Friday 19th September, 2014

It was never in doubt was it?…..if you strip out the Socialist Republics of Glasgow and Dundee then the vote was a compelling 57% against independence.  And I am pretty sure that still only 30% of the population seriously wants independence.  In other words 15% of the Yes block was really a protest against Westminster.  Fair enough really.  I must admit though I had a moment of doubt last week when listening to the World Service on the radio.  So intense was the debate about the impending breakup of the Union that the BBC, or at least the hapless team of the Newsday programme, felt the need to interview a gentleman in Pakistan who was very worried about the possible impact of Scottish independence and ensuing uncertainty over the currency on his kilt and bagpipe business.  Gods honest truth.   I heard at 5.15am on the car radio as I drove to the station.  At that point I decided to try and do my bit in support of the Union and Pakistani industry especially given I did not even have a vote to cast.  Hence the following email exchange with a lady in charge of advertising at Scottish TV.

 

 

From: David Sandison [mailto:david@bovills.com]

Sent: 12 September 2014 18:04

To: Pamela Richardson

Subject: Enquiry

Dear Pamela,

Slightly strange enquiry this but I hope you can help me. If I wanted to buy a 30 second one off slot on STV to air a personal advertisement how much would it cost and is there an available slot before the vote next week. 

I am a Scot living in England who feels strongly that he wants to be involved albeit at this late stage in the referendum discussion. I want to get people in England so many of whom, whether Scottish by ancestry or not, strongly hope that Scotland will remain part of the United Kingdom to club together and by attracting sufficient numbers raise the money to pay for this slot which will feature a simple but heartfelt message and show people in Scotland how much we care about this issue. 

I hope you will accept the sincerity of this request and look forward to hearing back from you.

Kind regards,

David Sandison.

 

 

On 16 Sep 2014, at 11:24, "Pamela Richardson" <Pamela.Richardson@stv.tv> wrote:

 

Hi David

 

Thanks for your email.

 

Unfortunately we are not permitted to carry political advertising messages.

 

Regards

 

Pam

 

From: David Sandison [mailto:david@bovills.com] 
Sent: 16 September 2014 11:58
To: Pamela Richardson
Subject: Re: Enquiry

Ah. Oh well. That puts pay to that idea!  Thank you very much indeed for getting back to me though Pam and all the best.

From: "Pamela Richardson" <Pamela.Richardson@stv.tv>
Date: 16 September 2014 12:07:42 BST
To: "David Sandison" <david@bovills.com>
Subject: RE: Enquiry

David

I love your passion and it’s a shame we can’t do it.

Thanks for your good wishes and we all wait with anticipation to see what Thursday brings us.

Pam  

 

I forwarded the conversation to my mother in Fife, by way of a show of moral support.  She had got quite down by the whole Referendum affair, but hadn’t lost her sense of humour clearly.

 

From: Isabel Sandison <isabelsandison@talktalk.net>
Date: 16 September 2014 15:43:46 BST
To: David Sandison <david@bovills.com>
Subject: Re: Enquiry

I'm a little concerned by her first sentence !!!!!

Isabel Sandison

from my iPad

 

Talking about Union, I mean the Union, Bob rang the other day with the exciting news – can’t actually describe how exciting this was for his parents - that he had met a really nice girl in his Photography class at school.  She was “nice” apparently, because “she’s got a gorgeous Irish accent”.  Whatever works.  I managed to resist the temptation for several days to ask him how things were progressing with his new friend but in the end succumbed.  “Ah, disappointing” he said, “it turns out she’s actually Scottish”.

 

Enough about Scotland.  Time to move on to more important matters.  The R&A has voted overwhelmingly to allow women members and in anticipation of that I asked Lottie to nip over to Royal Worlington with me last weekend.  Actually I needed her to walk the dog, but anyway the real point of the story is she looked on bewildered as I furiously celebrated a succession of stunning drives, crisp irons and razor like putts finishing one under par after a 5 hole loop which conveniently brought us back to the clubhouse where we adjourned for a celebratory J2O and a pint of IPA.  I’m back!