Yes Campaign Comedy (and More on Scottish Nationalism)

As I mentioned earlier, CN Homeboy is an ardent Scottish Nationalist, Scottish National Party voter, and all around good guy. Knowing that I love the Proclaimers and Orkney, he posted the attached picture on my Facebook wall: the Proclaimers, Craig and Charlie Reid, with a bunch of Orcadian Scottish Nationalists, obviously in Orkney, holding up "Yes" signs in the color scheme of the Orkney flag. His caption:

"Great band, picture, place, and cause."

Not to be outdone, I replied:

"That's pretty impressive that they got all of the "Yes" voters in the entire county together into one place. Must have taken three or four ferries and a couple of airplanes to accomplish that."

A lively debate between the two of us, joined by CN Ness, subsequently took place. All were good sports and respectful of one another's differing views, which is always encouraging.

In the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to update a few of the stories from my previous post on the subject.

The ferries are still in occasional disarray over the Serco/Northlink contract. I haven't heard any news about it in a few weeks, but I get the impression that the Orcadians are still pretty upset with how the whole thing has been handled.

I had the opportunity in December to speak for a few minutes with one of the First Aberdeen bus drivers, and it sounds as if the proposed strike wasn't a Scotland thing, but a local Aberdeen thing instead. Without revealing any more detail, I just want to acknowledge that this particular incident didn't seem to have anything to do with the SNP or the Scottish Government (and as I noted then, I wasn't sure whether it was an Aberdeen issue or something bigger).

Apparently the ScotRail strike didn't happen. The bus driver I spoke to seemed to side with the proposed strike action, because the passenger in question apparently cried on demand when caught trying to ride the train without paying the required fare. I'm still skeptical of the whole thing (plus I never did make it down to Edinburgh - maybe this week?); but, again, in the interest of full disclosure, the strike didn't take place.

While I remain skeptical of the proposed Scottish secession referendum, I also remain prepared to be convinced that the SNP actually have a plan or a reasonable justification for secession. I have still seen nary a trace of either.