Ten Years

*waves* from Glasgow's most famous Sauchiehall Street.

Ten years ago today I moved to Glasgow. It was quite a spur of the moment decision about six months earlier which meant Mr HPW relocating at new year and me packing up and selling our house over the next few months. I loved Glasgow the first time I came here on holiday with Bad Granny about 15 years ago and so didn't find it hard to chuck in my old life. It's definitely the most (and possibly only) spontaneous thing I've done, and I don't regret it at all.

Having said that, I really really hope I'm still living in the UK in ten years. I don't want to be a foreigner to the rest of my family and, given I'm still as English as morris dancing (even if I've found nobody to join in with me up here), I don't vice versa want to be a foreigner to my son. He has ancestors from every part of the UK and is properly British.

I don't actually believe Scotland couldn't make it as a nation but I find nationalism inherently selfish, and I can't balance all the lefty promises from the Yes campaign against effectively abandoning everybody who is currently suffering under David Cameron's rule to years more Tory government. The UK needs Scotland.

I'd also be lying if I didn't admit I take personally a lot of all the bile being spewed about the rest of the UK from cybernats and their ilk. There are many deeply committed people in England who have worked tirelessly to support people across the UK, including politicians, would you believe? but you'd think from how some people portray it that everybody in England is a stockbroker. Having lived here for a while, and working in a large organisation, I know and agree that many English people have absolutely no concept or interest in how different Scotland already is, and make no concessions for that. It's very frustrating. But from my point of view, that difference already exists and we should do more to remind people of that. I don't think we need separation (even the half-arsed effort currently being offered) but I would agree we need more devolution. But we also need to fix the inequality in UK society and we need to get rid of David Cameron. And that won't be done by taking our ball and going home.

I worry that we are sleepwalking into this. Judging from some of today's April Fool's stories, many newspapers still aren't taking the referendum seriously. It's not a joke.

Somebody else here has said this better than me (and I don't know her at all): I give you Simply Me

Day 30