500 Days

500 Days before Independence Day and a group of economists and academics have published a major new vision for Scotland, called ‘the Common Weal’ based on a Nordic model of Continue reading →

Victory Against Cheap Booze

By Mike Small As the battle to overcome Scotland’s drink problem reaches a significant victory – Scottish ministers just won the first round in a lengthy court battle against the Continue reading →

Poundland

By Daniel Wylie The recent debate over the currency to be used by an independent Scotland has been drearily familiar.  The Yes camp point to the report of the Scottish Continue reading →

Five Books to Save Scotland

By Christopher Silver No one reads books anymore. The idea that literature will play a key role in the coming months of debate and argument seems lamentably laughable. Take for Continue reading →

From the Hillman Imp to Tescotown

By Andy Wightman Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Rootes Factory in Linwood that made the Hillman Imp. To accommodate the workforce, the small industrial village of Continue reading →

Independence from UKIP?

By Jonathon Shafi Scottish viewers of Question Time, This Week and the local election results in England as they come in could be forgiven for thinking that they have walked Continue reading →

On the Road

By Jamie Maxwell One of the favourite refrains of the Scottish right is that Scotland’s centre of political gravity does not, as socialists and nationalists like to insist, sit to Continue reading →

The Axis of Incredulity

Despite the litany of threats and ‘warnings’ of the dangers of self-governance, the reality is that we are governed by reckless ideologues. Cameron threatens to ‘temporarily withdraw’ from the European Continue reading →

Saltired

Mike Small on means and ends. I’m trying to get my head around the weariness and antagonism of the referendum campaign. Lots of people (on all sides and none) are Continue reading →

Scotland doesn’t benefit from British economic ‘strength’

By Jamie Maxwell Against expectations, the Chancellor’s visit to Glasgow last week was a success. Speaking to a gathering of Scottish business leaders, and armed with a hefty new Treasury Continue reading →

RIC Edinburgh April 2013

Cat Boyd @ Radical Independence Conference April 2013 Alison Johnston @ Radical Independence Conference April 2013 Kevin Williamson @ Radical Independence Conference April 2013

From Songthrush to Telephone

Here’s some great things coming up in the next few days and weeks that Bella thought it was essential you should know about  … First up the wonder that is Continue reading →

Leveson Update

Last month every single party in the Commons gave its approval to a royal charter that will provide effective, independent regulation of the press without impinging in any way upon Continue reading →

From the Province of the Cat 15: Messages from the Underworld

Hermes, Pandora or Prometheus? In Search of a Future for Scottish playwrighting by George Gunn It was lunchtime on Monday 8th of April 2013 and I had just emerged from Continue reading →

CyberBrits and Spectator Sports

By Jamie Maxwell There was something depressingly predictable about the way George Osborne’s intervention in the independence debate last week provoked a spate of Scotland-focused editorials and comment pieces in Continue reading →

Farago

By Mike Small It’s important to connect up propaganda, media distortion and the lies that we are being told, both about the independence campaign and the state of the British Continue reading →

Have I got a new laugh for you innit…

I guess we’ll just have to get used to this.  Ever since the Scottish Government had the temerity to ask its people about self-governence Little Britain has only gone and Continue reading →

The Pound In Your Pocket

by Kevin Williamson On 19th November 1967 Prime Minister Harold Wilson made his famous “Pound In Your Pocket” speech.  His government  had just announced a devaluation of sterling and Wilson Continue reading →

Why It’s (Still) Kicking Off Everywhere

By Paul Mason Two years on from the Arab Spring, I’m clearer about what it was that it inaugurated: it is a revolution. In some ways it parallels the revolutions Continue reading →

The Scottish Independence Podcast 23 – Jonathon Shafi

For episode 23 of The Scottish Independence Podcast I spoke with Jonathon Shafi. He is a co-founder of the Radical Indy group and a contributor to different sites, including Bella Caledonia. We talked Continue reading →

The Terror of Capitalism

By VIJAY PRAHAD (dedicated to Alex Massie) On Wednesday, April 24, a day after Bangladeshi authorities asked the owners to evacuate their garment factory that employed almost three thousand workers, Continue reading →

Reclaiming a creative Scotland?

by Johnny Gailey Presentation to Creative Scotland at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye,  23 April, 2013. Feasgar math. Many thanks to Kenneth and Pat for inviting me to speak, here Continue reading →

Sweet 16

By Michael Bartlet The Ministry of Defence wastes £94 million every year training minors for army roles which could be filled more cost-effectively by adult recruits, says a new report Continue reading →

On Balance

Our broadcasters are letting us down … things have to change. A guest post by Mark Piggott on BARD2014. I was down in England last week where the Thatcher funeral Continue reading →

Osborne’s Toxic Legacy

By Jonathon Shafi When you hear the word ‘deficit’ the first thing that springs to mind is the so called ‘budget deficit’. So called, because many of us are ‘deficit Continue reading →

Korea Advice

After David Cameron’s recent visit a Bella reader wrote to Philip Hammond, Secretary of State for Defence seeking reassurance…(click on the big yellow graphic for sanity) Dear Sir A couple Continue reading →

Neighbours

By Mark Ryan Smith Walking west on Argyle Street, I once enjoyed a fleeting, one-sided exchange with a man slumped against a bin. Crossing the road at the Park Bar, Continue reading →

Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach

by Paul F Cockburn During the last few decades the global success of “tartan noir” has overshadowed the significant contribution made by Scotland’s writers to the weird and fantastique. Except Continue reading →

British Inequality and The Nordic Alternative

On the first anniversary of his death, Bella Caledonia is publishing the Donaldson Lecture Stephen Maxwell delivered at the 2007 SNP conference. It addresses the gulf between Scotland’s economic potential Continue reading →

Northern Exposure

By Mike Small We’re celebrating George Osborne’s visit to Scotland to threaten us (see Ian Bell’s response here) with a look at some of the spectacular distortions and confusions by Continue reading →