Citizens United by Henry McLeish sampler
The future of Scotland is at a crossroads as Brexit creates more complexity and confusion. The SNP has lost momentum and a window of opportunity has emerged for a wider and deeper debate about the current political situation both in Scotland and the UK. What’s the matter with democracy in Britain and how can we make citizenship meaningful in such turbulent times? How is populism changing how we view politics, political parties and democracy? Europe is our future – how can we stay in the EU? How can we address the anger, mistrust and fear currently dominating the public discourse and bitterly dividing Britain? What is Scotland’s future role within the UK? How do we develop a more inspired politics where the citizen is valued and taken seriously? This book examines the most pressing issues facing us today in the context of the political and constitutional upheaval that is coursing throughout Western democracies. The shock politics of Trump and Brexit demonstrate that the political landscape has changed and we face an uncertain future. Henry McLeish offers a new approach to get us out of the mess we’re in.
The future of Scotland is at a crossroads as Brexit creates more complexity and confusion. The SNP has lost momentum and a window of opportunity has emerged for a wider and deeper debate about the current political situation both in Scotland and the UK.
What’s the matter with democracy in Britain and how can we make citizenship meaningful in such turbulent times?
How is populism changing how we view politics, political parties and democracy?
Europe is our future – how can we stay in the EU?
How can we address the anger, mistrust and fear currently dominating the public discourse and bitterly dividing Britain?
What is Scotland’s future role within the UK?
How do we develop a more inspired politics where the citizen is valued and taken seriously?
This book examines the most pressing issues facing us today in the context of the political and constitutional upheaval that is coursing throughout Western democracies. The shock politics of Trump and Brexit demonstrate that the political landscape has changed and we face an uncertain future. Henry McLeish offers a new approach to get us out of the mess we’re in.
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setting the scene amidst turbulent politics<br />
disunited kingdom with no sense of national purpose – ‘four nations’ a<br />
lie, but not recognised.<br />
The depth of this social fracture was captured <strong>by</strong> Benjamin Disraeli<br />
– Conservative prime minister and novelist – in Sybil: Or the Two<br />
Nations. Referring specifically to the divide between the rich and the<br />
poor in 19th century Britain, he wrote:<br />
Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no<br />
sympathy; who are ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts and<br />
feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants<br />
of different planets; who are formed <strong>by</strong> a different breeding, are<br />
fed <strong>by</strong> different food and are ordered <strong>by</strong> different manners, and<br />
are not governed <strong>by</strong> the same laws.<br />
Money, ideology and the highly destructive advance of the market<br />
into the social and public realms are dividing today’s Britain. Politics is<br />
no longer out in the open. A market economy is fast becoming a market<br />
society where no alternative narrative of public philosophy exists.<br />
Our Democracy is Weak and Ineffective<br />
For the majority of people, voting is their only link with the complex<br />
structure of democracy, politics and governance that helps shape our<br />
society and makes sense of the tough process of arriving at collective<br />
decisions out of a bewildering array of multiple and competing interests,<br />
opinions, ideas and lifestyles.<br />
The Greek words ‘demos’ (people) and ‘kratos’ (power), combine in<br />
the word democracy to become symbolic of an inspiring and powerful<br />
but remarkably difficult idea to deliver. It was Abraham Lincoln in his<br />
Gettysburg address who said, ‘government of the people, <strong>by</strong> the people,<br />
for the people, shall not perish from this earth’.<br />
How do these lofty ideals reflect what is happening at Westminster,<br />
post election? How can a Conservative party with 29 per cent of the<br />
eligible votes cast on 8 June 2017 form a Government? Why do 60 per<br />
cent of those who did vote, but voted for other parties, end up having<br />
little influence on how Britain is run in the next five years? Can it be<br />
right that the Democratic Unionist Party (dup) with only 279,000 votes<br />
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