Scotland
Burns Bridges
‘Would Robert Burns have supported independence for Scotland? His politics are hard to pin down’
Overrated: Robert Burns
The mawkish cult of Rabbie distracts us from the beauty of the Scottish poet’s exquisite verse
Europe’s Implosion Could Save the UK
Alex Salmond’s slogan, “Independence in Europe”, is no longer appealing. Unionists have a chance to reset the referendum debate
The Apostle of Aldeburgh
Benjamin Britten’s festival proves that in music small is beautiful
For the Sake of Auld Lang Syne?
Scottish devolution is now a fact of life. But the Union is still in Scotland’s interests, despite the rise of nationalism
Tartan Tales
The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History by Hugh Trevor-Roper
As English as Warm Beer
I could not consent to the introduction into our national life of a device so alien to all our traditions as the referendum,” Clement Attlee told Winston Churchill in May 1945, “which has only too often been the instrument of Nazism and Fascism.”
Carrying water for freedom
Hong Kong’s protestors are brave and, so far, successful. The Chinese Communist Party leadership must be kicking itself
Discussions with a stone wall
Britain’s main gay rights organisation is risking its own future by adopting gender self-ID as its new cause
In the heartlands of white-flag academia
When I tried to find out why my pro-Brexit article was turned down I was rebuffed — showing the intellectual conformism of universities