Morning Tash Appreciators,
In November last year, I spent some time working on a TF about the American election. It was about how the hostility between the campaigns was detrimental to democracy. I binned it because (a) it wasn’t positive; and (b) I saw James Bond and I did the TF on him instead.
It came to mind again on Monday when I watched President Obama’s inauguration:
Monday also saw another important day in the American calendar: Martin Luther King Day. With Dr King, you see another example of where the coming together of diametrically opposed views caused a shift in opinion and change for the better. If those involved in the Civil Rights Movement had decided to accept anything less than equality then they may not have been so successful.
In the next few years, Scotland and the UK will have big decisions to make too. Firstly we’ll have a referendum on independence and then, possibly, on membership of the EU. Hopefully, we’ll have a full debate which will leave no holds barred in examining the merits of each side’s argument.
However, that might not be enough for the right decision to be reached. If you look at the campaigns of Obama and the Civil Rights, they have many things in common. But the similarity that seems most striking is that both had leaders who were/are charismatic, intelligent and principled. Can we say that about our political leaders today?

I’ll leave you with a quote from Dr King about the occasional need for entirely opposite views to be tested against each other; when you can’t compromise. I’ll also leave you with reminder that he had a particularly excellent Tash:
