Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 33 on 22/06/2007.

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Changes

Change is part of life, and this year a lot of change is taking place in Scotland. Following the May elections for the Scottish Parliament, we have a new First Minister in the person of the enigmatic Alex Salmond; a new Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, Conservative MSP for Galloway and Nithsdale, and a new Scottish National Party-led Scottish Executive (Scottish government). Whether or not this will radically affect Scotland’s future or mean more of the same, remains to be seen.

One thing that will definitely not happen in the immediate future though is a referendum on Scottish independence. Opinion polls show little appetite for separation, although we Scots do see ourselves as different from our neighbours which, of course, is the happy consequence of our history. In essence, of course, nobody can deny that Scotland has done rather well out of the union with England and Wales.

What might possibly confuse our overseas compatriots, however, is that Tony Blair, our Edinburgh-born United Kingdom Prime Minister, has now stood down at Westminster to make way for his colleague, the Kirkcaldy-born Gordon Brown. Funny how the Scots keep bubbling up to the surface in England. Even David Cameron, leader of the UK Conservative opposition party, and Sir Menzies Campbell, leader of the UK Liberal Democrat Party, have Scottish credentials.

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” wrote the French critic and novelist Alphonse Karr in 1849. And although I have no idea what the outco.....

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By Roddy Martine

Section : Roddy Martine's World

Page number : 7