Craigmaddie Reservoir PHOTOS at Mugdock, one of our best local places to walk. Often the reflected light here is very moving and beautiful.
Sunday, 30 November 2025
Scots actor Sam Heughan of Outlander
Scots actor Sam Heughan Is one of our world class stars. He came to fame in the major Scots TV series OUTLANDER – which will screen Season 8, in 2026, now on MGM+
The story centres around an English military nurse Claire, played by Cailtriona Baife who time travels back to a war torn Scotland of 1743. Two years before the Jacobite rising of 45. Where she falls in love with a highland warrior Jamie Fraser played by Sam Heughan
Its a mix of love story, time travel and historical drama. The second season travels to the Caribbean. Later series travel to France, and then to America. The series is based on the books by American and academic author Diana Gabaldon.
**I took these photos at the Edinburgh international book festival 2025, at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.
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Language Colonisation of the mind
Language Colonization is cheaper and more effective
In Ireland the Irish language was criminalized back in 1366 in the Statues of Kilkenny.
(Edmund Spencer, author of Faerie Queen. Pamphlet 1596. A View of the Present state of Ireland.) He argued language was the best means of bringing about the erasure of Irish memory.
“It hath been the use of the conqueror to despise the language of the conquered. The marginal status of Irish in its own land, did not come about by some kind of natural evolution.”
The decline of Irish in its own land was brought about through conscious political acts and educational policies.”
“The colonisation of the Irish language would make the Irish forget who they were, weaken their resistance and therefore make it easier for the English to conquer and subdue them.” Writes Edmund Spencer 1596
“Language conquest unlike the military form, is cheaper and more effective: the conqueror has only to invest in conquering the minds of the elites, who will then spread submission to the rest of the population. The elite becomes part of the linguistic army of the conqueror.
What’s culture got to do with politics, The National Alan Riach
The Unionist purpose is to delegitimise any claims Scotland has a national culture and identity of its own which justify and underpin its right to self determination.
“The trauma initially wrought by the colonial education system is thus passed on, inherited. Abnormally becomes normalised. The colony of the mind prevents meaningful, nationally empowering innovations in education.”
..control by the coloniser of the colonised is inherent in the inequality of the education system. Education may become a process of mystifying the cognitive process and even knowledge. “
“Here we need to make a distinction between education and knowledge. Knowledge is a question continuously adding to what we already know in a dialectical play of mutual impact and illumination.”
“The normal cognitive process starts form the known and heads towards the unknown. The new known enriches the already known, and so on, in a continuous journey off making dialectically related connections.
Knowledge of the world begins where one is.”
‘Colonial education was never balanced or inclusive.”
*BOOK
Decolonising the Mind, Kenyan writer, Nguqi wa Thiong O
Insisted the erasing language is the most lasting weapon of oppression.
Where the Seas meet the Skies
There’s something ethereal about the way the light reflections of soft blues shimmer where the seas meet the skies. It’s a place of escapist dreams, new hopes and horizons. The ever changing light. Depending on location.
The light in Orkney is much softer than on mainland Scotland.
Watching the light is everything with capturing photography.
Watching the light is everything with capturing photography.
Two Competing Narratives
We have a long history of Scot against Scot; and some aspects of history that many of us will not be proud of. Scots in America were part of the Founding Fathers, but Scots also set up the infamous Klu Klux Klan – an extreme form of racial hatred. Scots exploited Caribbean trade of sugar and tobacco. While not as heavily involved in the slave trade, as other countries.
We have our own Scots narratives – the narrative of Kenmore street, of close ties to Flanders, other Celtic nations, of Scotland’s long history of trade. Scots were also leaders in the European enlightenment. Scots scholars studied and taught in Paris and other leading European universities.
According to Scotland’s leading historian Tom Devine, Scotland is different to England in fundamental ways. Scotland has long been an outward looking nation, whereas England has been more inward looking. We’ve had centuries of trade and migration, by ship clearly before cars – to Scandinavia, Flanders and other north sea neighbours, were closer than London. Scotland’s auld alliance with France. Scots mercenaries who fought in Sweden or Italy.
After the union 1707 a lot changed – with the integration of the Dutch navy and Scots enterprise. At that time Scotland had a population of 1m and England of 4m. many Scots were well educated, since the Reformation.
** I read Steven Knights views on Britain in the Sunday Times recently – totally different to my own images. He is the creator of Peaky Blinders and now House of Guinness series.
He believes strongly in a Britain as England narrative – with the other three nations as mere appendages, with limited input or unique and important cultural identities
“I’m fiercely loyal to Britain, he states, the things we’ve created the inventiveness of the people, the way so much new stuff comes from here… “If you’re loyal to Britain. And what Britain has always been is a sense of humour, tolerance, getting on with it, and not glorification the divisions.” I don’t like this, they’ve terrible, they’re awful, they’re the liberal elite. I hate them thing.” His Britain/ England narrative is complete different to the one I hold.
Can these two narratives co-exist? Knight is angered people call union jack flag wavers fascists. ”We fought a whole war against fascist, so anyone who thinks the union jack represents something other than resistance to that is wrong. When fascism was all over Europe, there was only one place where it wasn’t and that was where the Union Jack was from.”
He advocates we should celebrate English/ British exceptional-ism in culture. “ Creative nationalism is something I would favour. Knight writes that the British are ‘aware of their absurdities’. Has this come about since the collapse of the British empire, since the second world war? – and the British/ English have to accept they no longer dominate – that English exceptional-ism is a belief of past glories. And the recent years of the destruction of Scots industries by Thatcher, of jobs and culture of recent decades. He forgets that the Scots were the workers of the empire.
Scots voices are fighting back, with innovative voices across our nation, of Scotland, with creativity in design, tech, arts, music, engineering, debate, political theory, renowned festivals, science, technology and more.
**My narrative around the Union Jack is totally opposite! History tells me stories of oppression and divide and rule across Scotland, Ireland and further afield across the British empire. After Henry VIII declared himself king of Ireland – supposedly to bring peace to warring Irish tribes. The British empire is not taught in English schools, which considering how important it was over many centuries is rather neglectful omission. The British oppressed in Africa with extermination camps and also in India.
We might ague the British empire brought increased trade and connections also. But with the slave trade there is also a lot to feel ashamed of. We have aggressive marches across Glasgow, and their banging whistles and drums. Its about the domination of one group over another. I think of the dreadful troubles in Northern Ireland – of the brick walls, knee capping, indiscriminate shooting and tanks in Dublin.
I think of Britain’s involvement with the slave trade and its imperial and now corporatism across the
globe. In my personal narrative Britain is not a country, but a landmass like Scandinavia. I highly recommend Tom Nairn’s book the break up of Britain, probably the best read on the subject of the collapse of the British state. And of the corruption of the monarchy’s enchanted glass.
Pakistani author Pankaj Mishra was writing about the two totally opposing narratives in the middle east – one of the Israelis (from the river to the sea) and the other of Palestinians (our Homelands) in his book After Gaza. It all made me think in Scotland we also have two opposing, irreconcilable narratives. In 2025 Scotland is stuck, so how can we move forward in love, in peace and in liberal thought?
Indy for Scotland’s self determination and improving democracy. Scots need a say over our own energy resources, immigration, climate, and infrastructure. We can still unite for good trade and security together. Unionism is for strength by being run by London, and being ‘together’ with the high centralization in London, of the Global corporate elites control. Westminster refuses Scotland another vote.
“Nationalism is both good and bad” wrote politician historian Tom Nairn. All Nationalisms are different. He claims Scotland’s nationalism is unique as Scotland jumped ahead to a modern state 1700s. By contrast European states moved to modern states 1800s, due to the uneven nature of capitalism.
Thursday, 23 October 2025
Robert Burns Art influences
Robert Burns and other poets wrote with Scots Voices. In the 1700s many worked to write down and collect the old Scots songs.
At a time when mainly Tory unionist voices were being heard - no other writer has done more to keep Scots voices and language alive than Burns.
I was taken aback at the new Scottish Art galleries Edinburgh on my visit in October 2023, that there was only one mention of Robert Burns – with regard to his “Hunt” poem in an Edinburgh tearoom painting. I felt Burns legacy was a deliberate forgetting. Did his writing influence Scottish art? The main focus in the galleries was on the works of Walter Scott.
Burns was influenced himself when he met many of the major enlightenment figures in Edinburgh in 1786, particularly James Hutton - whose theory was of the whole earth as a living organism. Burns explored the symbolism and spiritualism connections between the natural world, the creative fires and the established church teachings from his father – where dance was frowned upon.
Burns thought of how he might fuse all these new ideas together in his poetry. Later in 1794, he wrote My luv is like a Red Red Rose - ‘ I will love you still my dear till all the seas gang try and the rocks melt with the sun.” Burns collected and rewrote many of the auld Scots ballads.
Burns most famous narrative poem Tam O’ Shanter, was about warlocks, witches, faeries, demons – of the struggles between Old Spunkie’s creative fires and the church teaching - Tam O Shanter. He wrote this poem after a dream, on his walk along the River Nith at Ellisland farm. The Scottish painter Lachlan Goudie and his father were inspired to illustrate a book of the scary ghosts and witches in Tam O’Shanter.
It was wonderful to see the new Scottish galleries in 2023.
I realise Scott lived in Edinburgh but Burns was there for quite a few months in 1786 ad 1787. And was greatly influenced by his time there. He visited the men’s social clubs – Fencible Chronicles down Anchor Close. He visited William Creech’s bookshop and publishing house at the Tollbooth near St Giles cathedral and the Mercat Cross, where each day the great and the good met.
He met the great love of his life here, late 1787, Agnes McLahose (or his Clarinda) – who he wrote many letters to, and his great parting song Ae Fond Kiss.
**Scott may have been read widely worldwide in the 1800s, but to my mind (and most Scots) Burns is our national hero and bard. He was painted by his good friend Alexander Nasmyth on their walks to Rosslyn. I realise Scott did write memorable books and poems – but his books seems one-sided and narrow of a mythical Scotland that is lost and gone forever. Of a Tory unionist Scotland, that is only part of Scotland.
As I walked around the Scottish art galleries – I thought ‘which’ Scotland are we emboldening and remembering here? After the first section covering the romantic period, I entered the brighter more modern period, with the windows open to the east Princes street gardens views and which display some of Scotland’s great impressionist artists – The Glasgow Boys, James Guthrie, John Lavery, William Macgregor: The Scottish Colourists, John Peploe, John Fergusson, Francis Cadell, Leslie Hunter. A memorable display.
Burns was influenced by the Ossian poems of James MacPherson, as the first Scots bard – and also by the other great Scots poets. Burns was writing and collecting Scots poems before Scott, in fact he met a young sixteen year old Walter Scott at an Edinburgh literary party, after which Scott wore about Burns.
* * * *
Burns words, images and narratives are all pervasive, whether its his emotive love poems, his love of nature, his voice for all the people with his Socts a Hae and Mans a Man. His poetry has a big impact worldwide on authors in America and on Russian Burns clubs. Steinbeck’s 'Of Mice and Men' and J.D Salinger’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’.
Burns is the most significant Scotch image, heritage, word and song. We should be very proud of his legacies!
Demarco’s Festival of Thought
We hoped the internet would open new horizons – and it does – but it also the internet means ideas go down dark, narrow rabbit holes and echo chambers. Our Scots bard was a free thinker – because he was well read and informed. A Man O Independent mind.
Edinburgh festival promoter, Richard Demarco advocates for a new – ‘Festival of Thought’ – to bring together the best minds and creative thinkers to counter this crushing of ideas by blind right wing dictatorships that aim to shut down open debate and silence creativity. Edinburgh was the home fo the Scottish enlightenment 1750 to 1790.
*Freedom to be Creative
- Scottish cultural icon Richard Demarco, and long time Edinburgh festival supporter, has attended every festival since 1947. He advocates we need informed debate to counter the rise of the right across Europe and the world.
He wants to see Edinburgh host an annual “Festival of Thought”. His idea is to bring to the city the world’s finest liberal thinkers from the humanities, from the Arts and culture, from all the sciences and technologies. “There should be no separation between science and the Arts. Leonardo Da Vinci, perhaps the greatest artist ever to live, was a great scientist, an engineer and artist.”
He calls for ‘a Festival of Thought’ to help save liberal democracy. The Freedom to find Truth and Light. “Truth is the foundation stone for all creativity, for all the unlocking of great culture, in any genre, in any society, in any land.
*Its about Truth - To remind the world of the role of culture in love, in peace and in liberal thought and liberal society.
Demarco see the rise of the far right and Reform as a threat to the freedom that necessary for creativity. A Scots Italian who sees himself as a European and Reform as the enemy of the beliefs that he has held dear throughout his life.
“Reform is a danger to the Edinburgh Festivals” he says.
Demarco fears the world is on the edge of a new dark age. There is the rise of the authoritarian right and with that the capacity of humankind to dim the flame of enlightenment, “to quench the human spirit.” ….Ukraine is more than a fight for territory and national sovereignty: it is essentially a fight for democracy, for freedom of the mind, the heart and the soul. He profoundly believes in liberal democracy as the only civilized way of managing society so that human beings are truly free.
The Far Right - is trying to shut down freedom thought
“The rise of the far right is a threat to the freedoms needed for creativity”.
How much does the media truly reflect truth today, and not simply meaningless Soundbites and Clickbaits - and the lack of informed debate. How is impartiality possible when one side peddle obvious lies. Politicians speak of growth or austerity (or both) while following policies that are the opposite – there’s been no growth. Many countries are in crisis, which allows the views of the Far Right. We can’t sit on the fence.
Demarco calls for his friend Robert Sturus to come to Scotland for the festivals 80th birthday in 2026. Sturus is the director of the Rustaveli state Theatre of Georgia. In 1979 he brought Shakespeare’s Richard III to Edinburgh.
Out of the darkness of the war and the crushing of democracy, human rights and freedoms came a world in desperate need of unity.,,, the first Edinburgh Festival. “It was an expression of the flowering of the best instincts of the human spirit.”
He’d like to see Edinburgh rediscover that spirit and its idealism…..“When the Festival started in 1947, I thought that the city could be the cultural capital of the world. It brought the world’s greatest musicians, actors, singers, dancers, playwrights, poets, authors and artists to my home” says Demarco.…when hope was in the air and the post-war world of Edinburgh and Europe was alive with optimism and possibilities.”
“We must bring Sturus to Edinburgh in 2026. To reaffirm the roots of the festival, as a celebration of European culture and art every form. To hear him speak freely.”
III Richard Demarco is near his 95th birthday and he still burns with urgent intellectual intensity and his passion for the civilizing qualities of culture and human creativity still burns strong. Demarco says that out of the darkness of the war and the crushing of democracy, human rights and freedoms came a world in desperate need of unity.,,, the first Edinburgh Festival. “It was an expression of the flowering of the best instincts of the human spirit.”
* * * *
**Martin Roche interviewed Richard Demarco – artist, author, organiser and cultural innovator – on the eve of his 95th birthday. Fiercely pro-European, Demarco proposed a new “Festival of Thought”. 14th July 2025 - “A Reform government is a danger to the Edinburgh Festivals,” says Richard Demarco He calls for ‘a Festival of Thought’ to help save liberal democracy.
Extracts from.
**Article From a Perthshire Castle, Gauntlet of Truth is thrown down to Authoritarianism
Sunday National 31.8.25, Martin Roche
Among the white white sands
Among the white, white sands
I hear the shouts and screams below,
As colourful figures race so fast,
Carrying hope, carrying fear, carrying their small child,
The red, red blood dripping from their tiny hands.
The fear and the cries fly on the stifling winds,
Asking why, why, what have we done,
Why, why, won’t it stop?
The destruction, the overhead drone attacks, the missile fire, and the land explosions,
How can we live?
We run, hold out our shaking hands for grains of rice
For life giving water.
As the bombs drop around us
Falling in the dry white sand.
They carry the stiff, white shroud,
Lined up to pray for the lost souls,
Soon there will be only empty silence
Soon there will be no one shouting below.
PK
September 2025
Celtic Connections 2026 announced!
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World leading and award-winning festival offers major music gigs to intimate performances from – Thursday, January 15 to Sunday, February 1 2026.
A programme with 1200 artists over 300 events and 15 venues. 2026, Rich showcase of trad, folk, roots and world music, Celtic Connections has grown over three decades to become Europe’s biggest winter music festival. With a wide range of genres that include blues, soul, Americana and indie to acoustic, orchestral, jazz and electronic.
Delivered by Glasgow Life in partnership with Innis & Gunn, the 2026 festival — its 33rd edition — will take place in venues including the Barrowland Ballroom, Old Fruitmarket, King Tut’s, Pavilion Theatre, Óran Mòr, Saint Luke’s and SWG3. The newly-refurbished Citizens Theatre will also make its debut and the Emirates Arena will host Scottish folk-rock super groups Skerryvore. Celtic Connections 2026 kicks off with a World Connections Opening Concert at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. A World Connections Opening Concert Glasgow Royal Concert Hall – to celebrate music’s global connections and power to unite people all over the planet. The universal language. With unique collaborations with innovative partnerships Malian singer Roki Koné – feminist supergroup Les Amazones d'Afrique – performing with one of Scotland’s leading folk bands RURA.
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Festival highlights include: Scottish fushion band Shooglenifty; Orcadian bands The Chair, Fara and Gnoss; Highland band Dàimh; Celebrated Cuban collective Buena Vista All Stars; Senegal orchestral sensation Baobab; Mexican drumming dynamo Antonio Sanchez, with harpist Edmar Castañeda and American Bela Fleck; Grammy-winning Americana singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams.
A tribute to one of the world’s most influential folk singers — Scotland’s Dick Gaughan — featuring a large cast of artists and rising Scots stars singer-songwriter Katie Gregson-McLeod and indie accordionist RuMac.
Our Mother Tongue to celebrate Celtic tradition languages – Irish Gaelic, Québécois, Welsh Gaelic, Scots Gaelic. A vibrant expression of cultural pride and linguistic resilience that boldly pushes creative boundaries. A celebration of music and songs in minority and Indigenous languages, Our Mother Tongue showcases an exciting line-up of artists who are proudly honouring their linguistic heritage while boldly pushing creative boundaries.
25 years of new Gaelic songs. Special interpretation of the songs of Robert Burns, the Scottish ballads, and two special nights of Gaelic song including Òran Ùr .
The Transatlantic Sessions will be held on February 1, 2026, and will feature performers like Darrell Scott, and three singers who’ve been working together, Karine Polwart, Mary Chapman Carpenter and Julie Fowlis. The packed 2026 festival programme also sees the return of many regular firm favourites, including the Danny Kyle Open Stage showcasing new talent, Festival Club, which returns to the Art School, and the Glee Club nights.
**Celtic Connections creative producer, Donald Shaw, said: “At the very heart of our 33rd festival are celebration, collaboration and connection. We are very excited that our 2026 edition will bring together such a wealth of talented musicians from Scotland and all over the world – from award-winning performers to young newcomers. And we can’t wait to welcome so many fantastic artists and acts to Glasgow in the new year to perform for our audiences in every corner of the city.
“Celtic Connections is a celebration of the boundless power of music to connect and inspire; to transcend borders and provide a platform where Scotland’s own musical might is matched by global talent. Our diverse programme showcases a wealth of musical genres and styles, and we hope as many people as possible will take advantage of the opportunity to experience and enjoy all that’s in store. As we champion the universal language of music, we invite lifelong music fans and curious newcomers to join us as there’s something magical waiting for everyone at Celtic Connections 2026.”
Bailie Annette Christie, chair of Glasgow Life, added: “Glasgow is immensely proud that Celtic Connections continues to be such an incredible success in Scotland’s cultural events calendar, and every year shines a global spotlight on our vibrant UNESCO City of Music and its legendary reputation for audiences which are among the world’s best.
Tuesday, 30 September 2025
SCOTS Activists Groups
Here are some of the most significant major Scots activist groups, who since 2014
- working hard for Scotland’s future democracy.
Scotland Act 1998 – to give us a referendum.
Is Scotland colonised?
Liberation Scotland
Salvo
Believe in Scotland
Common Weal
Scottish Currency Group
Scottish Constitution Group
The National Newspaper
Scots Poet Len Pennie
I attended a talk last week by the Scots poet Len Pennie at Dreamworks Bookshop Milngavie
Pennie’s poems have more lilting lyrical musicality than her English poetry. Her poems pack immediate emotional directness and punch. She says it was all the grandmothers who kept the Scots voices and language alive.
Welsh Labour are proud of Welsh Gaelic and the Welsh flag. We cannot say the same of Scottish labour, would they stand in front of the saltire and speak in Scots Gaelic or Scots? There’s been a long story of religious divisions in Scotland – the divide and rule tactic of the empire elites.
She suffered dreadful trolling online abuse. For many years the Scots language has been treated as a ‘pretendy language’ and oddly often by hostile Scots, it’s a centuries old saga. Yet Scots have been historically influenced by their connections and trade to Flanders and Ireland.
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