I want to break free

It will be apparent that I survived the flight back from Guernsey, about which I was worrying like an old woman. And I've survived the busy week since. Work dinner Wednesday. Work drinks do Thursday (hosting the great and the good of London litigators who were doing their best to drink the bar dry. Friday and Saturday saw rehearsals and performance of the Verdi Requiem with Crouch End Festival Chorus. It seemed to go pretty well and I am very pleased I did it - for North Londoners they are quite a decent bunch really.

Today was a lazier morning and then a potter round Greenwich and lunch, before getting back into the gym tonight to deal with the consequences of all the above. So I'm not exactly resting, but I feel happy, busy and invigorated as another week starts.

The week of the independence referendum.

So if you were wondering "how is Ross of Balham" doing*? then now is the time to switch off and do something else - we are going into political territory here.

I don't usually think about the first fourteen months of my life. Not a lot happened. Well, man landed on the moon (or did he**) and such, but for me, whilst I may have learned my first few words, it passed in a bit of a blur to be honest.

But it did pass in Edinburgh. So I am Scot-ish, if not truly hand on heart Scottish, and so I watch the unfolding drama up there with keen interest.

Living in London, which is the centre of news, culture and pretty much everything in the UK it is hard to empathise with Scotland. For years they have been neglected by the UK government, or worse - experimented on (they got the Poll Tax before we did). And this isn't just a Tory thing. Here is a list of all the good things Tony Blair did for Scotland:

1. left after he finished school. 

So given the chance to make your own destiny, after years locked in your rich cousin's attic and rolled out every so often to be belittled, wouldn't you jump at it?

The sentiment is right. But the idea is surely barking mad. Isn't it? Scotland is a small nation, with an ageing population, no significant industrial base, and no stable economic base. Ah, but there is oil, isn't there? Billions of pounds worth of revenue over the next 30 - 50 years.

Every argument I have yet heard for independence consists of one of two points. Oil and 'fuck the English'. And I'm sorry, I don't think that is quite enough to build a nation on. This model shouldn't have had a chance of working. A resounding 'No' was obvious. But as we approach Thursday, I have this horrible feeling that that it is going to be a 'Yes'.

In the next couple of days I'll write again and say what I think Scotland should be doing and how it can set itself up for the best possible future. But it's not a future of the Toad-like Salmond holding crown and sceptre and wrapped in the Saltire.



*Everyone is calling me that now. Its only a Twitter user name which is 100% descriptive and 0% imaginative but when someone you know in real life's parents meet you and that is how your are introduced, AND THEY KNOW WHO YOU ARE you start to realise that Social Media pervades everything now.
** yes, he did. End of. It's not that sort of blog