The Self-Determination of Yes

Sooner or later the right to self determination will be exercised by the majority people in my country. When I vote ‘yes’ to independence I shall be voting towards that end.’

Land tenure and Deeside Gaelic

By Andy Wightman Pictured above is Rob Bain of Ardoch, Deeside, Aberdeenshire who died in July, 2010. Rob was the son of Jean Bain, the last native speaker of Deeside Continue reading →

The Bain Principle

This image is brought to you by Scotland Says Yes. This week saw the leak of a document that showed the depths of Labour tribalism. A gift to oppose the Continue reading →

Love Life – March

‘Love Life’ is Bella’s Agony Aunt column by Jamie Heckert… because the personal is political and the ‘state we’re in’ is complicated. Freedom, in Scotland and elsewhere, isn’t something that Continue reading →

Silence of the Lambs

Rangers Tax Case is Scotland’s Al Jazeera. Is @alextomo about to blow Scottish football & media out of it’s comfort zone?

On Common Ground

the right of nations to self-determination” does not necessarily mean the right to separate, it means the right to decide whether or not to separate; if the Scots voted to remain part of the UK they would nevertheless have exercised their right to self-determination…

A Total Disaster? Either way, the price of oil has just gone up.

140 miles from Aberdeen the North Sea sits on the verge of an environmental catastrophe.  A gas leak under the Elgin platform has, in the last few hours, been confirmed Continue reading →

Donald Trump Does Bohemian Rhapsody

This from Jon Pullman and friends (please share widely). This should be read alongside O Donald Trump Woe Donald Trump:

Independence, the Queen and the Scottish Greens

I said Charles, don’t you ever crave To appear on the front of the Daily Mail Dressed in your Mother’s bridal veil? Doug Daniel disentangles… Every new announcement from the Continue reading →

Democracy for Scotland: The Referendum Experience

This from our friends at the NATIONAL COLLECTIVE: The new exhibition at the Museum of Edinburgh titled Democracy for Scotland: The Referendum Experience, bridges the years between the devolution campaigns of Continue reading →

A Scottish Spring, Reflections on 2011

This is from “Despatches from the Invisible Revolution” Reflections on 2011, (Editors: Dougald Hine & Keith Kahn-Harris) by Mike Small Caledonian Dreaming From Tunisia to Egypt, Wisconsin and Spain, London Continue reading →

Jim Sillars: Dancing Around Devolution

In an article first published in Holyrood magazine, SNP veteran and nationalist icon, Jim Sillars, questions the SNP leadership’s courting of the of the Devo Max brigade. DANCING AROUND DEVOLUTION Continue reading →

Occupying a non-place

In an exclusive new essay for Bella Caledonia, author Ewan Morrison has some critical words to say about the direction taken by the global Occupy Movement. OCCUPYING A NON-PLACE by Continue reading →

Death of NHS will End the Union

By Mike Small Policeman in kettle: “Is there anyone in need of medical attention?” Protester: “How much will it cost?!” The vision of armed police kettling peaceful demonstrators protesting the Continue reading →

Parecomic

By Mike Small From Alan Grant (Batman), to Mark Millar (Kick-Ass), Frank Quitely (New X-Men) and Grant Morrison (St Swithin’s Day) Scotland has had a major impact on the comic Continue reading →

Crisis of Capitalism Explained

Amazon’s Assault on Intellectual Freedom

by Bryce Milligan There is an undeclared war going on in the United States that threatens the lynchpins of American intellectual freedom. In a statement worthy of Cassandra, Noah Davis Continue reading →

Why not learn from histories – for a change?

Why not learn from histories – for a change? A German-Scottish perspective by Svenja Meyerricks Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne, Der uns beschützt und der uns hilft, zu Continue reading →

Interview with Francis Ford Coppola: On Risk, Money, Craft & Collaboration

Much as I’d have walked over broken glass to interview Francis Ford Coppola for Bella someone else beat me to it. Film critic Ariston Anderson has done a very fine Continue reading →

The Health of Nations

By Mhairi McAlpine “Only independence can fully guarantee Scotland’s National Health Service.” – Nicola Sturgeon I’ve been watching the twisty-turny passage of the NHS bill through the Commons and Lords, Continue reading →

Fear Merchants

Capitalism has duped us into thinking that money is God, that stuff will stave off unhappiness, and we must work on the hamster wheel of material accumulation to inoculate ourselves from lack.

Scotland’s Wobbly Bookshelf

By Mike Small I suppose the creation of these lists is some sort of cultural fit. It’s the thin end of the very fat wedge of linear thinking – where Continue reading →

Paper Trail

A modern mystery of poetry, intrigue and art. This is a story of tiny beautiful, evocative artworks… ‘One day in March, staff at the Scottish Poetry Library came across a Continue reading →

Scotland

Why It’s Kicking Off…

By Peter Geoghegan (Paul Mason will be speaking at the Aye Write! festival in Glasgow next week) On a bright Saturday morning early last year, a bleary-eyed Paul Mason sat Continue reading →

Off the Record

By Kate Higgins Having been mentioned in dispatches, I thought I’d stamp my purdy little foot and seek a right to reply.  Or at least, set out why the analogy Continue reading →

For the Record

By Mike Small The extraordinary outburst against Joan McAlpine’s first column for the Daily Record has exposed a fault-line in Scottish politics. Read it here. It is an unremarkable commentary Continue reading →

How Does the US Occupy Movement Fit into Worldwide Protest?

By Deena Stryker It is wrong to see the American Occupy Movement as a mirror image of the protests occurring in Europe, both in terms of its origins and aspirations. Continue reading →

Jammy Smears

By Doug Daniel Before May 2011, no unionist (other than Wendy Alexander perhaps) had any inclination for Scotland to hold a referendum on independence. Since then, however, they have been Continue reading →

Can Play, Won’t Pay

Without a healthy cultural life there is no self-determination, nobody to imagine nationhood, to generate an image of who we might have been, of who we are, and of what we might like to become.