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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
Things are sure hotting up on the Brexit stage this week. I watched the Brexit Party event in London this week and it's interesting to note their insistence on a "no deal" exit from the EU. I confess to believing that to be the only way forward for the UK.
I just want the UK to be a true independent country where we make our own laws and are not told what to do by the rEU. It seems our remainer MP's like being told what to do and are scared of having to decide on the future of the UK outside the EU. Pathetic really.
--------
You can view a video introduction to this newsletter at:
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
The CAP doesn’t fit - why the EU’s farm subsidies are ripe for reform
The CAP subsidises FTSE 250 corporations like Tate&Lyle at the expense of smaller farms
Read more at:
https://capx.co/the-cap-doesnt-fit-w...ipe-for-reform
German-U.S. Ties Are Breaking Down
Never since the founding of postwar Germany have relations between Berlin and the United States been as fragile as they are today.
Read more at:
https://www.spiegel.de/international...a-1282295.html
EU set to halt imports of Canadian cherries, other fruits
The European Union will halt imports of Canadian cherries and other fresh fruits starting Sept. 1 as it enforces new import requirements related to pests, according to a Canadian government document sent to industry on Thursday
Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ca...-idUKKCN1VC2OJ
The GERS divide
The publication of the annual GERS report has sparked the usual ill-tempered debate about its implications.
Read more at:
http://sceptical.scot/2019/08/the-gers-divide/
Rare 1,200-year-old Pictish stone found near Dingwall
Archaeologists said the find is of national importance because it is one of only about 50 complete Pictish cross-slabs known to exist.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...lands-49446609
Scottish-built floating tidal turbine world's most powerful
Work has started in Scotland to build what is described as the world's most powerful floating tidal turbine.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...tland-49471881
McIlroy banks $15 million with Tour Championship, FedEx Cup wins
Victory at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday will not completely erase the disappointment of a futile season at the majors for Rory McIlroy, but it may be worth far more than the $15 million he received for winning the FedEx Cup.
Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-go...-idUKKCN1VF0ZN
10 best whiskies from countries you didn’t know produced great whisky
From Canada to Taiwan, expand your whisky horizons and try a bottle from these lesser-known distilleries located around the world
Read more at:
https://inews.co.uk/ibuys/food-and-d...france-canada/
Nicola Sturgeon's 'obsession' with staying in office
An article from the Scottish Review
Read this at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/GerryHassan491a.html
The Restoration of the old Carnegie Library at Thames
And its transformation Into The Treasury Research Center and Archive That We know Today
Read more at:
http://www.thetreasury.org.nz./carnegie/opening.htm
Germany's export slump mainly caused by Britain
Germany’s recent export slump was driven mainly by weaker sales to Britain
Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge...-idUKKCN1VI1IU
Stone Age hunter-gather camp found at Berriedale Braes
Work to improve a notorious hairpin bend on the A9 in the Highlands has revealed the site of a hunter-gatherers' camp.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...lands-49495139
Ruth Davidson’s successor must show the courage that is her hallmark
Ruth Davidson reflects the values of many Scots who may not identify as Conservatives
Read more at:
https://capx.co/ruth-davidsons-succe...s-her-hallmark
Electric Canadian
Helen Armstrong
That impassioned woman at the heart of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.
You can read about her at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/mak..._armstrong.htm
Soldiering in Canada
Recollections and Experiences By Lt.-Col. George T. Denison (second edition) (1900) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/for...ngincanada.pdf
By Trench and Trail
In Song and Story by Angus MacKay (Oscar Dbu) (1918) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/lif...renchtrail.pdf
Electric Scotland
Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk
Second Edition (1816)
You can read these at: https://www.electricscotland.com/boo...isKINSFOLK.pdf
The Log School-House on the Columbia
By Hezerkiah Butterworh (1890) (pdf)
Shows the different attitudes between first nations people and the settlers. You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...choolhouse.pdf
Home Preacher
Got up the service for week 3 which is by Dr. Guthrie and you can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/h...her/week03.htm
Farewell to Fuinary
Added this from Good Words of 1882 to the foot of our Good Words page at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ords/index.htm
Inchmarnock Island Estate
This is a great description of this Island estate from the selling agent and you can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history.../SFA190028.pdf
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Volume 5, November 1862 to April 1886 (pdf) which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ceedingsv5.pdf
Biographical Sketch of Adam Fergusson, LL.D., F.R.S.E.
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh By John Small, M.A. (1864) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...mfergusson.pdf
The Romance of History - India
By The Rev. Hobart Gaunter, B.D. (1899) (pdf)
This can be read at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...nceofindia.pdf
The Life of Leander Starr Jameson
Diplomatist, soldier, explorer, leader in forlorn hopes, prisoner, and Prime Minister by Ian Colvin in two volumes (1922)
These volumes can be read at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...anderStarr.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Hi everyone.
Sad, sad news today. My dear and beloved friend, Jim Walters (Laird of the Haggis), passed away early yesterday morning after suffering a massive heart attack a few days before. He was on life support and then removed from that when it was determined that there was no activity in his brain. My dear and beloved friend, Gay Walters, his wife, asked me to notify everyone for her...which I have done as best I could.
Please keep Gay and the entire family in your thoughts and prayers.
The funeral will be at 11 AM on Tuesday, August 27 at the Gulf Shores Baptist Church in Gulf Shores, Alabama. If you wish to send a card, just email me at bethscribble@aol.com and I will send you their address.
Here is the September BNFT Section A. Thank you to James J. Shaffer Photography for the pictures of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games 2019 Parade of Tartans.
Don't forget to keep me up to date with your email address, please.
Many thanks.
Aye,
beth
You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/bnft/index.htm
The Story
Taken from The Herald Newspaper which is on the whole anti-Brexit and pro Independence.
The PM knows what he’s doing, do Remainers?
By Andy Maciver
Outrage is not hard to come by. Sometimes justified outrage, sometimes faux outrage, sometimes misplaced outrage. We had plenty of all of those on June 23rd 2016, when the UK voted to leave the EU, and we’ve had several acute episodes of outrage since.
Yesterday, however, the nation’s collective temperature rose to a new high with the Government’s request to the Queen that she prorogue Parliament for the purposes of it then bringing forward a Queen’s Speech.
Queen’s Speeches are normal. Prorogation ahead of Queen’s Speeches is normal. A risen House of Commons during party conference season is normal.
But, of course, the background is not normal. And the timing is not normal. So, is yesterday’s outrage justified? Yes and no; or more particularly yes, if you are a Remainer, and no, if you are a Leaver. And let us be in no doubt that there are vanishingly few public figures in between.
The Remainer sees a Government trying to push through a no-deal Brexit. The Remainer sees a no-deal Brexit as undemocratic because the 52 per cent did not vote for that particular flavour. The Remainer sees petitions and opinion polls indicating that people have changed their minds as a proxy for a renewed democratic exercise.
These points are arguable.
What is not arguable is that there are anomalies in the way that the Government has gone about its prorogation. Its reasoning that we need a new Queen’s Speech for a new Prime Minister to indicate what he will legislate for, citing violent crime, public service funding and so on, is clearly bogus. This could happen two weeks after Brexit, instead of two weeks before, with no practical difference.
By doing it now, therefore, the Government is deliberately limiting the time and opportunities for the opposition parties to stop Brexit.
But what about the Leaver? The Leaver sees a group of elite politicians in a London bubble who want to overturn the nation’s biggest ever democratic order. The Leaver sees a Government which is trying to ensure that, by any means necessary, the democratically expressed will is fulfilled.
Again, these points are arguable.
But what is inarguable is that the prorogation does not prevent opposition MPs from taking anti-Brexit action in the form of legislation or a vote of no confidence, either next week, or in the lead-up to 31st October.
And it is inarguable that a period of time in October where Parliament does not sit is normal.
This frenzied hysteria where large numbers of people, on both sides, suddenly become constitutional experts and pronounce the death of democracy, will dissipate after a couple of days.
What we will then be left with is the crux of this: tactics.
This is a high-stakes game of political chess. The Government is banking on two things.
The first is that the population will see prorogation as a piece of Parliamentary procedure that they’re not particularly interested in.
The second, and here is the big one, is that a no-deal Brexit (in the event a new deal cannot be agreed) is not as much of a short-term political or economic risk as the political, media and academic classes are presuming it would be.
If my friend Iain Anderson – who is very well connected in the corridors of Westminster – is correct, the Government is looking at a possible general election on 7th November.
This, to me, is an astonishing show of confidence that, seven days after a no-deal outcome, the country will be in good enough shape to vote in massive numbers for the party which delivered it.
For the Remain side, much less has changed than is being claimed. They can still prevent a no-deal Brexit by various Parliamentary means, including passing legislation or requesting a vote of no confidence. What their outrage masks is in-fighting and disorganisation.
Only a few days ago, a vote of no confidence was the only show in town; now, suddenly, it’s a non-starter and legislation is everything.
Indeed, the Remainers are so disorganised that they have not noticed what may possibly emerge as the hidden truth here: that Boris Johnson knows exactly what he’s doing.
Andy Maciver is director of Message Matters, and a former Scottish Conservative head of communications.
And that's it for this week and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
Things are sure hotting up on the Brexit stage this week. I watched the Brexit Party event in London this week and it's interesting to note their insistence on a "no deal" exit from the EU. I confess to believing that to be the only way forward for the UK.
I just want the UK to be a true independent country where we make our own laws and are not told what to do by the rEU. It seems our remainer MP's like being told what to do and are scared of having to decide on the future of the UK outside the EU. Pathetic really.
--------
You can view a video introduction to this newsletter at:
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
The CAP doesn’t fit - why the EU’s farm subsidies are ripe for reform
The CAP subsidises FTSE 250 corporations like Tate&Lyle at the expense of smaller farms
Read more at:
https://capx.co/the-cap-doesnt-fit-w...ipe-for-reform
German-U.S. Ties Are Breaking Down
Never since the founding of postwar Germany have relations between Berlin and the United States been as fragile as they are today.
Read more at:
https://www.spiegel.de/international...a-1282295.html
EU set to halt imports of Canadian cherries, other fruits
The European Union will halt imports of Canadian cherries and other fresh fruits starting Sept. 1 as it enforces new import requirements related to pests, according to a Canadian government document sent to industry on Thursday
Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ca...-idUKKCN1VC2OJ
The GERS divide
The publication of the annual GERS report has sparked the usual ill-tempered debate about its implications.
Read more at:
http://sceptical.scot/2019/08/the-gers-divide/
Rare 1,200-year-old Pictish stone found near Dingwall
Archaeologists said the find is of national importance because it is one of only about 50 complete Pictish cross-slabs known to exist.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...lands-49446609
Scottish-built floating tidal turbine world's most powerful
Work has started in Scotland to build what is described as the world's most powerful floating tidal turbine.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...tland-49471881
McIlroy banks $15 million with Tour Championship, FedEx Cup wins
Victory at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday will not completely erase the disappointment of a futile season at the majors for Rory McIlroy, but it may be worth far more than the $15 million he received for winning the FedEx Cup.
Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-go...-idUKKCN1VF0ZN
10 best whiskies from countries you didn’t know produced great whisky
From Canada to Taiwan, expand your whisky horizons and try a bottle from these lesser-known distilleries located around the world
Read more at:
https://inews.co.uk/ibuys/food-and-d...france-canada/
Nicola Sturgeon's 'obsession' with staying in office
An article from the Scottish Review
Read this at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/GerryHassan491a.html
The Restoration of the old Carnegie Library at Thames
And its transformation Into The Treasury Research Center and Archive That We know Today
Read more at:
http://www.thetreasury.org.nz./carnegie/opening.htm
Germany's export slump mainly caused by Britain
Germany’s recent export slump was driven mainly by weaker sales to Britain
Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-ge...-idUKKCN1VI1IU
Stone Age hunter-gather camp found at Berriedale Braes
Work to improve a notorious hairpin bend on the A9 in the Highlands has revealed the site of a hunter-gatherers' camp.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...lands-49495139
Ruth Davidson’s successor must show the courage that is her hallmark
Ruth Davidson reflects the values of many Scots who may not identify as Conservatives
Read more at:
https://capx.co/ruth-davidsons-succe...s-her-hallmark
Electric Canadian
Helen Armstrong
That impassioned woman at the heart of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.
You can read about her at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/mak..._armstrong.htm
Soldiering in Canada
Recollections and Experiences By Lt.-Col. George T. Denison (second edition) (1900) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/for...ngincanada.pdf
By Trench and Trail
In Song and Story by Angus MacKay (Oscar Dbu) (1918) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/lif...renchtrail.pdf
Electric Scotland
Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk
Second Edition (1816)
You can read these at: https://www.electricscotland.com/boo...isKINSFOLK.pdf
The Log School-House on the Columbia
By Hezerkiah Butterworh (1890) (pdf)
Shows the different attitudes between first nations people and the settlers. You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...choolhouse.pdf
Home Preacher
Got up the service for week 3 which is by Dr. Guthrie and you can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/h...her/week03.htm
Farewell to Fuinary
Added this from Good Words of 1882 to the foot of our Good Words page at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ords/index.htm
Inchmarnock Island Estate
This is a great description of this Island estate from the selling agent and you can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history.../SFA190028.pdf
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Volume 5, November 1862 to April 1886 (pdf) which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ceedingsv5.pdf
Biographical Sketch of Adam Fergusson, LL.D., F.R.S.E.
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh By John Small, M.A. (1864) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...mfergusson.pdf
The Romance of History - India
By The Rev. Hobart Gaunter, B.D. (1899) (pdf)
This can be read at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...nceofindia.pdf
The Life of Leander Starr Jameson
Diplomatist, soldier, explorer, leader in forlorn hopes, prisoner, and Prime Minister by Ian Colvin in two volumes (1922)
These volumes can be read at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...anderStarr.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Hi everyone.
Sad, sad news today. My dear and beloved friend, Jim Walters (Laird of the Haggis), passed away early yesterday morning after suffering a massive heart attack a few days before. He was on life support and then removed from that when it was determined that there was no activity in his brain. My dear and beloved friend, Gay Walters, his wife, asked me to notify everyone for her...which I have done as best I could.
Please keep Gay and the entire family in your thoughts and prayers.
The funeral will be at 11 AM on Tuesday, August 27 at the Gulf Shores Baptist Church in Gulf Shores, Alabama. If you wish to send a card, just email me at bethscribble@aol.com and I will send you their address.
Here is the September BNFT Section A. Thank you to James J. Shaffer Photography for the pictures of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games 2019 Parade of Tartans.
Don't forget to keep me up to date with your email address, please.
Many thanks.
Aye,
beth
You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/bnft/index.htm
The Story
Taken from The Herald Newspaper which is on the whole anti-Brexit and pro Independence.
The PM knows what he’s doing, do Remainers?
By Andy Maciver
Outrage is not hard to come by. Sometimes justified outrage, sometimes faux outrage, sometimes misplaced outrage. We had plenty of all of those on June 23rd 2016, when the UK voted to leave the EU, and we’ve had several acute episodes of outrage since.
Yesterday, however, the nation’s collective temperature rose to a new high with the Government’s request to the Queen that she prorogue Parliament for the purposes of it then bringing forward a Queen’s Speech.
Queen’s Speeches are normal. Prorogation ahead of Queen’s Speeches is normal. A risen House of Commons during party conference season is normal.
But, of course, the background is not normal. And the timing is not normal. So, is yesterday’s outrage justified? Yes and no; or more particularly yes, if you are a Remainer, and no, if you are a Leaver. And let us be in no doubt that there are vanishingly few public figures in between.
The Remainer sees a Government trying to push through a no-deal Brexit. The Remainer sees a no-deal Brexit as undemocratic because the 52 per cent did not vote for that particular flavour. The Remainer sees petitions and opinion polls indicating that people have changed their minds as a proxy for a renewed democratic exercise.
These points are arguable.
What is not arguable is that there are anomalies in the way that the Government has gone about its prorogation. Its reasoning that we need a new Queen’s Speech for a new Prime Minister to indicate what he will legislate for, citing violent crime, public service funding and so on, is clearly bogus. This could happen two weeks after Brexit, instead of two weeks before, with no practical difference.
By doing it now, therefore, the Government is deliberately limiting the time and opportunities for the opposition parties to stop Brexit.
But what about the Leaver? The Leaver sees a group of elite politicians in a London bubble who want to overturn the nation’s biggest ever democratic order. The Leaver sees a Government which is trying to ensure that, by any means necessary, the democratically expressed will is fulfilled.
Again, these points are arguable.
But what is inarguable is that the prorogation does not prevent opposition MPs from taking anti-Brexit action in the form of legislation or a vote of no confidence, either next week, or in the lead-up to 31st October.
And it is inarguable that a period of time in October where Parliament does not sit is normal.
This frenzied hysteria where large numbers of people, on both sides, suddenly become constitutional experts and pronounce the death of democracy, will dissipate after a couple of days.
What we will then be left with is the crux of this: tactics.
This is a high-stakes game of political chess. The Government is banking on two things.
The first is that the population will see prorogation as a piece of Parliamentary procedure that they’re not particularly interested in.
The second, and here is the big one, is that a no-deal Brexit (in the event a new deal cannot be agreed) is not as much of a short-term political or economic risk as the political, media and academic classes are presuming it would be.
If my friend Iain Anderson – who is very well connected in the corridors of Westminster – is correct, the Government is looking at a possible general election on 7th November.
This, to me, is an astonishing show of confidence that, seven days after a no-deal outcome, the country will be in good enough shape to vote in massive numbers for the party which delivered it.
For the Remain side, much less has changed than is being claimed. They can still prevent a no-deal Brexit by various Parliamentary means, including passing legislation or requesting a vote of no confidence. What their outrage masks is in-fighting and disorganisation.
Only a few days ago, a vote of no confidence was the only show in town; now, suddenly, it’s a non-starter and legislation is everything.
Indeed, the Remainers are so disorganised that they have not noticed what may possibly emerge as the hidden truth here: that Boris Johnson knows exactly what he’s doing.
Andy Maciver is director of Message Matters, and a former Scottish Conservative head of communications.
And that's it for this week and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair