I’m not exactly working hard this week, it’s hot in Sweden, and that means 30C today with 29C forecast tomorrow. I’m working on mail outs for the album in the mornings, however I have a beautiful lake just 10 mins walk away, as do most people in Sweden. it calls me in the afternoons.

Last week I was in Scotland and toured up the west coast to Loch Ness. Everywhere is beautiful and steeped in layers of history. I was surprised to see no visible signs of the independence campaign not even in Glasgow. People I know there seem to either believe or they don’t. I picked up a government (British) booklet that was sent out to everyone to try and persuade them to vote no, arguments like ‘Scotland will have a stronger voice in the world as part of the UK’. The SNP say exactly the opposite and like so many other aspects of the independence question, the arguments are unwinnable. It comes down to belief, and gut feeling. Nobody can predict the long term outcome of independence. I would say though that such a great constitutional change should require more than just 50% of the vote.

I came round to thinking that if I still had a vote in Scotland I would now vote yes and I can’t really say why. I started to change my mind after reading Alistair Moffat’s book ‘Before Scotland’, an excellent read. Although mostly about the Stone Age it gives a vivid description of how Scottish history has always been governed by it’s geography, and what wonderful geography it is. Scotland is, in my opinion, the  most beautiful place on earth (when it stops raining).

Independence for Scotland is a step in the dark, and reminds me of a decision I made a couple of years ago to leave the band I had been with through thick and thin for so many years and go solo. Life did not get any easier, but it was my decision and I have no regrets at all.

Life is not particularly easy in Scotland, it never has been and it probably won’t get any easier with independence, but I don’t think having an easy life has ever much bothered the Scots. According to Alistair Moffat the word Caledonia comes from the P-Celtic root Caled  meaning hard, so Caledonia means ‘the Hard Men’. The women are hard too.

Loch Ness from Urquart Castle