By a Newsnet reporter
 
Do you remember the movie ‘The Wizard of Oz’?
 
Dorothy, the scarecrow, the tin man and the lion travelled all the way to the Emerald City in order to seek help from the all-powerful wizard to obtain qualities they believed they lacked.

By Kenneth Roy

It is scarcely believable – no, no, scrub that, it is all too believable – that the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Johann Lamont, should have greeted yesterday's announcement by the first minister with the following mind-numbing response:

The most important thing is that whichever side wins this referendum, it, and the process to it, is conducted in such a way that the day after it all Scots can come together to fulfil our national duty to make Scotland all it can be.

By Gerry Hassan, Open Democracy, January 25th 2012
 
January 25th 2012, Burns Night, will be remembered as a historic, watershed day for Scotland and the UK.
 
Alex Salmond announced to the Scottish Parliament his government’s proposed question for the autumn 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, ‘Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?’ This was he said ‘short, straightforward and clear’ (1).

By Kenneth Roy

Near where I live in Burns's Ayrshire, there is the ruin of a tiny church whose roof was blown off in a famous gale 253 years ago today. Early this morning, as I write this, there is only a stiff breeze, not loud enough to drown out the rhetoric of politicians who have chosen this day to sing the latest verses of their big new number or the chatter of their fawning media chorus.