Scotland – Page 11 – Slugger O'Toole

“future banknote designs, starting with the new polymer £5 note, will explicitly represent all four nations of the UK.”

Pete Baker on July 21, 2015, 5:13 pm

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As mentioned in this BBC report focused on the first Bank of England polymer banknote – a £5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill which will be issued in 2016. Banknotes will feature images from all four nations of the UK starting with the new £5 note entering circulation in 2016. [Timing, eh? – Ed] Eh? From the Bank of England press release Chief Cashier, Victoria Cleland said: “The Bank is delighted with the number and breadth of the nominations we …

The poignant comparison between Mhairi Black and Bernadette Devlin

Brian Walker on July 18, 2015, 1:23 pm

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The reception given to Mhairi Black, the SNP MP who at 20 is the youngest MP since the 1830s brings to mind the similar reception given to another Baby of the House, Bernadette Devlin who was elected in the byelection of April 1969 a few days short of her 22nd birthday. The contrasts are of course vast. With Bernadette we have the advantage of hindsight to have followed the course of a damaged, even tragic life and embittered politics, affected no …

Outrageous optimism and the need for belief in the long term future of the Orange tradition

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2015, 3:07 pm

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This #SluggerReport was recored on Monday and takes a deliberately and outrageously optimistic (although far from naive) view of the Orange Institutions and their future role in society. Taking a leaf out of Carmin Medina’s book (that Optimism is the greatest act of rebellion) I don’t try to deny the dark nihilism that Phil sees in the reckless bonfire culture is there, but rather I suggest we are all conniving at feeding it through a certain comfortable pessimism that this …

Francis Hutcheson. Lessons in well-being from the father to the Scottish Enlightenment…

Soapbox on June 23, 2015, 12:01 pm

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As we try to establish human well-being at the heart of social and economic policy in Northern Ireland, I think we must search for a relevant local heritage. In this way we counter those critics who suggest that something benign but grandiose and alien is being imposed from outside. So I will point out how the conditions for human well-being were the concern of one magisterial writer whose roots lay deep in the County Down countryside, just a few …

Can the next Labour leader act as a bridge between politics and people?

Mick Fealty on June 18, 2015, 5:36 pm

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As it happens I seem to have acquired an irregular slot on Jonathan Lampon’s ‘Behind the Headlines’ slot on Radio Leicester to talk about UK politics. After a heads up from Jonathan’s team yesterday I found myself as one of an elite few watching the Labour leadership last night… Here’s the resulting discussion from this morning: listen to ‘Can Labour bridge ‘politics’ and ‘people’?’ on audioBoom There’s also some quick supplementary thoughts on this morning’s SluggerReport.. To which I’d add… …

Qualms about Asher’s Law but none over the gay marriage referendum: spot the difference

Brian Walker on May 21, 2015, 9:09 pm

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Forgive me if I take a new post to reply to Mick on Asher’s Law. I think he stretches the point about law and politics too widely. Let’s unpick this a bit. The sexual orientations order was passed under direct rule, by Peter Hain, not the Assembly. That makes it no less law. But it was one of those measures foisted on our politicians to try to force them to do the deal on restoring the Assembly. The message was, …

The SNP have gone beyond the unionist-nationalist split – a new account of their success.

Brian Walker on May 21, 2015, 11:11 am

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For those of us who can trot out the reasons for the dramatic rise of the SNP and still remain dissatisfied with the explanations, the writer David Torrance moves us closer in the Guardian today. Torrance is an open minded unionist who declares his views but doesn’t let them get in the way, a priceless asset in a discussion of divided politics. For me his key point is that the SNP have reached beyond the basic unionist- nationalist, left right splits …

After #GE2015… Are Labour’s historic coalitions suffering from an ‘upgrade effect’?

Mick Fealty on May 19, 2015, 5:22 pm

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So, on with the post election profiles, this time back over to Britain, er, England and Wales. So, let’s talk about Labour (of the UK variety). The thing about the Labour party is that it is barely more than 100 years old. In most of that time it has been in opposition. Indeed, you sometimes get the impression that some of their support quite like it that way. The only sustained exception to that rule was in the mid-sixties to …

The Election: What Scottish Labour Should Do Next (But Probably Won’t)

Duncan Harman on May 14, 2015, 10:08 am

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Post-election narratives don’t come much bigger than a party left staring into its very soul. Questions over leadership, policy, engagement with the electorate – this is how the debris of defeat is supposed to resemble. But to be so comprehensively outflanked by a party that – independence aside – occupies a similar wavelength of the political spectrum? Ouch. For Scottish Labour must be hurting right now. Watching as your share of vote tumbles from 42% to a shade over 24% …

It wasn’t quite Twitter wot won it – social media and the General Election

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on May 13, 2015, 10:39 pm

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In the end, it was hardly a case of “as Twitter goes, so goes the nation”. If the election had been decided by the number of followers each candidate had before the election, Ed Miliband would have been elected Prime Minister, albeit needing the help of the Liberal Democrats and, um, the Pirate Party. The FT Data blog (£) has some fascinating charts showing how the conversation on Twitter was dominated by supporters of Labour and the SNP. It is apparent …

SNP revolution means it’s now make or break time for the union

Soapbox on May 13, 2015, 12:42 pm

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By Ben Wray, a journalist with CommonSpace, which is an online Scottish news, analysis and opinion website. They used to say if you pinned a red rosette to a monkey in Glasgow people would vote for it, such was the overwhelming dominance of the Labour party in Scotland’s biggest city. Labour is not just a political party in Scotland – it has been symbolic of Scotland’s political culture for decades, a way for people of identifying who they are, spanning generations of …

New British Bill of Rights would alter the Good Friday Agreement

Brian Walker on May 12, 2015, 10:38 am

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The new Conservative government appears to be moving fast to enact a new British Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act of 1998 which is one of the cornerstones of the Good Friday Agreement. Tory dislike of the HRA has nothing to do with the Agreement. Indeed as so often happens, Northern Ireland doesn’t figure in their thoughts. The Conservatives are targeting decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg which in their view makes it too …

GE2015: The Autopsy

Robert Campbell on May 9, 2015, 5:16 pm

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When there’s something puzzling or suspicious or unnatural about a death, there’s an autopsy. Sometimes it’s obvious what happened, sometimes it takes time and tests to discover the truth; just very occasionally it’s not possible to determine with certainty the sequence of events. Before 10 pm on Thursday night, we were all wrong; and immediately afterwards, only John Curtice was right. He was so very right that Paddy Ashdown said he’d eat his hat, and Alastair Campbell said he’d eat …

“As Returning Officer for the Constituency of Tax Disc Holders…”

Mick Fealty on May 9, 2015, 4:43 pm

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Well, who bought the most political car screen tax holder discs over the election? Who was least afraid to show their political affections in public? That would be… We suspect Sinn Fein’s strong showing is the revised version which came post Slugger’s intervention [on their behalf]… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the …

Scots vote for Holyrood not Westminster as SNP landslide wipes out Labour in Scotland…

Brian O'Neill on May 8, 2015, 9:40 am

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The SNP victory in Scotland is nothing short of spectacular. They gained a phenomenal 50 seats, taking 40 seats from Labour and 10 from the Libdems. What is clear is that the Scots have embraced devolution and the SNP message. We can expect another Scottish independence referendum in a few years, and if the SNP momentum keeps up it will be a victory for the Yes campaign. What is also interesting is that with a 71% turnout, Scotland had the highest turnout …

Look over there…a view of the UK election from Ireland

Johnny Fallon on May 6, 2015, 11:21 pm

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I have never made a secret of the fact that I am no expert on politics outside of Ireland. I watch elections in other countries in a disinterested fashion. The systems are strange and I find it gives you an insight into just how bizarre politics can look when you are not involved. The UK election is probably the most interesting one in my lifetime. Up until now all I have ever seen is a strange and undemocratic voting system …

Why #IndyRef2 needs “a so-called ‘material change’ in circumstances…”

Mick Fealty on May 6, 2015, 8:08 am

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Despite it being talked up by Jim Murphy, panicking Tories, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all, here is Paul Cairney on why the breakup of the UK is to be put on hold for some time to come in Scotland.. …the SNP leadership does not want a referendum right now. It will take a lot more than an excellent showing in one election to convince it to try again. Instead, it will seek evidence that there has been a so-called ‘material …

SNP take on survivors from a shrinking Scottish centre left…

Mick Fealty on May 5, 2015, 3:13 pm

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Great piece by Jim McCormick on Stratagems website which includes what has to be the quote of the campaign… Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy’s campaign: professional and energetic, but “like a really good swimmer trying to escape a tsunami”. It’s brilliantly accurate, and it may also point to the possibility that his sheer political athleticism may just get him through. It will be an unmitigated disaster if he doesn’t. But he goes on… The SNP’s ability to reach way beyond …

Could the SNP and Tories trigger a UK shift to the nationalist right?

Mick Fealty on April 29, 2015, 1:03 pm

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This is interesting. I’ve made the point on the SluggerReport that even reliable national polling will be mediated by ground war efforts by various parties. However FPTP may allow the SNP to take almost all the spoils in Scotland: The latest and final Ipsos MORI poll for STV News puts support for Nicola Sturgeon’s party at 54%, up by two percentage points on the last poll, with Labour trailing on 20%, down from 24%. Support for the Conservatives has increased …

Dodd lays into the Tories for laying into the SNP’s mandate (and side-slaps the SNP)

Mick Fealty on April 27, 2015, 11:32 am

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Those who heard this morning’s #SluggerReport will have noted the major item was Nigel Dodds’ extraordinarily adept intervention in the Westminster debate this morning in the Guardian. It surely cannot be a coincidence that Jim Wells’ has been dispatched so quickly (hint: it was nothing to do with our toothless Ministerial code) in order to clear the air and political space for this… Listening to Nicola Sturgeon’s progressive pan-British rhetoric, you could have thought you were listening to one of …