As al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, nears the end of his life, this al-Jazeera investigation (first broadcast in June) is worth another watch. Scottish private investigator George Thomson sidesteps the politics, conspiracy theories, alternative suspects and… Read More ›
Archive for August 2011
The Assassination of al-Megrahi
“Let’s put it this way. If al-Megrahi is found dead at any point in the next few weeks – irrespective of the convoluted official explanations of how he died – then we can take it as read that a) it… Read More ›
Writer’s Bloc
The Guardian recently published a panel of views from Scottish writers: AL Kennedy, Iain Banks (‘I support the idea of an independent Scotland’), Shena Mackay and Janice Galloway (‘The SNP needs to establish that its motivation has more in common… Read More ›
Review of Not in my Name
Have you been to a great show at the festival? Send us your reviews… Kate Higgins reviews Not in My Name. Well the circus is about to leave town. The first two weeks of the Fringe are exciting, but come… Read More ›
The Silent Blockade
A short film about this summer’s attempt by a few hundred Pro Palestinian and human rights campaigners to access the West Bank by Jon Pullman. Jon writes: “The Israeli reaction was a remarkable one yet it has been largely ignored… Read More ›
Why Iceland Should Be in the News But Is Not
The 2008 world financial crisis was terrible for Iceland. At the end of the year the country declared bankruptcy. Contrary to what could be expected, the crisis resulted in Icelanders recovering their sovereign rights, through a process of direct participatory democracy that eventually led to a new Constitution….
The fall of Gaddafi and the assassination of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi
by Kevin Williamson As opposition forces move into Tripoli the final chapter of the Gaddafi regime seems about to be writ large, and in blood. This time there seems little chance of yet another miraculous reprieve for The Colonel, his… Read More ›
Inspiring Capital
By Mike Small Auld Reekie’s catchphrase is, I think, a throwback to the golden age (about 7 years ago) when the city’s financial elite (let’s be polite) were in more ebullient mood. Few of them had been sacked or exposed… Read More ›
Yob Culture
And so we continue, hurtling back, day by day with a sort of deformed debauched British State led by the Bullingdon Club Cabinet. As K-Punk tells it: “the most breathtaking aspect of the Bullingdon swindle is the “we’re all in… Read More ›
Heckler
Remembering Harry Stanley, Jean Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson. This from John Pilger This is not in any way to excuse the violence of the rioters, many of whom were opportunistic, mean, cruel, nihilistic and often vicious in their… Read More ›
The Sovereign Grant Bill: Bad for Scotland and Bad for the UK
The crown estate represents a varied mix of property – with a book value currently estimated at £6.6 billion, a figure which almost certainly underestimates the true value. It includes large holdings of rural and urban land, as well as extensive marine assets. These marine assets include over half of the foreshore of the UK, all of the seabed out to the 12 nautical mile limit, and mineral rights, (excluding hydrocarbons), over the continental shelf.
Justice, Tory-style
This piece of shit got four years for distributing 100,000 child porn photos of children being sexually abused. BBC News – Facebook child abuse images ringleader jailed “These are real children who are abused in order to satisfy the sexual… Read More ›
Ideas Fightback
Even while Scotland is rejecting right-wing policies at the polls and the mainstream of Scottish politics is walking away from these agendas, still they are almost inexplicably dominating the airwaves and the press. How can an issue so far off the real agenda as the privatisation of Scottish Water (or some precursor step) still be floating around? Why is the question of creating a market in higher education in Scotland still being discussed?
Blasda – Scotland’s Local Food Feast
Launching this week is Blasda – Scotland’s local food feast, a massive celebration of the alternative to supermarket food culture happening across the country next month. From East Kilbride, where the entirely volunteer-driven EKDT are heating their polytunnels with dung-heaps… Read More ›
Rorschach England
This has been England’s Rorschach moment, where the collective bile against the underclass that 30 years of neoliberal policy has created comes to the surface. Where exactly did the rioters get the idea that there is no higher value than acquiring individual wealth, or that branded goods are the route to identity and self-respect?
When I ask why are they poor, they call me political…
“10yr old looters? Created by scum to live as scum. Don’t make pathetic excuses for criminality” The explosion of rage of Middle England is something to behold…
A Call to Reason
This from the excellent Steven Maclean on Dreaming Genius: London is bracing itself for a fourth night of riots. Towns and cities all over the country are also now on alert as the unrest continues to spread. As it does,… Read More ›
Love Life
Love Life is also a reminder that being radical doesn’t have to mean being grumpy. Nietzsche reckoned that holding on to resentment about the world not being the free and equal place you or I might want it to be can be a way of holding on to that inequality and lack of freedom. I think he’s got a point.
Edinburgh Book Fringe 2011
If you’re bored of the book festival and jaded by the fringe…here’s quick reminder that the Book Fringe starts this Thursday… from Thursday 11 to Thursday 25 August 2011 at Word Power Books , 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8… Read More ›
Kevin Williamson on our radical seditious patriotic Bard
It takes a brave or foolish man to try and step into Robert Burns’s Scotland-size shoes but Bella Caledonia’s Kevin Williamson is doing it for fourteen nights in August. Here he explains why: I’ve never been comfortable with the concept… Read More ›
Commons Manifesto (Part 2) – How can we squeeze CARBON out of the economy?
By Justin Kenrick Most of the serious commentators on climate change see us as having already gone past the point of no return. This is not because the emissions in the atmosphere and the degrees of warming we are already… Read More ›
Paul Jorion
This courtesy of the ever brilliant Frankly : The systemic crisis experienced by major economies has drawn attention to the shortcomings of current market practices. Generating as much poverty as growth and as much hidden risk as profitability, these practices… Read More ›
US Debt All Fixed Then?
If you don’t already follow Greg Palast, you should, here’s why: It was quite upsetting to find our President blindfolded and tied to a chair at the GOP Tea Party headquarters, but I’m sure the $2.2 trillion ransom we paid… Read More ›
The Flottila Effect
Small countries would never be able to survive the coming economic storms, right? We need to cling on to great stable financial states like, er the USA and the UK, er, right? The potential economic benefits of Welsh independence have… Read More ›
Undocumented People Undocumented Stories
This is the second of a two part article by Rebecca Nada-Rajah, our correspondent who has just completed a 4 month, 7000 km cycle journey to Iran. Undocumented People It is 5:45 AM. A mobile phone alarm goes off in… Read More ›
