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Scotland was like some tropical island, looming out of the sunlit haze. I was looking north west to Criffel from the Cumbrian coast, on a cycling holiday south of Hadrian’s Wall. The nations on both sides have been given a week of glorious sunshine, stretching from Wimbledon to Balado.
T in the Park
Scotland’s answer to Glastonbury
I’ve never seen so many people in shorts. In every High Street, town square, park, beach and garden people were strolling about, slightly bewildered, like British tourists in a Mediterranean holiday resort. The temperature reached 31 degrees in England and 28 in Scotland.
At the old airfield at Balado – Kinross-shire’s answer to Glastonbury – 85,000 people in shorts danced in the warm glow of that unusual headline act, the Sun. Supporting bands included the Proclaimers, Mumford and Sons, Texas, Rihanna and Emeli Sande. A vintage year.
It may be holiday time but the first minister Alex Salmond has been working away in the mid-day sun. After waving the Saltire at Wimbledon for our “Scottish” champion, he travelled up to the Nigg oil rig yard outside Inverness to put on a hard hat and explain to the expanding workforce there the advantages of independence.
Salmond waves the Saltire
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It turned out to be a surprisingly Unionist speech, emphasising the five unions that would continue after independence – the union of the crowns, the currency union, the European union, the United Nations, NATO and the “social union”. Only the political union would be broken.
“The political union does not work for Scotland any more. It holds Scotland back and imperils our future,” said Mr Salmond and he instanced the cut in income tax for the rich, the bedroom tax for the poor, the renewal of Trident nuclear weapons and the privatisation of the Royal Mail.
Then another two differences fell into his lap later in the week when the Westminster government dropped its plans for a minimum price for alcohol and plain packaging for cigarettes. The Scottish government immediately announced it was having no second thoughts and would be going ahead with both health initiatives.
Alistair Darling
Summer Offensive
Meanwhile Alistair Darling has begun a summer offensive for the Better Together campaign. He gave a speech at Glasgow University saying those against independence should run a more positive campaign, emphasising the advantages of the Union for jobs, public services pensions and defence. “We want Scots to make a positive choice to remain part of the UK and not merely to reject the risks and uncertainties of independence.”
It seems strange on this summer day to be talking about politics. We should be discussing the Great Edinburgh Run where 8,000 people ( in shorts) are just setting out on a sweltering 10k or 5k race around Arthur’s Seat.
Hedgehog
Or we should be wondering who is winning on the final day of the Scottish Golf Open at Castle Stuart. Or whether lady members should be allowed at Muirfield, where the Britain Open is to be played next weekend. Or which of the three bidders should buy Hearts. But I will leave those important subjects to the experts.
Instead, I’ll end with the cautionary tale of “Edinburgh” the hedgehog (because she was found there). She has been enjoying life a little too much at a hedgehog care centre at Wormit in Fife. She weighed less than a pound when she was rescued but she now weighs five pounds, thanks to her diet of dried worms and cat food. She is officially the heaviest hedgehog in Scotland and is so fat, she cannot roll herself into ball. Staff at the centre have now put her on a diet and hope to have her slimmed down enough over the winter to be able to release her into the wild next spring.
I’m left asking myself whether this is a parable or just a story.