For a New Scottish Democracy
How we Democratise Scotland’s Future: Challenging the Conceit that ‘There is No Other Way’
Category Archives
Archive for: Holyrood 2011
The Ump
By Mike Small “The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party is very much alive and kicking. That has been very clear in the exhilarating debate we have had during this campaign.” Continue reading
Cyber Brits and Fish & Chips
By Mike Small Poor Iain Gray’s parting shot was odd. Mr Gray warned his future replacement: “You will be attacked, you will be smeared, you will be lied about, you Continue reading
The Twilight of the British State: Alex Salmond, Scottish Independence and the European Question
By Gerry Hassan This is a fascinating and fast moving period of politics, at a global, European, British and Scottish level, challenging many of the most deep-seated and unexamined assumptions Continue reading
Anger Management
At the beginning of March 2011, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, expressed his surprise to the British Treasury Select Committee (in the ‘Thatcher Room’ of all places), that there had not been more public anger in response to the financial crisis. In this respect, the muted response in Scotland to the crisis is little different to that in the other nations of Britain. But what is at least as surprising is that there has not been more public anger in Scotland at the absence of a Tory mandate to govern Scotland. We are, after all, talking about a government that was rejected by almost 85 per cent of Scottish voters and that won barely 2 per cent of seats in Scotland at the last British general election.
Report from the Scottish Independence Convention
Kevin Williamson, Secretary of the Scottish Independence Convention, reports on a lively meeting held in the Scottish Parliament building last night. The first post-election meeting of the Scottish Independence Convention Continue reading
Where Now for Scottish Labour?
By John McAllion The SNP’s crushing electoral victory has changed Britain’s political union for ever. Whatever else now happens, the constitutional and political status quo is no longer an option. Continue reading
The Weekend Starts Here: Win a Scottish Spring T-shirt
The last few weeks have taken their toll on the Bella Caledonia team so we’re having the weekend off. I know, how dare we, the world keeps spinning. But before Continue reading
The Socialist Left and the Scottish Election
By James Doleman You do not need to be a psephologist to realise that the Socialist Left* in Scotland did not, to say the least, have a triumphant 2011 Holyrood Continue reading
Donald Dewar’s Glasses
By Gordon Darroch Donald Dewar will be remembered, among other things, as the last Labour figure whom Scots looked upon with any real sense of affection. After his sudden death, Continue reading
A Scottish Spring
This is about more than one election result. This is about a deep, long-term transformation of Scotland which has been occurring for decades. From the age of Labour identification, and seeing the world in terms of workplace politics and class. Away from the visceral anti-Nationalist politics which shaped so much of urban Scotland for so long. And towards a new era of SNP support, identity politics and sense of national purpose.
It Was the Scottish People Wot Won It
By Kate Higgins What will it take for the opposition parties to “get it”. Even as Alex Salmond was arriving in his helicopter at Prestonfield House to claim victory, Annabel Continue reading
It’s A New Dawn, It’s A New Day
Scotland has shown that it is no longer content to be a second-class satellite of a union that is built on a global city and a depressed, and increasingly unloved hinterland. Now is the time to start defining what it wants to be instead.
A Liminal Moment
By Mike Small ‘A relationship is like a shark. It’s got to keep on going forward. What we have is a dead shark.’ – Woody Allen Woody Allen’s views on Continue reading
‘In the Present and the Future You Will Need Something More’ The Moment and Motives for Independence
By Christopher Harvie I leave it to the Hootsmon to explain how I came to semi-evict the royal couple from its front page; though (who knows?) reading the draft of Continue reading
Scotland’s Future Story of Hope: How we Defeat the Forces of Pessimism
What motivates this new story is a sense of possible futures…
What if?
With the People’s Toff and the increasingly miserable Krampus figure of Nick Clegg Labour should be romping home. It’s testimony to the complete failure of Miliband to master any sense of direction or vision that Labour are struggling to make an impact in this election.
Elections, Independence, and the Democratic Space
By Kevin Williamson (This article was originally written for the Scottish Independence Convention’s Election 2011 daily blog). Come election time the members, supporters and activists clustered around political parties leap Continue reading
Japan, England and the Social Aspiration Gap
By Mike Small Imagine a country riven by a culture of deference and conservatism, wholly dependent on nuclear power and desperately short of a drive for social aspiration for change. Continue reading
Scottish Labour’s Conservative Disposition
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.
