Halting State

[louisedennis]

Halting State by Charles Stross is an ever-so-slightly tongue in cheek technological thriller/detective story set in post-independence Scotland. It is also both well-plotted and well-written right up until its rather rushed denouement which doesn't quite manage to tie up the plot threads in a satisfying fashion, but the rest of the book is so good

Comments

[cairmen]

Yup, that's a BloodSpell reference.

[sixgun45lc]

Scotland is electing its own Parliament, now, isn't it? I thought I remembered reading that somewhere a while back.

[louisedennis]

Yes! Scotland has a parliament responsible for local government, as it were (i.e., not foreign policy) and with "tax varying" powers (i.e., I think it can alter income tax within 3% of the rest of the UK's income tax).

However the Scottish National Party is currently in power there so they are working up to, at some point, holding a referendum on full independence. I say at some point, because some factions of the Scottish Labour party are agitating for a referendum as soon as possible (which the SNP are resisting) on, it would seem, the grounds that the SNP will lose it and won't be able to call another for a few decades.

[sixgun45lc]

Interesting. Funny how it's easier to talk about stuff like that than it is to actually call the question and risk blowing it, don't you think?