Issue 119
Sep – Oct 2020
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So, Boris’s near death experience this spring did not bring about any noticeable change of heart in his politics. Those that cared for him, like the hundreds of thousands of other public service workers, were clapped every Thursday for many weeks. Then Johnson’s government decided to slap them with a pay rise that did not […]
Lilian Macer excoriates the Scottish Government’s approach as inadequate to deal with pandemic we are facing. The World Health Organisation (WHO) in early March told us the best way to combat the COVID-19 outbreak was through testing. ‘TEST, TEST, TEST’ was the clear message from the WHO. It was clear that diagnostic testing for COVID-19 […]
Andrew Watterson, Rory O’Neill, Janet Newsham and Hilda Palmer critique the carelessness and incompetence of government policy and practice The two-metre (2m) ‘social distance’ guidance during the pandemic lockdown soon became entangled in politics and economics rather than the science. It was weakened and then ditched in England on 4 July. It was ‘relaxed’ with […]
Kate Ramsden argues we must take political advantage of the pandemic to rebuild our local public services Covid-19 has highlighted two fundamental things about council services. The first is that these services and the workers who provide them have been absolutely critical to managing the pandemic. Council workers – many of them low paid women […]
Pat Rafferty looks at the case of ADL to argue that only government action can secure green jobs and help gain a green and just transition Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) is a Scottish and UK success story. A global player in the manufacture of bus and coach, with recognised expertise in double-deckers. To put it […]
Ellie Harrison makes the case for getting Glasgow to go green and free in its transport system September 2020 sees Get Glasgow Moving joining forces with unions, climate movement and community campaigns to launch the ‘Free Our City’ coalition in Glasgow. Inspired by hundreds of forward-thinking cities across the world – from Kansas to Calais […]
Molly Scott-Cato assesses the pros and cons of efforts in Europe to make a green just transition The mantra ‘Build Back Better’ is reverberating around European Parliaments as the principle that should guide Covid-19 recovery plans and the response to the unprecedented economic crisis caused by the coronavirus. It is vital to measure the gap […]
Dave Sherry recounts previous examples of campaigns to mobilise the unemployed as part of a wider labour movement struggle The Bank of England predicts Britain will suffer its sharpest contraction since the industrial revolution. Such is the scale of the crisis that unions have to be prepared to organise strikes amongst their members. But what […]
Talat Ahmed surveys the progress made in organising the fight against racial injustice ‘The current anti-racism protests are unprecedented in my lifetime and probably the largest ever since the late 18th and early 19th centuries’. These are the words of Hakim Adi, Professor of History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of […]
Annie Morgan examines the issues behind carbon capture, storage and usage bioenergy carbon capture and storage Though I do not have a background in science or engineering, an honours degree in social sciences has given me the benefit of the skill to conduct research. This has been used to examine evidence for my involvement with […]
George Kerevan says a grassroots revolt is needed to make the SNP stand by what it says it is for Some on the left define the SNP as a ‘bourgeois nationalist’ party. If so, the Scottish working class has suffered one of the gravest defeats in its history. The latest polls show support for the […]
Jim Sillars thinks through the stages and issues in the struggle for independence I start by not apologising for being pedantic. We have to plan to get an overwhelming majority in Holyrood to get a referendum on independence, and plan for the fact that even when we win it, we don’t get independence next day, […]
Kenny MacAskill argues all is not well in the house of the SNP if it is to lay the foundations for independence Trenchant debate’s normal in politics. Parties and movements are broad churches with passionate beliefs and critical issues adding to the mix. The SNP’s iron discipline over recent years was in many ways an […]
Chris Sutherland analyses the lasts contours of the one of the most successful political campaign of recent years Has reporter John Ware’s BBC Panorama programme, ‘Is Labour Anti-Semitic’ (broadcast 10 July 2019), effectively triggered a split and possible purge of the Labour left? Keir Starmer’s decision not to contest a High Court action by seven […]
Stella Rooney explains her changing perspective on her campaigning priorities In 2014, I was inspired to take political action for the first time. Aged fifteen, I was full of hope about what the future could look like and what role young people like myself could have in shaping it. To myself and many other young […]
Tommy Kane argues Labour can resolve its constitutional carry-on to allow its radical politics to shine through Nicola Sturgeon is right. Next year’s Scottish Parliamentary elections are as important as any election Scotland has faced. For many, the election will be about another referendum and independence. For others, like me, the election offers a chance […]
Abbie Archer makes the case for a radical decentralisation of decision-making to stimulate popular participation Every couple of years, people gather in a variety of places to vote for who will represent them in government. This is, for the vast majority of people, their closest interaction with the public decision-making bodies that rule their lives. […]
Casting a critical eye over the radical left in Scotland, Konrad Rękas ask why they are not more welcoming to migrants Since I first came to Scotland six years ago, I have tried to find answers for two questions which hit me in local politics. First, why native Scots – despite of all their enormous […]
Graham Campbell charts the success of recent anti-racism but says there is still a long way to go I have spoken on TV and radio about statues many times since the death of George Floyd. I have been actively supporting efforts to bring together all the main Black Lives Matter (BLM) organisers of protests and […]
I Am Not Your Negro (2016), Director: Raoul Peck Reviewed by Jackie Bergson Documentary director, Raoul Peck, strikes a supremely eloquent political and cultural chord with I Am Not Your Negro. Based upon James Baldwin’s book, Remember This House, this award-winning film is deeply enriching. Featuring extracts from the author’s interviews, oratories and lectures, his […]
Lloyd, J. Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot: The Great Mistake of Scottish Independence, Polity, 2020, £20, pp211, 1509542663 Reviewed by Colin Fox John Lloyd is a contributing editor for the Financial Times and describes himself as a ‘first generation British neo-con’. Born in Anstruther in 1946 and the son of a hairdresser, he went to […]
Thompson, E. William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary, Merlin Press, 2020, pp642, 978-0-85036-680-8, £25 Reviewed by Sean Sheehan Those who cherish the notion that left-wing radicals, given time, will metamorphose into ultra-conservatives like themselves tend to be peeved by people like Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn for so obviously contradicting their mantra. If William Morris’s thought […]
Musto, M. (ed.) The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Interpretations, Cambridge University Press, 2020, £75, pp408, 9781316338902 Reviewed by Sean Sheehan The focus of this book is announced in the title, The Marx Revival: Key Concepts and New Interpretations, and its essays by 22 contributors are symptomatic of renewed interest in a thinker who […]
Gessen, M. Surviving Autocracy, Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House, 2020, 978059318893, £21.45 In the allegedly free late 1960s, I completed my doctorate on the profound influence of Russian novelist, Dostoevsky, on the young Canadian-American writer, Saul Bellow. In retrospect, I now feel that, in part, the thesis was driven by a desire that this mutual level […]
Culture and creativity during Covid: teaching and learning at home David McKinstry is a teacher – see his biographical details below – who has also been engaged in home schooling of his son, Gabriel, during lock down. Gabriel, like many pupils, was finding it hard to adjust to the new style of learning. In attempt […]
Normally, writing the September edition of this column would be a flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants affair as I would be having to file my copy in the middle of the Edinburgh Fringe. Obviously not this year. Due to Covid19, this year’s Fringe was cancelled months ago as the whole thing was considered to be a health hazard. Of […]