Does Scotland need MORE AI data centres?

Cultural wins are rare, so let’s celebrate them when they arrive. Community-based cultural organisations have welcomed a significant shift in Edinburgh’s cultural investment after the City of…

Reflections on hunting and the Scottish psyche. ‘The Cone Gatherers’, performed by Communicado at Tramway in 1991, was one of my earliest and most affecting theatrical experiences. It was performed…

The Skinny has its Mark Twain moment it seems, with a late reprieve. The contemporary visual arts organisation Outer Spaces will acquire shares in Radge Media CIC, the business behind The Skinny to…

Two weeks ago, the leaders of Scotland, Ireland and Wales met in Cardiff to sign an accord and announce a ‘Celtic Alliance’ [If You’re Feeling Sinister – Bella Caledonia]. Today, 200 po…

The Hate the State Made from Glasgow to Garvaghy Road Another woman beaten, raped, and murdered. And another morning of every woman mapping out the risks and calculations on how to stay alive. How …

Stochastic violence is the medium of our era. https://fiftysixdegreesnorth.substack.com/p/that-fascist-feeling?r=5teob&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Scotland suffers from institutional memory loss. One of the hidden aspects of the massive cuts to the University of Edinburgh announced last week is the attack on the eroded and hollowed-out Scotti…

After more than a year exploring the complex relationship between rural Scottish communities, renewable energy and the need for a dramatic response to climate breakdown through The Power Shift: Invest...

After more than a year exploring the complex relationship between rural Scottish communities, renewable energy and the need for a dramatic response to climate breakdown through The Power Shift: Invest...

Thirty-seven-year-old in custody on suspicion of crimes including criminal damage with intent to endanger life

As the University of Edinburgh moves to close a number of degree programmes, including the standalone degree in Scottish Ethnology, Kevin MacNeil reflects on the subject that changed the course of …

Nigel Farage's embrace of the UAE is part of a wider effort by the Gulf petrostate to build alliances with the far right across the West, says Alex Carlen.

I thought it was a good moment to look at where we are, writes Kat Jones.  Since Wednesday, Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS), and the many local community campaigns against hyperscale AI dat…

Out of the torpor, maybe. Suddenly, all sorts of shifts and fissures are appearing. After weeks of bumbling and mumbling Michael Marra emerged as leader of Labour in Scotland and admitted yesterday…

Out of the torpor, maybe. Suddenly, all sorts of shifts and fissures are appearing. After weeks of bumbling and mumbling Michael Marra emerged as leader of Labour in Scotland and admitted yesterday…

The announcement of cuts at Edinburgh University supports the argument that some of our fundamental institutions are not our own.

“There is a loss of any vestiges that the University of Edinburgh conceives of itself as primarily a Scottish institution.” – Alec Finlay. You could argue that this process began …

According to the journalist James McEnaney: “The SNP is accused of cruelty and a ‘betrayal’ of disabled people after John Swinney’s government abandoned plans for a new disa…

The Vote That Wasn’t a Moratorium: How Every Holyrood Party Actually Voted on Scotland’s Data Centres for Bella Caledonia. Prepared 19 September by Lustra Skye September 2026 as information for com…

The idea of a September reset is all in vogue, and to be honest, September seems like a better time of year than January for a rethink and a fresh start. The idea that the independence movement nee…

Everything’s Fine

‘Class is Everywhere’: Can something new making come out of the breaking?  Jonas Patrick Marvin, The Breaking of the English Working Class, Verso, £14.99. Reviewed by Ewan Gibbs. ‘Class is everywhe…

“It’s silly, no? When a rocket ship explodes and everybody still wants to fly But some say a man ain’t happy unless a man truly dies Oh why?” Prince, Sign O’ The Times (1987) This week the Un…

Less often, but music can still rise to the occasion. This week has been huge for Dua Lipa plays across the socials as the backlash against Sydney Sweeney’s degrading advert for Novig went vi…

How to sensitively support a friend, co-worker, or teammate who has been racially abused or assaulted. Last week on my way home, I experienced a racially motivated incident. As a dark-skinned, drea…

Scotland’s firefighters told us they can’t take anymore. In early August the Fire Brigades Union wrote to John Swinney demanding an urgent meeting on “capability, capacity and resilience”. After a …

In a moment that was perhaps higher in symbolism than substance, the leaders of the Celtic Nations gathered in Cardiff and signed a Memorandum of Understanding which asserted the right to self-dete…

An Irishman a Welshman, and a Scotsman walk into a bar. Actually, it’s not a joke, and the Irishman’s an Irish woman. The Plaid Cymru leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Scottish National par…

The mainstream media does not do nuance. So the results of international education tests called PISA have been reported as victory to England, because 15-year-olds there did significantly better in…

Leftfield is our regular preview of Scottish Left, anti-capitalist and radical events, publications and projects. Contact us here for suggestions to publicise your events.  ‘Finding The Radia…

At first glance, Angine de Poitrine, who filled the grand Usher Hall with bouncing humanity last week, appear to be an exercise in anti-art provocation. Taking the stage in absurd, polka dot costum…

It was 50 years ago today Rock against Racism was created. MARK PERRYMAN recalls the moment. 11 September 1976, I can still remember the scene, just like every Thursday morning before lessons, the …

THE OAK TREE ON KILPATRICK BRAE A poem by Ngan Nguyen    When Glasgow is not gentle to me  I go to the oak tree on Kilpatrick brae. It was blown over as a wee plant then grew up L-shaped. A lo…

So it turns out that a Scottish democracy, or certainly steps towards it, will arrive not by way of a Constitutional Assembly, a popular process, or a specific trigger point, but just ‘a feeling’.

So Now IS the Time, apparently. Andy Burnham has laid out the conditions for a second Scottish independence referendum during Prime Minister’s Questions. Sort of. To add to the impression of …

Scotland Undone: Nationalism, Dogma and Decline in the Devolution Era, Dean M Thomson, Vingo Publishing, £9.99. Reviewed by Alec Ross In the last couple of weeks, the SNP has published its programm…