Download or read book Why Scots Should Rule Scotland written by Alasdair Gray and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2014-02-20 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alsadair Gray wrote the first edition of this book for the 1992 general election. In it he showed the poor state of present-day Scotland; gave a concise, elegant history of the Scottish people and their relations with the rulers of England; argued that Scotland should have a strong government elected by its own people. Five years later Scotland still does not have that and its state has worsened. The original chapters have been revised and largely rewritten. New chapters dealing with Scottish education, land owning, and law and the Labour Party bring the argument to date. This is a more openly political book than the first edition, written to persuade people who feel their vote does not much influence how their country is managed that Scottish independence matters, and that only one political party is honestly working to achieve it.
Download or read book Independence written by Alasdair Gray and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2014-06-12 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gray argues that a truly independent Scotland will only ever exist when people in every home, school, croft, farm, workshop, factory, island, glen, town and city feel that they too are at the centre of the world. Independence asks whether widespread social welfare is more possible in small nations such as Norway and New Zealand than in big ones like Britain and the U.S.A. It describes the many differences between Scotland and England. It examines the people who choose to live north of the border. It shows Scotland's relevance to the rest of the world. It attempts to conjure a vision of how a Scots parliament might benefit the people of this small but dynamic nation. And it tells how democracy will only truly succeed when every person believes that their vote will make a difference.
Download or read book How We Should Rule Ourselves written by Alasdair Gray and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2014-02-13 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pamphlet is for anyone alarmed by the present British government. It argues that the component nations of the United Kingdom can become true democracies only by declaring themselves republics. The authors are Alasdair Gray, writer of fiction and pamphlets such as Why Scots Should Rule Scotland, and Adam Tomkins, Professor of Public Law in the University of Glasgow and author of Public Law and Our Republican Constitution. Both are committed republicans.
Download or read book How the Scots Invented the Modern World written by Arthur Herman and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exciting account of the origins of the modern world Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? The Scots. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics—contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since. Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong. How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William “Braveheart” Wallace to James Bond. And no one who takes this incredible historical trek will ever view the Scots—or the modern West—in the same way again.
Download or read book Class Rules written by James McEnaney and published by Luath Press Ltd. This book was released on 2021-09-08 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every single person in Scotland has some kind of stake in the effectiveness of the nation's schools, so in writing this book my goal was to explain the intricacies and inconsistencies of the system, and to explore its strengths and weaknesses, in a way that would make sense to as many people as possible. How much do we really know about the state of Scottish education? Why do inequalities continue to dictate the school experiences of children across the country? What can be done to address the problems in the school system? James McEnaney does what he claims pundits and politicians cannot or will not do... tell the truth about Scottish schools. Class Rules makes the key issues and information surrounding Scotland's education system accessible to all. McEnaney delves into the successes and failures of the Curriculum for Excellence, interrogates the rhetoric around closing the 'attainment gap' between the richest and poorest pupils, and considers the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Most importantly, this book also looks to the future to ask what changes can be made to improve the system for young people across the country, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of schools in Scotland.
Download or read book Poor Things written by Alasdair Gray and published by Dalkey Archive Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Alasdair Gray's most brilliant creations, Poor Things is a postmodern revision of Frankenstein that replaces the traditional monster with Bella Baxter--a beautiful young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of Bella, but his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for Baxter's creation.The hilarious tale of love and scandal that ensues would be "the whole story" in the hands of a lesser author (which in fact it is, for this account is actually written by Dr. McCandless). For Gray, though, this is only half the story, after which Bella (a.k.a. Victoria McCandless) has her own say in the matter.Satirizing the classic Victorian novel, Poor Things is a hilarious political allegory and a thought-provoking duel between the desires of men and the independence of women, from one of Scotland's most accomplished authors.
Download or read book Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot written by John Lloyd and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-03-24 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Scottish nationalists seek to end the United Kingdom after 300 years of a successful union. Their drive for an independent Scotland is now nearer to success than it has ever been. Success would mean a diminished Britain and a perilously insecure Scotland. The nationalists have represented the three centuries of union with England as a malign and damaging association for Scotland. The European Union is held out as an alternative and a safeguard for Scotland's future. But the siren call of secession would lure Scotland into a state of radical instability, disrupting ties of work, commerce and kinship and impoverishing the economy. All this with no guarantee of growth in an EU now struggling with a downturn in most of its states and the increasing disaffection of many of its members. In this incisive and controversial book, journalist John Lloyd cuts through the rhetoric to show that the economic plans of the Scottish National Party are deeply unrealistic; the loss of a subsidy of as much as £10 billion a year from the Treasury would mean large-scale cuts, much deeper than those effected by Westminster; the broadly equal provision of health, social services, education and pensions across the UK would cease, leaving Scotland with the need to recreate many of these systems on its own; and the claim that Scotland would join the most successful of the world's small states - as Denmark, New Zealand and Norway - is no more than an aspiration with little prospect of success. The alternative to independence is clear: a strong devolution settlement and a joint reform of the British union to modernise the UK's age-old structures, reduce the centralisation of power and boost the ability of all Britain's nations and regions to support and unleash their creative and productive potential. Scotland has remained a nation in union with three other nations - England, Northern Ireland and Wales. It will continue as one, more securely in a familiar companionship.
Download or read book Literary Politics of Scottish Devolution written by Scott Hames and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Considering an unprecedented range of literary, political and archival materials, it explores how questions of 'voice', language and identity featured in debates leading to the new Scottish Parliament in 1999"--Publisher description
Download or read book Home Rule and Political Parties in Scotland A Review Etc written by Scottish Home Rule Association (Scotland) and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Questioning Scotland written by E. Bell and published by Springer. This book was released on 2004-09-20 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questioning Scotland considers the ways in which Scottish Literature has often been discussed in parochial, essentialist terms. It suggests that Scottish literary studies must now expand its conceptual boundaries in order to account for changes taking place at wider European and global levels. It is literary-based but also scrutinizes the methodological construction process of national traditions. Drawing on wider theories of postmodernism, (post)nationalism and globalism, it will help map the changing nature of national studies and Scottish studies in particular.
Download or read book Bella Caledonia written by Kirsten Stirling and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bella Caledonia: Woman, Nation, Text looks at the widespread tradition of using a female figure to represent the nation, focusing on twentieth-century Scottish literature. The woman-as-nation figure emerged in Scotland in the twentieth century, but as a literary figure rather than an institutional icon like Britannia or France’s Marianne. Scottish writers make use of familiar aspects of the trope such as the protective mother nation and the woman as fertile land, which are obviously problematic from a feminist perspective. But darker implications, buried in the long history of the figure, rise to the surface in Scotland, such as woman/nation as victim, and woman/nation as deformed or monstrous. As a result of Scotland’s unusual status as a nation within the larger entity of Great Britain, the literary figures under consideration here are never simply incarnations of a confident and complete nation nurturing her warrior sons. Rather, they reflect a more modern anxiety about the concept of the nation, and embody a troubled and divided national identity. Kirsten Stirling traces the development of the twentieth-century Scotland-as-woman figure through readings of poetry and fiction by male and female writers including Hugh MacDiarmid, Naomi Mitchison, Neil Gunn, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Willa Muir, Alasdair Gray, A.L. Kennedy, Ellen Galford and Janice Galloway.
Download or read book Scotland Analysis written by Great Britain: Scotland Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-02-11 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UK Government is undertaking a major cross-government programme of analysis prior to the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014. The aim is to provide a comprehensive and detailed analysis of Scotland's place in the UK. This paper, the first of a series to be published in 2013 and 2014, examines the UK's constitutional set-up and the legal implications of independence. The UK Government is convinced that the current devolution offers the best for Scotland: the Scottish Parliament and Government are empowered to take decisions on a range of domestic policy areas - such as health, education, policing - while Scotland continues to benefit from decisions made for the UK as a whole - defence and security, foreign representation, economic affairs. Independence is very different to devolution. Based on independent expert opinion (published as Annex A), the paper concludes that if there were to be a vote in favour of leaving the UK, Scotland would become an entirely new state whilst the remainder of the UK would continue as before, retaining the rights and obligations of the UK as it currently stands. Any separation would have to be negotiated between both governments. Legal and practical implications of independence, both at home and abroad, are addressed. An independent Scotland would have to apply to and/or negotiate to become a member of whichever international organisations it wished to join, including the EU and NATO. Scotland would also have to work through its positions on thousands of international treaties to which the UK is currently party.
Download or read book Textual Practice written by Alan Sinfield and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1998-04-09 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The split between national and popular interests is examined through an analysis of Branagh's 'multicultural' Much Ado - 'a Shakespeare film for the world' and analysis of other popular works including Cocteau, Woolf and Neil Jordan's.
Download or read book My Scotland Our Britain written by Gordon Brown and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-06-19 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My Scotland, Our Britain: A Future Worth Sharingis a highly personal account of Gordon Brown's Scotland, the nation he was born in, and our Britain, the multinational state that the Scots, English, Welsh and Northern Irish have created and share. Laying bare his family's ancestry over 300 years of the Union and explaining how it shaped his background, Brown charts what it was like growing up in Scotland in the 1950s and 1960s, and explains the influence of religion, education and Scotland's unique industrial structure on the shaping of his and Scotland's identity. He sets out the dramatic economic, social and cultural changes of the past fifty years and the vastly different prospects his children will face, demonstrating that a sense of Scottish national identity has always remained strong and how Scottish institutions have always fiercely guarded their independence. The referendum should not be seen as a battle between Scotland and Britain, he argues, but one between two visions of Scotland's future: one that sees Scotland prosper with a strong Scottish Parliament that is part of the UK, and one that severs all the political links Scots have with the UK. Brown puts forward his proposal for a constitutional settlement that could unite the country, and argues that in tune with Scotland's history of deep engagement with the wider world -as inventors, explorers, traders, missionaries, business leaders and aid workers -the best future for Scots is not to leave Britain, but to continue to shape it.
Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature written by Richard Bradford and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 912 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE WILEY BLACKWELL COMPANION TO CONTEMPORARY BRITISH AND IRISH LITERATURE An insightful guide to the exploration of modern British and Irish literature The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature is a must-have guide for anyone hoping to navigate the world of new British and Irish writing. Including modern authors and poets from the 1960s through to the 21st century, the Companion provides a thorough overview of contemporary poetry, fiction, and drama by some of the most prominent and noteworthy writers. Seventy-three comprehensive chapters focus on individual authors as well as such topics as Englishness and identity, contemporary Science Fiction, Black writing in Britain, crime fiction, and the influence of globalization on British and Irish Literature. Written in four parts, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature includes comprehensive examinations of individual authors, as well as a variety of themes that have come to define the contemporary period: ethnicity, gender, nationality, and more. A thorough guide to the main figures and concepts in contemporary literature from Britain and Ireland, this two-volume set: Includes studies of notable figures such as Seamus Heaney and Angela Carter, as well as more recently influential writers such as Zadie Smith and Sarah Waters. Covers topics such as LGBT fiction, androgyny in contemporary British Literature, and post-Troubles Northern Irish Fiction Features a broad range of writers and topics covered by distinguished academics Includes an analysis of the interplay between individual authors and the major themes of the day, and whether an examination of the latter enables us to appreciate the former. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Literature provides essential reading for students as well as academics seeking to learn more about the history and future direction of contemporary British and Irish Literature.
Download or read book The State written by Richard English and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on current debates on secessions within the United Kingdom, this book analyses the British State today and looks at its place in the future. Featuring original contributions from a variety of disciplines, this study tackles the problem of defining and studying the state and looks at the role the nation-state has played as the basic political unit in Europe and throughout the world.
Download or read book The State Historical and Political Dimensions written by Richard English and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on current debates on secessions within the United Kingdom, this book analyses the British State today and looks at its place in the future. Featuring original contributions from a variety of disciplines, this study tackles the problem of defining and studying the state and looks at the role the nation-state has played as the basic political unit in Europe and throughout the world.
