The primary role of the British state is to stop the nation happening, in the nation’s proper, civic, dialectical, inclusive sense – and the replacement of a workers’ day by a ‘British day’ is an entirely normal sign of how Britain works.
Rampant capitalism has brought the country to its knees so the only cure is more rampant capitalism. Not that anyone really has engaged in policy debate to any extent in this election given that the major parties all agree on the IMF/ECB approach and all vow to slash public spending. No, the main motivation of many voters seems to be to destroy Fianna Fail and the, if anything more despised, Greens whose principles melted in hubris the day they signed the pact.
AV: It’s a smokescreen for real change. It’s British politics at it’s dire turgid worst. It’s puerile tinkering dressed up as change. As the people of North Africa are intent on throwing off tyrannical rule and exploring new democracies we are faced with some regurgitated constitutional sick which the Liberals, complicit in the wholesale dismantling of the public sector are – for some inexplicable reason – delighted about.
On the 3rd of March, people in Wales shall be voting on greater powers for the Assembly. This is a huge step forward for the country, and another nail in the coffin of the UK. Despite some narrow-minded gibes about Wales being the “slow boat in the convoy”, by Scottish activists, this is in fact not the case. Wales is unlikely to overtake Scotland, but for the last ten years, it has actually travelled further and faster than Scotland has in that time.
* It’s Neu like pie not Neu like Neo… “Neu! Reekie! is the very visceral meeting of avant-garde poetry and film. The night promises to shock and stun, playing host Continue reading
‘Out with the bankers. We need a new Republic,’ a lad of barely 16 shouts. Regardless of their politics, not too many in Ireland would dispute the young man’s sentiment.
This re-posted from Craig Murray who’s blog is under (re) construction… A very senior diplomatic source told me yesterday that Berlusconi is frantic lest Gadaffi falls and the channels are revealed by Continue reading
By Dougie Strang Last month the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum was officially opened by the First Minister and by Liz Lochhead, our new Scots Makar. Earlier, it had opened to Continue reading
A quick update across some of our stories from the last week…Alastair McIntosh writes notifying us with some regrest that his epic Ode to Donald Trump has not succeeded in Continue reading
With the UCU-EIS conference in Edinburgh today we publish this by Chris Harvie (with research assistance from Stefan Buettner) Principals of Scottish Universities, currently undertaking drastic restructuring, recently gave themselves Continue reading
By Adam Ramsay…10 things you may not have known about the bank you own: We own 84% of RBS. They’ll be announcing their profits this week, and UK Uncutters across the country Continue reading
‘Stop the World – Scotland wants to get on!’ said Winnie Ewing after winning Hamilton for the SNP in 1967. As revolutionary action sweeps the world how can we find new ways of participating and building political movements and embolden Scottish political expectations?
By Eddie Barnes & Andrew Whitaker This morning’s edition of The Scotsman newspaper puts the economic case for Scotland staying in the union. It’s not a very strong case it Continue reading
So Go Lassie Go has the lowdown on the story behind Wendy’s departure here. The reality is she had to resign not because of dodgy expenses (she was definitely more Continue reading
By Grace Murray As this goes up the Facebook page ‘Bill Aitken Must Go’ has over 500 people supporting it. The title of this page is not ‘Bill Aitken is abhorrent’ or Continue reading
by Kevin Williamson – And yet I feel this muckle thistle’s staun’in’ Atween me and the mune as pairt o’ a Plan.” When Hugh MacDiarmid’s whisky-fuelled ‘Drunk Man’ looks up Continue reading
Donald Trump is an American billionaire born of an exiled Hebridean mother. He plans to build “the world’s greatest golf course” and five hundred executive houses on a pristine beach Continue reading
As my next door neighbour puts it – what’s going on now is that we are being robbed. There is a bank robbery going on . . .
We are governed by criminals. That’s the bottom line.
What is happening in Catalonia, translated into Scottish terms, might be said to be roughly as follows. The largest pro-devolution anti-independence political party – that would be the group that calls itself the Scottish Labour Party – increasingly asserts that devolution is not serving the best interests of the country and that further attempts to develop it are not likely to be beneficial. Accordingly, it is flirting with the more alluring prospects which independence appears to offer in comparison and is drawing nearer to the SNP. Clearly, as things stand, that would be nothing short of a fantasy. In Catalonia, on the other hand, what would not so long ago have been regarded as fantastical is in the process of transforming itself into a reality the contours of which will become clearer over the coming months.
by Kevin Williamson STOP PRESS: He’s gone! The volatile situation in Egypt is thrilling, inspiring, unpredictable, dangerous, engaging, enraging and confusing. All over the world people are desperately searching for Continue reading
How does it feel – as an occasional Huff Post Blogger who knew there would never be any payment involved – to observe the whole enterprise being sold to AOL for three hundred or so million dollars? I suppose I should be outraged that my free labour has contributed to a valuation from which I won’t receive a penny of direct profit. But I’m not…
As the leader of the National Front in France congratulated David Cameron on his views on multiculturalism for what she claimed was an endorsement of her party’s views on the Continue reading
“In David Cameron we have a leader whose job is to quietly legitimise a semi-criminal, money-laundering economy” GEORGE MONBIOT To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the Continue reading
It remains one of the most remarkable electoral phenomena in post-war Europe that Scottish Labour has won every single British general election in Scotland since 1964. What makes this all the more remarkable is that the consequences of this have proved so devastating for the majority of Scottish Labour voters themselves. Like Gladstone’s repeated bouts of self-flagellation after purposively and, we must assume, successfully resisting the temptations of London’s East-End prostitutes, it seems that Scottish Labour voters just can’t get enough of Tory governments at Westminster.
By Kevin Williamson First things first. We’d like to congratulate our friends at Newsnet Scotland for what is quite a scoop. Namely, persuading Scotland’s First Minister to pen a thoughtful Continue reading
By Christopher Harvie I once went to a football match. Motherwell versus Hearts at Fir Park, in the spring of 1958. One-all. I enjoyed it, but I’ve never gone to Continue reading
Bella Caledonia recently published a disturbing email concerning the arrest in Pamplona of a young Basque woman, Edurne. Since then we’ve discovered that nine other Basques were arrested on the Continue reading
“Why is the Crown Estate still administered by Commissioners in London who are unaccountable to the Scottish Parliament and yet manage Scottish public land? Why, when all the planning and environmental regulation is carried out by Scottish local authorities and Marine Scotland at some cost to the public purse do net revenues still flow straight to HM Treasury?”
By Robert Dreyfuss It’s spontaneous, yes, triggered by the explosion in Tunisia. But contrary to some media reports, which have portrayed the upsurge in Egypt as a leaderless rebellion, a Continue reading
More Tales from the Mall from Ewan Morrison…What do a cigarette, a medieval game and a wrecking ball have in common? More fascinating facts from the Mall: “The whole point Continue reading
