Philippe Legrain at the Edinburgh Book Festival

A vision of a world fairer, safer, richer and greener.
Thomas Friedman says the world is flat – Philippe Legrain doesn’t think so. What matters most to how you do in life is where you are born and who your parents are. Philippe’s envisioned world is one where the benefits and opportunities of the middle classes [...]

How Stirling Albion and FC Barcelona Show the Way Forward for Football

Football is probably closest to our opiate of the masses. There’s plenty of social commentary on how football reflects our society. I’m certainly intrigued by how it grew in significance for British people at exactly the time that our society began to retreat. The launch of the Premier League in 1992 was a direct result [...]

From Facebook to the Streets: The Humble Spray Can Still Holds its Charm

The internet is a wonderful place to share ideas. It’s an even better place for sharing inane crap. Sometimes the two crash together to create something quite brilliant, like wikipedia and last month’s hilarious tory-advert meddling at Mydavidcameron.com. The net’s utterly anarchic structure, having something of Somalia’s law [...]

Why I’m no Longer Listening to Spotify

Last week saw the passage of the Digital Economy Bill, now the Digital Economy Act. As parliament was winding down before dissolution the government forced through the bill, which had had no proper debate in the commons, during what’s known as it’s wash up period. Though 236 MPs voted at the third reading [...]

Radio 3 interupted over Israel

This is a guest post written by Benedict Young – a member of York Palestine Solidarity Campaign
BBC Radio 3, at 13:17 (or so), March 29, was broadcasting a performance by the Jerusalem Quartet: string-playing Israeli soldiers, heavily promoted by the Israeli government in order to project a cultured image and so obfuscate [...]

Healthcare win shows Obama is no West Wing fan

Today’s news that the House of Representatives has passed an amended version of the healthcare Bill promised by Barack Obama shows an interesting contrast with the achievements of the Clinton administration. And of course, with the fictional administration of Jed Bartlett in the West Wing.
When I wrote a blog post about how I dislike the [...]

Are working class people just nicer?

Much bemused wryness in lefty workplaces across the land as an article in The Guardian goes slightly viral by reporting that people who buy ethical products are more likely to cheat or steal.
The authors of the study construct a highly speculative model of “moral balancing,” postulating that having made one ethical decision we feel licensed [...]

Why I hate the West Wing

I have a terrible confession to make. For someone who enjoys his politics, is intrigued by interpersonal interaction and has a, possibly undue, interest in public administration I hate the West Wing. I’m possibly the only person with this set of interests that can’t stand the programme.
It’s not because I dislike the actors, the production [...]

Burns night

It’s quite stereotypical for a progressive Scottish blog to use Burns’ birthday to talk about the bard’s politics. So rather than do that, I though I’d just post one of the slightly less well known poems, with a short historical explanation:
In 1786, The Highland society got together in London. They were highly concerned that 500 [...]

About

We are a collaborative blog with both regular and guest writers discussing news, politics and culture from a progressive Scottish perspective.

Editor-in-chief: Mark Ballard
Editors: Gary Dunion, Peter McColl, Adam Ramsay, Alasdair Thompson, Maggie Chapman

Subscribe to our feed

Search

Contact us

admin@brightgreenscotland.org