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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New England and Auld Europe<br />
27<br />
productions of Scottish classics like Robert Louis Stevenson’s<br />
Kidnapped. This was last adapted for British TV in 1978 <strong>by</strong> a<br />
co-production between Harlech TV in Wales and Germany’s<br />
Tele München – not the BBC. Meanwhile, the best model for<br />
iScotland is the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), funded<br />
from income tax and responsible for hit series The Killing,<br />
Borgen and The Bridge. In 2014, there were two or three<br />
Danish TV series in production at any one time. In 2019, there<br />
were 20, plus 25 films being shot on location in Denmark,<br />
prompting the country’s drama school to double its student<br />
numbers. In short, the world wants more Danish TV than<br />
Denmark can handle, thanks to the streaming boom. Ditto the<br />
other Nordic countries. An SBC won’t get there overnight, but<br />
Outlander – viewed in 40 countries – demonstrates the world’s<br />
fascination with Scotland. What a day it will be when it’s a<br />
Danish-style SBC that feeds that interest – not better funded,<br />
more confident foreign broadcasters.<br />
New England and Auld Europe<br />
Is it disloyal abandon England? Well, most folk south of<br />
the border would actually be waving us off. A 2021 poll of<br />
English voters for the Telegraph found only a fifth strongly<br />
oppose Scottish independence and most young English folk<br />
aged 18–34 believe Scotland would thrive as an independent<br />
country. England is ready for change and Scotland won’t be<br />
disappearing – but reappearing. Meanwhile many English<br />
folk believe Scottish independence is the constitutional cataclysm<br />
needed to weaken establishment control south of the border<br />
and revive the English liberal/Remain-voting left. Singer and<br />
campaigner Billy Bragg argues that Scotland’s departure from<br />
the union would encourage a new constitutional settlement,<br />
with PR elections and a reformed upper house to represent<br />
English regions; ‘I’d certainly vote for a new England.’<br />
In 2021, two European academics based in Oxford (Andrea<br />
Pisauro and Janina Jetter) went a step further, creating
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