Thrive by Lesley Riddoch sampler
Why won’t Scots simmer down? Why batter on about independence when folk voted No a decade back? After all. Scotland’s not as populated as Yorkshire, nor as wealthy as London. But it’s also not as Conservative, as keen on Brexit, or as willing to flog public assets to Tory party pals. So does Nicola Sturgeon’s departure terminally damage the case for independence? The answer, with all respect to her legacy, is no. Scotland has bigger fish to fry. In this book, Lesley Riddoch makes an impassioned call to action, weaving academic evidence with story, international comparison and anecdote to explain why Scotland is ready to step forward as the world’s newest state.
Why won’t Scots simmer down?
Why batter on about independence when folk voted No a decade back?
After all. Scotland’s not as populated as Yorkshire, nor as wealthy as London. But it’s also not as Conservative, as keen on Brexit, or as willing to flog public assets to Tory party pals.
So does Nicola Sturgeon’s departure terminally damage the case for independence?
The answer, with all respect to her legacy, is no.
Scotland has bigger fish to fry.
In this book, Lesley Riddoch makes an impassioned call to action, weaving academic evidence with story, international comparison and anecdote to explain why Scotland is ready to step forward as the world’s newest state.
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26 Introduction<br />
Finland, Denmark, Iceland and the Faroes live and work in<br />
one another’s countries without passport checks, residence or<br />
work permits. The UK actually created the gold standard in<br />
close neighbour cooperation. That will continue.<br />
What about watching the BBC?<br />
Well, wherever you live these days, what’s stopping you?<br />
Subscription channel viewing is the new normal, especially for<br />
under 24s, 90 per cent of whom head straight for Netflix or a<br />
streaming service and watch traditional broadcast TV for just<br />
one hour daily – a fall of two-thirds since 2014, according to<br />
media regulator Ofcom.<br />
That suggests the broadcasting issue might look quite<br />
different next time around. Once again, Ireland’s experience<br />
is instructive – BBC channels are widely available in Ireland<br />
though there’s no access to the iPlayer. But money not given<br />
to Aunty in licence fees funds RTÉ’s TV and radio stations.<br />
Are they any good? Well, in 2016, RTÉ TV broadcast all of<br />
Ireland’s 20 most popular programmes and 19 of its 20 most<br />
popular sports programmes. Doubtless, using that model in an<br />
independent Scotland might let fans watch our own national<br />
men’s team beat Spain again (you’ve got to dream) on state TV.<br />
Last time around, the SNP proposed a Scottish Broadcasting<br />
Corporation (SBC). A new indy government might want to<br />
negotiate a continuing supply of SBC programming to the<br />
BBC in exchange for iPlayer access. But meantime, BBC hit<br />
series are watched across the world, and again – why would<br />
an independent Scotland be any different?<br />
The excellent drama Happy Valley was seen so widely<br />
across the US that actor James Norton recently said, ‘random<br />
Americans come up to me on the street and talk to me about<br />
Hebden Bridge. They watch it with subtitles on, but they love it.’<br />
Indeed, I’ve sat with friends in Norway lapping up Downton<br />
Abbey on the Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. They can watch<br />
a vivid portrayal of class inequality – we have to stew in it.<br />
I for one would cheerfully swap the BBC’s endless fixation<br />
with all things Tudor, inter-war and upper class for lavish SBC
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