Thoughtland

PK column in The National: We need to build confidence with lots of small-scale successes ... then we'll take the big leap towards independence

By Pat Kane. First published on AUGUST 26TH, 2017

SO we just had our GERSday – the date when the report on the yawning deficits in the Scottish national budget (known as GERS) is delivered. Debt, doom, disaster. However, I would say the indy movement was much more ready for it than usual.

There has been good rebuttal, indeed pre-buttal – which Business For Scotland did last week with early questions over the UK’s poor recent collection of North Sea oil revenues, compared with Norway.

PK column in The National: Al Gore’s lesson on climate is fine, but Scotland can be more ambitious

By Pat Kane. First published on AUGUST 19TH, 2017

LAST week, in a not-very-populated movie theatre, I watched a preview of the latest documentary eco-blockbuster from Al Gore, An Inconvenient Sequel. The polite Southern gentleman preceded his movie with a live chat, beamed across these islands from a London cinema.

The interviewer asked Gore about one behaviour he would want to see change. Gore paused, and said: “Get involved in trying to influence the people who are elected to represent you. It’s important to make the changes in the technologies you use, the products you buy – but it’s more important to change the laws and policies.”

PK column in The National: Scotland and trademarks – is it ok for National Trust Scotland to ‘own’ our culture?

By Pat Kane. First published on AUGUST 12TH, 2017

HOW can you possibly trademark Glencoe, Culloden, Bannockburn and St Kilda? The freedom cry (that is, freedom from lawyers) went up this week, as National Trust Scotland (NTS) got itself into a right fankle.

The heritage giants were caught sending a “cease and desist” lawyer’s letter to the makers of the Glencoe Double Ventile jacket. Their grounds? That NTS was the “registered proprietor of the UK trademark registration for GLENCOE”. And, it transpired, for a string of other stirring locations in Scottish history as well.

The nation’s response: when did that happen?

PK column in The National: Still Game is still funny – and captures exactly what it means to be Scottish

By Pat Kane. First published on AUGUST 5TH, 2017

IS Scotland different? Well, here’s one indicator. The most watched BBC show north of the Border in 2016 was the geriatric comedy Still Game. Its most watched episode matched the numbers for Andy Murray’s Wimbeldon final last July.

It’s a good shake-up to the Scottish cultural elites, myself included, who might lazily bemoan the absence of HBO or Danish TV style dramas coming from BBC Scotland. I’ve been an occasional watcher, but I sat down over the last few days to watch the chart-topping seventh series.

It is easy to report that Still Game is as beautifully wrought as any other leading Scottish artwork, in any other genre.