A Scots Media II

That’s the big question I ask myself often. Why are at least half of Scots still supportive of the clearly failing union, when we’ve recently suffered so many disasters and chaos in recent years? I believe it’s all about the lack of any serious Scottish media. I remember my son made this comment in 2014 “ how can we win independence with no media? “  

Of course younger Scots get their media and press from a variety of sources and their support for Indy is around 70%. But the over 50s still look to the mainstream unionist media and press. BBC Scotland for instance totally ignores any serious failings in England, such as England’s disastrous water scandal. (This is covered by channel Four news which is more balanced than the BBC.) 

Back in 1707 Scotland kept its own Kirk - which in those days was the media (they preached against the French terror!)  We had Scottish newspapers by 1700s. The problem started with broadcast media around the 50s, which is totally controlled from London. Even Catalonia has four tv channels, two news and two entertainment. The UK is now a highly centralised state, which is not healthy for the north of England either. 

Today Scotland only has the one Indy supporting Newspaper, the National that represents half of Scots. There are not one but 4 English political parties in Scotland who support the union. It’s all quite bazaar and unbalanced. With Reform a far right, English nationalist party. (Why don’t we stand a Scottish political party in England?) Scotland must move on from any mind-set of ‘too wee and too poor.’” We’re a third of the UK landmass and 66% of UK seas and equal to many other European nations. 

Scotland is asking for normal self-determination, that’s normal across the developed world - then again Edinburgh must not be a new centralising London. The central government should only decide on federal roads, foreign policy, certain economic levers - otherwise decisions should be made at a local level on say education, health, local infrastructure etc. The economy should work for the people not against us! The politicians in London are totally out of ideas and controlled by dirty money and Trump's America. 

Why are there so many Scots in thrall to the supposed ‘union’ with England? A good read is “DeColonizing Language” by Ngugi Wa Thiong’O recommended by Alan Riach - how language repression is much cheaper and easier than military control. Colonisation of the mind. I think of how children were belted if they spoke in their native Scots at school, how clan chiefs had to have their son’s educated in England. This also happened in Africa - where children had to learn ‘To a Daffodil’ even though they had never seen one! 

In 1700s we had a Scottish Kirk and Scottish newspapers but since the war we’ve had totally biased news reporting that focuses on London and the UKs foreign owned press, that is not balanced. John Swinney should pursue legal means to regulate for a balanced press! They do this in other countries. I went to a talk at Edinburgh book festival about this issue: Ruth Wishart was there.

 

Is there a reason Scots vote to be a colony of London? I’ve been trying to find out. Scotland used to benefit from the exploiting of the British empire countries, but since the Second World War the BE has ceased to exist. Now Scotland is the last colony being exploited. Some Anglo Scots view advancement through getting a seat in the House of Lords. Is unionism about your tribe? It used to be about religion. 

Scotland could be as successful as Ireland, Norway or Denmark - instead we’re held back as part of a failing UK model. Don’t tell me the lies of the made up and fake GERS figures - these are the figures Scotland endures being shackled to the UK and treated as a branch economy. London only cares about London property prices. Westminster is shutting down Scotland. 

Since this election 2026, the prospects of the three Celtic nations working together is so positive. Crucially Swinney must appeal to all of Scotland and speak to all Scots, to counter the rise of divisiveness of Reform.

 

Tom Nairn’s “The Break up of Britain” is another great read on the archaic politics here. Where are the books on the benefits of the union, where are the songs or celebrities for the union? We are basically fed a bunch of lies constantly by the unionist press - SNP bad etc. etc. it’s very demoralising and isn’t good for anyone all this negativity. Where is the hope?? 

So how does Scotland prosper as part of the UK, what are the benefits? The crash of 2008, showed clearly how the neoliberal economic model is failing people. The politicians in London only claim, “They’ll do more of the same but better.” 

They are stuck in the 80s thinking rather than looking at new ways of modelling and moving to a modern state. This is not good enough when most people here see their standard of living falling. Scotland is stuck in an archaic Britain that is unable to move forward. ….. If you don’t believe me watch the BBCs Question Time each Thursday to hear the lack of any constructive ideas from Westminster MPs! 

Scotland’s freedom and sovereignty in Europe now!!    

 

Shortest History of Scotland Murray Pittock

 

Wars of Bruce and William 13thc and 14thc and the sophisticate political thought, 

 

1760 to 1914 – Scotland that caught up  with rest of UK.  Scottish associations and Burns clubs

 

 

From Columba to The Corries, the Picts to Paisley, Doggerland to Devolution – here is the unmissable story of Scotland.

Scotland is one of the oldest nations in Europe. Its territory remains fundamentally unchanged since the fifteenth century, and its southern border with England has barely altered since 1237.

And yet Scotland – a country with its own law, education and church – is not a state at all. In The Shortest History of Scotland, Murray Pittock argues that this very ambiguity has helped make the nation a central part of the global story.

From first tribes to Scotland’s multicultural present, Pittock unpicks the myths from the reality. He explores the glories – real and imagined – of Scottish history, from the Bruce to Balmoral, William Wallace to Walter Scott, Enlightenment to Devolution. And he asks what this rich past can tell us about what may lie ahead.

 

 The International aspects of Scotland has an unusually distinctive brand 15^th or 16^th brand. 

 

“Culture is resistant to change, and history is being manipulated.” 

“Tribalism based on ignorance is not a good idea.” Murray Pittock

Aly Bain Shetland Fiddler turns 80!

Aly Bain Shetland Fiddler turns 80,

Happy birthday Aly!......He is a leading voice on the Scottish folk scene – unassuming and supremely talented. He learned the Shetland fiddle style on the lap of his teacher. He’s a founder of the Transatlantic Sessions: begun in 2005 and in 2026 in its 31^st year. Along with master dubro player American Jerry Douglas, Bain is a musical director of this classy and accomplished TS band. 

Aly Bain & Nicola Benedetti

Aly performed with the renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti at the Celtic Connections opening concert 2012, along with Phil Cunningham. Benedetti was intrigued to learn the Shetland fiddle techniques. 

Aly Bain Transatlantic Sessions

My Review for The Transatlantic Sessions 2026

Aly Bain drives deep into the emotions, as he played his subtle and expressive Shetland fiddle with his expert ease on Hector the Hero set. 

The quality TS band are always tight and impressive, the glue for this concert. As we leave to brave the cold January night air, we are heartened by the jovial warmth and musical energy of this ever popular concert!

 

Like a musical river from Tennessee to Nashville to west Kerry, than to Shetland and to Pathhead Midlothian. As Mattea described, the colourful, one off collaborating at Celtic Connections lead to arteries “like the roots of a tree that lead to different accents – and make the collaborating more sweet.” Like a fascinating patchwork quilt with the variety and range of musical styles and genres that challenge and add musical colour to our lives.

 

The show's seasoned house band, guided as ever by Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas, features renowned Celtic and Americana roots musicians John Doyle, Michael McGoldrick, Tatiana Hargreaves and Allison de Groot, John McCusker, Donald Shaw, James Mackintosh, and Daniel Kimbro.

I’ve been taking photos at the Transatlantic Sessions since 2008! 

There’s a large archive of TS photos on my website – https://pkimage.co.uk/celticconnections

He continues to tour with accordion player and pianist and composer Phil Cunningham.

 

Dismantling the Burns Myths

 

(Or attempting to!)  Our Scots bard has been portrayed at times as a reckless, womanising drunk, and his poetry work has not been taken seriously by academics and educators. I believe these false myths are far from the truth and are of serious consideration. Because our national bard continues to this day to have a significant impact on Scots national image and psyche. 

He has written some of Scots most loved poetry and songs and we celebrate Burns night each January 25^th.

 

He has been dismissed as an uneducated farmer. These myths matter, because as our Scots national bard Burns image is one of the most famous image for Scots. It matters on our images of “Scottishness” and of our long history of Scots cultural identity. 

  In fact Burns was voted by Scots as the most iconic Scots image, much like Mozart’s image in Vienna. During Victorian empire times Burns was viewed as part of the empire narrative associated to Walter Scott’s romantic Scottish nostalgia – of a Scotland that was lost and gone forever – and this image focused on Burns love poems, while neglecting his other work.

 

The elites, the academics and literati in Edinburgh found it hard to accept the farmer Burns in his boots, who never attended university: but was self-educated through his local education, his father and his own reading. He met the great and the good here and began his song collecting journeys, after meeting James Jamieson who published the Scot musical museum.    

  

Burns was far more than the peasant farmer or ploughman poet and was highly educated. What is often ignored is that Burns father was a cultured, disciplined and well spoken man himself, who greatly valued education for his family. His mother knew and sang all the old Scots ballads. For a few years Burns attended a school in Ayr, where he was taught by the young teacher John Murdoch, at the age of seven, and he became a great reader. After which he and Gilbert were tutored by Murdoch over the occasional summer months.

 

 Yes he may have occasionally enjoyed social drinking, but as he writes from Ellisland to his friend Robert Cunningham in 1791, after a party when he had sold off the Ellisland farm equipment:  “After the roup was over, about thirty people engaged in a battle and fought it out for three hours. Nor was the scene much better in the house. Not fighting, indeed, but folk lying drunk on the floor and decanting, until both my dogs got so drunk by attending them, that they could not stand. You will easily guess how I enjoyed the scene as I was no further over than you used to see me.”  

Tam O Shanter by Alexander Goudie

Anchors Close Edinburgh

Edina , the New World

Poozie Nansies

Burns & highland Mary

Library books Ellisland

There has been too much negativity written. Why? Was it because Burns didn’t fit into normal accepted norms, and had friends he met at the Globe Inn who were reformers for votes for all men? Because he grew up the son of a tenant farmer?  Because he was a free, independent thinker, who challenged the elites narratives. Or mainly because he wrote in the Scots language and therefore was not to be taken seriously. 

Considering all Burns writing, studying, researching and collecting – his many letters, poems, songs and epistles. His years of toil and hard farm labour growing up, plus his Scotia travels during his short life and all the myths that surround him. I find it hard to believe that Burns was a hard drinker as some myths put out. Because, how did he find time to write some of his best poetry at Ellisland and in Dumfries – plus his Excise work of detailed record keeping, long days travelling on horseback and being a young father. 

Burns poetry and song have become a symbolic touchstone of Scottish identity for generations, The Patriot Bard, by Patrick Scott Hogg

 

In the age of enlightenment Burns believed in the power of reason and common sense. When there was a crackdown on democratic reform. The Jacobite cause was symbolic of the country’s lost, romantic past. The tyrannical oppression of the Pitt government

brought the enlightenment movement to its knees, and silenced the leading minds of a generation. Burns risked his life and freedom to continue composing such radical material of social satire during his last few years. He published anonymously Scots Wa Hae as he considered it too seditious.