Scottish national identity

Undoubtedly, The Scottish Nationalist Party today dominates Scottish Politics in an impressive, and to some, even unthinkable way when compared to the party’s grassroots standing a mere 10 years ago. As of 2015, the SNP party is by in large the biggest political party in Scotland in terms of membership, reporting over 112,000 members, or more than 2% of the Scottish population (Scottish Parliament, 2015). But, this domination is perhaps not much of a surprise when the parties leaders, plans and goals are studied systematically, and I will argue that while there are undoubtedly a multitude of reasons to why individuals vote the way they do, perhaps we can classify these instances into 3 main categories: a push for national independence, a trend…

Scotland V.S. Canada Every year, my family and I go to Scotland for 2 weeks, and every year I have an amazing Scottish soda named Irn Bru. The soda tastes amazing, and I always feel happy after having some. Irn Bru was made in Scotland in 1901 by a company named Barr. Barr makes many great tasting sodas, they make many types. Ex: crème soda, lemonade, limeade. Etc. whenever I go to Scotland that is the first thing I would want to have. When I’m in Scotland, I would also want to get chocolate…

My passion for politics started when I was 12 years old, after I started noticing things on television concerning Scottish Independence. I saw the independence referendum as a chance for me to speak out about how I wanted my future to be, regardless of whether I would get to vote or not (which obviously, I wouldn’t). What I did not know though, is that just researching about Scottish and British Politics would cause me to branch out to other countries politics and become more aware social and…

Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell (1901-1935). Born of peasant ancestry, Gibbon was an active socialist and writer at work during the Scottish Renaissance of the early to mid twentieth century alongside such contemporaries as Neil M. Gunn (1891-1973) and Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978). The author 's careful employment of stream-of-consciousness technique, the Scots idiom and social realism have marked this particular text out as one of the most innovative and defining…

In 2015 over 2,800 children in Scotland were found to be needing protection from some form of abuse. The named person scheme aims to prevent this. The Scottish government says that a named person will be someone who will be there for parents and their children when they need help and do not know where to go. A named person will usually be a health visitor for a pre-school child and a head teacher or guidance teacher for a child of school age. The scheme was created with the aim of overseeing…

L01 Increasingly in recent times there have been questions raised as to whether the interests of the Scottish people would be better served closer to home. Some have argued for greater legislative powers to be transferred to Holyrood, whilst others instead see separation from the Union as being the key to meeting the needs of the people. This essay will examine these issues and more surrounding the governance of Scotland. When looking at what events were pivotal on the road to Scottish…

Roy Porter has discussed the Scottish Enlightenment in these terms and in his own words, spliced ‘Scottish thinkers into the British story as a whole’. The historiography suggests many scholars and historians consider the Scottish Enlightenment to be a consequence of closer association with England and more specifically as a direct result of the Union of Crowns in 1707. Many key figures of the Enlightenment were born or were educated in Scotland, and Scotland’s contribution to the world is…

he First Minister (FM) in Scotland is the head of the Scottish cabinet and has responsibility for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish government policy. These roles- and numerous additional ones- indicate that the FM does, in fact, play an important roles within the Scottish Parliament. This essays main focus will be to evaluate the FM's importance; specifically, his importance in regards to decision making within the parliament and consequently within Scotland itself. The…

unprecedented boom in the Scottish National Party (SNP), originally a relatively unimportant minor party pursuing the dream of independence for Scotland, which has changed Scottish and British politics forever. This has been a prominent issue challenging journalists, researchers, political commentators and certainly other major parties for the last decade or so, provoking a seemingly simple though entirely complex and certainly disputed question – why is it that people vote for the SNP? Forming…

In community education there is also often a responsibility with working with poor or disadvantaged communities and this stems from the mid 1900s when reforms began in relation to health, housing and government and people responding to and supporting the voice of the poor admist these reforms. In Part 1 of the Scottish Executive Guidance for Community Learning and Development there is a section which reads ‘In many parts of Scotland poverty and disadvantage are concentrated in particular…