Book Preview: Scotland 2021 (Simon Barrow)

Please buy the book here.

What kind of country do you want to live in? What should we demand of our political leaders? What should our priorities be for the next 5 years? The book explores a wide variety of practical radical innovation and policy challenges, attempting to go beyond narrow tribalism and the political here and now to take a longer view.

Impossible to summarise its 40 chapters – headings and authors will need to do!

  1. Landscapes and futures
  • Reasons for progressives to be cheerful or not                                 Joyce McMillan
  • A ‘Famous Five’ approach to change                                                  Irvine Welsh
  • Creating an ideas-rich environment for Scotland                             Robin McAlpine
  • Scotland and Europe: renewing our vision                                        Alyn Smith
  • Not politics, but marketing: Scottish elections                                  Ian Dommett
  • Can Scotland become a Nordic country?                                           Alistair Davidson
  • What can we learn from the EU referendum debate?                    David Gow
  • Towards a Scottish foreign policy                                                      Adam Ramsay
  • A new politics for Scotland?                                                               Maggie Chapman
  • Choices facing Labour in Scotland                                                     Bill Gilby
  • Where next for socialists in Scotland?                                              Connor Beaton
  • Out with the new and in with the bold                                             Emily St Denny
  1. Policies and perspectives
  • Key choices facing higher education                                                Doug Chalmers
  • A challenging landscape for the Scottish media                             Paul Holleron
  • A new approach to refugees and asylum seekers                         Khuloud Alsaba
  • Is the time right for urban land reform?                               Lee Bunce, Sara Marsden, Niamh Webster, Hamish Allan
  • A right to health                                                                               Anuj Kapilashrami, Sara Marsden, Tony Robertson
  • Where next for gender justice?                                                      Lesley Orr
  • Enabling the participation of disabled people in politics             Jamie Szymkowiak
  • Fear, loathing and gentrifying paradise                                        Neil Cooper
  • Childcare reform and the case for a major cultural shift            Vonny Moyes
  • How might Scotland handle its taxation powers?                        Wendy Bradley
  • Building on LGBTIQ and equality gains                                        Kirsty McAlpine
  • Humanism, Scotland and an unpredictable future                       Tim Maguire
  • Imagine and act for a more just Scotland                                       Richard Frazer
  • Religion and belief in Scotland                                                          Matthew Ross
  • Women’s equality in Scotland’s parliament                                    Talat Yaqoob
  • Co-operatives are vital for economic & social democracy             Mary Lockhart
  • Sustainability and flourishing                                                            Jan Bebbington
  • An economy focused on wellbeing                                                     Katherine Trebeck
  • Beyond “a greener Scotland”                                                             Iain Black, Katherine Trebeck, Deirdre Shaw
  • Rethinking criminal justice in Scotland                                             Mark Smith, Trish McCulloch
  1. Nation and imagination
  • 3 dreams of modern Scottish nationalism                                        Gerry Hassan
  • Scotland in post-colonial perspective                                                Michael Marten
  • No settled will: what next?                                                                 Stuart Fairweather
  • Grassroots political campaigning                                                       Jane Denholm, Tam McTurk
  • The threat of a good example                                                            Bernadette Meaden
  • Global action beyond nation and identity                                        Milja Radivic
  • The class factor in the independence question                               James Maxwell
  • (Re)imagining Scotland’s future                                                       Doug Gay
  • New leaves – a poem                                                                         Alison Phipps
  • The practicalities of “getting radical”                                              Simon Barrow

Yes Edinburgh West has a website, Facebook, Twitter, National Yes Registry and a Library of topics on Scottish Politics, including Independence.