Converse!

The Scottish Executive today launched its much anticipated White Paper on independence, with Alex Salmond challenging opposition parties to come up with their alternatives. He called for a national conversation in which the full range of constitutional options are discussed, maintaining the SNP's approach - full independence secured via a referendum - remains the best way forward.

The White Paper is a lengthy document and can be downloaded here. Members of the public are invited to comment on it here via this dedicated website where more details of the overall initiative can be found.

This promises to be a long game and YouScotland encourages everyone to fully participate. We will read the document carefully and with interest.

Times/Populus Poll

New Opinion Poll

The Times of London has just today, Friday 20th April. published a new poll it commisioned from Populus, a credible outfit. Like all polls, it caries a health warnng but, headline stats wise, as far as the relative standings of the main parties are concerned, we reckon probably not too far out. And, the infamous supressed Herald poll of last weeked aside , it's the first poll for well over a week, so an interesting read.

What is far out is the spin and interpretation surrouding it. Read The Times article itslef and lots more on our members' forum. Go here

Independence 1st March and Rally Report

Saturday 31st March, What a Great Day!

Just attended the Independence 1st March and Rally in Edinburgh - what a lovely day weather wise, and what a great mix of people as we walked all the way from Market Street to Holyrood, via Princess Street and then the Royal Mile. A good warm reception from the public too along the way.

These pictures (below) and the short video of the march (at youscotland.tv), pretty much tell the story. Maybe not huge in numbers ( c. 500)  but big in sprit and colour, with people for all walks of life, age and political outlook - and a few from overseas, uniting behind one simple demand: Irrespective of the outcome of May's Holyrood elections, it should be the people not the politians that decide on Scotland's future through a straightforward referendum question  - "Scottish Independence - Yes or No?"

It was a great place also to meet lots of old friends and to make more than a few new ones. There was a definite bounce in the air at this all-party/non-party rally for self-detemination at the gates of Holyrood - a shared beief that when we are next back here, it wil be to an altogether different, better place. The rally itself was highly entertaning, so much so that day visitors to the Holyrood building who heard the music and saw the colour joined in. From Korea to Canada they will now be supporting our referendum demand!

Some great performances too - actress Joyce Falconer of the BBC's River City ( she can fair sing and play!) ,Dick Gaughan, Ted Christopher, Dougie Mclean, Katherine Polwart and Mouse Eats Mouse. But for me, and I think mot people. the highlight of the concert was the performance by Scottish/Jamaican/Leith Reggae band Project Bona Fide and its lead singer Natalie Hendry who sported a cool saltire dress specially made for the occassion. Great music - hear some of the band's demo tracks via this MySpace link. TA sinle is due out in late April - Scotland's next big export me thinks  See the actual performance and that dress revealed on video. About 8 minutes but woth every second . Keep watching ( the sound quality improves)  and they save the best for last - William Wallace meet Bob Marley, with Jamae Connolly wacthing outside the gate of Holyrood! You coud not script it, but it all happens here at an Independence 1st rally in 2007

A big thanks to all the Independence 1st organisers - Eric Canning its convener and stalwart of the former Campaign for a Scottish Parliament just keeps on going! And to someone up there who must be on our side - the sun shone all day and it felt li.ke July. Most of us left with sun tans to prove it.

If you were there and have any pics or video you's like to add, just e-mail us what you have and we will do our best to post it - or blog some text below of your own impressions and experiences of the day.

Video of March on Princess Street View

Alan Smart, YouScotland Steering Group

YouScotland.com Steering Group Member Tam McTurk seeks inspiration from a Local Hero at the Market Street rallying point.

Basque and Caledonian flags sparkle in the spring sunshine

91 years on, Edinburgh born James Connolly prepares for another Easter Rising!

The march reaches the Mound

And arrives at Holyrood

 

Ted Christopher, Dougie McLean, Dick Gaughan and Joyce Faconer perform Dougie McLean's Caldeonia

Leith's Project Bona Fide belt out Soldier, dedicated to freedom fighters - from Wallace to Marley

And the crowd love it!

Campaign News

One Man's Election: A View From South Ayrshire

by Hugh Hill

A couple of people here have mentioned that they know my face.  It isn’t surprising since up until recently I used to conduct non religious ceremonies for the Humanist Society of Scotland.  Sadly, nearly all of those ceremonies were funerals.  There was one particular funeral that had a profound effect on me and that was the funeral of a beautiful five year old boy who had died of cancer.  I tell you this because it is a subject I will come back to later.

I decided to enter this election after listening to David Cameron, the leader of the Tory party, expressing his deep concern about the amount of privatisation going on in the NHS.  That combined with the New Labour vote to spend an unimaginable fortune on weapons of mass destruction, was the last straw. New Labour is unquestionably filtering Thatcherite policies into our country. For example;-

NHS privatisation; We have recently witnessed the spectacle of a private company attempting to take over a local doctor’s surgery in Harthill. The PFI scheme; This will ensure that our children and possibly our grandchildren will be paying for these schemes straight into the pockets of private shareholders.

The lack of local authority houses; How on earth could anyone justify the failure to provide descent, basic, affordable housing in this country?

Privatisation and commercialisation programmes in schools and colleges;  The PFI is bad enough but encouraging our children to live on a diet of junk food and irregular food habits is bordering on the criminal.

Tuition fees;  Whatever happened to free education for all?

Low pensions; We are looked upon as the poor man of Europe when it comes to pensions.  Ours are disgustingly low.  We need an immediate and substantial rise in pensions,  and an end to water and sewage bills for pensioners.  I have taken on board the policies of the Scottish Senior Citizen’s Unity Party which includes a national index linked basic pension of £160 a week.  Abolition of the council tax and more residential homes for seniors.  My own policy goes further than that and if you want a large type copy of my manifesto please see me later.

The relentless increase in the gap between rich and poor; Year on year we have seen the rich get richer and the poor get poorer under New Labour.

Law and order; I come from a rural coal mining community where standards of common decency and respect for others were instilled in me from a very young age by my parents and grandparents who founded the local Labour Party.  We need to find ways of getting back to those basic ideals of Labour in Scotland.

Trident and the Iraq war; These are modern day obscenities that fly in the face of not only traditional Labour values but common sense. What better use could this money have been put to in helping find ways of combating the ravages of age and disease throughout the world?  And this is where I come back to the story I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation where I told you about the five year old wee laddie who died of cancer.  Scotland has unquestionably some of the best scientific minds in the world.

Scotland is looked upon as a centre of scientific excellence.  We should be tripling, or more, our investment in medical research. Cancer is curable, but we need the resources both in money and facilities to combat these diseases.  Already, stem cell research, has found a cure for diabetes.    That alone will improve the quality of life for untold millions.  Scotland could be in the forefront of medical research and instead of threatening to destroy millions of lives we could be saving countless millions throughout the world.  The potential through stem cell research for cures for age related diseases is boundless.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the values New Labour threw out.What, I wonder, would that South Ayrshire champion of the common man, James Keir Hardie, who opposed our entry into World War One, have made of the antics of New Labour?  The traditional Labour supporters have been disenfranchised by New Labour.  New Labour not only threw out the old labour policies but the old labour values as well. We need to restore those values in today’s world.  Make no bones about it, Scottish Labour is unquestionably, Scottish New Labour.

Had New Labour sought to retain the traditional good and decent values of Keir Hardy and the countless numbers who fought for those values, then the things I stand for would already have been delivered.
I unashamedly ask for your vote in this election.  Vote Hill – Vote Independent.

Hugh Hill is an independent candidate for Carrick Cumnock and Doon Valley : Born in 1939 into a coal mining family.  He left school at 15 and went into the pits. After a few years in mining he joined the Royal Air Force and ended up in Air Traffic where he remained in ‘Civvy Street’ until his retirement.  He now holds a BSc with honours in psychology, and a Diploma in Secular Ceremony.Hugh is a member of the Humanist Society of Scotland, the British Humanist Society, the Rationalist Association, the Secular Society, Kyle and Carrick Civic Society, Greenpeace, various other secular organisations in USA and Canada, and is executive director of the Secular Fellowship. Hugh strongly believes that every individual has an absolute right to food, clothing, shelter, health and education. Pet loves are Schubert’s 5th symphony, Pink Floyd and science. Pet hates are drivers who don’t indicate their intentions,superstition  and xenophobia.  Not necessarily in that order.

Have you too anything worth reporting from the election front line?

Just drop us an e-mail

Guest Blog

Guest Blog

Coming soon, this will be a means through which guest bloggers - some famous, some not so famous - can have their say in a featured way, and others can of course shoot back at them via the “comment” facility built into the blog. . Not that dissimilar to opening up a thread in our debates section and the starting it off with a longish post of your own, but more upfront and more topical in terms of content.

If you’d like a guest blogger slot email tommy@youscotland.com

BeboScot

This will be our online youth movement. No age limits, but you’ll get our drift - same essential democratic mission, just a different language code and way of working. If you use bebo already, you’ll get this instantly, if you don’t, have a look anyway and you’ll see what all the fuss is about is and what makes bebo the world’s fastest growing communications and self-empowerment site.

If you are under 21 and interested in helping e-mail youscotlandinfo@googlemail.com

YouScotland.tv

The Revolution Will be Televised!

Just as politicians are slowly losing their mystique and power in the face of the internet revolution, so too is the mass media. And nowhere is this more evident in the transformation of audio-video technologies we have see in recent months, turning film making from something for the select few into something everyone can do. Through the YouTube and mobile phone revolution, we can indeed all "Broadcast Ourselves"

And whilst at times it is just fun and entertaining, we believe this technology, in which a £20 mobile phone has the power and the reach of a £500,000 camera and satellite van of 10 years ago, means our revolution will be televised.

We are asking YouScotland supporters and others to share with us their experiences, not just in text but also in video. Use your imaginations and new found skills to show us your vision of a new Scotland, and also expose the establishment we aim to remove. Turn up at their meetings, their campaign rallies, debates and photocalls, and send us back what you find there, good, bad, indifferent or just bizarre. But more positively, show us all what you and others are doing to help build a better future.

With our cameras, computers and vision, we can liberate our country!

Take action

1. Get involved in our youscotland.tv editorial and production board, or offer to help with training etc. e- mail alan@youscotland.com

2. Join our Broadcasting for Scotland discussion board

3. Trade in your old phone for any current generation mobile with a 2 megapixel camera, available from any number of shops on your high street - from the Carphone Warehouse to Tesco. It should cost you nothing ( apart from a longer contract), and it is all you will need to broadcast yourslef!

Ireland's Call

As Scotland prepares to face Ireland this Saturday in a Six Nations showdown at Murrayfield, it is a good time to reflect just how much better placed independent Ireland is compared to devolved Scotland, McConnell style.

OK for the moment their ( all Ireland) rugby team is a little better on paper, but in fact, on every important and objective comparison on the economic, cultural and political fronts, the Republic of Ireland ( pop 3.6m) knocks the spots off the Kingdom of Scotland (pop 4.9m). Higher growth rates, higher GDP per head, higher international profile, more tourists, more inward investment, more near everything indeed! "The best small country in the world", Jack? - We don't even make it past the Home Internationals qualifier.

But that was most certainly not the case in 1922 when Ireland won its (partial) independence. Then Ireland was most definitely the poor relation in terms of Celtic cousins.

So what has made the difference, accounted for this remarkable turnaround? Independence for sure, and Independence in Europe in particular. So answer that wee Wendy the wizard or any of the Labour front organisations you can fund with our money to tell us Scotland "couldnae hack it" independent. Ireland has - and could have done it even better if the Brits had left them alone earlier, or got out of the north when they should have rather than just now.

So enjoy the rugby - but look at the evidence. Answer Ireland's call. And not a bullet , a bomb or hunger strike will be necessary. Just a cross in a box, and a bit of bottle.

And a final thought: "Ulster is English" just would not have the same ring to it - even Ian Paisley would be embarrassed saying it. So Scotland's fight is Ireland's too - and thanks for proving to us that independence works! And if there were a referendum in the Republic of Ireland tomorrow, would a "re-join the Union" option get a single vote? ( unless Wendy was on holiday there at the time)

Come on Scotland - Murrayfield, Saturday - this May, Scotland - next year, the world!

Join      Give!

Give!

All YouScotland's activities are driven by voluntary effort. YouScotland has no paid staff, has no secret doners. YouScotland is your movement but it can only do as much as people give of their time and of their money.

Building our new movement, involving more people, reaching the disengaged and dissolusioned is resouce intensive. Campaigning effectively for justice for the 100,000 plus Scots excluded from their Parliament's elections needs money. Creating a better Scotland will not just happen by wishing it.

Please help how you can. In person, by volunteering or in monetary terms by giving, Every penny will be well spent and accounted for

Ways to to give:

By cheque:

To YouScotland.com , 7/2 Alvanley Terrace, Edinburgh, EH9 1DU.

By bank transfer:

Bank: Allied Irish Banks, Address: 19 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4DE

Account name: YouScotland.com: Sort code: 83-91-30 : Account number: 01009004

Online

Through secure online payment via paypal - click here

Still not convinced? - see our pitch to the Dragon's Den

Steering Group, 15 May, 2007

Steering Group

The People Behind YouScotland.com

The YouScotland.com Steering Group was founded in January 2007, and from a standing start, and assisted professionally by Ayrshire based e-consultation specialsts, Community People , have put this entire project together in 5 weeks, including the Founding Statement - and without spending anyone else's money!

Download founding_statement.pdf.pdf

We see our role as facilitators, people who once youscotland.com finds its feet will not so much be replaced by another committee, but superseded by the online community itself, a community which will collectively determine its own rules of engagement and establish governing structures consistent with the movement’s philosophy and the managerial possibilities of the net.

But we understand people will want to know who we are and where we are coming from, So here it is.

But it is where we are going - YouScotland, not us  - that is important. We are but cyberspace pioneers, initially working our of out of the Stand Comedy Club, York Place, Edinburgh before lift off. Our mission? To boldly go……….

Tommy Sheppard

I founded Salt 'n' Sauce Promotions Ltd in 1997, the company behind Scotland's longest running and most successful live comedy venues – The Stand Comedy Club. I am also a director of the Scottish Comedy Agency , which organises tours and festivals throughout Scotland and the UK , most notably the Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

Before making people laugh for a living I was a member of the Labour Party . I was an elected councillor for eight years in London , a parliamentary candidate in 1992 and Assistant General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party from 1994 to 1997. My “boss” at the time ? Jack McConnell!

I was born and raised in Coleraine, Co. Derry, and am a graduate of Aberdeen University . I previously have been a local government official and has long experience of campaigning and public relations.

In 1996 I made the televised finals of BBC's Masterchef. I lost, but I still do a mean spread at the parties I host in my home in Edinburgh, a city I have lived in  since 1993.  

Email Tommy@youscotland.com

Alan Smart

As Head of Current Affairs at Scottish Television I saw the worst of the private sector. As Head of Broadcasting at the Scottish Parliament I saw the very worst of the public sector. But as President of NUS Scotland I have seen the very, very best of the voluntary sector - November 1984 to be precise when through collective action and sheer bellief, UK students, with Scotland to the fore, defeated Tory Government proposals to introduce tuition fees.                         (Photo:Stewart Attwood, Sunday Herald)

I was Treasurer of the Campaign for a Scottish Parliament between 1985 and 1988. Whlst at STV, I produced Local Heroes, Business Bytes. Scottish Voices, Trial by Night and Time of Your Life, a history of Scotland in the 1980's cut to the soundtrack of the era. I have written and produced many websites, including holyrood.tv , Scotland Week in Italy 2006, Tartan Day Live 2001 and 2004, and most importantly to date, this one.

In 1995 I wrote Wallace, Scotland's Braveheart for The Big Issue in Scotland after discovering the Wallace story whilst watching Braveheart in a cinema at Disneyland, Florida. My favorite line in that much Scottish establishment derided, but essentially acurate and inpirational movie? - that of the footsoldier before the Battle of Stirling Bridge. "I didnae come here to fight for them" - and neither have I.

I was born and brought up in Paisley and have lived in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and Dollar. I now live in Falkirk. My hobbies include football ( St Mirren , Celtic and Everton), cricket (Scotland AND England), cycling (Andalucia) and satirical song writing. But my passion is my two kids, Jessica and Jack. An English mother, but the future of Scotland.                   e-mail@ alan@youscotland.com

Jane Denholm                                               

I am one of the founding partners and now director of Critical Thinking , a public policy consultancy, specialising in UK education, training and skills, established in 2000.

Prior to this I worked in a range of agencies and representative bodies including policy adviser to the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (the Dearing Committee) and secretary to its Scottish Standing Committee (the Garrick Committee). I'd like to see more creative approaches to solving the big public policy issues we face - it isn't beyond us and we have great raw materials and conditions. Current preoccupations include taking stock of the Scottish higher education sector now it is 10 years since the Garrick Report and, crucially, how we fund it given the Scottish 'no fees' policy and against a backdrop of top-up fees in England.

I'm an ever-optimistic follower of the Scottish national football team, enjoy mucking about with the photos on my Flickr site and, in the spirit of lifelong learning, am currently learning the bass guitar!

Margaret Lynch

I am Head of Overseas Programmes for Scotland's largest international charity, I was previously Chief Executive of War on Want but gave this up to raise my daughter Maeve.

I am a member of the SNP, having formerly been in the Labour Party. I am not politically active at present because as single parent with a demanding full time job it's just not possible, In this respects alone YouScotland.com is appealing, as its web based approach will allow me to be active on my own terms , at hours and locations that suit me.

When things really get my goat I do though get active in the real world - in recent years mainly around getting the children of asylum seekers out of Dungavel Prison.

In the past I have been involved in conflict resolution in Northern Ireland, have also worked with the Landless People's Movement, the world's largest social movement in Brazil, and movements for democracy and liberation in South Africa, Palestine, Latin America and East Timor.

I live in Coatbridge and grew up in Airdrie. Hobbies - where would I get the time? I spend my weekends cooking for the family, entertaining hordes of wean's, and dealing with mountains of washing and ironing.

Tam McTurk

I am freelance translator ( http://web.mac.com/tammcturk )and part-time distance learning student studying Gaelic at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, on the Isle of Skye.

Originally from Glasgow, I spent 20 years in Scandinavia before re-marrying and settling in Edinburgh. Weans in both Copenhagen & Edinburgh. Interested in languages (funnily enough) but also in international politics, green issues, culture and technology.

Two decades abroad proved to me that small countries do work and that low voter turnout and apathy are not actually inevitable.

In any spare time that I have I am addicted to live football. I have traipsed all over the place watching Scotland and am extremely proud to be the co-secretary of the Edinburgh & East of Scotland Partick Thistle Supporters Club.

Want to join us? email