That was the festival, that was......

Bank Holiday Monday, 26^th August 2013:

That was the Festival, that was…….

And depending on your choice….you pays your money & you makes your choice, or you read the previews and reviews….. Whichever, I hope it was a good one for you.  

Hold hard, I hear you call, it ain’t over yet, ‘cos the International Festival continues beyond today, Bank Holiday Monday, The Mela is looming, http://www.edinburgh-mela.co.uk/ and the biggeee concert complete with fireworks is still due! http://www.eif.co.uk/

Whew, how could I forget all that?  Possibly because I’m still mulling over all the stimulating events I did manage to get to, and worry about all I missed, or worse, good acts that the critics missed. Like Tumi Morake at the Assembly (on the Mound) as part of the South African Season, a very funny woman, so let’s hope she comes back. http://www.tumimorake.co.za/

But the stimulating, had to include Andrew Marr, and James Naughtie, & best left to Gerry Hussan http://www.gerryhassan.com/  and The Power of the London Scots.

But Henry McLeish managed to put the cat among the pigeons with his challenge to the Labour party:  Unionists sunk by a perfect storm.  http://www.scotsman.com/  last Monday, Monday 26^th August. 

Finally, debate seems to be taking off…..but again it seems to be…you pays your money and you makes your choice with regards to what you go to, listen to, or read.

So in the written sphere, & if you follow McLeish’s line of thought: would Scotland vote yes because we’re frightened of hung parliaments & future Tory-Lib Dem coalitions? 

Has Scotland & Scottish voters lost faith in one person one vote delivering a Labour government in power in Westminster? Do we feel the demographics weigh against that, i.e. majority one party/Labour/ in power, before even considering the proliferation of right wing sentiments in England and its voters? But do we know that those voters (Ukip/BNP now seeming to be more evident) would they transfer to the Tory party at the time of a general election in an effort either to i/keep the opposition out and-or  ii/ influence the Tory policies?

In the broadcasting sphere, and at the weekend, and The Festival of Politics at the Parliament, Edinburgh http://www.festivalofpolitics.org.uk/ I heard Brian Wilson, Former MP and former Minister for Energy and Founding Editor and publisher of the West Highland Free Press pronounce during the Culture & Broadcasting event that yes, the BBC is’ unbalanced’, but that the BBC is unbalanced’ is a programming issue and not a constitutional issue’.

But was it not always thus? When, within the BBC, still a London-Salford-centric institution, was editorial control ceded to a region or a country in a manner that was approved of by that region or country? Can we assume that there is editorial independence in the BBC in relation to Scotland, especially now? Can we assume that no matter how well intentioned, there is no media bias coming from the BBC in the forthcoming months? That there there will be range in output?

Brian Wilson noted that  as Scots we  ‘were not inhibited by the Union,’ as ‘the evidence base shows’. His theory being that pre and post devolution…’we know what we have, we see what we have’ and that in Scotland as part of the Union, ‘we can do it better.’ 

There was no time to explore how we can do it better if power resides in Westminster either in relation to broadcasting or further afield. I did like Ruth Wishart’s point @ruth_wishart that national-ism can link to international-ism without being inward, petty and jingoistic. 

Identity, pride, in self and nation is surely not the preserve of the far right wing, is it? 

Exploring nationalism doesn’t make on sad, bad, mad or a traitor to one’s party, does it? 

I’d worry more if people didn’t discuss and debate, didn’t question. I’ll personally try to circumvent the wide eyed ones who want to convert me to their way of thinking, without giving space to my doubts by merely dismissing them. Or by assuming that when I do question I have a bias one way or the other. So, for those reasons alone, I’m on the look-out for more events, debates, over the coming months. 

Who knows, I might even get to :

Borders, Immigration & Citizenship, 6.00pm, Wednesday 25^th September at the Royal Society Edinburgh 22-26 George St.

To be chaired by Prof John Curtice, University of Strathclyde,  as part of the RSE and British Academy’s series on Scotland’s constitutional future. www.royalsoced.org.uk