Articles by Mark Ballard
Great Green Campaigns: Scotland 2003
Posted on March 22, 2012 | 2 Comments
Was the Scottish Green Party’s Scottish Parliament election campaign in 2003 an example of a ‘great green campaign’? In many ways, no. We had very little money, few activists outside Edinburgh and Glasgow, a tiny and damp national office, two paid staff members, and generally had to beg or borrow resources (including sometimes having to [...]
The Scottish Independence Debate and England
Posted on January 24, 2012 | 14 Comments
I’ve just finished listening to a particularly unenlightening discussion of the UK’s constitutional future on BBC Radio 4 and, once again, I’m left despairing at the shallowness of the analysis. For a start, this is not just a debate about Scotland and England. There are two other nations in the United Kingdom which the BBC [...]
Caroline Hoffmann: a Tribute
Posted on December 6, 2011 | 10 Comments
Dr Caroline Hoffmann (1964-2011) was a member of the Scottish Green Party and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, an ecologist, a sailor and an LGBT rights campaigner. She died on the 4th December 2011 after a long struggle with leukaemia. In 1998 the Scottish Green Party hadn’t got much in the way of assets. Most of the [...]
Ignore the Hype: The Scottish Election will be Won on the Ground
Posted on April 7, 2011 | 17 Comments
To read some of the more lurid political commentary you’d think the outcome of the Holyrood election was already clear – Alex Salmond’s charismatic display in the televised leader’s debate has consigned the Gray-led Labour Party to defeat, Annabel Goldie’s ‘nation’s favourite auntie’ act sees the Tories set fair for a decent night, the Lib-Dems [...]
Welcome to Bright Green
Posted on January 19, 2010 | 4 Comments
Like many other places, Scotland has a proud history of social progress. The Highlands were the home of the first socialised medicine in the UK. For generations Scottish universities were more democratically controlled and publicly accessible than those in England. This tradition cannot be defined by a shopping list of policies. Rather, it is about [...]