As many readers here will know, I write for The National in Scotland, which is the only pro-independence newspaper in that country.
I am proud to do so and to discuss the economics that might underpin Scotland as an independent country, which I think it should be, free from the toxic influence of Westminster.
In that case, I have a favour to ask. Might you consider subscribing to The National, even if you are not Scottish, as I am not?
There are good reasons to do so:
- You will get journalism that shatters the Westminster perspective on what is going on in the UK as a whole
- You will get some of the best international journalism you will find anywhere. The National has stood out for its coverage of Gaza, for example, as well as on other issues.
- You will get solidly left-of-centre opinion pieces.
- And this is the only paper you will find that regularly publishes modern monetary theory-based economic commentary, which it embraces as editorial policy.
If you'd like to try out a subscription now, visit thenational.scot/subscribe .
With your subscription, you'll have access to your daily digital replica of the newspaper, including the Sunday edition, along with fewer ads on the website, puzzles, reader rewards and the ad-free app.
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Subscriber since last year, finding your recommendation good. It is refreshing and invigorating.
Thanks
Worth a try for £1 for 3 months, then £6.99 a month if you think it’s worth it. I like what they are trying to do north of the border. More socialist than the blue Labour party here. I look forward to reading it over the coming months.
£20 a year is better.
Just joined up for the £1 a month for 3 months for starters. My main problem is I have too much to read already! LOL! NYT for one, the Welsh news from Liverpool Post and Echo. Not to mention keeping up with news here too – not that I’m managing that every day at the moment. I keep wishing for more time!
Thanks, Maggie.
Done.
Thanks!
I frequently share with our small economics discussion group ( by turning into a pdf) articles that I consider noteworthy for their left of centre and / or genuinely humane perspective, on issues of the day with an introduction to the effect of ” as you will read nowhere else in the British msm”.
The National also tackles issues just not talked about at all down south. It’s improved a lot ( in its boldness to report) in the last 18 months.
I sometimes wonder if stating the truth in the English press is covered by a ‘D’ notice.
Laura Webster has had a real impact on The National as editor – which is amazing as she is not yet 30.
How does your discussion group work? I think this is an idea worth replicating. Might you share more info?
This is the same group you facilitated about 8 or 9 years ago, Richard. We were 5 of your frequent readers and contributors who wanted to speak with each other rather than purely communicate via your blog. At our request you exchanged our contact details.
We are reduced to 4, but we spend 1 hour every Sunday evening – almost without fail – discussing arising political economy issues often having circulated articles of interest in the intervening week.
We offer each other differing perspectives and experience, to help navigate and understand these turbulent
times.
Mike Parr has alluded to our group occasionally on here.
Ah….now I recall.
I just think such a group might be pjysiocally based as well in some cases. It is an idea to promote.
I saw David Olusuga in Bath last night
His comment was that the Union had been the most successful union of nations in history and we would be foolish to dissolve it
So from an English perspective where is the recognition of its success and the desire to hold it together?
Disappointing from a man who really shopuld know what colonialism means. How very strange, is all I can say. He clearly has not learned the lessons after all.
“His comment was that the Union had been the most successful union of nations in history and we would be foolish to dissolve it ”
What a banal and reductive view. I hope someone took him on about it. Had I been there I would been forensic in my takedown.
Anyway, recently I re-upped for another year as a National subscriber and my feeling is that initially I was subscribing as a nod to my desire for indy Scotland rather than for the thing itself, but now it’s a very good paper in its own right – as others have noted, Laura W is doing an excellent job.
Thanks
On your recommendation I have subscribed for a year. So far enjoying. Thank you
Richard, I’m firmly a democrat and just as firmly a patriotic Englishman. I agree with you entirely about the toxicity of Westminster — it has become a system that corrodes representation, suppresses dissenting economic thought, and treats the nations of the UK as problems to be managed rather than partners in a shared project.
Where we differ is simply in the route forward. I don’t want to abandon the field to the very forces that made Westminster so dysfunctional. I want to fight to change it — not out of nostalgia, but because millions of people in England have no alternative democratic horizon.
That’s why I value The National. Even from England, it’s one of the few places where you can read journalism that isn’t trapped inside the Westminster bubble. It shows what a healthier political culture could look like, and it reminds those of us south of the border that renewal is possible.
So yes, I’ll keep supporting it. And I’ll keep fighting for a politics here in England that’s worthy of the people who live in it.
Thanks