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Eleanor Blatchley
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Alex Ford
: Talking to the Taliban in Afghanistan Doesn't Betray the Dead - It Honours Them
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Rob Hopkins
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
It is clear that the SNP's version of independence is not full independence and that could be detrimental to Scotland. The report supported by the Scottish government to retain the same welfare set-up with the UK has been the latest report to exemplify this point.
The stories of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution have generally been successful. But is it time to take a step further and give England its own parliament? Should we take a another leap down the road to federalism? And what will its repercussions be?
"It just doesn't happen. Unless you're Aberdeen." Willie Miller, the youngest captain in Aberdeen's history, talks about the moment provincial Scotti...
I have read recently with horror, that the Westminster Government are going to sanction military style "free" schools. Hopefully with our Scottish Ed...
The prevalence of violent people in Scotland is 13.6 times that of terrorists among Muslims. In fact, this is an understatement. A Scotsman who has committed a violent crime is more likely to be out of prison than a Muslim terrorist, either because he's more likely to have gotten away with his crime or because he's more likely to have finished his sentence.
As a political party in Scotland, UKIP are a nonentity. This is a fact that should have made Nigel Farage's recent visit to Edinburgh an event of minimal importance, rather than the fracas it turned into.
I don't say this often, but it's high time that British politics take a page out of Hollywood's playbook: if you don't like something, make a brief - but scathing - offering of condemnation, and then never speak of it again.
Aaron spent two happy years at the school and settled in well. He thrived in its challenging environment, made lots of new friends and formed bonds with his teachers. Then, in the middle of 2012, the Council told me that they wanted to take Aaron out of his school.
I helped sell a 64-year-old Trinitas from The Dalmore in 2010 for £100,000 and in 2011 The Dalmore Sinclair was bought in Singapore Changi Airport for a cool £135,000. I'm told that the buyer went on to drink it there and then.
Last month, Scotland's police made a radical policy shift, announcing they would no longer seek to prosecute people brought to the UK to work against their will. This shift is crucial: a "victim focused" approach is needed, if we want to achieve better results in the fight against human trafficking.
'Whisky Galore!' the wartime film and story of the people of Eriskay seizing upon the whisky cargo of a nearby shipwreck, has forged headlines and cultural associations of the drink, since it hit our screens almost 65 years ago. And the associations continue to this day. Last week, one lucky buyer paid £12,050 for two bottles of that now infamous cargo.
I had begun writing the song, Death Row, in September 2011. The week that I had started to write it, Troy Davis was executed in Georgia after almost 20 years on death row. I was struck by the horrific nature of his sentencing. I believe that the death penalty is wrong in all circumstances, but Troy Davis's case was particularly chilling. After his initial trial, witnesses had admitted that they had lied in their evidence against him.
Scottish politics has not, thus far, swung towards the scapegoating UKIP and BNP politics of hatred. We should be asking why Murray, Smart and even McConnell and Murphy seem to wish it to do so?
As I sit typing on my laptop, I'm aware of an irresistible urge: to check my emails; check social networking sites; check whether there's been any update since I last checked five minutes ago! The thing is, I'm not crazy about technology, but if you're anything like me, you'll know it's easier said than done escaping it.
Independence is a simple thing really. The ability to do as one pleases without outside interference. True, no country is truly independent in today's globalized world. But it is fallacious for Salmond is lead a vanguard suggesting independence would bring radical change to Scotland.
Now is the time for the Labour party to create a new discourse and move away from "the Reagan and Thatcher settlement" Ed Miliband knows that he cannot sit back and watch the Coalition unravel, but if he is to win the next election, he has to set out moral and ideological terms for the future of the party.
