Moira Craig says experience of public services for the young would pay democratic dividends One of the most important decisions which we make as we approach adult life is which job we would like to have or which profession we would like to join. No matter which it is, we will expect that it will […]
The Public (2019), writer and director: Emilio Estevez Reviewed by Jackie Bergson With an endearing central performance by Emilio Estevez, who also wrote and directed this independent drama film and with a Hollywood cast including Alec Baldwin, Jena Malone, Taylor Schilling, Jeffrey Wright and Christian Slater, The Public is bound to reach a broad audience […]
Alexander Trocchi: An intriguing writer Sean Sheehan reviews a number of Trocchi’s key works Glasgow-born Alexander Trocchi was a fiery figure in the British literary world – an editor in Paris, an avant-garde novelist with an internationalist mindset – before he parked himself in a desolate London siding labelled ‘obscure heroin-addicted ex-writer’. With new editions […]
Seldom in recent memory has there been a bigger disconnect between voters and their elected politicians than the current contest to elect the next Prime Minister of Britain. Like the most uninspiring final of X-Factor ever, the Tory leadership race has been whittled down to just two contestants. I never thought this country would ever […]
The theme of this issue of Scottish Left Review is an examination of the intentions, processes and outcomes of the Scottish Parliament upon the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of its re-founding. The referendum of 11 September 1997 voted to re-establish a Scottish Parliament with its own (minimal) tax raising powers. The first elections to […]
Michael Keating makes a balance sheet of the good, the bad and the not so beautiful. Devolution in 1999 was the culmination of over a hundred years of debate and some twenty years of campaigning after the false start of the 1970s. Initially conceived as a way of bringing power back from London, home rule […]
Elaine Smith argues the Scottish Parliament has made little progress in realising it essential tasks. Gordon Brown, in The Red Paper (1975), argued: ‘The irresistible march of recent events places Scotland today at a turning – not of our own choosing but where a choice must sooner or later be made’. He went on to […]
Alex Neil is both proud and disappointed on the amount of left progress made. When I was elected as a Member of the Scottish Parliament on 6 May 1999, I was elated. This was the first ever democratically elected Scottish Parliament. As a believer in social justice and independence, I was full of hope that […]
Colin Fox says promises have been unfulfilled, challenges ducked and the poorest Scots failed On this, the twentieth anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, I find myself reflecting on the lofty promises it made in 1999; politics would be done differently we were told, the world’s newest legislature would be a ‘People’s Parliament’ with a progressive […]
Dennis Canavan says only independence will allow Holyrood to become a heart in a heartless world. Throughout my entire political life, I campaigned for the setting up of a Scottish Parliament, even at a time when it was not a popular cause amongst many comrades on the left. The case for a Scottish Parliament was […]