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Image description: a student holding an open book against her face. Error upon error has marked this year’s exam season. Prioritising avoiding grade inflation rather than fairness led to A Level chaos, and then a sudden change to BTec results caused widespread confusion: it seems that every consideration was made other than for the welfare […]
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Indyref2 is in the headlines again. This time, there seems to be a credible route to a second Scottish Independence referendum happening; Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the SNP, has pledged to start a new referendum campaign at the Scottish National Party conference. Now seems like a better time than any to introduce a debate […]
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On the 14th of October 2019, the Supreme Court of Spain sentenced 9 Catalan nationalist leaders to between 9 and 13 years of imprisonment for sedition and misuse of public funds, with 3 others sentenced for disobedience without prison time. This sentence, which had been anticipated since the October 2017 illegal referendum, has sparked violent […]
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One of the things I love about moving somewhere new for university is the opportunity to find new art galleries and new artists, which is why I chose to cycle fifteen minutes to see a new exhibition called Lace Weight at the North Wall Gallery. The artist being exhibited is Imogen Rigden, an Oxford local, […]
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This year marks two decades since the people of both Scotland and Wales voted ‘yes’ to devolution in referendums promised by Labour’s victorious 1997 manifesto. Blair was confident that devolved governments in Scotland and Wales would mean “the Union will be strengthened and the threat of separatism removed”. Since then, major policy areas such as education, health and housing have been dictated in […]
Continue ReadingFirst and foremost, this is not a piece in favour of Scottish independence. Arguably, it isn’t even one in favour of granting Scotland another referendum. However, I do wish to think through these issues and point out the hypocrisy in denying Scotland another referendum. Contradictory? Perhaps, but let’s move on. It is obvious that another […]
Continue ReadingPrime Minister Theresa May has announced that the UK will notify the European Union of its intent to leave on 29th March. If negotiations are completed within the two years outlined by this section of the 2009 Treaty of Lisbon, the UK will exit the Union in March 2019. EU leaders have further said that […]
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I was sat at a table having lunch with friends, friends from all over the world with myself as the token Scot, when they began asking me if I thought there was going to be another independence referendum in Scotland. Moments later, my trusted BBC app gave me the answer: it looks like it. I […]
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The Conservative Party’s relationship with Scotland has been turbulent to say the least. In 1955, they gained a majority of the Scottish vote – the first time this had been achieved by a party since the introduction of universal suffrage. In the 1959 election, they won the most votes, but Labour took the most seats. […]
Continue ReadingRead the other half of ‘The Conversation’ on Scottish independence here I am not a nationalist. I am neither a British nor a Scottish nationalist. I merely believe that independence is the best way to create a fairer, more socially conscious, more democratic society in Scotland. Thus, as a Yes voter, I don’t view myself […]
Continue ReadingThe Scottish independence debate is often distracted from being about the future of Scotland and the UK to being about a number of different issues. So first of all: what the debate should not be about. It is not about who loves Scotland the most. No one seeing the number of pictures of Scottish mountains […]
Continue ReadingThe Oxford Union was the scene of a heated and topical debate on Scottish independence last Thursday. Despite impassioned pleas from the proposition that Scotland should be an independent country, the opposition won the debate. The debate itself, however, was somewhat overshadowed by the scandal overhanging the union at the moment. Acting President Mayank Banerjee […]
Continue ReadingEvery year, on the 25th January, it is legally required for every member of the Democratic Republic of Scotland to pay homage and thanks eternal to Scotland’s favourite son, the Romantic poet Robert Burns. 1) Robert Burns: the Kim Il Sung of Ayrshire I start searching for ‘Burns’ Night’ in Google; before I hit the […]
Continue ReadingAn entry into Wikipedia’s more informal sister website, ‘Uncyclopedia’, more or less sums up the current challenges facing Scottish football; ‘as a rule Scotland does not succeed in sporting events…There may come a day when the odd fluke is not the only victory – until that day we Scottish hang our heads in a deep shame. […]
Continue ReadingJames McKean reckons the UK will stand or fall at the whim of the English.
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