Brexit
Time to reject May’s absurd adventurism
“The notion that it ought to be the people who are sovereign, rather than parliament, has a long and proud history in Scotland.” “Scotland can either stick with the result of the 2014 referendum or…
Poetry and the power of simple pleasures
“With Trump in the White House and Britain heading blindly for Brexit, we must not be silent about horrors we witness, but let’s not stop enjoying and sharing simple pleasures’.” Fay Young reclaims the right…
Will Trump declare war on the EU?
“Even if he only believes half of it, that could be enough to destroy the EU, and at its most extreme, the stability and peace of all Europe. Maybe he won’t turn out as bad…
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
“Behind this current, impoverishing turmoil lurks a similar, equally certain idea of English identity that’s clearly contradicted and compromised by the ideals of the EU. It may be that this sense of identity sees shame…
EU citizens must keep rights to vote after Brexit
Voting is a founding block of citizenship. Mark Lazarowicz urges UK and Scottish governments to make a clear declaration on maintaining legal rights of EU citizens to vote in devolved parliaments and local elections after…
Sturgeon’s confederal Brexit solution
“Maybe, like Theresa May, she’s (Nicola Sturgeon) gradually realising that what party zealots want and the country needs are not the same. So perhaps her opponents should not be mocking her political incoherence, but encouraging…
Coming of age: 2017 as year of resistance
“If 2016 was the year in which millennials realised that they had to confront the true reality of their meagre inheritance, 2017 must be a year in which resistance to authoritarian nationalism takes definite form.…
Politically savvy and nigh impossible
“For Scotland to meet the obligations of EEA-EFTA membership, almost all areas of policy would have to be devolved – immigration, business regulations, employment law, competition policy, product standards to name just a few. This…
Talking Turkeys: five poems for Christmas 2016
At the ragged end of a sorry year Fay Young goes in search of poems for Christmas and finds five offering humour, humanity and even a hint of hope that the world is not definitively…
A day at the seaside: Great Yarmouth 2016
A photo tour round Great Yarmouth, one of the English towns that voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU. I can recall the town when it was a chaotic but cheerful place. Now, it seems, there…