About this blog

Time for a change!

This Blog was previously and ironically named the Red, White and Blue Blog and mainly dealt with myths from the nationalist community in Scotland and emerged at the time of the independence referendum.

But times move on, the referendum was one and realistically independence has been kicked into the long grass by a number of factors so it's time to regenerate the blog and associated Twitter account.

I'll therefore be concentrating on my own area of expertise which is financial matters and the powers of the Scottish Parliament in respect to welfare. Happily that lets me keep the title letters of my blog with the 'slightly forced' Radical Welfare Benefits Blog... but hey if you've got a better suggestion I'd love to hear it!

Neil Lovatt

My previous entry for about this blog is presented below for information:

On the 18th of September 2014 Scotland voted to remain in the Union. This followed a relentless campaign which changed the face and future of the country. 

During the run up to the vote, whilst managing and analysing a book of bets on the outcome, I witnessed the sacrifice of truth by the yes campaign very early on. As someone who has always worked in finance, I quickly spotted that the Currency Union (CU) proposed by the Yes side was never going to work. 

Indeed, it was immediately apparent to me that the CU proposal was simply a device to enable the Yes camp to avoid difficult questions about currency, and ease the way to a yes vote. I guess, when the CU didn’t come to pass, the plan was there would be a shrug of the shoulders and move ahead with the proposal of a new Scottish currency without further recourse to the electorate. 

Voters would shout and scream about betrayal but the Scottish Government would point to the Edinburgh Agreement about the decision being final and decisive. 

I was startled by the cynicism of such an obviously manipulative and deceptive ploy by the SNP, a party that I voted for at Holyrood, and I feared for the consequences of our country when false hope turned to anger and despair. 

Little did I know that this was the start of a series of very obvious events and publications that would see truth and reality take a back seat in the name of Scottish nationalism at any price. 

I spent the referendum campaign arguing against what I called the pig’s breakfast of the White Paper, and pointing out the rather obvious flaws in the “Yessers” arguments. Sadly, since the “No” win. the truth has continued to be sacrificed in the name of nationalism. In many cases these myths still exist and provide an outlet for a section of the population who cannot accept they lost and prefer to believe they must have been cheated out of victory. 

This is where this site comes in. Here I deal with some of the biggest nationalist memes to be found on social media and explain how they represent a wil hilful departure from reality. 

I can of be contacted on twitter @neiledwardlovat or on Google+. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this section, hopefully you came here to find out more about a myth or to challenge my thinking on them, so please jump right into issues and posts that interest you the most.

Neil Lovatt 
(Posting in a personal capacity, this site has nothing to do with my place of employment)