The Barlinnie Special Unit – the less obvious lessons

The Barlinnie Special Unit: Art, Punishment and Innovation edited by Kirstin Anderson. Waterside Press, published 1st October. £25. A new book explores the lessons learned from the Barlinnie Special Unit (1973 -1994) and what it tells us about contemporary discussions of incarceration, violence, power, class and media. The Special Unit in HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow […] Source

Andrew Marr, Gaelic and Scots

This is an expanded version of a piece I wrote for The National a few days ago. I’m reposting it here with some additions in the light of Marr’s apology for his insulting and ignorant comments about the Gaelic language and its place in Scottish culture. It’s the sad and ignorant…

Save The People’s Story

“How can this shameful tale be told? I will maintain until my death We could do nothing, being sold; Our only enemy was gold And we had no arms to fight it with.” -Edwin Muir The sudden closure of The People’s Story museum on Canongate has taken everyone by surprise. Including the councillors for the […] Source

From Roe to Scotland: Protecting our Hospitals from Extremists

After a long and determined campaign by Back Off Scotland, the proposed bill to ban anti-abortion protesters from Scotland’s clinics passed almost unanimously in June this year. The act has since received royal assent and became enforceable from 24th September—a great victory for reproductive rights in Scotland. However, the people of Scotland are not out […] Source

Starmer’s honeymoon is well and truly over

Before Labour’s inevitable victory in July’s Westminster general election, I predicted that Starmer’s government would soon become very unpopular as voters realised that the ‘change’ which he had promised was no real change at all, it was simply the continuation of the same old damaging Tory neoliberal nostrums, delivered somewhat less…