"Like in the rest of Scotland, a nip is filling the autumn air. We make our way to our destination: the Cladhan Hotel, which houses asylum seekers from around the world. The anti-immigrant protests here have become emblematic of what is ailing Scotland today." By: @sukhadatatke.bsky.social

I wrote a long essay on the myth of Scottish exceptionalism for @inkstickmedia.com, featuring Braveheart, anti-immigration protests in Falkirk, rise of the saltire flags, Thatcher in Scotland and so on. Thanks to @patrickobrienstrickland.com for giving this essay a lovely home 👇🏾 tinyurl.com/4n8u5tsu

"Until a year ago, Scotland (or Scottish politicians) wouldn’t have touched with a bargepole the toxic debates on multiculturalism ripping through other parts of the United Kingdom. Now, they have arrived at its doorstep." By: @sukhadatatke.bsky.social

After months of planning and plotting, safe to say our conference yesterday was a success. A big thank you to everyone present. Some highlights⤵️ @johnswinney.bsky.social @anassarwar.bsky.social @stephenboydippr.bsky.social @davehawkey.bsky.social @caseysmithippr.bsky.social @sukhadatatke.bsky.social

📢NEW BLOG📢 Taking off from International Women's Day, @sukhadatatke.bsky.social draws on our latest research to highlight the urgent need to tackle challenges that disproportionately affect women. @opfs.org.uk @fifegingerbread.bsky.social @carersscotland.bsky.social www.ippr.org/articles/wom...

This is a 🧵 in which I aim to persuade you to support @freelibsnet.bsky.social and, if your finances permit it, to take advantage of the many fabulous offers in its #LibraryLove fun(d)-raiser.

How we damage the people we're meant to protect. Alice Munro: A Case Study www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

LitHub names this among their favorite essays of 2024

Persons of the Year — two whose courage and integrity under extreme loss and horror stood out to me: Gisèle Pélicot, who spoke for so many when she said that "shame must change sides". And Wael al-Dahdouh: "They took revenge on us through our children." www.theguardian.com/world/2024/o...

Man after grotesque man in l'affaire Pelicot has used his history of trauma or unhappy childhood to justify what he did. How come women, who've suffered endless trauma (often at the hands of men!) in childhood & beyond, find ways to manage it that don't involve drugging, raping & assaulting others?

Devolution is clearly one of the super powers we haven't fully utilised yet for so many 'wicked problems' that would benefit from a rethink.

Oohh look! My publisher is having a monster 50% off sale in honour of my book, Monstrous Longing, being shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. Spend over £15 to use the code Monster50 and get all your last Christmas presents! 🎁🎄📚

Meeting André Aciman was one of the most memorable highlights of my year. frontline.thehindu.com/books/memory...

Do watch this searingly stark docu on the Gujarat riots of 2002. Rakesh Sharma's footage and coverage are the best of all the work that has emerged on this catastrophic event. I was eye witness, but don't take my word for it. Watch it!

Today marks one of the most important days in Scottish politics: the budget 🪙 But how do UK and Scottish budgets interact with each other, and is @scottishgovernment.bsky.social doing the long term work to meet future challenges? @caseysmithippr.bsky.social explains ⤵️ www.ippr.org/articles/why...

Happy Scottish Budget Day to all those who celebrate… Hoping for some progressive spending decisions and for the Scottish Government to at least stick to its existing promises on arts funding.

I like the US cover (on the right) better. Either way, mesmerising book. “Every day when I dictate these thoughts, I open what is left of my broken body to give form to this chaos I have fallen into, to stop myself from dying inside.”

We should be talking more, a lot more, about the monster that was King Leopold, and his monstrous legacy. www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

@doremai.bsky.social what a nice DP!

It's the same old story. How easily people acquiesce to their tax dollars and pounds being pumped into waging wars in foreign lands, how easily they froth at their mouths when their tax dollars and pounds are proposed to be pumped into making society less ostentatiously unequal and more equitable...

I must say I prefer Sally Rooney's nonfiction to her fiction, which I also quite like. The last paragraph in this incisive piece should shame us all into action. www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

Wanted to go for a blue sky as my first skeet, but this is Scotland, and a blue sky is a bit of a stretch, but a dark sky filled with clouds through which the moon peeps, glorious and round, and only ever resembles a light bulb when caught on camera? That's more like it. Hello world 👋🏾