The Retreat of Science from the Place It Began

'Beginning with Scotland’s prohibition on domestic genetically modified crop cultivation on Aug. 9, Europe’s scientists and farmers watched with mounting dismay as other countries followed suit. Following the Scottish decision, signatories from numerous scientific organizations and academic institutions wrote to the Scottish government to express grave concern “about the potential negative effect on science in Scotland.”

The appeal went unheeded.

Without a trace of embarrassment, a spokeswoman for Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party, admitted that the first minister’s science adviser had not been consulted because the decision “wasn’t based on scientific evidence.” Instead, the priority was to protect the “clean green image” of the country’s produce, according to the secretary for rural affairs, food and environment.'

NYT Sunday Review Oct 25th p.6 - 'Europe Turns Against Science'

As both a Scot and a former biotechnology entrepreneur it is hard for me to watch the Nationalists who form the current Scottish Government descend to the idiot level. No GMOs, no Trident atomic submarines, nothing tech if the English or Americans find it useful.... These rustics remind me of the "nuclear-free zones" that socialist municipal  councils created in Britain, or the "niqab-free" municipalities Canada now has in rural Quebec.

'The historical irony is that Europe once led in biotech: in 1983, Marc Van Montagu and Jeff Schell at the University of Ghent in Belgium introduced the world to modern plant genetic engineering. Today, however, no rational young scientist interested in molecular techniques of crop breeding would choose a base in Continental Europe.'

The 'must be organic and GMO-free' craze long plaguing European food production has now resulted in nations as stable and scientifically sophisticated as Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Scotland using new European Union rules to announce bans on the cultivation of genetically modified crops. They either see no reason to take senior science advice in agriculture or, like the Scots Nats, choose to forgo it for populist reasons.

It is eerie for one such as I, born in Europe but now a resident of the Developed New World, to see the populations of advanced New World countries like America, Canada and Australia retain a respect for the evidence-based view of technological development we inherited from the European Enlightenment, while much of Old World Europe's present-day leadership slips away from relying on modern science for deciding what to believe when it comes to food production and nutrition.

Old Style Socialism Served up as Nationalism

If we were ever tempted to hope that hard-line Scots nationalists were moderates, this is a salutary read. Their Rx for Britain today-


1. Bring the Railways back into public ownership
2. Shift investment from nuclear to renewable energy
3. Commit to halt fracking in the UK
4. Bring the energy companies back into public ownership
5. Create a Living Wage and a programme to abolish food banks
6. Abolish the House of Lords and adopt proportional representation
7. Commit to public investment to end austerity economics
8. Welcome refugees and immigrants as an economic and social asset
9. Agree votes for 16/17 year-olds
10. Cancel Trident (nuclear submarines)
11. Publish the Chilcott Inquiry, and do not enter into illegal wars
12. No tuition fees in education

From Bella Caledonia blog

A 'Smash Britannia' agenda from the Loony Left, with CND and Communist rhetoric and with a serving of Green, all masquerading as a nationalist protocol.

The Tartan Pandora Squirms Way Out of the Box:

Just in case anyone who has a British connection thinks that much was solved by the significant NO vote in last month's Scottish referendum, this blog post is a salutary read. As it's in English it is easier for us to see just how the independantistes over in Alba have now got a tiger firmly by the tail than it has been for their equivalents in Quebec, buried as their comments are in out-of-province newspapers largely in French.

The Modi Anglais in Britain are framed with the same general categories of sins that they are here in Canada. They become the "other" and are no-longer Chez Nous.  ROC (Rest of Canada ) equates to rUK. Moreover our blogger, a civil servant, is for declaring UDI (a Unilateral Declaration of Independence) if that is the only option. Last time the Commonwealth saw one of those was way back in 1965 when white Rhodesians objected to HM Government's plans to give what is now Zimbabwe its independence. A recipe for civil pandemonium of the worst kind. Ask the Irish who remember 1922/23 just how angry constitutionalists and revolutionaries can get with each other!

Snake Oil Sales in Scotland

Many of us in the 4.7 million Scots Diaspora in Canada are anxious at the real possibility of Alex Salmond (memorably characterised in a recent newspaper spread as the ‘ultimate snake-oil salesman’) persuading a majority of voting residents to throw off the UK and the nefarious ‘English’, and so consign our long and world-changing shared history to the dustbin.

As one whose heritage reflects both of the founding cultures of modern Scotland, the Gaelic on my Anderson/MacDonald/McKeddie side and the Lowland Scots/Northumbrian Anglian on my Watson-Weatherburn side, I find the “Kilticisation” and “Braveheartism” of the SNP campaign both deceptive and hypocritical. Unlike Ireland, Scotland was never oppressed by the ‘British’ after the Union of the Crowns and many of the regiments that fought for the Hanoverian dynasty during the Jacobite rebellions were Lowland Scottish or Highland clans. There can be little doubt that firstly Tony Blair, with his cynical belief that a Scots Parliament would support Labour, and then Cameron by allowing himself to be thoroughly outfoxed by Salmond, bear a great deal of blame for the coming debacle. Whichever way the vote goes, the hornet’s nest has been stirred up.

A Tribal Scotland wants its Money

The decline of empires has throughout history rarely been a pretty sight. When long-held colonies are returned to popular rule, the residents usually have trouble figuring out how to govern themselves. Plus the borders created by the now-former colonial power rarely suit them. Old rivalries resurface under the same or altered forms. Some groups try to lord it over others, or at least are perceived to be trying to. Much of West Africa, Somalia, Iraq and Syria demonstrate this phenomenon, one as old as human tribes have existed.

Sometimes the empire tries to reshape itself to become again an empire.  Post-Soviet Russia is today's poster state for that. Within its borders it rigorously represses any separatist tendencies. Think Chechnya. Where neighbours were once part of its territories, it leans on them hard. Think the Ukraine.

However outside Russia and China, the passion for geographical accretion and aggregation that characterizes empire building does largely seem to have run out of steam.  Instead factors such as a revival of interest in the cultures and language of previously little regarded historical minorities have resulted in the rise of new regional nationalisms. Countries once united in a largely voluntary way seek to part ways. Quebec, Scotland and Catalonia come to mind today, the Czechs and Slovaks last century, and the Swedes and Norwegians in the 19th century. These places went through long years of being reasonably content to be part of the larger whole. Yet in modern times they yearn to become small again in a world of littler nations.

As a Scots-born national of both Canada and the UK I watch with consternation the antics and distortions of the politicians selling the separatist creed. With both Scotland and Quebec I have no say, being a resident of neither. No voting in referenda for me.

Quebec has been at the game of escape much longer, having been in charge of its own local affairs since the two Canadas (Upper and Lower) were disunited in 1791. Scotland in contrast only got back its own legislature in 1999. In both, political parties favouring separation from the federal whole have done well in elections.

When it is in power the local separatist party has provoked two plebiscites on Quebec's status. One in 1980 on independence or something they christened 'sovereignty-association', the second in 1995 on independence or 'sovereignty-partnership'. The later plebiscite was an unnervingly close-run thing. Scotland's nationalists, being now in power, are running a referendum on independence later this year.

While in Quebec the passion for separation is almost entirely restricted to the majority French-speaking population, in Scotland, where the traditionally distinct Gaelic population of the Highlands and Hebrides might be expected to favour leaving the Sassenachs, the strongest support is in the more populated Lowlands among the Scots working class. The nationalist leadership is largely Lowland, and, unlike in the fight for Irish independence, language barely features as an issue, .

Instead the Nationalist demands centre around keeping all revenues at home, and in that regard the debate is presently focusing in on what will happen with currency. The Scots want to keep using the British pound, as the Quebecois wanted to keep the Canadian dollar. The national governments are not playing along, arguing that separation would weaken the economy of the region that leaves. While the Parti Quebecois government of Quebec has lately taken a new tack of threatening legislation on the wearing of overtly religious garb in order to stir up resentment of immigrants and their foreign ways, the Scottish National Party has been oddly silent on cultural symbols and differences from the rest of Britain. It is all about the money.

While Canada has been working to engage new trading blocs for many years, the rise of UKIP in the UK reflects an opposite trend - the resurgence of the Little Englander mindset among the dominant English component of the British federation. The British may end up having a referendum on EU membership. Certainly it will be a big issue in their next national elections. Canadians have been living for a lifetime with the threat of Quebec separation, but this recent urge to disengage Scotland from Britain at the same time as Britain might seek to leave Europe, is thoroughly disquieting. What is a paid-up Canuck Brit and Scot with no say to do but hope!