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neil

remiss

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I have been remiss, remiss I tells ya. Remiss in that I haven't been blogging. I haven't been keeping you posted about my doings, regaling you with my thoughts, bothering you with my bothers.

I have been doing stuff: playing games (chess, poker, netrunner), doing OU stuff (TU100), coding stuff (the chessplaying thingee, my new site) but I haven't been keeping you, the world, informed. I don't know why. Laziness probably. That and maybe I don't know what to say.

Everything I'm doing feels a wee bit up-in-the-air at the moment, a work in progress, an incomplete thing. Take the chess playing thingee...

It's at that annoying stage where it works, but not completely; the code has become messy and needs to be fixed; it does almost everything that it needs to, but not quite. Unfinished, nearly finished, a start has been made? I'm not really sure.

My new site? yes, I'm finally going to register a domain and do a proper site. Which poses the tricky problem: what's is it going to be about? Where does the web have a neil-shaped hole? Well that's one thing that's at least been decided: JavaScript. TU100 has been a good course for me in that regard. I've re-discovered the joy of coding and the joy of coding JavaScript in particular. And if I'm being honest JavaScript is really the only thing that I'm any good at.

But it's all very well saying that I'm going to write about javaScript, that's a fine ambition, but what does it mean? Again not sure.

Then there's the degree. That's in the air too. I've decided that I'll do web/mobile/cloud technologies come October. To give me something to do and some time to think.

Still at least my plans for the weekend are fixed: I have a multi-media horror to produce for TU100. I'm off to download some un-plangent sounds to assault my tutor's ears as she view a montage of discordant images... 

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neil

christmas

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Tis the season of unreasonable awfulness. Yesterday was, "Christmas jumper day" at my work. Why is this accepted as reasonable behaviour for any species that describes itself as sentient is beyond me. If aliens land on earth on Christmas day they're going to go back to the depths of space to tell the others that we're a very silly bunch methinks.

It's even worse nowadays, jumpers now flash, jiggle and sing. An epileptic-fit inducing kaleidoscopic cacophony of festive banality. It wouldn't surprise me if they are part of the internet of things...

...that's a point. Perhaps they have IP addresses? Could they be hacked?    

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neil

sense

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some

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neil

Yet another nadir of the soul.... sigh

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Tuesday, 6 Jan 2015, 18:03

I don't know what I know, what I want, or what others want for me.

Pretty normal goth crap? Aye, but a wee bit sad for someone who has spent seven years knowing what he knows and what he wants. [What other people want of you is always a bit slippy.] 

I blew up this year, and I'm still a bit blown up. The people who love me tread carefully around me, the people who hate me fire into the mix, and parade the scars that I gave them.

And yet I have all the rubbish-of-my-mind that I've typed into the great here-abouts. Much of it is rubbish, indeed most of it is, but surely I was right once?

I know that this doesn't work; I need to pay off my debts, sort my bonce and dive once again into the what-I-don't-yet-understand.

I've spent most of my life failing.

Neither I, or my appointened/imposed judges have ever felt that because I ballsed up something that I was off the hook.

I wonder what would have happened if I was successful?

As if.

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neil

hallow'een

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I was doing my training in a primary school. Where we were stood in the dining hall, with midget-witches and vampires swarming around us and buckets and buckets of apples abounding, when somebody said, "of course it's hallow'een!"

The rest of us shared a look that signified something about the person who could be so unnoticing.

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neil

pool training...

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I'm on a two and one-half days pool-training course. When I first started doing pools we were given a pp14 of pencil-scrawl jotter — now I have a full pp236 full-colour folder, with diagrams and I'm required to sit an exam. Sic transit...

Personally I don't run a pool, so why am I on this course? There's a load of politics in that. My views about how the job should be done aren't always those of management. So I get to do punishment courses. When there are elements of management along for the ride this can often become me punishing them. Because I've been here [the OU] I'm very much better at them at learning. Because learning is a skill.

We [us OUers] have many advantages in this training-course situation: we know what learning strategy works for us [HatTip Jon], we can parse a text better and we have a learning-stanima. Not for nothing do we do all those three-hour exams.

We did an eight-hour day today, and, apart from me, I sensed that everyone was pegging. I was too but I'd turned my brain off a couple of hours before. I knew that I couldn't take anything else in and that I could read it in the morning. I was re-reading my notes.

When we had the pop-quiz it was interesting that I could find the pages in the pp236 or my notes when others were relying on their memories.

I'm not better than them, it's just that I have a better learning regime/idiom. In almost every essential what I've leant here [the OU] is how to learn.

Remember that.

 

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neil

maths audit...

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Why not? Everyone else here seems to be doing it. I love these posts, because I love maths and the teaching thereof.

Why do I love maths so much? Perhaps because I came back to maths because someone suggested that it was beyond me

Maths, funny stuff eh? Is it there at all?  Does it exist? What is maths? And why do people, people who I know can do maths, think that they suck at it? Abstract thought can't be that hard, otherwise we'd never be able to deal with time.

I'm sort of, kind of, in a less-than-the-middle region of maths; one where I grok the essentials but I can't understand the true beauty of maths. But therein lies the essential difference between me and those who are scared of maths — I see a beauty.

A beauty that I don't understand and one that I understand that I'll never understand. Still, I'm not scared. I'm confronted by my own ignorence, bounded above?

Doing higher maths has changed me. I'd like to say that I was no longer a fascile twerp, not true. But I am a much more thoughtful person. You are not allowed to just say stuff, you have to convince me that what you are saying is true.

Plato said that you needed maths to study philosophy. I'm not sure that I agree with him but there is something about maths that is otherworldy. It is there but it isn't.

And it, maths, can't do anything in the real world. Well that's what Hardy said. Funny that, every time you make an online purchase you're using number theory as your security.

I'm a basic man who doesn't want to commit any crimes, I steal maths books without a thought.

That's my maths audit — I wouldn't do that for any drug.

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Colin Young, Tuesday, 21 Oct 2014, 21:05)
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neil

have you noticed

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  • That the area of a circle is the area of a triangle height r(the radius) with base 2[pi] r
  • That the volume of a sphere is 4 times a great circle of said sphere
  • ?

Is this stuff out there? Or are we inventing it?

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neil

am i prediictable?

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Friday, 10 Oct 2014, 18:39

The wee boy said.

I shot him a hard look and wanted to say much. He saw my look, I'm not sure if he realized what it meant but he didn't flinch. He looked to the friend that he'd asked the question of, with an expression that I couldn't parse.

Some background would help you?

I was watching a game of draughts between one of the teaching helpers [whatever they are called, this is what they should be called.] and a wee boy, who has issues, in the room set aside for social events between the issued and their helpers.

She was trying not to win, he as explaining, to the air, why he as going to; I could see that the board was crying them both liars. 

This is support for learning. The supposed difficult kids. One of the watchers had asked the question of his mate. I saw that he was trying to keep me out of his head. Most people don't get that about me.

A school is a village, there has to be someone for everyone, and there usually is. One part of that equation, for my school, is a healthily mad me. For too long now I haven't been up for the job.

So I did what I always do: cheat. Have you ever worked through Archimede's proof of the area of a circle? I'm guessing not. Just about all maths is there. I'm looking to freak someone with it soon, even mathos will struggle.

For too long I've been hunkered in my bunker. I need to tell people what a wonderful world that we live in. With examples.

So to answer my question, yes. 

 

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neil

more x to the x...

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Friday, 3 Oct 2014, 20:08

My pure math-ist teachers suggests that 0o  is 1. I'm not so sure. In fact the whole thing has become a wee bit of an issue to me and my maths teachers. Why is -2-2 undefined? What am I missing? Despite us saying that we wouldn't use computers each and every one of us did.

Where we worked, well our computers, we found that negative numbers to negative powers were undefined. Umm? Our computers did see this.I was worried because I didn't

So I did a wee bit of work on functions of 2 variables. They seem to define a surface, discontinuous where?  And if they are discontinuous what does that mean for us other functions? You know the D2 ones?

My applied math-ist teachers don't like me playing fast and loose with differential equations, although everyone agrees that what  got out was right. And while it [my solution] has some odd things about it, it was agreed that I managed to differentiate xx.

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Colin Young, Friday, 3 Oct 2014, 22:53)
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neil

x to the x

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Friday, 26 Sep 2014, 20:12

This has been the question of the week for me and my maths teachers.

It started off when I was emptying the bins in the playground when I heard some some advanced higher maths students talking, I heard, "you know the easy stuff like differentiation...?"

"So you think that differentiation is easy do you?" I asked. "Differentiate x to the power of x."

They did what people usually do when they're first confronted with this; completely miss that this is a function rather than a function of a function. I pointed out their errors and they giggled at me.

Still that got me thinking, what is 00 ? Do we want to say 1?

We agreed not to google this, or use our graphing calculators.So we were left to our own mathematics devices. 

I saw two fixed points but when I messed around I saw that I was being stupid. The only fixed point is 1, I thought that there was another around three-quarters, things got a wee bit odd there.

The graph is special play a wee bit for yourselves...

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Neil Anderson, Saturday, 27 Sep 2014, 11:02)
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neil

What?

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[this is something that I did a while ago and have a sudden yen for finishing. The what tag should bring it all up. You should realize that it is the wrong way round.]

I began to see that it was pointless talking to myselves, I don't listen. What else am I supposed to do here then? Figure this out? All the rest of the mes, that I had to assume are me, haven't.

Am I so up-myself (this one) that I imagine that the only me (this one) can sort the world out?

I suspect that I'm a wee bit further forward than them (the others), but then I would wouldn't I?

And then there's the awful suspicion that your life/mind may be regressing. Was I a better person at twenty,? or am I a better man now? And why are there no girls?

In this whiteness there isn't any high-ground. Just a hell of mes squatting around a nothing sniping at each other with a bit too much knowledge of ourselves. The me three weeks ago looks down on me now but then he hadn't suffered the thing that I had. So I look down on him.

"This is hell?" I ask.

"When did you ever think that you were hell?" One of the mes asked. This was rhetorical, I always felt this.

"Whatever it is, we are us, I, we. We should stop being so up ourselves and do things!"

A young me then.

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Roo N, Thursday, 25 Sep 2014, 10:47)
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neil

my wee girls...

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Friday, 19 Sep 2014, 20:07

These are kids from my school. I defy you not to smile and hope for the future.

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neil

Salmond goes...

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And I find myself a wee bit sad. I thought that he made a measured valedictory speech. The comments were poisonous in both directions.

I think that it is right that he should resign. The divisiveness of all this has been widely exaggerated, still we need a bit of healing and 'eck stepping aside is a great start. As ever he makes a genius move. Nicola will become the mother of the nation.

We need to step back and think about what we've just been through. If every politician stood down that would be a start.

Today there's a real feeling of downess in the Eccoss. I refuse to feel this. An 85% turnout? A 97% registration? Democracy has been the winner here. We have all participated in something very special. 

I'm a yes but I'm glad that the margin of our defeat was as big as it was. We can't pretend that we were robbed, although some people will. We need to move on. The UK is going to have to have a conversation. And I'm convinced that we can do so.

I'd always hoped that it would be Scotland that would show the world but maybe it's right that it is Britain. We live in a world where decapitating people, or bombing the shit out of the bad guys is seen as debate. There is another way and Britain has just shown you it!

Permalink 4 comments (latest comment by Conrad Shaw, Sunday, 12 Oct 2014, 13:32)
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neil

today i'm proud of my country...

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And by my country I mean Britain. We managed to have a debate, and a referendum, over something that in other places would have involved bullets, killings and centuries of hate and rage. We've shown the world how 'grown-ups' settle their problems: with words, respect for one another and humour.

Things will have to change, I think that we all know that. But today just be incredably proud that we live in a country where fairness, tolerance and fellow-feeling are the norm ratrher than something to be aspired to.

Well done us!

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Neil Anderson, Friday, 19 Sep 2014, 16:18)
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neil

are you fed up with me yet...?

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One last post I'm afraid wink

I thought about what to write but in the end I've decided to share a conversation that I had with one of the kids today.

I was doing a litter-pick when I saw her, a wee girl with a blazer full of yes badges,  relentlessly doing whatever it is that people do on their iPhones.

"So are we going to win?" I asked her.

"I hope so", she replied with a smile.

"Listen if it all goes wrong don't get too down. Thirty-five years ago I was at university in England, on the day of our first referendum. I wasn't so decided in those days but I got so hacked-off at the papers and what people were saying that I hitched home so that I could vote. I made it with minutes to spare.

"We lost that day, we've lost many times, to even be here is something that I never expected to see. I hope that you won't have to have this conversation with a version of you where you are me. But if you do, remember the hope, remember that we want the world to be better and that we have a plan.

"Maybe the struggle is the thing?"

She looked at me a bit oddly, as if I might be mad.

"Let's just win." She said.

My country is healthy it seems.

Permalink 3 comments (latest comment by Neil Anderson, Friday, 19 Sep 2014, 16:46)
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neil

what to call this?

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I'm unsure.

I wanted to explain, in the way that the media wouldn't, what it feels to be here just now. I've messed that up, of course.

I talked, perhaps shouted at my old boss today, "can you tell me what s going to happen with our pensions?" He said.

"No",  I said. But a single sentence is not me.

"Can you tell me why ATOS took away my wife's disability allowance? Can you tell me why my niece has to move home because of the bedroom tax?" Funny, he was stushied.

He then concentrated on why I was being decisive. He had examples. He's a self-serving shite. Nice to be a winner in this game of life. Even if people close to you lose.

Why, why, why are we doing this? We're clearly atavistic morons, addicted to breaveheart, out to fuck-over the settled mores of society. Or are we?

This is a jump in the dark, we've never said anything else..

If you are in Scotland tomorrow, cast a vote.

Permalink 3 comments (latest comment by Neil Anderson, Thursday, 18 Sep 2014, 17:16)
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neil

anarchy...

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Wednesday, 17 Sep 2014, 17:10

Well the poolis don't think so.

[edited to add]

I was at work when I posted this, so it was just a quick link. However, I think that it needs a wee bit more said about it; in a way it is what the campaign has been all about.

So let's have a quote:

"Any neutral observer could be led to believe Scotland is on the verge of societal disintegration yet nothing could be further from the truth. [...]

Scotland's citizens are overwhelmingly law abiding and tolerant it is preposterous to imply that they would abandon these virtues by placing a cross in a box. [...]

"Respect is not demonstrated by suggesting a minority of mindless idiots are representative of anything. [...]

"One of the many joys of this campaign has been how it has awakened political awareness across almost every single section of society. The success enjoyed by the many should not be sullied by the actions of the few."

There's more, read it all for yourselves.

I woke up this morning to read poisonous lies in the London press, not the BBC, the London press, that we were a nation violently divided against ourselves. Not my feeling but what could be done? So imagine my surprise...

The police tell them that they are talking shite! And in no uncertain terms! 

I'm battering on and on here because we, here in Scotland, are going through something that we want everyone to experience: the feeling that your voice is being heard, that your vote counts. This is exhilarating, empowering and wonderful. We're having a national conversation, and we're having that conversation with feeling and without violence.

So to be told that we're at each others' throats and that blood is flowing in rivers on the streets is ... shall we say gutting?

We've been suffering a waterfall-tirade of doom-sayers, who are rich/powerful enough to have the ear of the media, about how we will all die if we vote yes, that we are storing up ISAs of hate, about how we are only doing this because we hate the English/Thatcher/Blair.

We've seen the British establishment red in tooth-and-claw for a while now; the only way yes can win is if there has been a concerted campaign of intimidation. There's been one of these right enough but it wasnae us honest. And then...

Our cops come out and tell the politicians and press that they are out-and-out liars and they'd better stop it. Scots do mad thing when they are pushed into corners.

I've said again and again that we've already won. And by we I mean all of us here in the UK.

 

 

 

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Neil Anderson, Thursday, 18 Sep 2014, 16:09)
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neil

down to the wire...

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...and still all to play for. We'll not really, we'll maybe. This isn't a game of football. Let me explain.

For the politicians this game is over, they'll go through the moves but, by now, they've said all that needs to be said. [We'll come to the vow in a moment.] We've been given the facts, such as they can be ascertained, we've been warned of the doom that we face, the promised land has been painted. The bozos will keep at it of course, that they would understand that what they say no longer matters would be asking for a self-knowledge that we all know that they don't have.

That doesn't mean that the game is over. The people on the cobbles are still playing.

Today I had a talk with a couple of undecideds.

"I'm a yes. Still I'm not going to pretend that this isn't a leap in the dark..."

[some concrete problems are raised...]

"Let's look at who's ag'in this shall we?" They are expecting the usual suspects.

"How much do you pay your union a month? How much does the boss of that union get paid? £120, 000 isn't it? Have they ever helped you? Have they ever asked you what you thought? When you were trying to get your equal pay money back were they helpful, or just not there? And he, and it is a he, has the blatant gall to suggest that we're better together! Better for him."

"Everybody who is predicting doom, or promising us the world, has an interest in things remaining just as they are.. Why are they so keen that the subsidy-junky scots remain on board? If we're that shite why don't they just cut us loose? It ain't an emotional attachment to us that's for sure." 

See, I can play as unfair as the best German Banker with a portfolio.

Which brings me back to the vow. Stupid thing to do? They now have two choices.

  • They stuff the scots with a lie that they'll be called on
  • They satisfy us, the scots. In which case they are going to have to satisfy everyone else on these isles too

We've won!

I imagine that, like the expenses issue they imagine that we'll move on and forget. Oh no. Not this time.

This time we are going to deliver the bill,

Permalink 3 comments (latest comment by Neil Anderson, Wednesday, 17 Sep 2014, 16:25)
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neil

divisive...

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Monday, 15 Sep 2014, 20:26

I don't do social media but I have been reading the comments about the indyref on news websites for the last couple of weeks. I must admit that I've been a wee bit taken aback by the bile that was on show. Now I'm no stranger to the bile of comments and the reality dis-connect that it usually goes along with them but..

A lot of the writers of these comments seem deranged in the same way that the media are. Somehow, somewhere there must be an evil purpose at work in the background. Salmond or the BBC? Or who knows who else? The illumnati, the freemasons?

That the BBC was biased, that there was violence on the streets, that people were being beaten up in the streets, that we... Words fail. Nowhere, anywhere can I find a report of actual violence beyond an egg being thrown or voices being raised.

And I'll say that Peston has shot down every lie that anyone cares to retail about the economics of the deal.

It isn't my experience. I don't see this violence, this lust for revenge. All  see are people debating something that they know might change their lives. All I see are people who are glad of the debate.

I stood in the Indian summer sun outside my school the other day, talking to my business manager. He was a no, I am a yes. Did we try to hit each other? Did we attempt to convince one another? Did we just walk away from the question?

Hardly.

We are both Presbyterian, him Ulster, me Scots, we were talking as an Orange March was taking place in the centre of our town. Both of us know our poisonous heritage, Irish history, and the stakes involved.

Whatever people say, whatever the result, there will be no recriminations. 

There are the mad here, on both sides. And they always will be with us.

But let me say something that you might not expect, Cameron is a statesman. He gave us our referendum without any spite and bile, I've talked to many people who feel if he had campaigned we wouldn't be here, he gave us our chance.

And I respect him for listening to a people.

 

 

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neil

who will win...?

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Saturday, 13 Sep 2014, 11:16

Well for a start Salmond. He has already won big whatever happens. If it's an aye then his place in history is secure: the man who delivered what I think most of us had assumed was impossible.

To even get this close is something of a personal triumph for him. Almost single-handedly he has led the SNP into power, used that power well enough to show us what-might-be if we had more power and has campaigned in a way which felt positive while still managing to get in some very low personal-blows at the nays.  

I'm no great fan of fat 'eck, as I've said before he has the touch of the scunner about him. It would come as no surprise to me if he had quite a few skeletons lurking in his closet. If fact looking at him, if he had more one skeleton lurking inside his body that would be no surprise either. But there can be no doubt, without him we wouldn't be here. 

You only have to look at the pictures to see which flavour of politicians are enjoying themselves.

Then there's the people of Scotland. I'm not sure if I can get across just how exciting it is to be here in Scotland at this moment. The world's press are arriving in their droves, we feel that we are on the cusp of history and that the world is watching us. For a small nation of little importance that's very flattering. 

So what are we, the denizens, doing? We're talking, incessantly, to each other about almost nothing else. Hundreds of thousands of people who weren't on the electoral roll have registered to vote. We're expecting an 80%+ turnout.

Whatever happens there is a real sense of importance about what we [and we do feel that we are a we] are about to decide. At no other time in my life has there been such an interest in a political event. And perhaps most importantly, there is a sense that what we think, as voters, can make a real difference.

Which leads me to my last big winners, everyone here on these isles. Aye or nae the political landscape has been changed.

Whatever your political leanings you must admit that you feel that an out-of-touch political elite are running this country in the interests of rich corporations and super wealthy. You also feel that there isn't really much you can personally do to change anything. We've been in wrong lizard territory for too long here.

The political class feel secure; they have control of the agenda, they have the media in their pockets and as long as they keep the interests of their backers in mind, they have enough money to squash any opposition.

Didn't work this time.

Yes didn't have a chance, everything was against us. Still here we are now.

Enthusiastic people on the ground, a measured campaign and a sense that we could change the world have turned all that around. People here have long since stopped listening to the bankers, the politicians, the billionaires, the media... We'd stopped trusting them long ago but we didn't think that we could do anything about them. The realization that we could, and might, be able to change something for real has been a huge thing. 

As soon as we stopped listening to the settled-fonts-of-opinon and started talking to ourselves about politics, anything seemed possible. That genie isn't going back in the bottle.

The panicked response to one yes-lead-poll showed how rattled they [the man wink] are. Those with power and riches never assumed that people might vote in a way that might interfere with the way that they want the world to be. They've been badly frightened. The whole process has been worth it for that alone.

The result? It'll be a no. Us yessers are telling ourselves, "one last push". Indeed that was the exact form of words that three of us used at work today. Won't happen. There are too many people out there like my mum, "my heart says yes, do it for Scotland, but..." The missing bit is that her head says no, and we know which rules when we come to vote.

We, the yessers, know that we are probably going to lose but even getting so close is a victory of a kind. This has made things different. This isn't getting rid of the, "effing Tories" for another set of, "effing Tories". This about us telling them that you no longer own, or can buy, us, the voters.

Lots of people have won here before we even have the poll.

Still let me win, God know's it would be the first time...

Edited to add this link and quote:

Everything that has been written pronouncing the death of popular politics in this country has just been proved wrong.”

Prof Matthew Flinders Sheffield University

Edited to add this link and quote:

It is impossible to have visited Scotland in recent days and not to have been exhilarated by the sheer vigour of democratic engagement.

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Matt Hobbs, Saturday, 13 Sep 2014, 17:34)
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neil

our myth..

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Thursday, 11 Sep 2014, 18:31

[I was going to write about something else today but this might be more interesting.]

Every nation has its myths, for us Scots it's the wars of independence, the declaration of Arbroath, or perhaps the Covenant.  {Being selective here, still we all are guilty of this wink}

What you have to notice is the importance of religion here. Which is why I was slightly blown away by the following... [quote from

Canon Kenyon Wright, who chaired the Scottish Constitutional Convention that paved the way for the creation of the devolved parliament, and who now backs independence.

Canon Wright said: "Again and again a Westminster government we did not elect claimed the right to impose policies we rejected and an ideology we do not accept. Devolution has no answer for that.

"The tactics used by 'No' simply prove that they fail to understand how deeply that principle of Scotland's right is rooted in our history.

"First there was the stick to threaten us. Now the carrot to tempt us.
 

"First the blackmail - be naughty and vote 'Yes' and we'll punish you. Now the bribe - be good, vote 'No' and we'll reward you."

He added: "Scotland needs something devolution can never give - the secure power to make her own decisions; to follow her own vision of a just fair society; to take her positive place among the nations of Europe and the world; to be free from the constant interference from Westminster."

So are us Scots mad for religion? Not so much really but it is part of the past we all share.

We didn't have democracy like England did, all we had was the general assembly. We talked to each other where we could. And that was often taken from us. So we're all respectful, shall we say, around others' Religion.

A lot of what we think about what Scotland is is wound around our religions. So when a hierarch speaks we tend to listen. Oh, and Kenyon is an Episcopalian, funny that! If you aren't Scottish you probably won't get that joke.

Whatever. The man spoke and I think that he made our case well. I wish other kirkies, yah or nae, spoke out too. Everyone should say what they are going to vote...

That said I'm to post my wife's ballot without looking at it.

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Neil Anderson, Friday, 12 Sep 2014, 19:50)
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neil

the charge of the heavy brigade...

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Wednesday, 10 Sep 2014, 21:01

John Prescott joined the campaign today. I'm not sure if he did any good for the naes. He pointed out that Cameron might not be the asset that the better together's think he is, which may be true. But then he made a blunder of epic proportions, he suggested that we should have a UK football team so, "that we could beat the Germans". My jaw dropped at the ignorance and insensitivity of that

A couple of quotes from the Scotsman comments:

  • "stay together and they'll take away our football team?"
  • "So Jabba the Hut bobs to the surface like some great brown jobby."

At least Prezza [notice the yes-thug agenda that I warned about yesterday in the comments] had the bottle to get out onto the streets and mix it. It's just that nobody here much cares what he thinks.

This is the a problem with politicians, they assume that the people of Scotland [and everyone else] are hanging on their words and will be persuaded by them. That time, where we thought that they had anything germane to spout. if it every existed, is long gone now; their words are merely irksome at best, self-defeating at worst.

Worse they believe that the media is where the battle is taking place. Where do they think we are? This is twenty-first century Scotland, we have the internet, do the still think that if they cozy up to some press-plutocrat then things will fall-out as they wish?

What is very noticeable is that although the three stooges jetted in to, fight for the family, there is no reporting about who they are actually talking to while they are here. The thought occurs that this, engagement with the people of Scotland, is just actually just a press-conference, that they might have held in London, a press-conference that was held in a strange land.

I started this indyref stuff because I was worried that the media were going to give outsiders a false idea about what us here, huddled, in Scotland are thinking; I was longing to say something that I thought was very important: democracy and the democratic process is the winner here. Whatever the result we will remember this.

When was the last time that you walked to work and every conversation you heard was about the way you were going to vote?

I hope I'm not boring you.

 

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Neil Anderson, Thursday, 11 Sep 2014, 18:58)
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neil

the cavalry are coming...

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Our leaders have hoisted the Saltire above parliament and are now rushing here to jock-land, holding hands, to fix things. Suddenly they want to love-bomb us. Funny, I hadn't noticed that they cared much about our problems before.

I'm slightly unclear about what they think that they can do here that they can't do at home; given that the media hang on their every words. [The three stooges I mean]. Still never underestimate a person's feeling of their own importance and a monopoly of the media.

I suspect that we are about to be subjected to an abundance of soviet-esque NO rallies on our screens. Possibly with many celebrities on show. There will be martial music and a voice-over that suggests that the silent-country has been attacked by these deranged yessers

What has led them to this sorry pass? Basically they ignored something: they are all nice upper-middle-class English men. They don't have much connection with the majority of people in England, even. In Scotland, outside of the circles the mix in, they are pure poison. And the circles that they mix in are small to nil.

Let's not forget that this stramash is a stoochie of their own making. They decided on a two question referendum, if they'd allowed a question about devo-max, they wouldn't be on a plane north convening with their advisers about how best to bribe us. They could be settled in London knowing that they could fuck the Scots somehow. If they really wanted us to have more powers why didn't they use, someone else's referendum to give us them?

I'm going to make a prediction. One that you may not be able to judge, if you aren't here. Pretty soon the yes crowd are going to be smeared by accusations of violence and intimidation. Gangs of us will be roaming the streets beating up every no voter that we can find.

May I stress that not one person here, on ether side, is going to get violent. So why is this question in the air?

People who lose arguments tend to do get violent, much better in that case to suggest that it was the other person's fault.

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Neil Anderson, Tuesday, 9 Sep 2014, 20:43)
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neil

so today...

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Edited by Neil Anderson, Monday, 8 Sep 2014, 19:39

Things get a wee bit mad after a single poll. Panic in the papers, panic in Westminster.

Suddenly the penny drops that us here in Scotland might actually vote in a way that might not suit the people who run the world. Their answer was pathetic. I'm biased but it really was pathetic.

"The pound is crashing, shares in Scottish companies are in a tailspin, house prices might fall. And we'll get lots and lots of stuff if we vote no".

Time to wake up rich people. There are other people out here who have another agenda.

 

That there are going to be financial ructions is a given. But just how much does a fall in house prices or shares prices hurt me? Bankers lost billions through greed, my wage has stagnated, they still seem to be doing quite nicely. Does this bottoming out of, what is, betting, matter to most of the people who are going to be voting? A fall in the value of the pound? Isn't that good for exporters? Aren't we supposed to be doing more of that?

Some of us here remember the 1979 referendum where we were promised the better world if we waited. What did we get? Thatcher and 18 years of a government we despised. Then a warmongering scum-bag who thought that God was talking to him in person.

I think that the most telling thing that  read today was someone on disability benefit, "what the fuck have we got to lose? If we don't vote yes they'll take away whatever dignity we have left".

Ask yourself, that run on the pound, that drop in share prices, did that hurt you? And when these things are going great there? Did you cash in?

I'll say Bishop's War, this is the start of our UK fight back against the people who run this world for their own advantage.

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