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Sceptical Scot

Asking Questions. Seeking Answers.

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History

Is modernism obsolete?

November 14, 2020 by David Black 2 Comments

In the final piece of his series the author makes a stand for classicism – and sustainable buildings in green cities

A plague on old age

November 1, 2020 by Hugh Pennington Leave a Comment

‘By far the most important risk factor for getting hospitalised, being admitted to an ICU, and dying from the disease is old age, particularly being over 80. Not many housing scheme residents get that far…’

Mythologising modernism

October 17, 2020 by David Black Leave a Comment

‘This is not the model of capitalism envisaged by Adam Smith, that beautiful smooth-running machine with its assumptions of benign reciprocity between an industrialist and a workforce. It is, rather, an unfettered Hobbesian monster, not unlike the rampant and exploitative mercantilism which Smith (a proto-social psychologist, as well as economic theorist) sought to discredit.’ First of three in a series on Edinburgh’s architecture…

The shadow in the corner: Margaret Fay Shaw

October 17, 2020 by Fiona Mackenzie Leave a Comment

Margaret Fay Shaw's shadow just visible in her portrait of a shepherd

Folklorist and photographer Margaret Fay Shaw captured disappearing ways of island life. Her shadow appears in many of her photographs. Was this a deliberate self-portrait or an accident? asks the Canna House archivist

Germany’s miles better…

October 4, 2020 by David Gow 1 Comment

‘Germany, even if one goes as far back as Bismarck and 1871, is a relatively young country and, in its latest iteration, highly attractive to a lot of Europe’s youth. It does offer, then, a model for any nascent Scottish republic: open, tolerant, European, nationalist in a civic, secular sense. But, as its friends, including Kampfner, acknowledge, it faces significant challenges now and in future.’

The road to Tobha Mòr 2

October 3, 2020 by Hugh Cheape Leave a Comment

“An informed view today tells us that Scotland’s Islands are not ‘peripheral’, and are less ‘remote’ than places deep inland; and these places which may be perceived as perfectly accessible from modern conurbations then serve to reinforce the core/periphery model.” Part 2 of UHI’s Prof Cheape’s challenging revisit of Gaelic culture/history

Monumental follies 2

June 28, 2020 by David Black 1 Comment

In Part 2 of his historical analysis of Scotland’s relationship with slavery, David Black highlights a typical ambivalence: progressive views sitting alongside naked exploitation.

Monumental follies 1

June 27, 2020 by David Black Leave a Comment

‘…our statue problems in Scotland are surely puny; our current outrage a mite self-indulgent and synthetic, though the emblematic validity of our public monuments should indeed be critically scrutinised from time to time.’ Pt 1 of an exploration of our ambivalent representations of history.

Scotland’s largest Pictish settlement

June 27, 2020 by Gordon Noble Leave a Comment

We discovered (Tao O’Noth) had once contained 800 dwelling platforms – housing as many as 4,000 people – and if they all date to the same period this would stand as almost urban-scale settlement, which archaeologists previously did not believe existed in Scotland until the 12th century. 

Independence or bust

June 14, 2020 by David Gow 7 Comments

John Lloyd book review: ‘What marks the book out is Lloyd’s personal transition to virtually self-hating Scot. This is not just the regular Unionist assertion that Scotland is too wee, too weak, to cut it as an independent country but a visceral assault on “Scotland’s self-serving, self-pitying, self-obsessed keening about others, mainly the English, stealing their birthright and smashing their culture” and/or continuous “moral superiority.”‘

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