I've really enjoyed reading today's posts, they seem so sane compared with elsewhere! My take on the whole Scottish issue is that it's another hideous Tory divide and rule mess, now way out of hand. I've got Scots friends living on both sides of the border, in real space and the cyber variety. Many of them have close family on one side or t'other. They have some questions that vex them, on things from, "will I be able to visit our mum without a passport if we don't stay in the EU" to 'who's going to admit to voting no, every better together hoarding for miles has been defaced' to 'will I have to call my self English, Scottish even though I'm not'. There's been masses of hot air but very little real substance to some of the real constitutional questions that surround it all. Some very passionately held views on freedom from Westminster, but all the real nitty gritty obscured, for Scotland and the rest of Britain.
Part of me is connected to an even smaller place than Britain where a minority wanted to go the independence route, it was not helpful, it seems to generate the nationalism that breeds intolerance. I like our hotchpotch mix of cultures, nations, ethnicities, so even though I have sympathy for those who wish for freedom from our current dreadful rule from London, I think what they are yearning for could be achieved in other ways, with a lot less damage.
Perhaps 'no' voters are less shouty than the nats. I'm hoping so, because a 'yes' vote couldn't come at a worse time. I don't know what it will do to Scotland though. Worrying.
It seems like we are all holding our breath and waiting, for the coming week to be over, for the election in May to be over, to see what the final tally of Tory damage is going to be, to see whether we get the change we need, to see whether things will improve. I haven't felt much like posting, I put my mark to what campaigns strike me as being of merit, but in a way it feels to me like nearly everything that can be said has been. Still I love to come here, and do daily, so thank you, all the stalwarts who still can be funny, illuminating, and knowledgeable about daily events.
It seems like strange times indeed when an very old friend indeed is pondering the fact that she may no longer have any rights in the place she has always identified as home. Years ago I discussed something similar with a friend who I always believed had her roots in Lahore. She said, oh no, that's just where we went before coming here, home was India, always India. I'm not sure how I would feel about being expected to be English rather than British. I guess there's a lot of us mixed people wondering how we fit into a post UK world.
I hope so, it'll make them easier to identify.