At Home in Scotland

At the end of this month Tony Blair is stepping down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  One of his legacies will surely be his attempt at “devolution.”  The United Kingdom is made up of four nations, England (by far the largest, most populous and culturally and historically dominant), Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (many have died both disputing and defending this characterization of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom, a history far too complicated to sort here).  Devolution is an attempt by the Parliament at Westminster (the UK Parliament) to return power over local affairs to historical local parliaments in the constituent nations.  Hence, there is a Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh (Holyrood is where they meet), a Welsh Parliament in Cardiff and the on again, off again (although I have high hopes that it is permanently on again) Northern Irish Parliament at Stormont. 

It’s not easy being green

I was quiet last week after two weeks of fairly heavy posting. Judging from the stats on the site, people enjoyed the commencement speeches and poetry.

Here’s something on the lighter side, to ease back into more frequent posting. The Anchoress brought this quiz to my attention, though as of this moment she seems to have removed the post stating that she most closely resembled super villain “Mystique.” According to the results I got when I took the quiz, the super villain I most resemble is someone I don’t even know. That part sounds about right.