Party Poopers

We really are entering dangerous terrain when a party to celebrate the Homecoming festivites on Scotland's patron saint's day is deemed an "insult" and "a party political stunt". The oddness of Iain Gray's petulant claims is compounded when you learn that Homecoming was Labour's idea in the first place!

I admit the tartan and shortbread rhetoric of Homecoming should have been drastically dialled down and a more modern edge tacked onto core events such as the Clan Gathering and St Andrew's Day festival but come on, Scotland isn't allowed to have Scottish celebrations any more?

What if Venice's Biennale was deemed too Italian and had to end? Or France's Bastille Day deemed too Nationalist? Or Pamplona's running of the bulls too overtly Spanish? What a sad loss any of the above would be.

It's nonsensical to say that Scotland can't hold Scottish-based shindigs because it might make people think about where they live and how they see themselves. Labour - the anti-cathartic party. It doesn't make for a good slogan (particularly because it looks a bit like "the anti-Cathcart party" which Tom Harris would never go for)

The gradual, seemingly unavoidable descent into the silliest of arguments forever orbitting the question of independence is surely reason enough to have a referendum on the matter and put it behind us for a generation or, perhaps, forever.

Then, finally, we can get the kilts on, paint our faces and have some fun without any petty political squabbles be it in an independent Scotland or still as part of the UK.