” The pandemic allowed many of us to press the reset button, to re-evaluate, to prioritise. And I realised that I actually missed it. Like, really missed it. And I recognised the absolute joy that people experience in a gathering, a Ceilidh, a blether, a kind word, a joke, an embrace, a handshake.”
“The vanity of each generation”, writes the brilliant Andrew o’ Hagan in his essay ‘Scotland Your Scotland’, “is to believe that we are living in the greatest period of history.”
“Risk? Bring it on. What’s the worst that could happen? Is anyone seriously suggesting that this is as good as it’s going to get? Really?”
“One of the admirable conceits of Scotland – something that has helped us eschew the idea that there is no such thing as society since at least 1955 – is that wealth isn’t measured by the size of your wallet but by the depth of your humanity.”
“Whatever the merits of the bill, the biggest “take-home” from this week is that power devolved is power retained, that our executive powers are lent, not given”
“Croatia. 3.9m people. Independent since 1991. Played in its first major football tournament in 1996. Now the eighth highest ranked men’s footballing nation on earth.”
” I’ve found myself missing the actual experience of attending live football. I suspect I’m not alone in that. “
Scotland men’s football team may have taken the admirable decision to boycott the World Cup Finals, as it continues to occupy a moral high ground it has made its own since 1998, but that is not to say that the country has nothing to play for this week. Far from it.
“how brilliant, moving and fitting is it that, this time, on this of all weekends, a descendant of the great Milroy will take the field wearing the colours that his ancestor wore with such pride and distinction?”
“What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? ” Tony Benn
