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1 week ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Calum Barnes
This is adapted from a talk at the Trocchi at 100 event in the Kelvinhall Glasgow organised by the Department of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University and the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies. There is always the writerly temptation to mimic the style of the author you are writing about, one that is always at risk of descending into cheap parody. It’s a temptation I find hard to resist in these circumstances.
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3 weeks ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Mike Small
“My work exists, with or without any award, reward, or prize. I regard the award as an acknowledgement of my work, a verification that it does, after all, exist.” James Kelman, on receiving his Saltire Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024.
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3 weeks ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Gerry Hassan
Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehall has proven to be a consequential Scottish by-election. Not of the mythical levels of Hamilton 67 or Govan 73, but contests like that are few and far between. Yet in a world where by-election aren’t what they used to be, it has thrown significant light on Scottish politics and the major protagonists. Labour gained a seat from the SNP, against the expectations of the commentators and prevailing wisdom which says much about both.
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3 weeks ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Mike Small
Yesterday’s election result in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse represents a nadir of Scottish politics, with the election of a candidate who spent most of the campaign in hiding from the media, or being hidden from the public, by his own party, because he was incapable of stringing a sentence together.
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3 weeks ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Mike Small
Reform’s (seeming) inexorable rise isn’t inevitable, and we should do well to remember the advice of those such as Timothy Synder whose first chapter in ‘On Tyranny’ was “Do not obey in advance”. Reform’s (seeming) inexorable rise isn’t, and never was, inevitable; it has required vast amounts of dark money and friends in high places.
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4 weeks ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Jamie Maxwell
Jamie Maxwell travels across Europe from Helsinki to Sarajevo and reports for Bella on the simmering ethnic politics of Belgrade and Budapest. Here he examines Serbia’s nationalist/authoritarian president, Alexandar Vucic, his pro-Russian ties, and the persistence of the Kosovo question in Serbian politics. The slogans scrawled across the streets of Belgrade do nothing to lift Serbia’s reputation as the most hostile member of the European family.
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1 month ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Mike Small
Nigel Farage has poured poison into the well of Scottish politics by spreading a heavily edited advert that accused Anas Sarwar of prioritising the Pakistani community. In doing so, he is feeding into a standard far-right trope that Europe is under threat from “multiculturalism” and mass immigration, specifically of Muslims. Farage knows exactly what he is doing and is indulging in his now trademark racism and Islamophobia.
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1 month ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Mike Small
We have become used to watching targeted killings and slaughter. But yesterday, an image so startling it broke through even the grim tedium. The girl who was trapped in flames during the strike on Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School, is the sole surviving member of her family. Her name is Ward Sheik Khalil. Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4’s International Editor retold the story. Warning this contains distressing images. But then something else happened, her story started to get twisted.
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1 month ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Mike Small
The desultory nature of Scottish and UK politics seems at a new low ebb. In a land where everything is for sale, all of Scotland feels like a Flamingoland. In Balloch, on the shores of Loch Lomond, the community has stood up against the developer to oppose plans for a gigantic theme park that has been proven again and again to be completely inappropriate.
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1 month ago | 
bellacaledonia.org.uk | Mike Small
“Some sections of Scotland’s fishing industry have accused Sir Keir Starmer’s government of “capitulating” to the EU over a deal on access to UK waters. Labour ministers have agreed a 12-year deal which extends existing access for EU boats in exchange for reduced checks and restrictions on food exports.