when the number of pensioners north of the Border overtakes the number of children in school, the Executive has been warned."

Seems straightforward enough: the country's demographic death spiral is accelerating faster than expected. And, as far as the Scotsman is concerned, the alarming thing about this development is that it could put cushy state teaching jobs "in doubt".

For crying out loud, man, get a grip. It puts every job "in doubt". It puts the continued existence of your country "in doubt". And it means the Scottish National Party is going through the motions: nobody needs a Scottish nation if there are no more Scottish nationals. See you, Jimmeh? Not for much longer.

Indeed, the remarkable feature of contemporary Scottish nationalism is that it has achieved all the features of a failed nation state without achieving the status of a nation state. "Teaching jobs" are the least of it. And doubtless the unions will see to it that, even when there is only one wee scrawny bairn left in the whole of Scotland, platoons of teachers will still be manning abandoned elementary schools across the kingdom. The jobs-for-life public-sector employee stood on the burning deck whence all the boys had fled.

With half the annual births it had in the 1950s and a population on the brink of falling below five million, Scotland has become a minor member of the axis of extinction: Germany, Japan, Russia - once great nations now recording net population loss. In its general approach to economic reality, not to mention the physical health of its population, Scotland is closer to the Russian end of the picture than to the German-Japanese end.

How did this happen? Almost everywhere you go on the planet, the great institutions of this world were built by Scots, from the Canadian Pacific Railway to the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank. Where is the spirit of Mel McGibson in Braveheart?

"Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live…at least for a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take…OUR FREEDOM!"

But it is all more complicated than that. The modern Scot is prepared to fight - or, at any rate, strike - but only for the right to die in his bed on a government pension. In fact, one of the small signs of the country's woes is the byline of Peter MacMahon's Scotsman story. It is apparently possible to make a career in Scottish journalism as a "Scottish Government Editor", which in itself tells you something about the Scottish state.

What can be done to save Scotland? The Scottish Executive would like Scotland to have control of its own immigration, as the province of Quebec does. Quebec's collapsed birth rate has also cost it its dreams of nationhood and, like Scotland, it looked to immigration to save it, since when it has attracted a lively range of jihadist cells for whom Montreal offers the advantage of being a terrorist-indulgent neighbourhood only a stone's throw - or a bomb's - from the Great Satan's border. As the estate agents say, it is location, location, location. Glasgow has no such unique selling point.

Where are the immigrants going to come from? The birth rate is falling everywhere but the pre-modern world, ie, Africa and large swaths of Islam. Assuming that a talented Indian wished to leave his own land, which has the fastest-growing middle class in the world, why would he eschew America or Australia in order to go to Aberdeen and spend his working life supporting the elderly unsackable hordes of superfluous primary-school teachers?

The Muslims do their bit to keep the classrooms full. Abu Hamza, one notes, has seven children, all British subjects, although none inclined to go north, young man. But, in a world running out of emigrants, that is where any policy based on immigration leads: a future in which Scotland achieves nationhood as North Yemen.

Scotland is the canary in the United Kingdom's coal mine, but, given that three of the four component parts of the realm are mired in the same bloated, dead-end dependency culture, it would be foolish for the English to assume they won't get stuck with the bill for a Celtic fringe decaying into a long-term geriatric hospice. I doubt any Scot with an eye to electoral viability would want to run on anything that smacked of American conservatism, but surely they could at least learn something from Ireland, where, you will recall, Braveheart was filmed. They could have shot it in Scotland, but the Scots are too busy shooting themselves.

The other day Esko Aho - oh, come on, you remember, the former Finnish prime minister - presented a report to the European Commission that, in essence, read like a three-year-old Steyn column with an expenses budget: successful companies are abandoning the EU because it is becoming an irrelevant, sclerotic, statist backwater, etc.

Europe, says Mr Aho, is "living a moderately comfortable life on slowly declining capital. This society, averse to risk and reluctant to change, is in itself alarming, but it is also unsustainable in the face of rising competition from other parts of the world. For many citizens without work or in less-favoured regions, even the claim to comfort is untrue."

That is the point. On the present course, everywhere will wind up like Scotland. Mrs Thatcher liked to say that "the facts of life are conservative". Having declined to endorse that proposition in the Eighties, the Scots will be learning it far more painfully in the years ahead.

Watching my ancestral homeland commit suicide in slow motion is very painful. Scotland could be saved, as could the rest of Europe, but doing so would would require the European people to wean themselves from living government subsidized lives.

I frankly don't see that happening. It took over 2500 years but Homer's vision of the land of the lotus eaters has finally come true. However it wasn't a narcotic plant which has put a race of people to sleep. It is a government check.

Can Scotland truly live again?

From The Brussels Journal:

A quote from Hamish McRae in The Independent, 11 April 2007

Could Scotland “go it alone”? It is a tantalising prospect, provoked I think more than anything else by the example of Ireland, which has seemed to have prospered as an independent country in a way that it could not have done had it been part of the UK.

[…] The plain fact here is that Ireland has boomed because of inward investment and that has been the result mainly, not entirely, because of favourable corporate tax rates. […] The ability to use tax competition as a weapon is something that large countries find hard to do because the losses, initially at least, are likely to be larger than the gains. For small countries it is different. The amount of inward investment you need to attract to offset the loss of revenue from the existing corporate base is more attainable.

I hope this is true. As someone whose roots are in Scotland I pray that this comes to pass. Scotland is a great nation with a proud history whose soul has been stolen by generations of welfare state handouts. Even those who get up every morning and go to work are likely to be addicted to subsidies of one sort or another.

If the nation experiences prosperity from free market capitalism there could be enough of a spark of the old Celtic spirit to fan into a brilliant flame of liberty.

For so long I've been afraid that the spirit of Wallace and The Bruce and Robert MacGregor was dead.

I hope I've been wrong about that.

Somewhere Wallace and the Bruce are smiling

From The Brussels Journal:

A quote from EUobserver.com, 8 January 2007

Scotland would not automatically become a member of the European Union if it became independent, the European Commission has said. [...] “The situation is unprecedented and therefore negotiations would be needed. Things would have to be discussed and negotiated,” [the commission’s representative in Scotland, Neil] Mitchinson said amid a continuing public debate in Scotland on its independence from London. [...] Lorand Bartels, a law lecturer at Edinburgh University, warned that accession talks with Brussels would probably mean that Scotland would have to adopt the euro – a legal obligation for all new EU entrants. [...]

So the Scotts have a way out!

Run Jock, run as fast as you can! Don't look back, just RUN!

Now for a bit of fun

From Edinburgh Festivals website:

Hogmanay is the Scottish New Year, celebrated on 31st December every year. Never being slow to spot a good excuse for a party, the night involves a celebratory drink or two, fireworks and the kissing of complete strangers – not necessarily in that order.

Edinburgh's Hogmany is a four day free for all celebrating the new year. Visitors enjoy 4 days of fabulous events throughout the city including well loved favourites such as the Torchlight Procession and the world famous Royal Bank Street Party, as well as many new events.

The Scots do love a party.

Here's a link to a webcam so you can look in on what's left of the celebration.