St Andrew would have been so proud of rescuers
I AM writing this article on the morning of Saturday, November 30. St Andrew’s Day.
Only as we watch news events unfold from Glasgow city centre, following the tragic helicopter crash on to the busy Clutha pub, there is no cause to celebrate our national festival. Indeed, as First Minister Alex Salmond, speaking to a sombre press conference revealed, it is a "black day for Glasgow and Scotland".
Later we would discover that at least nine people, including the three crew members of the police helicopter, had died.
More than 30 people were rushed to various Glasgow hospital emergency departments to be treated for fractures and other injuries sustained when the roof of the bar collapsed onto unsuspecting weekend revellers. Twelve were detained with serious injuries.
We also learnt about the heroic efforts of the people of Glasgow who ran to – not away from – the confused and chaotic scene to help pull survivors from the rubble.
They formed a human chain to pass along the line the victims of the freak accident that was to claim the lives of and injure so many fellow citizens.
The police, fire and rescue and ambulance services responded promptly and professionally.
It was a day we, as a country, could be proud of the heroism and courage of the many people who rallied quite "instinctively" to help others in the face of a crisis.
St Andrew himself – whose name means "valour" – would have been quietly proud of those who had adopted him as their patron saint.
He was a man who knew pain and suffering. He was a man who had made the ultimate sacrifice "in the line of duty"; just like our serving emergency services that we so often take for granted.
So it has been a whirlwind week for Scotland...
On Tuesday the SNP Government published its white paper, Scotland’s Future – a historic 670-page blueprint detailing the policies and plans that could pave the way to self-governance.
The road map to independence lays down timescales for negotiations with Westminster in the event of a "Yes" vote in September 2014’s referendum.
Mr Salmond hailed it as a "revolution" in social policy with key pledges to fund childcare costs.
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As expected, it confirmed the removal of Trident nuclear weapons within the first parliament.
"Scotland’s future," Salmond declared, "is now in Scotland’s hands."
It led to a predictable backlash from Unionist supporters whose relentless negativity seeks to undermine the case for independence. Yet the Better Together coalition can only ask questions. When the tables are turned, they don’t have any answers to offer.
That much was evident in a head-to-head exchange on STV’s Scotland Tonight when Nicola Sturgeon, depute first minister, brilliantly turned the tables on Alistair Carmichael, Westminster’s Secretary of State for Scotland.
"What extra powers would he guarantee if Scots vote ‘No’?... You’ve cut the Scottish budget by £2.5 billion since 2010. Westminster wants to cut back a further £4bn with your party’s agreement. If Scots vote ‘No’ can you guarantee that won’t happen?... Poverty Action for Scotland says the [coalition’s] austerity policies will put 100,000 Scots kids in poverty. Are you prepared to accept that? And if Scots vote ‘No’ and we reject Tories, can you [the Lib Dems] promise you won’t impose another Tory government on Scotland?"
These are the questions, in my book, we need to hear the answers to!
Yet all Carmichael, the renowned former Lib Dem party whip, could mutter was a pathetic "No party can answer that question" or "We’re having to make difficult decisions" or "Nicola, I don’t ask for certainty on anything"... Aye, right!
Last week in the Groat, editor Iain Grant legitimately asked for specific answers about the future of Dounreay in a post-independence scenario.
Sadly, none of the Westminster parties has been willing to engage in any pre-referendum negotiations to explore how best to manage potential transitional arrangements, including the ways to deal with our mutual assets and liabilities.
Strange then that the Edinburgh Agreement obligated all politicians "to work together constructively in the light of the outcome, whatever it is, in the best interests of the people of Scotland and of the rest of the United Kingdom".
Unlikely, given they cannot work together before the outcome!
Can we really expect all our questions to be answered? At the heart of the matter is a return, surely, to first principles. You either want to strike out on your own – or not.
All the incessant hyperbole, the scaremongering and negativity of the pro-Union campaign is so destructive and belittling of the Scottish people. Yet they have nothing positive to offer as an alternative. Absolutely zilch.
I seem to remember reading somewhere in a good book admonitions about needless worrying about our lives, what we are to eat and drink, about our bodies, the clothes we are to wear... Did all that worrying add a single hour to our lives, it asked?
"Do not worry about tomorrow," I read, "for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
And in the unlikely event it escaped anyone’s attention it’s been 50 years since the assassination of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy who was taken out by a sniper’s bullet in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas.
Now there was a man who had a way with words.
His famous inaugural address on January 20, 1961, rang out across the world. And still reverberates to this day. Though not as clearly in Scotland as it should.
There was much talk about celebrating freedom, the end of an old chapter and the beginning of a new era, "signifying renewal as well as change".
He told those who had assembled how "the torch had been passed to a new generation".
"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate," he told his fellow countrymen.
The neurotic Scottish chattering classes would do well to recall Kennedy’s keynote address: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
We heard from the commemorative service at Glasgow Cathedral that a "cloud of tragedy" hung over the city. Yet that same service described Glasgow as "irrepressible".
She has been variously described as a "no mean city" and one time "second city of the empire".
The pop duo Hue and Cry sang a fond tribute to their home town. "Mother Glasgow," they sang, "nurses all her weans".
Would an independent Scotland do any less?