Editorial: Old wine in old bottles?
Though Charles Dickens did not say ‘It was not the best of times. It was not quite the worst of
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Was it another unique election? Only if you ignore the ‘big picture’ issues
Looking behind the election facts and figures, James Mitchell reveals the continuing, underlying dynamics of politics in Scotland. There is
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A different radical Scotland: limits of Scottish nationalism and social democracy
Gerry Hassan sees the 2021 election in a longer lens to assess the current state of Scottish democracy and point
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Lots of labouring still be done for Scottish Labour
Carol Mochan says there’s a mountain of political leg work needed but that it can be done. Scotland’s status as
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How the left won the Scottish Green Party and how that will change Scottish politics
Maggie Chapman looks back on not just a quantitative but also qualitative shift for the Scottish Greens. The Holyrood 2021
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Onwards down the yellow brick road – the SNP will do what it says it has on its tin
Chris Stephens says the populace is behind the SNP’s prospectus for a socially just independent Scotland. Seven days after Scotland
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UCS work-in 50th anniversary report
Given that the work-in started fifty years ago in June 1971, we are pleased to showcase the work of Derek
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Elections are important but radical social change comes from the bottom up
Surveying the political landscape, Linda Somerville asks: what will it mean for workers and the working-class? Hailed by the media
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Where now for Alba? And, what is to be done?
Kenny MacAskill looks back at Alba’s debut campaign and forward to its future. Sometimes in politics, as in life, the
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The state of the health of our nation? Not great and not getting better after the election
Dave Watson is the secretary of the Socialist Health Association Scotland. There are plenty of new faces in the Scottish
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Social care in Scotland: People before profit!
Iain Ferguson shows why the case for a publicly-owned and controlled care service is unanswerable. On 19 April 2021, BBC
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How can SNP and Greens end the housing crisis in Scotland?
Regina Serpa argues the SNP promise of ‘a safe, warm, affordable home’ for all is possible with a pro-independence majority.
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Making work work for all
Jane Carolan lays out an alternative approach to that offered by the SNP Scottish Government. In the election, employments rights
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Can the Greens green the SNP on transport?
David Spaven assesses the likelihood of the future of decent, environmentally transport getting better. Transport is rarely a key factor
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Chimera of consensus on radical recovery from COVID? Or grounds for optimism?
Mike Danson eyes the prospect of cross-party cooperation for a boldly ‘building back better’. As I wrote in Scottish Left
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Generational generosity
Let the old and knackered who are within five years of their state retirement age retire early. Their jobs should
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With ‘fire-and-re-hire’ raging, will BoJos’ Brexiteers get their way in trampling over workers’ rights?
Mick Rice considers a new way to skin this Tory tiger on work and employment. With Tory Brexiteers dreaming of
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Breaching the ministerial codes: Not just a Scottish special concern
Jonathan Deans casts an eye down south to survey a climate of political unaccountability. For many months, Scottish politics was
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The Jerusalem Declaration on anti-Semitism
Chris Sutherland assesses a major advance for having a balanced definition of anti-Semitism. So many column inches have been written
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Poetry page – plenty to please
The 80s David McKinstry The Keegan perm gave way to the mullet And CD replaced LP, Whilst Essex boys whistled
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Film Review
Steve McQueen, director, Small Axe: Mangrove (2020) Reviewed by Jackie Bergson. Artistry and realism synergise perfectly within screenwriter and director,
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Book Review
Edith Hall and Henry Stead, A People’s History of Classics: Class and Greco-Roman Antiquity in Britain and Ireland 1689-1939, Routledge,
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Book Review
Trevor Royle, Facing the Bear: Scotland and the Cold War, Birlinn, 2019, £25, pp368, 9781780275260 Reviewed by Hamish Kirk. I
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Book Review
Alex Ross, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, 4th Estate, 2020, £30, pp769, 9780007319053 Reviewed by Graeme
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Book Review
Gavin Esler, How Britain Ends: English Nationalism and the Rebirth of Four Nations, Head of Zeus, 2021, £9.99, 9781800241053 Reviewed
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VLADIMIR McTAVISH – A KICK UP THE TABLOIDS
As spring arrives and we slowly emerge from the winter lockdown, we appear to have entered some bizarre parallel universe
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