Blue Labour is interesting because it has something new to say. Or more accurately, perhaps, something that only seems new because it is so old, forgotten by contemporary political debate for many decades: a renewed focus on the ancient idea, at the heart of classic political and religious thought, of the common good.
At its best Labour isn’t utopian, it is modernist: an unsentimental party oriented to the future. Progressive, yes, but with a glint of steel. Thoughts on Scottish Labour’s renewal.
What is the Yes movement? A protest? A religion? A cult? No: with its discipline, utopianism, strategic intelligence and sense of historic agency it bears the classic hallmarks of a revolutionary movement.
A view of the 2015 General Election from a plane window, with the blue haze shimmering over the tip of Greenland: I discuss some important issues that aren’t being talked about.
Notes on an exhibition tracing the work, ideals and lasting influence of the great Victorian artist, designer, poet, novelist and campaigner William Morris.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been glad to help with the development of a new current affairs website, Sceptical Scot, which launched this week. The site hopes to bring more light than heat to the ongoing, intense discussion over the future of Scotland in the wake of last year’s referendum.
I’m writing this in a notebook, prior to another canvassing session, on a bitter February day, looking out of the cafe window, watching the passers-by on their way back to homes whose peace I may soon be disturbing. Reflections on the banality and necessity of day-to-day political campaigning.