Smart and slow Books?

I’ve begun to realise that the little Guide or briefing which I’ve been working on for the past few days (called, for the moment, "Encountering Romania") is rather unique with its various distinctive features -

• It focuses on the aspects of a country you normally find pushed to a few back pages of the conventional travel guides – literature, art and history
• It includes blogsites – 16 of them – with the hyperlinks and some excerpts    
• It gives a lot of hyperlinks to material about Romanian society and culture – for example 20 travelogues from the last couple of decades (that’s one a year); to lists of several hundred novels; to sites which will give data and examples of a couple of hundred Romanian painters; and to several photographic sites

The "Blue Guides" and Pallas Guides do offer cultural feasts - but don’t have the hyperlinks..  

A year or so ago I picked up in one of the second-hand bookshops in Bucharest some volumes of a 1960s "Collection Literaire" - French schoolbook texts by Lagarde and Michard. They cover most cultural forms and include excerpts and photos. Quite exquisite....but is there a modern equivalent?   

They used to be called Reference books. But in even their traditional (ie non web-based) form they were generally available only in the local language ie not for foreigners - or at least only for that minority of visitors who spoke the language fairly fluently.......

And what does one call this new format – with its “embedded hyperlinks”? 
“EBook with embedded links” is a bit of a mouthful! Also sounds a bit warlike! 

My first idea was “smart” book - but that seems to be a technical device like a tablet….

and this EC initiative doesn’t actually tell me very much.

I blogged a few months back about “slow books” – perhaps I should patent a product called “slow, smart books”????

What market for promiscuous web-books?

It’s a damp, dreich day – enough to drive a man to whisky, rakia or palinka….But ideal weather for completing the next draft of my little cultural guide on Romania – which currently bears the rather cumbersome title of Encountering Romania – some cultural links

The version which I've just uploaded is 60 pages – but my own text is pretty modest, with 40 pages consisting of 3 annexes….

Starting with a list of blogs may be unusual – but what easier way to get a sense of a country than seeing it through the eyes of people (whether ex-pat or local) who has been sufficiently enthused about a country that they themselves then try to catch and convey some impressions? I’ve identified 16 blogs in English - an equal number coming from Romanians and ex-pats – I know of no other such list…

Indeed think I can reasonably claim that there is no better guide in the English language to material about Romanian culture than this little guide - 20 travelogues from the last couple of decades (that’s one a year); links to lists of several hundred novels; and to sites which will give data, for example, on a couple of hundred Romanian painters! 
Indeed I wonder why there aren't more such efforts????? 

What I might call "promiscuous" webbooks with links and downloads - "promiscuous" in the sense of covering a variety of the subjects you should be interested in when visiting a country. They used to be called Reference books - but in even their traditional form they were generally available only in the local language ie not for foreigners......
A new business model perhaps...........??? 

One of the new blogs I found when compiling the update for that section– Bucharest lounge (its been going 2 years) - uses the superb word “karmalicious” to describe Bucharest!

At the start of guide, I listed 16 ways of getting to know a country and its people – but appeared to forget about an important way of entering a country’s soul – simply walking around and chatting to people (although I did include “conversations” as one of the 16 methods!). The best of our travel writers use this method but my focus on bookshops and art galleries tends to limit such encounters…..

And I love my house in the Carpathian mountains so much – with its library of books, music and amazing views – that I am not tempted even into medieval Brasov all that often to explore - which is very reprehensible given that I have glorious Transylvania right on my doorstep.

As one of my daughters is coming next month and likes exploring and hill-walking, I have to find a guide for her. I immediately found a walking tour which actually includes my own village – but it is one which leaves from London (!) and ties her down to schedules. 

This excerpt on my section of the googlebook “The Mountains of Romania” gives a good sense of the area – the Piatra Craiaului is a dramatic range which I view from my rear terrace. “The most dramatic ridge-walk of Romania and one of the most enjoyable of Europe” is praise indeed from a British mountaineer!

From my front balcony I view the Bucegi range….and it’s that which figures most often as my blog masthead….

On a stroll yesterday to see a new house being built in the traditional style, I was sad to see three "weeping" houses in the neighbourhood.....

And to see the more casual methods being used in contemporary constructions methods here. 
The second of my snaps shows the traditional cut for the external beams of a traditional village building. The next photo the cut for beams being used for the the new house beside it.

16 ways to get to know Romania

One of my daughters will be visiting me at the end of next month for the first time and has asked for some advance reading. A “know-it-all” father is a real bore but fortunately Hilary is an experienced traveller with a mind of her own.

Romania is not one of the most visited countries in the world! Go to any of the huge sections in a European bookshop which deal with travel (I think the Germans probably have the largest – they are big travellers!) and you will be lucky to find even there more than a couple of titles.

But good material about Romania can be found in other sections and places. Indeed I have been surprised, as I explored the net, by the amount of material which has been written about the country – except that I shouldn’t be surprised….it’s a big country after all - 20-odd million people – a lot of whom are (and have been) very highly educated. Indeed you could argue that the Romanian intellectual is so clever as to be almost off the planet!

So I have prepared a little guide on what’s available, building on the ten posts I did at the turn of the year – and recognizing that there are different ways to find out about a country. And don’t worry – my notes in the Guide are only 20 pages – the rest are annexes for dipping into! I have tried to ensure proper attribution for these - they are all taken from the internet so I assume they are not "intellectual property"!! But I am writing a proper "acknowledgements" section......

If you are a reasonably conscientious visitor - relying on the written word for your exploration of Romania - you will start looking at -

• Travel guides
• Travelogues – which can be divided into the serious or the (sadly increasing number of) tongue-in-cheek type
• histories - which deal with what are considered to be the key events in the shaping of a nation
• novels;
• social and cultural histories (including jokes);
• memoirs and diaries
• blogs
• journals

To these eight genres which use words can be added an equal number of other, generally non-verbal ways of trying to enter the spirit of a country -

• television, films and plays
• photographs 
• buildings
• conversations and encounters
• friendships
• music
• paintings and caricatures
• food and wine

That’s actually 16 different perspectives – no wonder we get confused! My little Guide tries to show what's available in a lot (but not all) of these categories....And I realise I haven't said anything about "walking and exploring" - probably the most important thing!!!
Anyway the link is of the initial draft - as you can imagine, I have found it a very stimulating project and am already hard at work on an update..................

Toma Socolescu - an architect who made his mark

On a trip a couple of days ago to nearby Brasov, I visited the new Humanitas bookshop for the first time – and also the Carteresti bookshop nearby – both housed in typical marvellous old Saxon buildings with which the heart of the City is so generously endowed.

I was lucky to find in the latter a 250 page book on the works of one of the very distinctive school of Romanian architects of the first part of the 20^th century which made (and still make) Romanian provincial towns visually so interesting. Toma Socolescu’s work adorns much of Ploiesti where he was born on July 20, 1883 to a family of architects (grandfather, father and uncle were all architects). 

He studied at the "Peter and Paul" (now National College "Ion Luca Caragiale") and at the University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu" of Bucharest where Ion Mincu himself was a teacher. He specialized in civil and religious architecture and built many of the buildings of Ploiesti eg

• Between 1924 and 1932 - his old high school building which houses, the current National College "Ion Luca Caragiale".
• Between 1924 and 1933 (opening date) - Palace of Culture in Ploiesti , the former Palace of Justice. (A very good article about the story of building the palace can be found on the website Republic of Ploiesti )
• Between 1929 and 1935 - Ploiesti Central Market - probably the most famous building in Ploiesti recognized at European level.
• Between 1923 and 1937 - St. John the Baptist - an imposing building with its tower 60 meters high.
• Between 1912 and 1936 - Church of St. Panteleimon , located on Democracy, no. 71.

Thomas T. Socolescu was actively involved in the political life of the interwar period:

• Mayor of Ploiesti, during December 1919 - March 1920
• Councillor of the City, from March 1926 - March 1929
• Prefect in Prahova, during April 1931 - June 1932
• Mayor of Păuleştiului, during 1937 - 1940

Besides the profession of architect and his political career, Thomas Socolescu was involved in the cultural life of Ploiesti. He helped found the Library Nicolae Iorga and Prahova County Museum of Art "Ion Ionescu-Quintus" .

During the communist period he was persecuted by the Security (as were other important families in Romania). His buildings clearly flaunted style and wealth which offended ideological principles. 
The family propertywas confiscated and he himself was evicted from his home at PAULESTI; and was forced to move to Bucharest where he worked until the age of 74 years.

He died on October 16, 1960, in Bucharest. A doctor who is passionate about things related to Prahova County has a marvellous page on him - and his works. Use the google translate facility and you will get the info - but the pics are great!

I have just discovered the English version of a great French travelogue about Romania which first appeared in 1996 - The Romanian Rhapsody; an overlooked corner of Europe by Dominique Fernandez with photos by Ferrante Ferranti (2000). Googlelibrary gives extensive excerpts - which give a sense of what some of us experienced when we first ventured 20 years ago into the country. The guy writes with passion....and the photos are great.......

The Courage of Women

By sheer coincidence, I have been reading these last few days two stunning books which turned out to have strong similarities in their focus on parts of rural Europe before and during the second-world war. 
The underlying message of both is courage and commitment.

The first – Eleni - was published in 1983 and is the story of a Greek woman in a mountain village who was executed by Communist guerrillas in August 1948, one year to the day before the end of the civil war in Greece which killed 158,000 people. 
Eleni was not a freedom fighter, a terrorist or a secret agent – she was a mother who had been trying to save her children. The tale it tells is the most powerful I have ever read about those times – and places – unsparing in its analysis of the behaviour of individuals in exceptional times.

The book was written by her son Nicolas Gage (who arrived in America at the age of 9 and eventually took up a position as foreign correspondent in Athens from where he was able to conduct the interviews for the book which). 
Of course much of the detail he offers is “invented” – the book straddles the space between biography and novel and is all the more powerful for that reason. 
The only equivalent book I know for its sheer power is Oriana Fallaci’s "A Man". Of course, I knew about the bitter struggle in the 1940s for the soul of Greece but have never actually read anything like this before about it.   

The other book – A Wild Herb Soup; the life of a French countrywoman - had been lying unread in the mountain house for almost a year; was published in 1991 and is the story of a French woman who lived in a small village in the mountains near the French border with Italy. Her village is thoroughly agricultural, and for most of her life she knows nothing but the farm.

Her life was harsh - the environment unforgiving. Her mother is struck by lightening at the age of 23 as she works in the fields, and her unread and patriarchal father must raise his large family alone. Emilie develops into an independent thinker, remarkable given her surroundings. While education is scoffed at by the farmers books become an early passion for Emilie.
Her intelligence is recognized by the prefecture, and her teachers persuade her father to accept a scholarship so that Emilie can continue her education into what we would call "high school". Emilie's family seems to be singled out by the gods, as death claims nearly all of her brothers and sisters save one -- and the one sister is committed to an institution. The sister's husband is irresponsible drunk, and so Emilie and her father take care of four young ones.
As Emilie continues her education with aspirations of becoming a teacher, her mind continues to grow. The Great War ends any trust she has in the government or religion. She realizes the injustice of everything -- the millions of farmhands dying for the sake of aristocrats in Paris. She remembers a conversation with her brother (who died on the last day of the Great War), one that had a profound impact: "You'd see," he'd tell me, "All that stuff the teacher told us, about patriotism and glory -- well, it's nothing but nonsense and lies. He had no right to have us sing 'Wave little flag'. What does it mean, anyway! Can you tell me?" I did not know. I did not see. 

And so she becomes a pacifist – the man who became her husband was already an anarchist. The book is a rare testimony to such people. It has encouraged me to pull off my shelves the unread book on the subject - Anarchist Seeds Underneath the Snow.

Each book gives an amazing sense of what it was like to live in such mountainous villages a hundred years ago – with their poverty, cold, gossip but occasional solidarity and beauty. These days we romanticise such places but the spirit of these extraordinary people needs constant celebration….I know of only one review of each book – both books deserve so much more although Eleni has been made into a film; and A Wild Herb Soup did become a European best-seller in the 1990s, thanks to its American translator.  

Living, as I now do in summer months in such a (Transylvanian) village, I feel a particular affection as expressed in this 2 year-old post

One of the important themes in Geert Mak’s biography of a village is the encroachment of the outside world on tradition and solidarity – initially through roads; then labour-saving devices; money replacing mutuality; then television; european legal requirements for livestock; and, finally, urbanites buying and/or building houses in the village. Other books also cover this theme - eg Blacker's Along the Enchanted Way(Transylvania); Alastair McIntosh's Soil and Soul; and Robin Jenkins' Road to Alto - an account of peasants, capitalists and the soil in the mountains of souther portugal (1979). Alto in Portugal was a self-sufficient economy, with a stable, sustainable agricultural pattern practiced for centuries. There were no major disparities, and people helped each other during the occasional drought. The community didn’t need many external inputs. This utopia could have gone on forever, but for the coming of a six-kilometre tarred road. The farmers moved to cash crops and the cash economy; soon, the village was not producing enough food for itself and became dependent on external seeds, fertilisers, finance. The middlemen gained the most from this conversion. The old socio-economic structure, where everyone had their place and nothing much ever changed, no longer exists. In its place there is a system in which any land becomes increasingly seen as a potential source of profit. The old stability and predictability gone forever, to be replaced by the competitiveness and the mentality of a gold rush. All because of six kilometres of tarred road 

The pace of change has been slower in this village where I stay; few outsiders like me - although my old neighbour pointed out yesterday (as we were returning with 4 hens he had bought in a nearby town of Rasnov) a house which a Frenchman is apparently restoring. 

My acceptance in the village is helped, I’m sure, by my friendship with old Viciu; and by the fact that I live without ostentation (having kept the traditional features of the house – and driving a 15 year-old locally-produced car!!) But you have to get used to a lot of questions – about where you are going; what you are doing; how much things cost you – and comments about your sneezing and nocturnal movements! That’s why I laughed out loud at certain sections of Mak's book which cover these exactly similar features – “people usually proffered unasked explanations for any action that was out of the ordinary, for anything that could appear not quite normal. You explained why you were walking round behind your neighbour’s meadow – “it’s more out of the wind there”   

The painting is one from my collection - an unknown Bulgarian by an unknown painter.  

Remembering the post-war giants

Its gloomy and wet in the mountains these days - indeed right now its actually snowing outside - and so over the weekend I was looking at some documentaries on Scottish Independence – specifically a three-part series on STV late last year subtitled “the route to the Referendum” - this is the last part

The series exhausted the capacity which my internet supplier allows me - but brought back strong memories from the first 48 years of my life there. Its story started in the immediate post-war period, with some great shots of street life in those years. 

Characters I had known in my schooldays and university years flooded my mind – these were the days before television took over our lives and when, therefore, flesh and blood individuals standing before us could (and did) inspire.  For very difference reasons, five people who taught me at Glasgow University came to mind – Thomas Wilson benign Professor of Economics and well-known exponent of Keynesism, then the new religion of intellectuals; and Ronald Meek - a severe Marxist economic historian who worked with the Professor of Politics D Daiches Raphael on the editing and interpretation of Adam Smith’s papers

But the two who made the biggest impact on me in the last two years of my Master’s Degree were John Mackintosh (Lecturer in Politics) and Zevedei Barbu, Lecturer in Sociology and Social Psychology. Both had fascinating backgrounds and the sort of careers you don’t tend to see so often these days - Mackintosh had spent almost a decade teaching in Africa before he came to Scotland and quickly combined his career in academia (his book on Cabinet politics became a classic) with one as a prominent Labour Westminster politician (representing a seat on the eastern border of Scotland). He became a fervent proponent of Scottish devolution - his book on the subject inspired me and led me to visit him at the House of Commons by when I had taken a senior position myself in a Scottish Region – but he was to die in the late 1970s at the tragically young age of 50.

Barbu was Romanian and his central European presentations made his exposition of people such as Max Weber and Emile Durkheim really come alive for me. And he has remained in the magical repository of mind from which we all permitted to draw at later moments in our lives. 

Mackintosh is the better known figure – there is an active lecture series in his honour - with the chairman of the current Better Together campaign recently delivering one of the lectures 

I had tried once before to find out about Barbu and had drawn a blank – but there is now an entry on the University of Glasgow website. Even better Google Romania now directs me to a long article in his memory available on the site of the journal Apostrophe - one of so many literary journals with which Romania is blessed. And, in 2018, I at last found this short biography

He was born in Reciu (Alba), a 700 year-old Saxon village near Sibiu, Romania, in 1914, son of Marcu, a farmer. He would become a world-renowned Professor of Sociology and Social Psychology and began his academic career at the University of Cluj, where he obtained a PhD in Psychology in 1941, and subsequently assisted Florin Ştefănescu-Goangă of the Psychology Department and the renowned Lucian Blaga (Romanian philosopher, poet and playwright) of the Department of Philosophy of Culture.

Arrested in 1943 accused of engaging in left-wing political activity, he spent2 years in prison and then became Nationalities Minister in the first post-war government before the Communists take-over happened in 1947. He became cultural attaché in the London Embassy before seeking political asylum in 1948 in the UK. 
In 1949, Barbu enrolled as a PhD research student at the University of Glasgow. His PhD, "The psychology of Nazism, Communism and Democracy", was one of the first comparative psychosocial approaches of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. After graduating, he worked on two books: "Democracy and Dictatorship. Their Psychology and Patterns of Life" (1956) and "Problems of Historical Psychology" (1960), before returning to the University of Glasgow in 1961, where he lectured in Sociology and Social Psychology until 1963, laying the foundations for the Department of Sociology. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Sussex, lecturing Sociology, and established the Department of Sociology there. 

In 1976, Barbu was invited to lecture at the University of Brazil by then principal, José Carlos Azevedo, where he died in March 1993.

Few in the present generation of young scientists, philosophers or sociologists, psychologists and historians, intellectuals (whether British or Romanian) have now even heard of him. One recent writer has tried to make up for this -

Zebedee Barbu was born the Reciu village. In 1914, at his coming into the world, the village belonged, in administrative terms, Sibiu. Reciu mentioned in documents as belonging since the XIV century in Alba county. In a list of the localities around Sibiu Saxons lived since the beginning of their settlement in Transylvania, The house in which Barbu was born was built by his grandfather, Andrei Barbu at the "top lane" of the village, near the church. Those who knew him in Cluj and Sibiu, the young professor, a man of elegant manners "townsman" all those who were left spellbound, physically or intellectually, by Professor gentleman as easily conquered the hearts of ladies and subsequent Anglo-Saxon academic colleagues would have hardly imagined his origin; with his inclination towards art and music
His leftist beliefs - accused of subversive activities against the Antonescu regime - led him to two years between 1942 and 1944 in prison Caransebes. Barbu Zebedee believed in a new world…… After the war, many of the young philosopher’s associates (he was only thirty years) became important figures in the new regime about to be set up in the country. 

The first PM, Dr. Petru Groza, whom Barbu had met in the war, was not a Communist and was used by the new regime as an easily manipulated puppet. Barbu was called immediately after his installation as Prime Minister on March 6, 1945, to serve as Secretary of State in the newly created Ministry of Nationalities.  His mission in this post was to help develop a constitutional status for all "nationalities" of Romania post - war settlement.During the six months as was involved in this project met Patrascanu Barbu, " a rara avis , the only intellectual in the Politburo of the Communist Party, "as he characterizes himself in his autobiographical pages. 

A few months later he was appointed to the post of cultural attaché in London. From here, he travelled often to Paris to attend the Peace Conference as a member of the Romanian delegation. For two years, Barbu increasingly worried about the deteriorating situation in his homeland.When he heard a new ambassador appointed by Ana Pauker was to arrive in London in the summer of 1948, Barbu request a leave for a month……. 

His book "Democracy and Dictatorship" presents an exhaustive discussion on the origins of democracy, against the backdrop of fine psychological analysis. But it does not stop here; the first part of the book, the author responds to questions and began to put them into the maze searching the exit. The second part of the paper is devoted to study the forms and substance of the various systems of dictatorial government, whether of the left or right, Communist or Nazi-fascist; Barbu has lived within a single decade both. It is very interesting to note the author's premise: "The transition from non-democratic to a democratic period" write Barbu, "is [...] closely connected with degree of flexibility Increasing year in the mental structures of man" ("The transition from phase nondemocrată at that democracy is intimately linked to an individual's mental development flexibility ") 

Wealth Creation - the elephant in the Scottish Room??

This is probably the only blog written by a Scot which is still neutral about the issue of independence – the subject of a referendum  on 18 September. It’s neutral for three basic reasons –
·       I’ve been out of the country (Scotland and the UK) for 24 years – almost as long as I was politically active within Scotland and don't therefore find myself thinking about Scotland's future very often 
·       I come late to the discussion   
·       I am a natural sceptic – particularly of prevailing consensus (and most Scottish scribblers seem to be separatists)

So far this series of blogposts has made the following points –

·       A significant amount of power was transferred to the Scottish Parliament and Government in 1999

·       More will transfer when the 2012 Scotland Act is implemented

·       The Scottish government has still to use its existing tax-raising powers – let alone the additional ones contained in the 2012 Act

·       The Scottish Parliament and its people can be proud of the way the new policy-making capacity has been handled. Distinctive policies have been developed – and the respect of its citizens earned.

·       It has still to build on some of that innovative work – eg in the fields of community ownership of rural land; and of renewable energy

·       The post -2007 “Nationalist” government is hardly nationalist – it stresses the importance of remaining within five of the six Unions with which it has suggested Scotland is currently associated.

·       and, ideologically, it seems more social democratic than anything (although its absence of a tax base means that it has not really been tested on this count)

·       the uncertainties and risks associated with negotiations with the UK, the EU and other bodies are generally ridiculed by the yes campaign.

·       The Scottish and UK media do not support the idea of independence but journalists generally have given an increasingly sympathetic treatment to the yes campaign and have ridiculed the No campaign

·       It is indeed now difficult for anyone with a different view to be taken seriously

·       The betting is now that the vote will be for separation

As someone who has been a social democrat all my life and not well disposed to the business class, the following piece in today’s inimitable Scottish Review about wealth creation seems a really important contribution to the debate -

As a Scot with almost no sense of being 'British', the Yes campaigners should have little problem convincing me to side with them. In fact, over the past year, I have become even less enthusiastic about the idea of an independent Scotland – as it is being proposed........If we want to a glimpse into the future, we need to look not just at what is set out in the white paper but at what the SNP has done as the Scottish Government in the past seven years.Two specific objections have become clear in the past year's campaigning; first, the enormity of unravelling a 300-year-long administrative union. Second, the uncertainty over which currency an independent Scotland would use. Greece has shown how the wrong currency can destroy an economy and then a society.

More generally, Alex Salmond has championed independence to create a fairer, social democratic Scotland. This tells us little. Who promises a less fair Scotland? Social democratic has become shorthand for the society that politicians and commentators – the distinction between the two has almost evaporated – would like to create. Sometimes 'progressive' is used in the same way.

Significantly, there has never been a social democratic party in Scotland. Across Western Europe such parties are common. There, it is understood to involve a productive economy underpinning a welfare state. The first part has rarely concerned Scottish politicians. In fact, too many Scots have an instinctive aversion to wealth creation, even as they enjoy its fruits and promise the rest of us we too will share them.The SNP would deny it, but its track record on wealth creating is on a mediocre par with the Labour Party.

There is no firmly rooted understanding that a successful capitalist economy is necessary for the future prosperity of Scotland. In social democratic Sweden or in Germany it is taken for granted. 

Lacking a coherent view of wealth creation the SNP – like Labour – fell into enthusiastic support for prosperity based on financial services. There was no ideological basis for this. It was merely that, for a number of years, roughly 1992-2008, this sector seemed capable of producing the profits – and tax revenue – needed for higher public spending. It also created a large number of clean, comfortable jobs for people sitting at computers at a time when the alternative was low-paid work in in cleaning, catering and caring. While it pays lip service to the idea of a high skill-high wage economy, the reality has been a continuation of hand to mouth policies that date back to the 1950s.Tax-dodging Amazon is lured here because it can provide jobs. That these are low-skill jobs, even in comparison with those provided by multinationals in the post-war era, is secondary. Where previously, NCR and Caterpillar brought skilled manufacturing jobs, now Murdoch's Sky brings call centre employment. 

The promise of low corporation tax is clear evidence that this policy is intended to be a core feature of the economy of an independent Scotland. (The irony is that Ireland has already cornered this niche market as a small, English speaking outpost of the European continent. Hi-tech companies choose Ireland. Amazon chooses Scotland for its giant warehouse.) When it comes to fostering an equal society, the record of the SNP is similarly poor, even as Alex Salmond laments the fact that Scotland is the fourth most unequal country in the world.

In the early 2000s, there was such a huge increase in public spending that Steven Purcell, when running Glasgow Council, could talk of councils 'awash with money'.This spending made little impact of the endemic social problems of urban Scotland. New entitlements were added to old ones. In almost every case, the already prosperous gained most. 'Free' university tuition gives more to prosperous East Dumbartonshire than to Glasgow where a far small percentage of pupils achieves university entrance qualification – although pupils in both areas attend comprehensive schools. (In fact, schools in deprived areas are encouraged to adopt a non-academic curriculum; de facto junior secondaries.) The area where the disparity between Scotland as 'progressive beacon' and the less attractive reality stands out most clearly is in tax revenue raised from oil and gas. This money, £10 billion in 2011-12, is at present shared between some 60 million Britons. Post-independence, it would be shared between 5.3 million Scots. This is not my idea of social democracy; it is closer to its antithesis. Professor Paul Collier raised this point in the Herald and, sadly but predictably, he was denounced online.

The painting is one of the Stanley Spencer series of Port Glasgow shipbuilding during the war years.

Ideology - not nationalism

How to make sense of the citizens of a country who in the 1960s viewed nationalists as “bampots”, 55 years later, contemplating separation? A bampot, by the way, is (according to this delightful small lexicon of the great Scottish vernacular words you find in everyday conversation) “a somewhat combustible individual”

I well remember the couple of characters in my (shipbuilding) town of the 1960s who were prominent nationalists. We regarded them with benign amusement harking back to the 1930s

So why have things changed?

The discovery of oil off Scotland’s eastern waters in the 1970s was the game changer – which brought electoral fortune to the nationalists. “It’s our oil” was the simple but powerful slogan which played a significant part in bringing down the Labour Government of 1979. Actually that was the electoral arithmetic of the time – the wider mood music was an ode to a government and social ideology which seemed to have lost its way.

And that’s the point – ideology not nationalism is the issue.

Scotland was left in 1707 with its own proud institutions – the legal system (based on Roman law); its educational and church systems. It remained therefore a nation - and developd a strong attachment to egalitarian values which have always been more contested south of the border. In that sense, it’s the rest of the UK that changed in the late 1970s– rather than Scotland.

Margaret Thatcher’s pro-market stance alienated the Scots – her encouragement of greed offended us. And, after 18 years of that, New Labour clothed itself for another 13 years in that same neo-liberal mantle. The 1999 devolution settlement gave us the chance to demonstrate a different type of politics – and, as I wrote recently, that opportunity was taken by the much-maligned politicians

It was the Labour and Liberal politicians who controlled the Scottish Parliament from 1999-2007 who gave the Scottish Government its distinctive policies – eg free residential care for the elderly (when in England they are charged 300 pounds a week); free university tuition (when in England they are charged 9,000 pounds a year); almost free drug treatment; health services remaining in the public domain while the subject of profit in England; support of initiatives in community ownership of rural land. Renewable energy……. all legitimised by a clear and strong commitment to “social justice” and community empowerment.

I’m proud of that record and would wish to see it extended. It’s a superb example of the sort of federalism which has proven so powerful a system for countries such as Germany.

But we can no longer identify with the divisive ideology at the heart of London government. In the 1960s and 1970s the strongest movement I was part of was the anti-nuclear one. The nuclear submarines were based on my river just across the water from my town. I was part of several large protests about this. I was also proud to support the plays of radical John McGrath and his 7.84 theatre company. 

Let’s remember what 7.84 stood for – that 7% of the people (ten) owned 84% of the wealth. 40 years later the percentage is more like 1:99.

That’s a critical part of the reason for the current mood in Scotland. The question, of course, is whether people can stop the world and get off. We are part of a wider system which has to be changed. Can we do it better in – or outside of – the UK.  And what happens if and when the English say they want to leave the EU?

The books I received yesterday and which I will read this week are -

·       The Road to Independence – Scotland in the Balance; Murray Pittock (2008). With a preface by the Leader of the Nationalist Government, the author - an English Professor of Cultural Studies now based in Scotland - has an agenda - but it is a thoughtful book which helps explain the frustrations in the post-war period of the sort of nomadic Scot who had benefited from a British imperialism which quickly collapsed.  

·      The Battle for Britain – Scotland and the Independence Referendum; David Torrance (2013). A neutral book by a journalist. Not as dry and technical as some others, it still lacks some fire 

·      Evidence, Risk and the Wicked Issues – arguing for independence ; Stephen Maxwell (2012). Stephen who came to Scotland in the early 1970s was initially an academic; then a Lothian Councillor; then Head of PR for the Nationalist Party and Deputy Head of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Service. He died, sadly, in 2013 and this is the book to which I look forward the most.

·      Class,Nation and Socialism – the Red Paper on Scotland 2014 ed P Bryan and T Kane. As one of the authors in 1975 of the first Red Paper on Scotland (edited by a young but already ambitious Gordon Brown) I also look forward to this collection - not least because John Foster ( a co-author with me of the 1975 Red Paper) is one of the authors.