Wild can offer hope. It is about relationships between people and the natural world so it matters what wild means and how it is done.
Articles
Can the SNP win on July 4?
“With a cautious, centre-right Labour party offering six lukewarm pledges, any confident, pro-EU, pro-independence, social democrat (if the SNP still is) party should be moving ahead not sinking in the polls. Can the SNP still win?”
Blind men and the elephant
‘Scottish policy making remains too top-down, centralised with bureaucrats at the centre assuming their expertise trumps all others. Disconfirmatory evidence that things are not working is often ignored. Believers find excuses, blame others while their support for their pet policy is, as in When Prophecy Fails, ‘not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth’ of their way.’
Peat Bog Soldiers: how a Scottish band contributes to a German concentration camp archive
Professor David Archibald takes a radical approach to history through ‘wild research’ which has one foot in higher education, and one foot in Glasgow’s vibrant music scene. “One aspect of this wildness is that it is free to go where it has to go”
Let’s end public subsidies for commercial conifer tree-planting
The RSE sets out its new report calling for a radical rethink of tree planting in Scotland…It makes a series of recommendations for how public financial support for tree planting in Scotland can be reorganised to better serve Scotland’s people, environment, forestry industry, and public purse.
Devolution returns to Northern Ireland
“…there is no room for any future withdrawal from government by either veto-holding party, and if that happened, temporary steps to overcome the veto would need to be considered. Issues of longer-term institutional reform may now have slipped down the agenda. But they will have to be dealt with at some point, and a more informed debate on them would be helpful.”
The plot to kill the BBC
“What we have is smoke in mirrors designed to weaken the BBC’s independence, cow its journalists, and ripen it up for dismemberment and eventual sale to the highest bidder. It’s short-term electoral politics and strategic long-term weakening of a once great British institution.”
Starmer can’t afford to be cautious
Labour “is caught between the public policy need for bolder action and an even more sober presentational approach than that of 1997. Bold policies are not incompatible with sober campaigning. But sober campaigning may not excite and mobilise support,” says Prof Mitchell, arguing the case against ultra-caution.
Alarming death toll in the Scottish wilds
“Scotland could lead the way in pioneering legislation that protects all animals, domestic and free-living. This legislation should begin with the recognition of sentience and enshrine in law the value and dignity of wild animals such that their right to live unmolested is respected.”
Labour’s road to victory runs through Scotland?
“Labour once again is seeking a middle road in its pursuit of power, both north and south of the border, attempting to be the grown-up in the room, offering a coherent, united proposal, while its political rivals turn their focus inward. However, this middle way remains challenging, and while Labour’s prospects in the post-Sturgeon era appear sunnier, many challenges await it on the road to power.”