Amid all the debate about oil, currency, pensions and a million other items, I’m surprised higher questions have not been asked about our cultural identity. I’ve never said I’m British in my life, I’m Scottish, but the full story is more subtle than that.
Despite being a football fan, a Scot and a Gordon Strachan fan, I watched another channel when Germany-Scotland was on. My sense of personal identity, the anthems I cherish, the emblems I’ve always worn, my ‘national’ community, is the one I share with you.
I know we have a large number of England-supporting, English-Celtic fans here, just as there are Ireland-supporting, Irish, and Scotland-supporting Scots, but some of us feel our strongest affinity among our urban, west of Scotland-based, Celtic community. This community will only ever march behind a green flag. There is nothing wrong or unpatriotic about this, finding your own identity is what multiculturalism is all about.
There are a thousand more national identities than actual nations, but why do many of us feel more like sons of Jock Stein, than Jock Tamson, or (cough) John Bull?
I don’t think there is a single British, or Scottish, cultural institution I feel an attachment to. I was really caught up with the whole Mo Farah/Jessica Ennis-inspired Super Saturday at the Olympics – delighted at the success of British athletes, but later that day, when Ki stepped forward to take the decisive kick for South Korea against GB, I punched the air with joy. The whole Burns Night thing feels like someone else’s party.
In fact, it’s worse than not having an affinity with a British cultural institution, our Celtic community is marginalised by competitors in the south. If Scotland, which is perhaps more bound-up in tribal football culture than anywhere on the planet, had EQUAL access to the UK’s cultural markets, would we feel so excluded?
I know there are many who are happy with the way sentiment is going right now, but if those intent on saving the union want to get busy on some urgent nation-building, they should set about removing the two-tier cultural divide which keeps our club, our community, from the top table. We pay an obligatory BBC tax to subsidise an England and Wales league, our non-tax-based pay TV money goes the same way. This is a distorted market, with Scotland obscured by an England-Wales cartel. As a result we’ve been drained of talent and financial muscle for a century.
Football is not controlled by politicians, but it can be, and is, influenced by them. Westminster is speaking with a more unified voice than I’ve ever known right now. Its voice should be clear: Scotland needs equal access to the UK’s cultural markets, including football.
Our exclusion is intolerable, unfair, has fermented disaffection and must end, irrespective of what happens next week. Why would Westminster politicians be unable to say this?
Let’s hear you.
The fantastic new edition of CQN Magazine is out today. You can read it, for free, here, at it’s dedicated site (don’t try to read on the graphic below).
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moonbeams
You going on saturday?? Luv to meet up again. :-)) You say Aye, me tae. KTF.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
Auldheid
Better Together missed a trick by under estimating/undervaluing us, so we have to settle for Europa League and various other downsizing?
Both interesting facts that are maybe true but shoehorning them together in a ‘look at what you could have one’ style makes no apparent sense.It’s also borderline offensive to some folk to think Celtic should or would be used as leverage in such a manner
awe naw& braw.
Just watching the breaking news on Sky, hope your nowhere near that chemical explosion in northern Germany. Looks serious.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
So what is it to be lhads
Vote yes and kiss yer ass goodbye to any chance of the EPL
Or vote no to keep the EPL dream alive hoping they run out of money and need us to bail them out
Always preferred a European league among similar nations which an independent Scotland league apparatus could more realistically aspire to and prosper from
It’s vote Yes and let the football take care of itself.
PhilvisReturns,
Congratulations… Very, very happy to see you back. I’ll probably disagree with almost everything you say, but it’s a good day on the blog your eminence.
Jude
Haha And if you know your history,
It’s enough to make your heart go ohohohoh
We don’t care what the animals say!
MoN the hoops
I thought the GB only had 70/ 80 members.
I seem to recall this figure getting quoted and that the rest were hangers on ?
Can you clarify?
Can’t believe that any Celtic fan would decide how to vote dependent on whether Celtic world get into EPL.
I love Celtic, but they are a football club, perhaps even more than a club.
Independence is far bigger than Celtic.
Vote yes
Auldheid
All politicians will do anything to further their careers, they will lie, they will cheat, they will do things that yer average man in the street wouldn’t dream of doing.
Power goes to their heads.
Thankfully the man in the street doesn’t have that problem.
Yet we are expected to vote for these bast**ds !!!!!
I have no love for the snp, especially fat Eck, my Da knew him very well, so well that he had my Da to write stuff for him a few years back, he didn’t much care for him either, but he was well paid I assume for his bother.
This is not about the snp, this is about the chance for change.
If it takes the kids to force that change, fair enough, the adults who have fecked things up will just have to sort things, cos if there is a Yes vote, the kids will be expecting change, and they are the ones who will be in charge soon enough.
HH
…………………………………..
sipsini
The Mrs talks to her nephews and nieces often on facebook, and she was shocked at how they are mobilising a Yes campaign, she was aslo surprised at how sussed they were.
HH
Keeping The Faith
It’s vote Yes and let the football take care of itself.
Still a no gives you an EPL hope
Whereas a yes gives you no EPL hope at all
But your right after the vote the football will take care of itself aye or naw
The flavor might change if its an yes though
BBC coverage of Indy ref is an absolute disgrace.
I’m convinced they will soon photobomb the Queen in a Scotland top
Welcome back Philvis.
Podiumcsc
Proud to see DAK in a few Polish windies in Clydebank including mine.
Immigrants say YES. :)
WeefratheTim
22:55 on
9 September, 2014
auldheid
Fair comment, but surely they require a certain depth to operate these submarines and Faslane, like the Holy Loch, are two of very few suitable sites to house these weapons. I stand corrected if wrong. :-)
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
+++++++++++++++++++
Looks like multiple sources of info available via Google.
eg http://www.seazone.com/marine-maps/product/trudepth-grids
eg
Sleep well Timland.
Hopefully all our bhoys get back injury free and raring to go.
HH
KTF
Vote Yes, you know it makes sense.
Sturgill Simpson. New C W singer out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOCFWd8qusw
Auldheid
They can stick their effin Trident up the Thames!
clashcitybhoy
23:37 on 9 September, 2014
Between 300-400 seats in section 111 though only between 70-80 are actual GB members.
Night all God Bless.
Dexter 23:38
Can’t believe that any Celtic fan would decide how to vote dependent on whether Celtic world get into EPL.
—
Might be wrong but I thought Paul 67’s latest article made a point about our chances of the EPL if there is a yes vote
A yes decision still gives us access to the CL of course
D D
He came from Cleeeland!!
Josh is off to Qatar next week. Grans is worried sick!!
Jude
3 cup winner medals in 3 countries in 3 decades. Celtic, Manchester United & Derry City legend. James Delaney Cleeland’s pride. :)
Sevco Director out dining with Interpol’s Most Wanted Rafat Rivzi
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BxHzNBPIAAAVowL.jpg
Someone posted earlier that only 5% of golfers ever break 90 on a golf course.
Hmmmmm…… Would be very surprised if this is true.
Well done Jobo anyway……great feeling to do it for the first time.
The average golf club medal competition has 3 divisions ….1/2/3 surprisingly enough……
1 is for handicappers of 10 or less
2 is for handicappers of 10-18
3 is for handicappers of 18 and above
I have always found at least 50% of any competitors take part in Division 2 of most medal competitions.Playing off a handicap between 10-18
If only 5 % of golfers are breaking 90……then surely the handicap systems must be wrong?
Que FF going into meltdown again……….
@CelticNewsNow: #Celtic get £212,000 bonus after Manchester City are fined by UEFA for breaching FFP
http://t.co/HCvyo85UnS #DailyMail
Hahahahahaha
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
jude
All the best for yer Bhoy. KTF.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
Of to my kip, I’ll expect to see a podium from philvisreturns tomorrow, unless you’re changing a nappy. HH
Dexter
The English media after the Nat poll lead have gone into negativity overdrive
What they comfortably thought was an impossibility has now become a reality
We are doomed they are telling us now
Last chance saloon stuff
THE EXILED TIM
23:38 on
9 September, 2014
If all politicians are corrupt then surely what we need to change is not a different variety of them but a whole new way of thinking?
The idea that politicians voted by Scots alone will somehow be free from the same human failings and thinking of their predecessors just because they were elected by young Scots simply ignores the human condition of both electors and elected.
My kids come to me for advice on life, I go to them for advice ranging from which first person shooter is the best from the gamester to finance from my oldest as she worked in that area..
Having had our exchanges we make our own choices having listened to each other.
Its an arrangement that has served us all rather well as I am sure is your own experience.
If the vote is close for yes and it turns out it was carried over the line by 16 and 17 years old will we not look rather foolish to have placed the fate of our future in the hands of those with little life experience?
Would that be seen as fair or loading the dice?
Dear oh Dear What a bunch of Crooks
https://twitter.com/Daily_Record/status/509461542148898816/photo/1
MurdochauldandHay & Wee Oscar
Sevco Director out dining with Interpol’s Most Wanted Rafat Rivzi
Makes sense now they need a money lender of last resort
Night Night Timland. KTF
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
Frightening how gullible my kinfolk are to go all in with so few thought through scenarios.
I really am amazed at the mass hysteria to go down a cul-de-sac without a consideration for the consequences.
Currency……..pffffttt
Pensions……ha
Jobs………be fine
Industry leaving……nah, not happen
Government post split……Left wing……..sorted
Where are all these fantastic politicians hiding who are going to deliver us from evil?
Vote whatever you wish but just think about what you are doing to your children, and their children, this is not a protest vote………This is for a life with Alex, Nicola, Kenny et al, they are not going away you know.
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/share-offer-dead-in-the-water/#more-5054
Sign me up for Yes ;)
Three major banks warn Scotland it faces deep recession if it goes it alone: Analysts say price of independence could be wage cuts, unemployment and mass home sell-off
Warning came from Credit Suisse, Denmark’s Saxo and Japan’s Nomura
City analyst also said major Scottish-based banks would relocate to London
There could be an echo of 1993 run on savings in broken-up Czechoslovakia
Edinburgh estate agent claims millions in house sales are waiting for No vote
Three major banks say Scotland will be plunged into ‘deep recession’ with wage cuts and rising unemployment if it goes independent.Analysts at Credit Suisse also said people would rush to pull their savings out of the country’s banks unless the Bank of England guaranteed them.Nomura, Japan’s biggest bank, has already advised its clients to pull money out of the UK until after the poll in case the pound collapses.
It comes as Scottish estate agents reported a freeze in home sales as buyers wait until after the referendum on September 18. They are also bracing themselves for a ‘flood’ of homes to be sold in the event of a Yes vote.The pound fell to a ten-month low against the dollar on Monday, the day after a shock poll gave the Nationalists a one-point lead, and experts warned it could drop even more.
A holidaymaker taking £1,000 spending money to the US will soon get just $1,500 for their money, compared with $1,717 in July, under predictions from Credit Suisse and Denmark’s Saxo Bank. Another investment bank, Citi, warned that separation would drag down the economic recovery of the rest of Britain. Citi analyst Michael Saunders said splitting the union would ‘hit growth in both Scotland and the rest of the UK’, and global firms would be more likely to halt investment or expand elsewhere. With eight days to go until the vote that could end the 307-year-old union, major question marks remain about the currency of an independent Scotland or how much national debt it would take on.
Mr Saunders said Scotland-based Lloyds, TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland would all relocate – ‘most likely to London’ – after a Yes vote.This would shrink the economy as well as taking thousands of employees and their spending power with them. Standard Life has already drawn up contingency plans for a move South. Mr Saunders added: ‘A Yes vote would create considerable economic and political uncertainties for the UK, which would not fade quickly.’ Nomura told investors in currencies and British pension funds that a Yes vote would be a ‘cataclysmic shock’ and sterling could drop by at least 15 per cent in the run-up to the referendum. Clients were also told to sell shares in RBS and Lloyds because they do so much business in Scotland. ‘The Scottish referendum could heighten uncertainty for institutions with significant cross-border business,’ Nomura said.
Andrew Garthwaite, of Credit Suisse, said: ‘In our opinion Scotland would fall into a deep recession.’ He also predicted a ‘large-scale deposit flight’ – or a run on savings – unless the Bank of England stepped in to guarantee Scottish bank deposits, as happened when Czechoslovakia broke up in 1993. Mr Garthwaite also said that even if Scotland kept the pound, wages would fall by up to 20 per cent. Property industry sources predicted that house prices could suffer if Scotland gains independence. One Scottish estate agent said: ‘Since August we’ve been getting noticeably far less calls and enquiries. You could have a flood of properties for sale as people jump ship to move to England.’ Mark Coulter, who runs Coulters estate agents in Edinburgh, said he had millions of pounds worth of housing deals on hold until after the vote. ‘We’re acting on behalf of people who have said they will pull out in the event of a Yes vote. They will be buying another property, and another deal will fall through.’
Thindimebhoy
23:49 on
9 September, 2014
Dexter 23:38
Can’t believe that any Celtic fan would decide how to vote dependent on whether Celtic world get into EPL.
—
Might be wrong but I thought Paul 67′s latest article made a point about our chances of the EPL if there is a yes vote
A yes decision still gives us access to the CL of course
=====================
I’m afraid that we will qualify which much less regularity because we will be locked into a develop and sell cycle that will mean selling too often to maintain existing standards to do more than stand still at that standard.
That need not be a cause for despair if we learn to enjoy whatever our new level is, but whilst not a reason to vote No it is the most probable consequence of a Yes vote for Celtic.