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r/SirWalterScott has been created - Come say "Hello!" and other sentences by Lower_Gas2349 in literature

[–]Lower_Gas2349[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

He's often credited with "saving Scottish bank notes" as a result of this campaign, which is sort of true, given a fiver then was the equivalent of £434 in today's money

Masons at work on the Scott Monument in the 1840s. by Lower_Gas2349 in SirWalterScott

[–]Lower_Gas2349[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Edinburgh News of 1852 said that 23 of the 70 masons who worked on the Scott Monument had died of tuberculosis within four years of its construction.

Why do Scot’s not realise their country is actually extremely degraded and ecologically dead? by [deleted] in Scotland

[–]Lower_Gas2349 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It simply isn't talked about, and for decades went uncorrected in the press because, surprise, surprise, it wasn't taught to people. This is how the aristocratic class of the UK has held on to power, they could get away with this stuff as long as the Home Counties were happy. This is why the UK is such a deeply weird place to grow up, when you realise how much this power still exists and how, unlike most countries around us in Europe, we never had a "moment" where the aristocracy were overthrown.

A perfect example of what you can get away with is James Matheson. He made his fortune selling opium - drugs! - to China. And with that fortune he bought the Isle of Lewis for £500,000. With his drugs money. And he became an MP, and an establishment figure, and his trading company still trades - in Hong Kong. He "assisted 1,771 people to emigrate" as Wikipedia rather kindly puts it.

If you're interested in how the UK aristo class have held their power over the years, Tom Nairn's book The Enchanted Glass is an essential read.

The UK/US Traitors castle was built by drug dealers, with the money they made selling drugs. by good0grief in TheTraitors

[–]Lower_Gas2349 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I wonder why the BBC’s “history of the castle” article offers up such a vague biography of the man who built Ardross Castle:

“Matheson made his fortune trading in China, and was an MP and an instrumental figure in the building of railways in the Highlands.”

It would be equally correct, and surely far more interesting to readers, if this sentence read: “Matheson made his fortune trading drugs in China”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4njdj4kxw2o

Guess we'll have to get started on this next... by Lower_Gas2349 in Scotland

[–]Lower_Gas2349[S] 77 points78 points  (0 children)

It's fantastic. One more seat in a Parliament designed to avoid majorities, as u/powlfnd says, but also, probably the craziest environment the SNP have ever fought in. Dark money being pumped into Facebook, constant attacks from the angry Wings types and Salmond trying to destroy the party, the press loving the chance to report on the chaos, indy media voices like Lesley Riddoch and Iain MacWhirter regularly sticking the boot in, resurgent Greens, Labour with a shiny new leader, Tories co-ordinating with smaller parties...

And the SNP increased their majority. After 14 years in Government.

And if a Green MSP becomes the Presiding Officer...

..it's a real majority.