We can’t wish away the National Question

Zoe McKeown provides a rounded view on the questions facing the left in Scotland – and across Britain – and the considers the potential of a campaign to achieve real Home Rule.

Poetry Corner: A Man’s a Man for a’ That by Robert Burns

A Man’s a Man for a’ That by Robert Burns, 1795.

Robert (or Rabbie) burns was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, on 25 January 1759. Burns was born to tenant farming parents, initially had very little formal education and worked as a farm labourer from a young age.

Burns drew much from what little patchy education he did receive but continued to work a variety of manual jobs. Burns’s father was unfortunate in farming and the family moved often, compelled by poverty and hardship.

Orange Order in Scotland

The Orange Order marching season is an extremely challenging annual fixture for Scotland for obvious reasons – principally, it ignites tribal loyalties which often split communities and occasionally even families into polarised sub-groupings. Most Scots correctly identify the Orange Order as being a protestant institution originating across the Irish sea, but less known is the […]