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Scotland the Brave?
£12.49
Gerry Hassan questions what bravery really means for modern Scotland.
Essential for anyone interested in Scottish identity and values.
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About the Ebook
Politics took a decisive turn twenty years ago with the birth of the modern Scottish Parliament. People in Scotland want to 'make a difference' and build a better future. Scotland the Brave? offers both an acute assessment of where we are today and a route map to the future.
Editors Gerry Hassan and Simon Barrow have brought together an impressive array of Scottish and international voices to cover concerns including the economy, environment, social policy, beliefs, human rights, media and culture.
After two decades of significant change, the contributors describes how wealth is created and distributed in Scotland; ways of addressing social divisions and inequality; the needs to respond to the climate emergency, as well as considering challenges to democracy.
This book provides powerful, non-partisan visions for the future that indicates how we can rise to challenges of our times and truly become 'Scotland the Brave'.
Extracts
the twentieth anniversary of the Scottish Parliament offers the opportunity to assess a Scotland beyond the narrow politics of devolution. In these pages we therefore address a wider canvas. This includes what has changed and what has not changed over this devolution era; understanding where, and how far, we have come, and what the contours and challenges of the future might look like. Gerry Hassan & Simon Barrow
Some people have a dream; I have a nightmare. It is to find myself locked in a dark, airless nursery cupboard, somewhere in the south of England, with Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Theresa May and Paul Dacre, former editor of the Daily Mail. Neal Ascherson
If the choice between shooting oneself in the head or in the foot is the answer to Britain’s long-term problems, then we can sure that the wrong question is being asked. Over the past three years it has become ever clearer that Brexit is not about its ostensible subject: Britain’s relationship with the EU. The very word Brexit contains a literally unspoken truth. It does not include or even allude to Europe. It is British exit that is the point, not what it is exiting from. The tautologous slogan ‘Leave Means Leave’ is similarly (if unintentionally) honest: the meaning is in the leaving, not in what is being left or how. Fintan O’Toole
Scotland has become an international reference point for gender equality policy and for progressive equality policy in the twenty years of devolution. Angela O’Hagan & Talat Yaqoob
Scotland is currently in the grip of a child and adolescent mental health crisis, with frightening implications not only for the children concerned but for the nation as a whole… Scotland urgently needs coherent, well-funded policy-making (not just policy-writing) for this age range. Sue Palmer
the rest of the world now look to us as a source of innovation and inspiration and it may be that our influence can go beyond our own shores. Gerry McCartney
With 10,000 permanent Airbnb’s in Edinburgh, and now over 20 per cent of its housing privately rented, should we be surprised that the city has the largest number of people residing in temporary accommodation, who also stay there for the longest periods. A housing policy that encourages new mid-market rental accommodation and celebrity homeless sleep-outs can never hope to address the real causes of that city’s housing crisis. Douglas Robertson
Contributors
Neal Ascherson • Jude Barber • John Bone • Miriam Brett • Craig Dalzell • Gillian Easson • Anna Fowlie • Douglas Fraser • Katie Gallogy-Swan • David Goldblatt • Richard Holloway • Lucy Hunter Blackburn • Blair Jenkins • Laura Jones • George Kerevan • Caitlin Logan • Malcolm Maclean • Brian Mark Evans • Michael Marra • Gerry McCartney • Karyn McCluskey • Jim McCormick • James McEnaney • Mairi McFayden • Neil McInroy • Fergus McNeill • Nasar Meer • Anne Mullin • Andrew W Neal • Jemma Neville • Angela O’Hagan • Fintan O’Toole • Lesley Orr • Sue Palmer • Douglas Robertson • Kirstein Rummery •Alan Sinclair • Mike Small • Jim Spence • Catriona Stewart • Andy Summers • Laura Waddell • William Walker • Andy Wightman • Ruth Wushart • Talat Yaqoob
Why You'll Love This Ebook
- Critical examination of Scottish confidence and self-perception.
- Explores what courage and boldness mean in contemporary Scotland.
- Published by Luath Press, Scotland's leading independent publisher.
- A thought-provoking challenge to Scotland's self-image.
About the Author
Gerry Hassan is a writer, commentator and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Dundee. His work centres on politics in Scotland and the wider UK, and he has written extensively on the Labour Party, the SNP, and the development of the Scottish Parliament.
He is the author of several influential books, including Caledonian Dreaming: The Quest for a Different Scotland (2014), Scotland the Bold, and The Strange Death of Labour Scotland (co‑authored). With Simon Barrow, he co‑edited A Nation Changed? The SNP and Scotland Ten Years On (2017), the first detailed assessment of the SNP’s decade in government. He also wrote The People’s Flag and the Union Jack (2019), the first major study of Labour and British identity.
His forthcoming work includes A Better Nation: The Challenges of Scottish Independence (with Simon Barrow), which explores how Scotland might approach the independence debate in a way that acknowledges differing perspectives and asks what kind of society the country wishes to build. Gerry regularly writes for the media and speaks at events across Scotland, the UK and internationally.
Simon Barrow is Director of Ekklesia, a think tank focused on beliefs, ethics and politics. From 2000 to 2005 he served as assistant general secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. He has contributed to and edited numerous books, including Scotland 2021, A Nation Changed? The SNP and Scotland Ten Years On (with Gerry Hassan), and Scotland the Brave? Twenty Years of Change and the Future of the Nation (also with Hassan).
His forthcoming publications include A Better Nation: The Challenges of Scottish Independence (with Gerry Hassan). Simon is also co‑founder and chair of the Scottish Football Supporters Association. He has lived in Leith since relocating to Scotland from England in 2010.
Publication Details
Publisher: Luath Press
Publication Date: 15 July 2019
Print Length: 352 pages (Ebook edition)
ISBN (Ebook): 9781912387618
Format: Ebook
Language: English
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