Charlotte Lauder compares two malign media influences with their roots in Tayside. In Succession, the transatlantic TV show that depicts the Machiavellian manoeuvrings of New York City media mogul Logan Roy and his power-hungry family, the city of Dundee holds a special significance. As the place of Roy’s birth, it is central to the character’s […]
When Ellie McDonald’s uncle organised a union at Dundee’s media powerhouse, the bosses blacklisted the family. It never kept them down. In Dundee in the 1930s, unemployment was as familiar as the smell of jute which permeated the city. Among endemic poverty and lack of opportunity, my granny held a far-sighted belief in being well-educated. […]
Emma Òr attended the counter-demo to a rally at a hotel in Erskine. ‘Refugees are welcome here’ and ‘Nazi scum off our streets’ were the chants outside the Muthu Glasgow River Hotel in Erskine on Sunday 5th February to drown out Patriotic Alternative’s (PA) anti-refugee rally. Members of PA, currently the largest far-right movement in […]
Pinar Aksu reviews the reality that awaits people seeking asylum and refuge in Scotland. At the start of the pandemic and lockdown, when everything seemed unsure, people seeking asylum and refuge were evicted from their homes across Glasgow and placed in hotel accommodation. They were only informed on the day of the move and were […]
Submitted by the People’s Health Movement (PHM) Scotland ahead of their People’s Health Assembly on 10th June, this article was written by its Steering Committee: Tony Robertson, Mark Langdon, Sue Laughlin, Eva Gallova, Neil Quinn, Giulia Loffreda and Toby Pepperrell. The combination of the climate emergency and a crushing cost of living crisis have often […]
Quan Nguyen finds that some wear the label ‘New Scots’ as a badge of honour, but for others it’s less appealing. Last summer, at the ‘Progress to Yes’ conference in Aberdeen, I visited a workshop where a panellist introduced himself earnestly as a New Scot. A young white man, an EU immigrant from a Nordic […]
Iryna Zamuruieva reflects on the devastation wrought upon her native land, and the roots in language and culture that can sustain a deep sense of resistance and resilience. We’ve seen many images of the Russian war against Ukraine: there is pain and loss on scales that are difficult to comprehend. A year into the full-scale […]
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 […]