“But we are being untrue to the great man if we don’t acknowledge that his songs first appeared to his own public in this (posh) way. We ought to pause and appreciate them for what they are.” How Rabbie wrote for the Scottish 1% of his day.
Archives for September 2016
No evidence for good policy-making by soundbite
‘Instead of policy issues we were presented with one of two questions. Either “the minister wants to do this, can you provide evidence to show it is a good thing?” Or “the minister wants to do this, can you help us kill it off?”’ The DHI director on the rush from evidence into the dark world opf politics….
Hard Brexit lessons for US Democrats
“Hard Brexit, soft Brexit, Brexit over easy on rye, nobody’s quite sure what they ordered.” But the US is facing a similar binary choice to that of the EU referendum when they elect a new president in November: Clinton or Trump.
Sceptical Scot cartoon: Sturgeon’s woes pile up
Poetry with a European twist in Portree
“For when it comes down to it, this, for me, is what it is all about. Hope for the future – as long as mountains stand and rivers run – lies in our interconnectedness. Across islands, countries, continents and generations.” Skye poetry prompts a human affirmation across continents.
Boston in the company of Carlotta Carlyle, Private Investigator
‘Exploring the city of Boston, I have enlisted the help of a private eye. A six-foot-one ass-kicking redhead who moonlights as a part-time cabbie and roams the city night and day, rooting out the corruption which constantly reappears, always in a different form.’ Jackie Kemp interviews author Linda Barnes.
So what’s so bad about being a Trotskyist?
Though there is fierce disagreement about the extent of any Marxist revolutionary incursion into Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour there is less dispute – for both his supporters and opponents – that it is bad news. For most, it seems, Trotskyists are simply beyond the pale, distinguished by an unmistakeable whiff of sulphur. But why, exactly?
Still time for MPs to overturn Brexit
“Had the referendum been a court case, there would surely be a re-trial scheduled already.” The public was singularly ill-informed when it went to the poills in the June 23 EU referendum. Time for MPOs to reassert the primacy of parliamentary democracy.
Do SNP depute leaders matter? Nicola and John run the show
One American Vice President crudely described the office (of VEEP) as ‘not worth a bucket of warm piss’. Is the SNP depute leadership any better? Up to the winner – most likely Angus Robertson…
A brief lesson in home rule with Mr Brown
“What I did say, and had you been listening you’d have written it down as such, was that Scotland achieved effective home rule in 2020.” A frivolous musing on Gordon Brown, The Vow and Home Rule aka federalism.