Guru

Had a nice evening on my last day in Edinburgh. Had a beer in a brewery pub in Fountain Park, then a curry in a place called "The Guru" in Polwarth. The Guru has one of those huge mirrors up on the wall, so you think the place is twice the size that it is. The food was very good as well.



This was spotted on my way home from the curry. However, there are a surprising lack of election posters around in Scotland, even though the elections are only about 2 weeks away. I wonder if the parties have realised that they don't do any good? There weren't any election posters visible in Edinburgh, even in walking distance of the parliament itself. Time was, the lampposts were covered with them, it hardly feels like there is an election on at all.

I'm going to miss being in Scotland for the election. It always felt like devolution was not really very interesting, with the same party in power in Westminster and and, albeit in coalition, in Scotland too. The SNP have an impressive poll lead, so they may do well in the election. The SNP made a huge tactical mistake by walking out of the Scottish Constitutional Convention in the 90's and effectively allowing Labour and the Lib Dems to create the electoral system for the new parliament that best suited them. Now, the voting patters, as extrapolated into parliamentary seats, means that no one party can govern on their own. There is only one pro-Independence party, so a unionist majority seems assured. The Lib Dems seem to be allowing themselves some subtle wiggle room to allow them to form a coalition with the SNP and allow the SNP to keep a multi option referendum, which would include an Independence option, as a possibility - so, interesting times. Maybe devolution may mean something in the end, after all.

As I don't live in Scotland, I decided it would be unfair of me to use my entitlement to a postal vote, so I'm not able to vote now in, what promises to be, an interesting election. I hope they stream live coverage of the election night on the internet, so at least I can see what is going on. I got a summons to be a juror in the US today! There is a part of the form where you can request an exemption from the call-up, and top of the list of possible exemptions is not being a US citizen - they must send juror call-ups to non citizens all the time. I wonder if they would check my status if I just turned up, I always fancied being on a jury.

San Jose - April 24 2007