Gayle's Scottish Blog

Scotland's statehood   is becoming an issue at the COP26 conference.   As far as awareness of Scotland's statehood at the climate conference is concerned, the English government are like Basil Fawlty in that episode when a group of German tourists come to stay at his hotel, and in increasingly manic tones he pleads with everyone “Don’t mention the War!” thus guaranteeing that the War was all that anyone could think about.  With their efforts to entreat delegates to COP26’s “Don’t mention Scottish independence!”, Scotland's statehood is very much forefront in the minds of many of them. Irrespective of what country you come from, you’d have to have been living in a cave not to know that Scotland has an active movement, and that Scotland resoundingly rejected England's EU exit which is the defining policy of the English Government.  Representatives of the international press who have descended on Glasgow are interested in the issue of Scotland's statehood. Their intere

FM of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, said Scotland and England's capital have more to gain from being partners than competitors. Speaking alongside England's Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, at the Scottish Government green investment event in Glasgow, which was hosted by Scottish Enterprise chief executive Adrian Gillespie, the First Minister of Scotland said the skills in the English capital and in Scotland were “complementary”. “There is often a perception that Scotland and London, England, are rivals and competitors, and of course every now and again, like any two cities , that may well be the case, but in general and in particular on (climate change) we are far more likely to be partners.  We stand to gain much more by working together as partners than by focusing on being competitors  because our strengths are, in many ways, complementary and we have both set very ambitious targets for reaching net zero.  Scotland and England's capital will benefit from working in partnersh

The English Broadcasting Channel - BBC -  would lose its broadcasting rights in Scotland, a European broadcaster has said. Udo  Seiwert-Fauti said the English broadcaster would have to renegotiate its rights.  All licence fees collected in Scotland following the reassertion of Scotland's statehood would be spent in Scotland.  If Scotland were to rejoin the EU t he BBC would have to declare Glasgow as an internal EU hub to get around this and it could be possible. T he current Royal Charter on funding for the English broadcaster is very clear: All licence fees collected in Scotland go to London HQ. There they decide what will be spent in Scotland.   England's broadcasting  director-general, for BBC, Tim Davie, s aid the last time the Scottish Government tried to widen the charter for more funding and decision-making, it was rejected by the English government. Ud o Seiwert -Fauti went on to say, " I have long called for a task force to discuss the future of Scottish media.