Fade to Gray

By Harry McGrath Watching Scots administer a beating to one of their greats is an unedifying but, sadly, not an unusual spectacle. All the more so when it happens in Continue reading →

Punctuation and Persuadables

In the next part of our review of the year, Kate Higgins looks at the highs and lows of the Yes and No campaigns and our political class … Reflecting Continue reading →

Energy Futures

Shaun Burnie on why Big Energy can’t deliver Green Energy, and why we need an energy descent plan for Scotland…

2012: YEAR OF MADNESS

Continuing our series #bellasbigreview – Michael Greenwell reflects on the year in politics, asking: are we a society addicted to a failed economy? The definition of insanity is doing the Continue reading →

This Land is our Land

Right over the holidays Bella will be publishing a series of review of 2012 and previews of the year ahead. Collectively, these are Bella’s Big Review #bellasbigreview. To kick start Continue reading →

Reasons to be Cheerful

As it’s announced that ‘Director of Creative Development’ Venu Dhupa is ‘standing down’, Ruth Wishart looks at the future. If you had a taste for masochism there could have been Continue reading →

What connects Alasdair Gray, Dirty Dancing and Gary Tank Commander?

But the question still remains. Do Scots run Scotland? It’s a subjective argument and a cultural one. That doesn’t make it any less important or real. Just much, much more sensitive.

Spreading a despicable anti-English meme: The dirty war continues…

by Kevin Williamson Noam Chomsky wrote extensively and perceptively about the “manufacture of consent”.  It’s a process whereby an idea which can have little basis in reality, is not subjected Continue reading →

Unanswered questions have been raised about Scotland’s cultural institutions

by Kevin Williamson Scotland has a long and justifiably proud history of cultural exchange with creative artists from every corner of the globe.  Film festivals, writers festivals, music festivals and Continue reading →

WHY ALASDAIR GRAY MATTERS (AND WHY HE MUST BE SMEARED)

by Kevin Williamson and Mike Small When the Tory government were re-elected for a fourth term in 1992 Scotland was plunged into a constitutional crisis. An unelected unwanted government with Continue reading →

The Right to Health

By Michael Roy Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health, and wellbeing Continue reading →

Forms of Protest 4

Continuing our series on forms of protest, this from Chile …    

Can We Reinvent Ourselves?

By Chris Thomson As the possibility of independence draws nearer, some of us are wondering whether this will be the moment when Scotland re-invents herself. The precedents for this are Continue reading →

Patsy versus Ryan

Sometimes you’ve got to hand it to the No people. Despite getting a bad press for relentlessly flooding their media with scare stories (today we hear the price of energy Continue reading →

Culloden via Tesco?

A preview of Unstated: Writers on Scottish Independence, ed. Scott Hames This book (which I think and hope will enliven the whole debate) started in discussion between Bella Caledonia and Continue reading →

Scottish Indy Podcast Episode 15 – Krys Kujawa

The most popular sport in our country is still football by far and whether we like it or not, there are strong political undercurrents to what goes on in the Continue reading →

CREATE Scotland

By Hannah McGill Does the departure of the head honcho of an outfit such as Creative Scotland herald a possibility of change, or is it more a case of “the Continue reading →

“Scotland Writers” – a new poem by Matthew Fitt

Scotland Writers 1st December 2012, Glesga Scots wha hae wi Wilson skited, Scots wham Weir got aw excited, Oan a pitch the froast had whited They played for their countrie. Continue reading →

Yes Orkney

By Fiona MacInnes The official ‘Yes Orkney’ inaugural meeting took place in Kirkwall recently after several months building a twitter and facebook presence. The facebook page has grown to over Continue reading →

For A’ That – Episode 7 – Creative Recountancy

Another quartet for this week’s For A’ That podcast. This time the group comprised Andrew (or “him”), poet, activist and Bella Caledonia co-editor Kevin Williamson and Rory Scothorne who was a co-founder of the National Collective. We discussed the Continue reading →

People and Parliament Revisited

By Alastair McIntosh In the run-up to Devolution in 1997 I was concerned that the level of political debate was not going deep enough. There was much talk about politics Continue reading →

Scotland in Europe

By Alyn Smith Scotland and the EU is the Brigadoon issue of Scottish politics: it appears, disappears, reappears, goes quiet, explodes onto the front pages again only to then recede Continue reading →

Culture is a not an industry. Creative Scotland n’est pas une pipe.

by Kevin Williamson “One-dimensional thought is systematically promoted by the makers of politics and their purveyors of mass information. Their universe of discourse is populated by self-validating hypotheses which, incessantly Continue reading →

Scottish Indy Podcast Episode 14 – with Veronika Tudhope from Scottish CND

For the 14th episode of The Scottish Independence Podcast Michael Greenwell spoke with Veronika Tudhope of Scottish CND.They talked about their recent decision to join the Yes campaign , about the history and Continue reading →

A Cluster of Cells and a Form of Rule

We thought that @WingsScotland had neatly summarised the entire Royal pregnancy debate in this tweet: “Let me say this… a Royal baby is something the whole nation will celebrate” – Continue reading →

Patrick Harvie MSP responds to UK Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

by Patrick Harvie MSP “George Osborne continues to wage his war on reality, creating ever greater poverty and inequality in our society and backing the wrong fuel for our energy needs Continue reading →

Dark Mountain Writing: Inching A Claw’s Length Closer Towards Understanding Interrelationship

by Em Strang It’s winter on the edge of Dartmoor. A steady downhill slope into rain and wind and sleeping flora. No green growth. It’s the ideal time to get Continue reading →

The taxing question that dare not speak its name: What should Scotland do?

by Kevin Williamson Next year, hopefully, the Independence debate will move out of the intellectual shallows of a Labour-SNP Punch-and-Judy Show and begin to put flesh on the bones of Continue reading →

From the Province of the Cat: A Wounded Stag

by George Gunn Living on the north coast of the mainland of Scotland it can seem, at times, that you live in a totally different country from the one inhabited Continue reading →

For A’ That Episode 6 – The Meedja

  Episode 6 of For A’ That again features two guests along with Andrew and myself. This time we were joined by Peter Geoghegan, a freelance journalist, and by Philip Challinor who is Continue reading →