A selection of five poems for this general election in hard times. To shine a light on our better nature, to remember how many different people are responding to the urgent issues of 2019 with human kindness, concern, and courageous conscience.
Politics
Scotland’s climate emergency
‘Perhaps most of all, the importance of setting out a stable long-term environment for investment will be the most effective policy that anyone could set. It will also require international cooperation, both in terms of connectivity, R&D and investment.’
Scottish democracy: role of citizens’ assembly?
Citizens’ Assemblies are fundamentally an innovative structure for engaging with the public that are characterised by two key features that differentiate them from our more well-established ways of involving the public in the work of government: First, the participants are randomly selected to be broadly representative of the population at large (i.e. this is not […]
Land reform and climate change: a Scottish perspective
‘We need to be clear about what we want from the land, how we find and reward synergies, and how to ensure greater public input to land management and land use decision-making.” Experts from James Hutton Institute on risks (and rewards) from land use in the climate crisis.
Independence and sovereignty
‘It’s being in charge of your own destiny that matters as Scotland has found out but thereafter aspects will have to be shared for political and economic advantage.’
Culture
Policing the gender identity debate
‘managers need to recognise that both sex and gender identity may be relevant to people’s lives, and to factor both into policy-making decisions. In this way, it should be possible to balance fairly the interests of everyone, in the least discriminatory way possible.’
Inverness ‘ain’t no mess’ so it needs the Ironworks
The Ironworks is an essential part of local culture and a vital asset to the Highlands. In fact in a small country we would all be poorer without it says Dougal Perman of Scottish Music Industry Association
Geese migration in climate change
‘Think of shorebirds, which have been dependent on the same shorelines and inter-tidal areas for thousands of years. For them, the current rate of climate change might be something they have not evolved to deal with.’
Truth springs from poetry…and dangerous women
For Nadine Aisha Jassat, poetry is activism. She used to used to whisper, “‘I’m a poet’, now I shout it from the rooftops and help others on their journey to shouting who they are, too.”