Solidarity Saturday #13

Burns Day, Tourist Tax, New Pod, Biden Pardons, Trumpets & Scottish Media, Reform Poll, Davos, Westlin' Winds.

Solidarity Saturday will be published every fortnight and will feature articles, reports or listens that I have found interesting. We are bombarded with information through our TVs, computers and phones. I will share only a few links, not to add to the overload, but to curate a few that stimulate thought and contribute to our Solidarity Not Charity community.
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Soviet Burns stamp

Burns Day

Today is Robert Burns Day so let’s start with the bard. We got taught Burns in school and, almost inevitably, as you move into adulthood and get more political you rebel against such. And to be fair there is a lot of horrific tartan clad Burns guff out there. But the older I get the more appreciative I am of Burns and his poetry and influence. The Soviet stamp above (the first nation to celebrate him with a stamp) indicated his influence in the USSR. This is a nice blog post on that.

During 19^th Century Imperial times when Russia was still ruled by the Tsar, intellectuals were so out-of-touch with the realities of peasant life that translations of Burns became representative of the common man. His empathy with the poor and oppressed, and his sympathies for revolutionary causes held mass appeal amongst middle-class circles, and his work also proved extremely popular amongst the ordinary Russian people.

Burns influence over writers and artists is truly phenomenal. One of the tragedies of Scotland is that we have a fascinating history we don’t celebrate. Full of fascinating, and strange, and talented, and revolutionary people. Yet we sell our culture, our history, ourselves, to tourists as little more than golf and whisky. Beyond the Burns Suppers in Freemasons Halls across Scotland tonight there is another Burns, a radical Burns. We just need to look for him amongst the tartan trash.

Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a’ that,
That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth
Shall bear the gree an’ a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s comin yet for a’ that,
That Man to Man the warld o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that.

Full poem here.

Tourist Tax

Speaking of tourists, yesterday Edinburgh became the first city on these islands to introduce a Tourist tax. Being Edinburgh Council they voted to introduce it and voted to delay it. But still. It is on its way. I was briefly on BBC Reporting Scotland discussing the need for the additional revenue to be invested wisely in public services and infrastructure. Obviously, based on their abysmal track record, very few citizens have any confidence in Edinburgh Council making wise decisions or being able to implement them competently. As I outlined here. I will spare you the video but a write up is on the BBC News website here.

New Pod

Latest episode of All Hail To The Pod will be released this week. It’s a conversation with Tony Collins about his new book, Raising The Red Flag. Which is a prehistory of the Labour party and Communist party. It’s a great book and Tony was a great guest. So don’t miss that.

Pardon Me

The return of Trump (which I covered here) also means the end of Biden. I was pleased to see he had commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier. Long overdue. I was less impressed that he pardoned his whole family. Not only pardons but preemptive pardons. A pardon is meant to be for people convicted of a crime. Biden pardoned his family before they have even been investigated, charged or tried. Why would they need pardons in advance of such a process? Obviously because they have used his Presidency to enrich themselves. It’s a sorry tale. Which would have got a lot more coverage had it not been camouflaged by Trump pardoning various dangerous lunatics.

When Biden defeated Trump in 2016 I suggested on social media that the celebrations might be misplaced. My thinking was that just as Jimmy Carter replacing Richard ushered in Ronald Reagan, the same could happen again. I must admit I was pondering the possibility of a new right wing leader emerging from a rust belt state to

challenge the Democrats. I did not imagine the dangerous politics Biden would usher in would be Trump 2. But here we are. Biden’s Presidency has been a disaster (not for his family wealth obviously) this on Bidenomics is good and this piece on him from last year by Fintan O’Toole was very good.

Trumpets and the Scottish Media