“It’s terrifically rewarding to think a recently written poem by a 71 year old can be a winner.” Cynthia Kitchen digs into the childhood memories which inspired her award winning poem.
Not just a pretty facade: Glasgow heritage has a beating heart
Those derelict buildings? Those fire-razed sites? What’s the city plan? Professor Johnny Rodger and DJ Jim Gellatly have a provocative suggestion for Glasgow.
Four Welsh women poets
Then I’ll do the lights, fill the lamp with oil,Get coal from the shed, water from the well;Pluck and draw pigeon, with crop of green foilThis your good supper from the lime-tree fell. Lynette Roberts Poetry has played an important role in the history of Wales. From the medieval courts, to the ongoing National Eisteddfod […]
Scottish food, US-UK trade and GM
‘GM will provide another test of intergovernmental relations within the UK. A key challenge will be how far the UK government is prepared to defend Scotland’s commercial interests through its ban on GM in the US-UK trade negotiations.’
Popular sovereignty and written constitution
‘Perhaps, therefore, Brexit might prove a constitutional moment for the UK, leading to the creation and adoption of a codified constitution so aligning Britain with almost every other democracy.’
The parochialism of the present
‘Revisiting our educational history might encourage us to question some of the prevailing orthodoxies of our time…Perhaps we should ask why there are no comparable radical voices in Scottish education today.’
Local government blame game
‘Fiscal responsibility is the flip side of fiscal autonomy. Those who argue for more money from the Scottish Government without proposing new powers for local government to raise own revenue are also playing a blame game.’ First in a series on centralisation/local autonomy
Best Scottish Poetry offers escape to reality
Claire Askew’s delightful poem, is it escape or reality? Thanks to the noxious ill wind of Brexit, it seems, there’s a new demand for words with meaning, or meaningful ambiguity. Where better to find it than Best Scottish Poetry.
George Square 1919: no real revolutionary threat?
‘Yet while many continue to play up the revolutionary aspect today, there is no evidence it was anything more than a legitimate demonstration.’
Citizen’s assembly to break Brexit deadlock?
We should not imagine that they could magic away all the current quandaries over Brexit. But they could play several important roles in clarifying options, reflecting on solutions, overcoming division, and reinvigorating democracy in the UK.