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The Royal Wedding – Never reigns but it bores
So ‘finally’ we know. The Royal Wedding will take place on April 29th. A blessed relief? Union Jacks and commemorative doilies at the ready? No, me neither. I have no problem with them personally...
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Scottish Civic Nationalism: The Bhangra & Bagpipes Solution
Today’s guest blog contribution is from Humza Yousaf, SNP Holyrood candidate for Glasgow. You can also find Humza on Twitter or Facebook. 55 years ago this week America’s civil rights movement was...
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Welcome to Tescoville – population 1,999.99
This story may well shock you as much as it shocked me. I had always assumed it was the stuff of sci-fi, an Orwellian nightmare but ‘Tesco-towns’ are apparently on their way. It is a concept that will...
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Raiders of the Lost Park
A Guest Post from Aberdeen campaigner Renee Slater: On Wednesday 19th May 2010, Aberdeen City Council voted to support the destruction of Union Terrace Gardens and the replacement of these with Sir Ian...
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BBC Question Time comes to you soon, and for ever more, from Glasgow
The Editor of Question Time, hand-picked by host David Dimbleby, has decided to resign from his post in objection to the moving of the production of the show from London to Glasgow. Noone likes to see...
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Scotland and London’s 2012 Olympics
As you probably know, today marks one year exactly until the British Olympics get underway. No doubt you’re place of work has allowed you to dress up for the day, there are Olympic themes for the...
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No half measures apparently allowed
A classic July debate over identity has flourished on the blogs – starting with Kenny Farquharson‘s pop-based analysis of the emotional arguments for Britain, then continuing here with Pete Wishart‘s...
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So you think you can dance?
One news story that caught my eye this morning was the SNP complaint that a young girl (who happens to have a Labour MSP as a relative) has been granted £9,000 a year in taxi fares in order to attend...
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Community values
The word “community” is widely misused. Nowadays it is taken to mean “any group of people who have a common interest”, from a professional interest in health and safety to a sexual preference to a love...
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Build it, (keep it free), and they will come
With the gorgeously revamped Scottish National Portrait Gallery just reopening its doors to the public, the end of 2011 sees Scotland with four flagship cultural projects successfully completed. The...
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Here’s a tip for you. Not really, give it back…
I bought the Telegraph the other day for £1 and, you know what, it was such a rip-roaring read, such a rewarding experience, that I rushed back to the newsagent an hour later and gave the man 15p as a...
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After The Thick of It – what are your favourite British political programmes?
Like political obsessives across the country, I grieved this weekend as The Thick of It came to an end. Being misquoted so it sounds like English isn’t my first language in a newspaper article about it...
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The omniscandal: or why everyone should just resign now
Name me the national institution people still have faith in. Tell me who’s not been scandal-hit, tarnished, tested and found wanted, or had a tired -gate suffix associated with them. Across all these...
View ArticleA political machine that gives change
I’m leaving Sweden, again. It feels good to be heading back to my flat in Leith, to Stereo in Glasgow and all my friends, to the Cairngorms, to Frightened Rabbit and Easter Road, CalMac ferries and...
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Jumping into bed with the Swedes
Shetland: Already halfway there There have, in the past week, been a few noteworthy articles regarding the Scandinavian shadow which looms large over the issue of Scottish independence, as well as the...
View ArticlePress support, democracy and well resourced media.
Following on from James calling attention to the plight of National Collective and the need for diverse media voices, a link to a post by myself on the Edinburgh based Green media project POST, and a...
View ArticleThe North is rising
I’ve been somewhat sceptical as to some of the overtures being made toward the Nordic countries by the SNP, though their engaging with the prospect of a Nordic Scotland keeps them a step ahead of the...
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Scotland 2.0, or why the nation needs a new operating system.
Today a guest post from Lee Bunce, a Green with a keen interest and academic expertise in the relationships between information, democracy and technology. Scotland is uniquely placed to take advantage...
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Jingo Unchained
Evening news heroes Not respecting ’our’ troops is one of the biggest taboos in politics. Armed Forces Day is a most bizarre invention, plucked from the ether by politicians to justify support for...
View ArticleThe problem with Scotland’s press… in an American newspaper.
The journalist Peter Geoghegan has written an excellent summary of some of the issues surrounding the press and the independence referendum. Its basic points are a lesson to people on both side of the...
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