Tam's Tall Tales

- Enough of Politics


Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon at the start of the Referendum Campaign



Recovering From Independence Referendum


Hello and welcome from Scotland where we are recovering from the excitement of the Independence Referendum. The election of the new Scottish National Party leader to succeed Alex Salmond (pictured on the right) was a complete damp squib as only Nicola Sturgeon put her name forward. That's her pictured on the left - she is, after all, on the left of the political spectrum. Her coronation will take place shortly and, if anyone is at all interested, I will write a short profile of the lady next month.

With Johann Lamont heading up Labour in Holyrood and Ruth Davidson at the helm of the Scottish Conservatives, all the top political jobs in the major Scottish parties are now occupied by women. (The pixels were hardly dry after writing that before Labour leader Jihann Lamont resigned).

The Scottish National Party leaders have already indicated that Nicola would not be bound by her predecessor's assurance that the 2014 vote was a once in a lifetime opportunity and so could initiate another referendum in the near future. So we could be in for another campaign - after the next elections for the Scottish Parliament next year.

Enough of Politics
Enough of politics. Many thanks to readers who contacted me in the past month. I had a lovely note from Sheila who is based on Vancouver Island:

"I was wondering if you can give me any help on an old song my father used to sing. He was in the Gordon Highlanders in WWI, and came to Canada in 1925. These are the words that I remember:

" My old man's a soldier,
He works at Maryhill.
He gets his pay on a Saturday night
And buys a half a gill.

Goes to church on Sunday
Half an hour late.
Takes his buttons off his shirt,
And lays them on the plate."

Anyone else got more words for this wee ditty? I remember the Maryhill Barracks from my youth. It was a pretty dour place surrounded by high walls with broken bottles embedded along the top. This was presumably to deter enemy agents from shimmying up the wall or, more likely, to ensure that soldiers from the HLI regiment who had missed their deadline for returning 'home', duly owned up at the guardhouse by the entrance.

The picture of Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow is via Wikimedia.



Please give me whatever feedback comes to mind via tamfromrampant@gmail.com.

Tam O'Ranter
May 2014

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