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Christopher Silver

scottish writer and journalist

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Category: Scottish Politics

Picture Post Plan for Britain
Coronavirus, Scottish Politics Posted on7th September 202011th September 2020

If this crisis is a war, we have to start asking what we’re fighting for

What does nationalism look like? Images of flags and people marching around them, collective weeping for the fallen, the seals and offices of state, the […] Read More

Edinburgh old town from Salisbury Craigs
Culture, Scottish Politics Posted on1st March 20209th September 2020

Capital of amnesia

“Nostalgia doesn’t create good policy. Nostalgia dragging you back to a year that is gone and a place and time that is gone doesn’t give […] Read More

Politics, Scottish Politics Posted on17th December 201917th February 2020

Independence is not a Lifeboat, it’s a Mutiny

Getting told to cheer up isn’t the worst aspect of the social-media-politics vortex by any means, but it’s one of the most soul-sapping. You ok […] Read More

Scottish Politics Posted on2nd June 201817th February 2020

Beyond the normal: why the technocrats won’t set you free

“Stop the world, Scotland wants to get on” is an odd rallying cry for a national movement. It is not a “free or a desert” […] Read More

Scottish Politics Posted on3rd September 20173rd February 2018

Dugdale retains her sense of who she is, but does her party?

On balance, Kezia Dugdale was the most capable leader of Scottish Labour since Donald Dewar. That might seem like a molehill of an achievement given […] Read More

Scottish Politics Posted on21st August 201721st August 2017

How Yes can remain relevant in the face of political exhaustion

Scotland frequently struggles to remind itself of certain basic facts about its politics. Such is the lot of a half-country: with its lack of a […] Read More

Scottish Politics Posted on14th August 201714th August 2017

Responsibility, dignity, maturity – why angry movements persuade no-one

“Was it too busy in standard?” is a legitimate enough question to pose to a frontline politician like Yvette Cooper. You can imagine the sense […] Read More

Scottish Politics Posted on29th June 20172nd August 2017

A renewed search for Yes amidst the debris of Brexit

On the morning of June 24 last year, when the UK decided to leave the European Union, there was little comfort to be had. Ever […] Read More

Politics, Scottish Politics Posted on22nd June 20172nd August 2017

Tales of two cities: Can Scotland’s anti-Tory majority be mobilised?

Sometimes events on the ground throw mainstream politics into flux. If you’re sceptical of such an assertion it is worth nothing that, as I write, […] Read More

Scottish Politics Posted on22nd May 20172nd August 2017

How the Tories gamed devolution and why we can’t let them win

In 2007 I overheard a conversation in an Edinburgh pub on the politics of devolution. This was, as I recall, an unusual occurrence at the […] Read More

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Cover image © Daniel Seex 

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