Is Wales ahead of Scotland now

 

Wales has decided to improve the faulty supposedly PR (proportional representation) voting system given to its Devolved government in 1999, to a proper proportional system. 

Wales is proud of their Welsh language and culture. Even the Welsh Labour party stands before Welsh flags and uses Welsh Gaelic! Imagine that happening here in Scotland? 

 

By contrast Scots Labour stands in front of a Union Jack and is ashamed of Scots language and culture. They detest the use of Scots language or Gaelic in the Scottish parliament or in song. 

 

Its the usual Scots against Scots fight – that was encouraged here after Culloden. Were you a Jacobin/ Jacobite or a Hanoverian? Was this divide and rule by the British state not employed in Wales too?

 

Protecting Scots Gaelic

 

Funding for Welsh Gaelic – 125m

Scots Gaelic- 25m

Irish Gaelic – 80m

 

Support for the Celtic language is not enough.  

Welsh Gaelic is their national language. 

 

By contrast Scots Gaelic has become a regional language due to the suppressions after Culloden and since. There is BBC Alba in Scots Gaelic.  Gaelic does offer economic potential 

 

The Deliberate Forgetting

Scottish culture has been not just ignored, but deliberately suppressed by the British state. That’s my main reason for wanting Scotland’s independence. Especially not because I want to be nostalgic about the past – of the Walter Scott’s version of a "romantic Scot's past, lost and gone forever" -  but of the living breathing here and now. The stories and songs that make Scotland unique in the world. 

Repair at Edinburgh book festival 2025

EIBF at Futures Institute

Together We repair Edinburgh International book festival EIBF 2025. The question now is – to repair what path must we follow. We are mostly confused.

Regrets over what might have been or could have been here in Scotland. Our voices lost. I read of our great poets – from Dunbar, Duns Scotus, Buchanan, Allan Ramsey, Hugh MacDiarmid, and of course our national bard Rabbie Burns. The great Scots songbooks: rediscovered, reframed and renewed, and given a fresh and memorable voice. So many voices calling on the vibrant, challenging Scottish winds – that blow wildly on our rugged coastlines and empty shores and islands. 

I visited the small coastal town of Montrose: birthplace of the Scottish Renaissance 1930s. And then onto Arbroath Abbey and the stories of the return of the Stone of Destiny here. The folk musicians, play their melodies,. Looking back and building on and taking the song forwards. Its crucial to have strong foundations, clarity, visions. Great artists instinctively know this.

    At the Edinburgh book festival I have heard many confused voices over the years I’ve attended. Debate and diverse voices are encouraged to broaden our outlooks. There can be controversy alongside a fear too. A fear of upsetting the voices of unionism. The Guardian's Sathnam Sanghera spoke of Empire land; Kezia Dugdale recognised that Scotland is stuck; Lesley Riddick spoke of Scandinavia and better local governing; Irvine Welsh spoke of his personal journeys and successes and his dislike of imperialism; Ruth Wishart spoke of a free press. 

 

Half of Scots support independence, but what does that mean? I try to hear as many and varied voices. Where are we now and where are we heading and how do we understand and know the past? Scotland’s songs fill my head. Caledonia, Westlin Winds, Sunshine on Leith, Ye banks and Braes, Jock O Hazeldean, Scots Wa Hae, Auld Lyne Syne. There are shoots and blooms of positive change – a new Scottish art galleries, national Scottish Theatre, National newspaper….

This doesn’t mean inward naval gazing but to be international we must first be national. A Scottish narrative – a sense of place, and understanding of Scots voices. Sunset song, A Drunk Man Looks at a Thistle......Voices that wonder....There is so much talk of political failure on every side, how is this constructive - and where is the vision and creativity for the future?

 

**EIBF 2025

Edinburgh international book festival 2025 program has been announced, 

Runs from 9^th August to 24^th August. This year our program features over 600 writers and artists from 35 countries, who have a wide range of perspectives on topics of personal, social and global importance.

 

And will included famous names such as Nicola Sturgeon, Irvine Welsh and Diane Abbott

Authors Maggie O’Farrell and Alexander McCall Smith, actors Brian Cox, Viggo Mortensen, Sam Heughan, and Vanessa Redgrave. The Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers band will perform, with novelists Chris Brookmyre and Val McDermid. 

Sturgeon will launch her memoir, Frankly, and will be in conversation with journalist Kirsty Wark as part of the Front List series. While Welsh will discuss his new novel Men In Love, which features the characters from Trainspotting as they experience the heyday of rave culture in the late 80s and early 90s.

*Plus workshops. Bookbinder Rachel Hazell will lead a workshop, Junk Journals Workshop, where old books will be re-fashioned into journals.

This year’s children’s program will include more than 100 events for young readers, including from renowned authors Michael Rosen, Jacqueline Wilson and Cressida Cowell. 

*Words from the Wards - With Illustrations by art students

We believe that everyone has a story to tell and that stories help us make sense of our world. We’ve challenged local writers and poets, this year, to respond to 2025’s Festival theme: Repair. Join us as we bring them together to perform their work: a patchwork of ideas on how to make the world a better place.

 

“We invite you to come and learn something new, feed your curiosity and to broaden your horizons.”

PLUS illustrations for Words from the Wards, the festivals Children’s program. 

Festival director Jenny Niven said: “This year’s key theme of Repair starts from the belief that the brilliant ideas of writers and thinkers can help us repair a host of seemingly ‘broken’ things in our society, from the cycle of fast fashion and our relationship with the environment, to cultural reparations and the state of our politics. It’s a statement of hope and resilience, and an invitation for our audiences to think about what ‘repair’ might mean for them.

“At a time when important conversations can feel impossible to have without igniting conflict and anger, we want the Edinburgh International Book Festival to provide a safe place for challenging but considered discussions. This year our program features over 600 writers and artists from 35 countries, who have a wide range of perspectives on topics of personal, social and global importance. We invite you to come and learn something new, feed your curiosity and to broaden your horizons.”

 

Ian McEwan – Sunday August 13:30 – 14:30 

 

Sam Haeughan: on the Rocks – Saturday 23 August 18:15 – 19:15

 

AC Grayling: Disagreeing Agreeably – Friday 22 August 17:00 – 18:00

 

Sometimes it feels like we can’t talk about anything without further polarising opinions. Join author and philosopher A C Grayling as he seeks the middle-ground in an incendiary debate. Drawing from his new book, Discriminations: Making Peace in the Culture Wars, Grayling shares a fresh take on how we might navigate the messy politics of cultural conflict by recognising the nuance between competing rights and interests.

Some famous names – speak up!  The People Speak – Sunday 24 August 17:00- 18:00

Acclaimed writers and actors, including Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings, Captain Fantastic) and iconic Vanessa Redgrave (The Devils, Atonement, Mrs Dalloway), for powerful performances of stories, speeches, and songs of protest and rebellion from around the world, and across history. Inspired by the work of people’s historian Howard Zinn and directed by Anthony Arnove (co-editor with Colin Firth of The People Speak), their words shimmer with strength, inspiration, and a vision for a better future. Hosted by Anthony Arnove.

 

*Together We repair Edinburgh International book festival EIBF 2025 

The question now is – to repair what path must we follow.

Half of Scots want independence. Would federalism work? Does Labour work? A big white hope their limited business plan. While Reeves believes in tight reins and her fiscal rules. Scotland is stuck under City of London rules.

 

An economic policy for best outcomes for the people of Scotland. 

'Scotland is a land laden with opportunity,' writes economist Richard Murphy.

We are not small at all – Why are Scots politicians afraid when there is only fear of fear itself.

 

I hear a Drunk man looks at a Thistle,

Parcel of Rogues bought and sold

I hear freedoms sword will strongly draw. 

I hear Scotland is stuck, 

Certainly we must Repair - The big question is -

How much disrepair, crisis, emergency is Britain in?

It seems to be a lot. We can’t ignore. Years of a tough austerity and lack of investment – 

followed by Covid, the damage of Brexit, cost of living crisis, 

with crumbling infrastructure and lack of funding. 

New Labour offer a few crumbs.

 

Repair? Is it possible, in our stuck, fake, out-dated systems here in Britain? Stuck in its 1688 British Constitution?

We must ask how serious is Britain’s crisis? Political debate has become like a meaningless ping pong ball that no one believes anymore. We’re all lied to. But when Consultants feel disillusioned we must surely worry. And when politicians these days are not serious people. 

 

China’s Yellow river

 

“To understand a country’s soul you need to immerse yourself in its art.”

The art of the yellow river - Art historian

 

The yellow river basin became the perfect place to settle – 5,500 km, it became the cradle of Chinese civilization.

Thousands of years of culture have forged this country and continues to do so.

Wow, just amazing images!

 

Glasgow 850

Del Amitri

Glasgow is a city of surprises. Dotted around the city centre are many impressive, architecturally interesting buildings. The city also boasts several unique areas that offer culturally fun walks. Glasgow is a vibrant city of the arts. Its a challenging, dynamic place. There are many historic Victorian buildings, art galleries and tenements.

 

Glasgow is the City of Music and boasts world famous venues including the Barrowlands  King Tuts, Oran Mor, old Fruitmarket. 

 

First there is Glasgow’s Westend. With its university spires atop Kelvingrove park, where there is the dominate Kelvingrove galleries. Close by is the up and coming Finnieston with its unique cafes and shops and close to the new Glasgow Hydro arena and SECC exhibition centre. Up the hill is the lively and picturesque Ashton Lane. Glasgow’s university is one of the UKs oldest and here its worth seeing the cloisters and the Huntarian art gallery. 

 

On the east side there is the Merchant city, with the Old Fruitmarket and City halls venues, and busy night life. There are reminders here of Glasgow’s links to the tobacco and sugar trade. Glasgow was once the engine room of the British empire.  

 

The city’s main street, Buchanan St has the Lighthouse and the concert hall with Donald Dewar’s statue looking on. Just across from this street is the modern art galleries and the cone atop the Duke of Wellington’s statue. Then along Sauchiehall St are Macintosh’s famous tea room. There’s also Glasgow’s cathedral further east and the Acropolis views. 

 

Glasgow is a city of steep hills and long skylines with its many bridges over the river Clyde to Govan, once the world’s ship building centre where the Queen Mary liner was launched in 1934. 

 

Elaine C Smith

Eddi Reader

*There are major artists, writer, scientists, innovators, actors and musicians from Glasgow. 

Most well known Rennie Macintosh, The Glasgow Boys, 

William Macgregor, James Guthrie, Arthur Melville,

Glasgow Girls – Margaret & Francis MacDonald, Bessie Macnicol,

 

Actors - James McAvoy, Robert Carlisle, Kelly Macdonald, Peter Mullan, Elaine C smith, Gary Lewis, Janey Godley, Billy Connolly, 

 

Lord Kelvin, professor or maths & Physics, kelvin temperature scale, important for thermo dynamics.

 

Writers – Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Jackie Kay, peter may, Debi Gliori, Edwin Morgan, 

 

Musicians -  Simple Minds, Del Amitri, Texas, Deacon Blue, Blue Nile, Wet Wet Wet, 

Franz Ferdinand, Lulu, Mogwai, Mark Knopler, Dick Gaughan, Eddi Reader, Donovan, Emma Pollock,

 

(Gerry Rafferty - Paisley, John Martyn, grew up in Glasgow)

Dick Gaughan

Mogwai

 

Lifted Up at Edinburgh festivals 2024!

 

high street performers

Weather warm and muggy this year over for the Edinburgh festivals. Who says Scotland is always cold? asks a young American girl. But the next day the humidity lifts and its clear, windy and sunny. In Scotland, often has the three seasons in one day. We meet old friends and later make our way up the very busy high street – past the excited performers, the tourists young and old, as Edinburgh comes to life again for its annual celebration of the arts, culture, drama and music, from the sublime to the idiotic. Entrancing audiences both young and old, and from near and far.

 

One of the world’s oldest and biggest Arts festivals, begun in 1947 after the war. (which might have ended all wars but didn’t)

Sunday – Bach’s St Matthews Passion. Such a wall of sound: spine-tingling and goose bumps. 

With the Festival chorus, BBC symphony orchestra and a top line up of soloists. What joyous, soul enriching and uplifting music by the genius of Bach. – and interpreted by Mendelsohn. 

 

Festival chorus & Symphony orchestra

Carmen Festival Theatre

Monday – Scottish National art gallery to see the exhibition of John Laverty. Persuasive impressions.

A major exhibition of Irish and Scots impressionist painter John Lavery July to October, 2024. He was a great journeyman, who painted extraordinary images of ordinary life in Glasgow, Spain and Morocco. His portraits have a surreal quality: both commanding and expressive. 

 

Tuesday – Carmen Opera with incredible singing and performances and unforgettable music by Bisset. What a treat! 

Paintings by Sir John Lavery July to October 2024.  ‘An Irish Impressionist: Lavery on Location’, a collaboration between the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, National Museums NI, and the National Galleries of Scotland. That capture Lavery's impressions of people and places, from his travels - Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Palm Springs, Glasgow, London, and Venice. Portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, and cityscapes. 

The Arts are under pressure like never before. Recent funding has been cut.  But art is not an extra in life or for our heritage and stories. Its central.

 

This year’s festival theme was ‘The Rituals that Unite Us’. 

 

We must hold on – to the past and to future innovations.

 

Walter Scott’s fake nationalism and false myths of Scotland

“pervasive, second-rate sentimentalist, associated with tartan nostalgia.”

 For Walter Scott - “the past is gone, beyond recall.” ….it evokes a national past never to revive it.”

.... no part of political or social mobilization of present by a mythical emphasis on

 

Walter Scott’s novels were read across the world, and his contribution to the rising tide of national romanticism, was a great one.  – “however it was great everywhere but in his own nation of Scotland.” Scott wrote of a  “romantic national culture and the rise of a kitsch Scotland.”

 

Tom Nairn, leading political theorist, denounces Scots novelist Walter Scott- ..”the destruction of Celtic Scotland was to haunt Lowlanders or the Scotland of Sir Walter Scott. He showed us “how not to be nationalist during an ascendant political nationalism. Its the language of Tory unionism and of progress”/ 

 

“From Ossian to Walter Scott played a large part in generating and defining romantic consciousness for the rest of Europe while degrading his own nation. Which led to rootlessness, a void, which cultural and literary historians deplore.  The continuity between (heroic) past and present.”…....  The heart may regret but never the head.”

 

Nairn writes of the failures of Scottish Nationalism, during the 1800s under the false romantic myths such as the writing of Walter Scott and of a bereft Scottish literature at this time.  Two examples – cultural emigration and the Kailyard school of vulgar tartanry.”,,, 

 

Scotland reverted to being a province 1800s, while prosperous and imperial. Why? Scotland became void and rootless. 1. Absence of political nationalism 2. Absence of a mature cultural romanticism. The poor Highland's world and comparatively prosperous Lowland world, and the total repression of Highland culture and social structure. The highland were once half of the population of Scotland.

Scott monument Edinburgh

By contrast the real purpose of romantic history was different – cultural nationalism was the mythical resuscitation of the past, to serve the present and the future. 

 

Scott caused disintegration of a great national culture. Elsewhere in Europe, “the middle classes felt the development for people was impossible without rapid mobilization of their own resources and rejection of alien rule.”

 

Nairn claims Scotland is unique in Europe, where nationalism struggled with its national identity and along with the rise of nationalism 1800s and the rise of nation states across Europe, as the "result of the uneven development of capitalism."

 

That the Scottish Enlightenment was very much a Tory project. While Scotland prospered during the 1800s with manufacturing, its literary voice became bereft. He sees Walter Scott’s work of a mythical Scotland and Scots heroes, as very much glorifying a past that was gone and to be forgotten. Scotland became north Britain. While Scott’s romantic and mythical novels were highly successful across the world. 

 

The real interests of Scotland diverge from the auld sang

Finland Awakes, Art & Culture shape our Destiny

Music crosses borders but also expresses our souls 

"Finland doesn’t have a history of kings and castles. We have always been occupied.  When we finally became free it was built on language, literature, painting and music. Jean Sibelius created the idea of what Finland sounds like. You can hear his enthusiasm for discovering the Finnish sagas – folklore that’s ours alone, even as he was becoming a universal composer.”

writes Dalen Stasevska (BBC Symphony Orchestra principle guest conductor) 

who returned as principle conductor to Lahiti – home to Jean Sibelius. 

 

Sibelius (1865 – 1957) helped force Finland’s independence in 1917.  He was a violinist who found inspiration in Finland’s myths, sagas and folklore, particularly in the poetry of Kalevala.

 

Jean married Aino Janefelt, whose family was artistic and activist – her three brothers were a painter, composer and writer. Their mother was determined to fight for Finnish independence and she gathered a Finnish-speaking, pro-independence circle around her, including Sibelius.

Aino Janefelt & Jean Sibelius

Defiant Finlandia

“we fought a 100 years for our freedom and I am part of the generation that achieved it. This is the song of our battle – our hymn of Victory. “  Aino Janefelt

But after a civil war, Russia again attacked during the WW1. 

Lahiti built Sibelius hall from wood in 1996. At this time there was 28% unemployment, so it was hard to justify a new concert hall. But the government was keen for a prestigious building as part of the Year of Wood, Plus they had the backing of businesses – Metsa and UMP.

 

The concert hall now hosts a Sibelius festival and is rated in the top ten for acoustics. The area was rejuvenated around the site with restaurants, and a new marina developed.

 

Jean Sibelius

(extracted from Lesley Riddoch article - Finnish composer and the lessons we can learn from Nordic neighbours

 

Edinburgh festivals 2022

Its good to see tradition and history given due regard – with the new to challenge and move things forward. We need both. Freedom to move, to express. Its important to notice the ancient history we pass, under the gawdy and tacky. So many tourists walk past so fast – but it’s the auld stories, historic buildings, that give us the authentic character. and sense of our past stories.

 And no better place to do so than historic, cobbled Edinburgh, with its steep closes and wynds, atmospheric high street, around its Mercat Cross, Signet Library, Scottish Parliament, St Giles – publishing, Reformation, enlightenment, Stewarts, and Georgian new town. 

 

Sunday at Biblos after my high street walk. Good to see that the buzz has returned this year. Talk Fintan OToole at EIBF, who spoke of the known and the unknown, the Ireland he’s known since 1958. Later I entered the atmospheric musical realm of Sandy Bells. I used to be here in my twenties and enjoyed fun folk nights here. 

St Giles

High street trails were once again packed with several shows and tourists. 

**St Giles  There was a lovely choral choir singing which lent an ethereal and spiritual air. 

The Writers corner – Margaret Oliphant, Robert Fergusson, Robert Louis Stephenson,

Robert Lorimer, Elsie Inglis,

St Giles cathedral was cleaned up in the 1980s and is considered the home of the Scots Presbyterian religion, and its famous minister John Knox. They were against having the Bishops hierarchy and believed everyone had their right to access the Bible and God for themselves, which all led to the War of the Three Kingdoms and education for all.

Burns memorial window

Did our genius Scots bard Robert Burns talk to all of Scotland and also to the world, rather than his humble beginnings in Ayrshire. In Edinburgh, where his second edition was published and very much shaped him where he seems forgotten – the Fencibles club, his memorial to the poet Robert Fergusson, attending William Creech Publishing house. 

I later discover there is now a Burns Memorial window in St Giles. In 1985 it was felt there was no central memorial to our great national bard – the window illustrates the natural world Burns loved, the middle section human unity and with a vibrant red sun of love at the top. Its easy though to walk past the window, as I did without realising. With the service for the Queen taking place here September.

Sandy Bells

This year there were several challenging shows and talks.

**SHOWS

*Bloody Difficult Woman – about Theresa May and her clash with Gina Miller over her lack of consulting parliament over her hasty Brexit. Tim Walker’s debut drama which received good reviews and sold out performances in Edinburgh – but lacked attention in England as the extreme right seeks to suppress any Brexit negatives. Debut drama

Tim Walker - writes that in England people are starting to give up on national political discourse -  and even the idea of democracy itself. He feels regarded as an enemy of the people. He write show grateful he is for the positive recognition  of his play in Scotland. “ My gratitude to the people of Scotland is heartfelt. You still have something  very valuable – please don’t loose it.”

*BURN with Allan Cumming – on the darker more controversial side of our national bard with an emotional interpretation of the man behind the shortbread tin myths.

*Comedy- Frankie Boyle, Kevin Bridges

*Music - Edinburgh hosted several world class orchestras.

Scottish Sessions, Surgeons hall; Queens halls concerts, Princes street gardens gigs. 

 

*Edinburgh Art festival

A Taste of Impressionism at the National Galleries, explores the rich collections by Scots collectors

Michele Roberts Three women and the artist Matisse

Barbara Hepworth Exhibition

Edinburgh film festival

Children  festival – Sold out Peppa Pig orchestra, and much more.

Ocean Vuong

Omar Musa

Art college

**EIBF talks - Diana Gabaldon, Fintan Otoole, Brian Cox, Oliver Bullough, Lea Yi, Good Grief, Noam Chomsky, 

Music. PJ Harvey, Martha Wainwright, Stuart Cosgrove, 

Bigger names – Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Maggie O’Farrell

EIBF encourages us to debate, question, and look for truths, via a wide range of writers from to academics, novelists, historians, journalists, politicians, artists, poets and more. 

Some might claim Edinburgh festivals are not radical enough,

 

There are questions over whether Edinburgh festivals have become too big. Edinburgh festivals started in 1947 with 8 companies – by 1980 at 380, 1985 to 1,091 companies and  3,841 companies in 2019. Ticket sales down and it will be four or five year journey back

Edinburgh festivals have also suffered from overkill and overload of tourists, Sometimes quantity rather than quality. Perhaps the pandemic will mean a reset, and rethink. To streamline and reset. 

Sunshine at the Edinburgh art galleries

Edinburgh festival Shows

1973 – 184

1976 – 426

1985 – 1,091

2015 – 3,314

2019 – 3,841

 

Ticket sales

\1973 – 128,900

1985 – 523,000

2014 – 2,183,591

2019 – 3,012,490