Comment: Four Separate Issues Arising from COVID-19 Response Councils in Scotland have been at the forefront in dealing with COVID-19 humanitarian community response, reinforcing public health messaging and ensuring continued safety and well-being of our most vulnerable. Prior to the pandemic, they were already struggling financially with overall revenue funding having fallen by 7% in […]
Editorial: ‘Strange times, indeed. But maybe not that strange’. As Shakespeare’s dark and dystopian verse seems to be commonly quoted in these strange times, I’m reminded of Macbeth’s statement in Act 1 Scene 3: ‘Nothing is but what is not’. So, we have a populist, right-wing and neo-liberal Tory government engaging in the biggest bout […]
Regroup and resist – but how? Well, the polls were stunningly accurate so we well and truly had our ‘Friday the thirteenth’. Welcome, readers, subscribers and supporters then to an unhappy New Year. We’ll all need 2020 vision to get through this year and the next ones because it’s all too glib to say all […]
We asked a further range of left activists and commentators to provide their assessments of what happened and what we should do now: Chris Stephens MP, Neil Findlay MSP, George Kerevan, Bryan Quinn, Siobhan McCready, Gavin Lundy, Jim Sillars, Stella Rooney, Róisín McLaren, Maggie Chetty, Vince Mills, Morgan Horn, and Myshele Haywood. Chris Stephens, SNP […]
General election 2019 analysis We would welcome any responses to the analysis contained in this issue – what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s missing etcetera – as we intend to continue our coverage of the implications. Please send any comments, articles or suggestions to the editor, Gregor Gall (gregorgall@outlook.com), for the March/April issue by Friday 21 […]
All articles in this issue bar the editorial and the Brexit election tracker were written before the decision of parliament to dissolve itself in preparation for a 12 December general election. Hoping and dreaming of a red Xmas Britain has had a tradition of khaki elections – like those in 1900, 1918, 1945 and 1983. […]
Like many others, Scottish Left Review is outraged at the attack on democracy represented by prorogation and condemns this extended suspension of Parliament to allow for a no-deal Brexit to be forced through without any parliamentary scrutiny or the opportunity for parliamentary opposition. Scottish Left Review supports initiatives to mobilise citizens outside of Parliament to […]
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 […]
The March/April issue of Scottish Left Review is our traditional STUC congress edition. In it, we ask a variety of unions to write about the issues facing them and what they are doing about them. This year, we have tried something a bit different. In the spirit of being a magazine seeking to act as […]
Happy New Year to all our subscribers, readers and supporters. And, with the pleasantries now done, let’s get back to the matters at hand – of hard politics. Over the last few months, day-in-and-day-out in the pages of the Guardian, its parliamentary sketch writer, John Crace, has lambasted Theresa May as an automaton, a robot […]