Reflections McCall

  A recent article in the Herald titled "Herald View: The real test of the Hate Crime Bill comes in its application " concludes by stating: "The passage of this bill demonstrated a desire to protect rights; but so too did the objections that were raised to it. A majority of MSPs think they have struck a balance: the effectiveness and application of its measures in practice will be the test." / https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19156879.herald-view-real-test-hate-crime-bill-comes-application/ This really is not good enough!  Waiting to see how the Bill works in practise means exposing citizens to possible harms.    *These harms are foreseeable. *If they are foreseeable, then they are also preventable. *And if they are preventable then surely there is a moral duty to prevent harm?     The Hate Crime(s) Scotland law, introduced by Humza Yousaf is full of vague and undefined terms.  (See my article https://www.thinkscotland.org

Over the weekend an amazing thing happened in Glasgow: thousands of people were happy together and celebrating throughout the city.  I first became aware that something unusual was happening when I heard distant fireworks going off. In these days of gloom and hopelessness, I wondered why? Logging in to Twitter the reason became obvious. Because after about a decade in the wilderness, Rangers had won the Scottish Premiership! As described in P M News, Nigeria "Glasgow Rangers have been crowned Scottish Premiership champions for the first time since 2011 after Celtic were held to a goalless draw at Dundee United... Rangers were consigned to Scotland’s fourth tier back in 2012 after the financial collapse, but have rebuilt steadily —- and have now denied Celtic a record-breaking 10th consecutive top-flight crown... Former Liverpool and England midfielder Gerrard took the Rangers helm in 2018 and has now completed a remarkable end to Celtic’s prior dominance. Ran

In my first post on this theme I said that “So many SNP followers adore Nicola Sturgeon! They say so frequently on social media and in interviews. And adoration is not a rational choice, it is a psychological state. SNP followers have their very self-identity bound up in 'the cause'. This means that arguments that challenge 'the cause' threaten their self-identity and strike at the very core of who they see themselves to be. This makes reaching them with reasons or facts or arguments almost impossible.” However, while reaching SNP followers with facts and argument is “almost impossible” there are emotional appeals that can work, and we are witnessing one now For opponents of the SNP, the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints is important because it concerns the likely abuse of State power by the Scottish Government. As more and more is revealed (or one might say dragged out of a reluctant Executive),

Scotland’s economy would shrink by at least £11bn a year if it became independent   There have been many reports outlining the economic costs to Scotland of becoming independent. As reported in the Guardian recently: "Scotland’s economy would shrink by at least £11bn a year if it became independent ... a team of economists has forecast. The report from the London School of Economics and City University of Hong Kong found that quitting the UK’s common market would hit the Scottish economy two to three times as hard as leaving the EU, just counting the impact on trade alone. Suggesting that the worst economic effects would take several decades to take hold, the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance said the impacts on its trade with both the UK and the EU would shrink Scotland’s economy in the long run by between 6.3% and 8.7%. That was equivalent to a loss of between £2,000 to £2,800 per capita a year: with Scotland’s population estimated to be nearly 5.5 million, that pu