If English subtitles don't appear, please hover over base of video frame and click on the letters 'CC'. Alternatively, please go to following Youtube page and, if necessary, click on 'CC': https://youtu.be/pV2NseGmi6o
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Tha Ailig Salmond air a bhith gu mòr airson neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba fad a bheatha. San t-Sultain 2014 thàinig e glè fhaisg air sin a thoirt gu buil. Ann an leabhar-latha inntinneach, air a sgrìobhadh na dhòigh eirmseach fhèin, tha Salmond gar toirt a-steach gu cridhe na h-iomairt BU CHÒIR, a' sealltainn dè chaidh a ràdh agus a chaidh a dhèanamh air cùlaibh gnothaich fhad 's a bha an iomairt a' ruighinn àird na teasaich. Tha e a' sealltainn mar a thug iomairt BU CHÒIR ath-bheothachadh do dh'Alba air fad agus mar a rinn e ath-sgrìobhadh air na riaghailtean airson iomairt phoilitigeach am measg an t-sluaigh, chan ann a-mhàin san RA ach air feadh an t-saoghail. Tha e cuideachd a' coimhead air adhart ris "a' cheist nàiseanta" chudromaich ann am poileataigs ann am Breatann, a' dèanamh gu math soilleir nach b' e deireadh na cùis a bha san reifreann ach am fìor thoiseach. Tha an dòchas airson neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba cho fallainn 's a bha e a-riamh.
I am currently discussing the possibility of turning my book ‘London Calling: How the BBC stole the Referendum’ into an hour-long documentary. The project is at an early stage and outlines are currently sketchy, but if and when it turns into reality then the filmmaker will launch a crowd-funding appeal. If the editor allows, I’ll announce it on Newsnet.scot. In the meantime, please watch the short video above for a flavour of how the introduction to such a documentary might look.
As Ralph Miliband wrote: “There is a Tory way of carrying out Tory policies, and there is a Labour way of carrying out Tory policies.” Today we explore the scale and roots of the Labour crisis ahead of examining the new leaders victory over the weekend.
“The Conservative Party has dominated British politics to such an extent during the twentieth century that it is likely to become known as the ‘Conservative century’. Either standing alone or as the most powerful element in a coalition, the party will have held power for seventy of the hundred years since 1895.”– Anthony Seldon and Stuart Ball, 1994 (1)
The main story of the 2015 UK general election was, undoubtedly, the remarkable victory of the SNP ending, as it did, Labour’s near 60-year dominance of UK general elections in Scotland. As significant as these developments in Scotland are, there is another (related) story to tell about the 2015 general election: the re-emergence of the Tories to electoral dominance in England in the twenty-first century after a brief period of being out of power. The other side of this story is the structural weakness of Labour in England, as this suggests, Labour’s weakness pre-dates 2015. But it is these two issues, together with the sea-change that has occurred in Scotland, which will shape the landscape of British politics for some time. More importantly, as the consequences of these developments are played out they will, in all likelihood, determine both the timing and the outcome of a second independence referendum. To make sense of these developments in England, though, it is helpful to start in the 1990s. There are two related issues here: first, the crisis of the Conservative Party after its victory in the 1992 general election, and second, the exceptionalism, in electoral terms, of New Labour.
"The twentieth-century Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977) left behind an impressive canon of philosophical works and has continued to influence a scholarly community in Europe and North America, which has extended, critiqued, and applied his thought in many academic fields. Jonathan Chaplin introduces Dooyeweerd for the first time to many English readers by critically expounding Dooyeweerd’s social and political thought and by exhibiting its pertinence to contemporary civil society debates.
Chaplin begins by contextualizing Dooyeweerd’s thought, first in relation to present-day debates and then in relation to the work of the Dutch philosopher Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920). Chaplin outlines the distinctive theory of historical and cultural development that serves as an essential backdrop to Dooyeweerd’s substantive social philosophy; examines Dooyeweerd’s notion of societal structural principles; and sets forth his complex classification of particular types of social structure and their various interrelationships. Chaplin provides a detailed examination of Dooyeweerd’s theory of the state, its definitive nature, and its proper role vis-à-vis other elements of society. Dooyeweerd’s contributions, Chaplin concludes, assist us in mapping the ways in which state and civil society should be related to achieve justice and the public good."