The answer, when it came, was insultingly brief – perhaps deliberately so. Contrary to some speculation at the weekend, Johnson’s letter to the First Minister showed no signs of careful thought or legal briefing or even a sense that these were weighty matters. A quick reference to the ‘once in a generation’ canard, some falseContinue reading “What is to be Done?”
Category Archives: Politics
Uncanny Britannia
What on earth is up with British unionism? Although not especially reflective at the best of times, this ideology has recently been thrust into explicitness in disturbing ways. It’s often said that Brexit is in part driven by an upsurge of English nationalism, but I don’t buy that – if only because there’s no suchContinue reading “Uncanny Britannia”
Ruth Davidson, Mental Health and Tory Policy
Co-authored with ‘Irene Sutcliffe’ On 16 September, the Sunday Times published an interview with the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson. The piece was both about Davidson’s private and public lives (the two can’t really be separated, not in her line of work): her pregnancy and the importance to her and her partner ofContinue reading “Ruth Davidson, Mental Health and Tory Policy”
Undiscovered Countries: Shakespeare’s Britain
‘He was not of an age, but for all time!’ That’s what Shakespeare’s friend Ben Jonson wrote in memory of him, a mere seven years after he died, and long before some kind of posterity had had a chance to show its hand. Such claims were not that uncommonly made for poets of the period;Continue reading “Undiscovered Countries: Shakespeare’s Britain”
JAMES LOXLEY 