Simon Varwell's Blog, page 2

Independence is boring

Over the past few months, I’ve been gradually coming to the opinion that the idea of Scottish independence is boring.

For me, it’s no longer simply this exciting, exhilarating freedom to pursue new directions, be an exceptional country due to our abundance of natural resources or our rich human and cultural resources, or make a distinctive and wonderful contribution to the world.

Instead – or rather also – it is something much more prosaic. Mundane, even.

One basic reason I have been reaching...

Money, money, money

I don’t care what currency an independent Scotland uses.

I’m also not an expert on currencies, monetary policies and economics in general.

So the last thing I ought to do is write a blog post on the topic with all the misplaced self-confidence of an over-entitled amateur.

However, this is precisely what I am about to do. I’m writing this not because I want to pad out my limited understanding of currency, but because I have become increasingly convinced over the last while that me not having a...

Scexit’s not Brexit

In my last post, I was inspired to write about the (often voiced) claim that Brexit shows us how messy the process of Scotland becoming independent would be.

I argued in that post that such a proposition sweeps under the carpet the racism and incompetence that characterised the Leave campaign – an oversight (intentional or not) that is malicious and sinister or just deeply ignorant and insensitive.

In this post, I want to deal more directly with the differences between the move for the UK to...

Missing the point on Brexit

I saw an astonishing tweet yesterday about the topic of Brexit and Scottish independence from Wes Streeting, the Remain-supporting Labour MP for Brexit-voting Ilford North, in Greater London.

If leaving the EU is this complicated and painful, I don’t know how easy the SNP imagines leaving the 300 year old union of the United Kingdom will be.

— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) January 21, 2019

I want to take forward two strands of thought from this original tweet. In the first, I really ought...

Fantasy tram network for Inverness

One of my favourite follows on Twitter of late is that of CityMetric, the New Statesman magazine‘s cities website. It looks at what makes cities tick, not least in terms of transport infrastructure. A particularly fun feature of the site is its collection of fantasy metro networks, where readers submit ideas of what a tram or underground network would look like in various places – including areas far too small to credibly justify them. The series is a lovely mix of careful planning and over...

Review: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West (part 2)

This post is a part of my year-long quest in 2017 to read only female-authored travel writing. Find out more about it on the project’s main page.

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Brexit like it’s 1999

One the big strands of my political geekery is a fondness for obscure party political broadcasts (PPBs).

We’re lucky in this country that – unlike the USA – you can’t buy television airtime if you’re a political party. All parties get is the occasional PPB allocated to them, with quite a few more during election campaigns. They’re generally in proportion to support, so big parties get a few, and fringe parties might only get one in an entire election.

It’s probably less of a hindrance to part...

My United Kingdom

Keen (or weary) readers will recall that in my previous post (the second in a trio of related posts) I proposed a game where those with strong opinions on the question of Scottish independence are instructed to look at things from the opposite side and try to propose a scenario that comes as close as possible to making them change their mind.

It seems only fair that, in exhorting others to participate in this game of political contortion, I lead by example and outline my own contribution.

So,...

Make The Best Of It

In my previous post, I outlined a game I’d like to play with Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard. It’s called the Awful-Brilliant Game. For this post to make sense, I suggest you read that previous one first. It’s good. Honest.

Done?

Cool. Right. Onwards.

Richard will be glad to know this game is a bigger, broader one than the Awful-Brilliant Game. One that demands an ability to engage in a bit of blue skies thinking. In my more fanciful imaginings, I think this could work as an interesti...

The Awful-Brilliant Game

As part of a trilogy of posts related to Scottish politics, and Scottish independence specifically, I have a couple of games I’d like to introduce. They are hopefully fun games of political imagination and speculation. One game is called The Awful-Brilliant Game, and the other is called Make The Best Of It.

In the second post I’ll explain Make The Best Of It, and I’ll play it myself in the third and final post of the series. But in this first post, allow me to introduce The Awful-Brilliant Ga...