One person last week offered comfort, leadership and moral guidance to tens of thousands of Scots. Was it a member of the clergy? Was it an expert? Was it even a Scot? In fact, it was a 37-year-old Hollywood actress called Angelina Jolie.
The world’s most beautiful woman and Hollywood’s highest paid actress revealed she’s had a double mastectomy rather than wait to (probably) contract breast cancer thanks to a faulty gene.
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Clunking fist smashes independence – every tabloid headline and weary cliché about the former prime minister is ready to roll as Gordon Brown prepares to stride the boards in support of the Union and a Labour campaign distinct (best not say separate) from Better Together.
Journalists may already have written the story, but there’s no guarantee the Scottish public will smile upon the former Labour leader after three years of self-imposed near-silence. At long last the notoriously hesitant politician is taking a calculated risk. Will that count in his favour?
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It's amazing what a broad smile can do for an apparently unelectable politician. A belly-laugh turned terrifying Ian Paisley into a Chuckle Brother. A cheeky lad grin did the same for Martin “Commander” McGuinness. Now Nigel Farage has guffawed his way to 147 seats and a quarter of votes cast in last week’s council elections south of the Border.
Of course Ukip’s success was not just down to “cheeky chappie” appeal but an explicitly anti-Europe, anti-Establishment, anti-minorities, anti-claimants and anti-gay political platform. Does this “sea change” mean anything for Scotland?
On the face of it – not a lot. Ukip polled 5 per cent at European elections in Scotland in 2009, 1 per cent at Holyrood elections in 2011 and 0.28 per cent at Scottish local government elections in 2012, losing their only councillor in Fife and coming fifth behind the Greens with a tenth of their Scotland-wide vote.
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“Where are all the protests?” A Finnish camera crew filming in Edinburgh last week was mightily surprised to find the bold, UK-boat-rocking, independence-threatening Scots tucked up indoors safe from nasty Arctic blasts. Where were the massive demonstrations – as there have been in Spain, Greece and Cyprus – over austerity? Why no posters or banners? Why so little evidence of passion, anger or a united sense of purpose? Is independence a dead duck?
You could try to explain that Scots aren’t very demonstrative if you weren’t addressing Finns, who have cornered the world market in sangfroid.
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Belfast is 400 years old this week – but the city has fewer obvious reasons to celebrate than a century back, when the loss of the “unsinkable” Titanic delivered a massive blow to morale.
Economic performance indicators published last week proved Northern Ireland still has the highest level of inactivity among the UK’s 12 regions and the highest overall unemployment.
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The five-member Green and Independent group at Holyrood prompted a salvo of (generally) hostile headlines by announcing they’ll debate “There is still such a thing as society” just after Mrs Thatcher’s coffin has been carried to St Paul’s Cathedral for a ceremonial funeral with military honours.
The group gets one debate a year. The date was chosen in January, long before the Iron Lady’s demise, but the topic was chosen after her death. The group could only ignore or tackle a momentous coincidence they did not create. With just one more debate in their gift before next year’s referendum they chose the latter option. Were they right?
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A petition with half a million names will be handed to Iain Duncan Smith today, urging him to live on £53 per week. The “put up or shut up” call to the bedroom tax architect is controversial. Some say it plays the man, not the ball, and is pointless since IDS is clearly no more for turning than the Tory heroine from whose era his welfare “reform” appears to have been drawn.
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So “ratbag” Iain Duncan Smith has decided to leave his £2 million mansion and sleep rough this Easter Monday to express solidarity with those facing the bedroom tax.
Stung to the quick by Scottish hostility, the erstwhile “compassionate Conservative” said: “We are all in this together. And anyway I can buy another big hoose when things calm doon.”
Yes indeed – it is 1 April. But not even the coincidence of April Fools’ Day and Easter Monday has prompted a second’s hesitation or remorse from the man dismantling the welfare state.
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Men say yes to independence – women say no. That was the bittersweet reality behind a weekend poll which gave the SNP a 20-point lead over Labour and reduced the swing needed for a Yes vote to 5 per cent.
On the face of it, that’s achievable – but the lion’s share of undecided voters are women, who are more likely to vote No. The Panelbase survey found men almost twice as likely to support independence (47 per cent against 25 per cent) and that 22 per cent gender gap is part of a trend – 15 per cent last year and 13 per cent last month (recorded by Ipsos Mori).
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It may not be the top question on anyone’s lips – but since the Northern Isles are Scotland’s offshore energy capital (in oil, gas and marine renewables) rumbles of discontent carry weight. But are these mere rumbles, what do they mean and are they being deliberately magnified?
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