Why insurance has us running on empty

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Why Scos need hope

A new book underlines Stuart Cosgrove’s recent claim that the nation should start telling more optimistic stories. Words: Tim Abrahams

cotland has a problcm thinking imaginatiycly about thc l‘uturc. That is thc stark conclusion to a ncw book. Scot/um! 2020: Hope/til Stories for u A'orilit'rii Nation. publisth by thc think tank [)cmos. According to liddic (iibb. its hcad ol' cxtcrnal rclations and co-cditor ol~ this collcction ol' cssays and short stories:

"l'hci‘c is a dcgrcc ol‘ latalism in thc national charactcr of

Scotland. Pcssimism is thc bclicl' that things arc gctting worsc. l'atalism mcans thcrc‘s not much you can do about it.‘ Drawing on a day-long participation cxcrcisc with 7() pcoplc in .\'airn. l)cmos suggcsts that Scots should tcll hopcl'ul storics about thcir own community. although thcy arc opcn about who should organisc thcsc storytclling cycnts. ‘Post-dcyolution. thcrc was a dcgrcc of optimism

that thc ncw political stnicturc would crcatc a new kind of

politics. That has to sonic cxtcnt bccn i‘mstratcd.‘ says (iibb.

'l‘hc book argucs that Scots should start tclling morc hopcl‘ul storics to cach othcr. ‘Somc myths hayc a powcr that changcs bchayiour: thc Tartan Army hayc told thcmsclycs that thcy arc thc bcst football fans in thc world so ot'tcn that thcy hayc crcatcd a collective culturc that promoics good bchayiour.‘ say (iibb and co—writcr (icrry

Hassan in thc introduction to Scotland JUN). 'I'lic book

arriycs just at‘tcr Stuart ('osgroyc. (‘hanncl 4's dircctor oi

nations and rcgions. gayc a spccch in thc lidinburgh LCCIUI‘Cs scrics in which hc complaincd that Scottish lilms gayc ‘thc cumulatch and rclcntlcss imprcssion that Scotland is a tailing and criminal socicty. it is not and wc dcmcan oursclycs by imagining that wc hayc spccial acccss to blcakncss.‘ hc said. Although hc was condcmncd for running Scotland down in Mr ()lMU/‘l'l'l' bciot‘c thc cycnt. (‘osgroyc suggcstcd that thc film industry trim] to ‘rc—conncct with thc pi'c-iiidtistrial past and . . . imaginc and innoyatc distant and morc compch luturcs'.

(iibb gchs tcntatiyc support to thc aims oi thc 'l’\' produccr. ‘I don‘t want to say that Stuart (‘osgroyc is right about thcrc bcing a culturc oi pt)\'c‘l'l_\' in Scotland but I

agrcc that thc storics wc tcll otirscch‘s turn into a form oi

rcality.’ hc says. Scot/(ind 202i) l‘caturcs short storics by thc noyclists Annc [)onoyan and Kcn Maclcod.

Anne Donovan, Ken MacLeod and Stuart Cosgrove feature in 100 Best Scottish Books, published with this issue.

TRIPTYCH IS BACK

I Karlheinz Stockhausen, the founding father of electronic music, is to make his Scottish debut at this year’s Triptych festival. Stockhausen, whose scores so influenced the Beatles that they included him on the cover of Sergeant Pepper, appears at Tramway on 27 April and Queen’s Hall on 28 April. The festival produced by Tennent’s, runs from 27 April to 1 May, in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen and expects to draw in an audience of over 30,000. Triptych’s Neil Mowat said: ‘Stockhausen will be performing one of his early pieces in octophonic stereo, entirely in the dark.’ The

. festival, now in its fourth year, has Prince Buster, Candi Staton and Laurie Anderson among its highlights. Visit www.triptych05.com for more info.

As the nation prepares to decide who will represent the UK, we present some facts on . . .

EUROVISION

Number of songs which had no words of English in their lyrics during the 2001 contest 4

Number of times Ireland has won Eurovision 7

Expected number of TV viewers around the world 1 00m

Placing of Kolig Kag, the Danes who. in 1997, performed the first ever rap in the contest‘s history 16

Countries who entered the first contest in Lugano. Switzerland 7

Countries participating this year 40

Times Cliff Richard has represented the United Kingdom 2

Times he has been victorious O

Performers allowed on stage at one time in the final 6

Number one hits by ABBA 9

Occasions on which the contest has been a draw 2

Number of years in which Terry Wogan has provided the BBC commentary 26

Number of years in which Rolf Harris has provided the BBC commentary 1

Age of Belgium’s 1986 winner Sandra Kim 13

I Eurows/on: Making Your Mind Up. BBCI, Sat 5 Mar. 5.45pm.

".'::' .9 THE LIST 7