There are better answers to the national question than ‘class versus nation’, argues Frances Curran At the end of November 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that only Westminster can grant a referendum. By mid-December, six successive polls showed majority support for Scottish independence. These polls were unprecedented; did the court ruling act as a catalyst […]
John Dennis asks: can socialist supporters of independence take the initiative to develop radical policies that allow it to make the most of a 2024 election? As a socialist and an independence supporter, I was not disappointed that the UK Supreme Court ruled against a referendum called by Holyrood. I can see that putting forward […]
Simon Barrow considers the politics of independence after the Supreme Court verdict and describes a strategy for the SNP to grow support for independence. The UK Supreme Court decided in November that the Scottish Government does not have the legal competence to hold an advisory referendum on independence under the Scotland Act 1998. The decision […]
James Mitchell argues that the focus on what would constitute a democratic mandate to negotiate independence has led us to lose sight of wider democratic deficiencies in Scotland. Democracy? It is a dream to suppose that we already know what it is, whether out of satisfaction with our present state or to attack its misery. […]
Chris Holligan considers what the Registration of Interests by Scottish MSPs reveal about influence as a strategic tool serving political and corporate elites. It is a questionable assumption that financially modest provisions of hospitality are necessarily not a potential source of influence. The economist Kevin Young and his colleagues argue the financial system is governed […]
A poem by David McKinstry. In our digital Dickensian days Poor law’s long line, In which with hidden heads They queue to dine. Covid meant that They were out of sight And out of mind, Now the cost-of-living crisis Means they must Publicly queue to dine. As night approaches For them, there’ll Be little sleep, […]
Returning to Jimmy Reid’s renowned ‘alienation’ speech, Graham O’Neill reflects on the prospects of wealth tax in Scotland today 50 years ago, Jimmy Reid delivered an insightful, deeply empathetic and inclusive speech. It was his first as the Rector of Glasgow University. His subject was alienation or, in Jimmy’s words, “The feeling of despair and […]
Dogged determination resulted in some gains at COP27 but they were few and far between. Ben Wilson explores the origins of one of the achievements of last years’s COP27, and Scotland’s role in taking it forward. As COP27 went into extra-time in Sharm-El-Sheikh, hopes of a successful outcome were not high. The beginning of the […]
Chris Sutherland warns that the relentless march of settlements and the dominance of right-wing ultra-religious Zionism points to the prospect of full-scale ethnic cleansing in the West Bank or the creation of many mini-Gazas. The 37th government of Israel that has taken power following the November 2022 elections is one of the most extreme ever […]
Jackie Bergson reviews Official Secrets (2019). Director: Gavin Hood. Writers: Gavin Hood, Gregory Bernstein, Sara Bernstein Her belief that GCHQ have duties to uncover truths which serve to protect UK citizens and inhabitants drives the film’s narrative. In parallel, journalists working for a London-based broadsheet newspaper determine to uncover and publish their findings about whether […]