Politics

NHS, bills and immigration: One constituency's election talking points

Author / Creator: Lorna Gordon

Media type: Web page

Date published:

The BBC visited the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse constituency in Scotland to find out what
issues matter most to voters ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections. The main concerns
identified were the National Health Service, rising living costs, and immigration policy. With only six
weeks until the election, this will be a significantly different parliament as one-third of current
Members of the Scottish Parliament are not seeking re-election. The report aims to understand what
ordinary voters are thinking about as they prepare to cast their ballots.


Setting the scene: Scotland on the eve of the 2026 Election

Author / Creator: João Sousa

Media type: Report

Date published: 2026

Analysis of public finance issues for the 2026 election.


Scotland The Growing Divide; Old Nation, New Ideas

Author / Creator: Henry McLeish

Media type: Book

Date published: 2012

The changing face of politics and what that means for both Scotland and the UK


The Politics of Imperial Nostalgia

Author / Creator: Christopher Claassen

Media type: Report

Date published: 2025

Right-wing opposition to criticism of the imperial past is stronger than left-wing support.


Study shows views of British empire shape voting behaviour – but in subtle ways

Author / Creator: Christopher Claassen

Media type: Article

Date published: 2025

Imperial nostalgia connects quite significantly with partisan politics.


How to Defeat the Far Right and Fascism in Scotland, the UK and West

Author / Creator: Gerry Hassan

Media type: Article

Date published: 2025

The myth of British exceptionalism has collapsed in relation to the far right and fascism.  Now in Scotland and rest of the UK it is time to wake-up.


Why the electoral system matters – Holyrood election 2026

Author / Creator: John Curtice

Media type: Article

Date published: 2025

How the electoral system determines representation.


Hamilton Again? A By-Election and the Fragmenting Map of Scottish Politics

Author / Creator: Fraser McMillan

Media type: Blog

Date published: 2025

Is this the end of constitutional polarisation?


Reform(s) coming home to bite

Author / Creator: AuthorArianna Giovannini

Media type: Blog

Date published: 2025

Mainstream political parties must deliver the radical reforms the country has long been crying out for, or run the risk to succumb to Reform


What Italy Can Teach about Reform UK’s Rise in Scotland

Author / Creator: Davide Vampa

Media type: Blog

Date published: 2025

Scotland may be on the brink of a political shift.


Home Blog 2025 Making Sense of Turbulent Politics In Multi-Level Europe Making Sense of Turbulent Politics in Multi-Level Europe

Author / Creator: AuthorDavide Vampa

Media type: Blog

Date published: 2025

European politics today is marked less by stability than by turbulence.


Political Change across Britain and Ireland

Author / Creator: Paul Gillespie

Media type: Book

Date published: 2025

Devolution is so much better understood as a living laboratory than a set of competitive league tables.


Boxing clever – a political rematch?

Author / Creator: David Anderson

Media type: Article

Date published: 2025

Unionist tactics have worked; can the SNP box their way out of the corner?


How to defeat fascism and the far-right in Britain and elsewhere

Author / Creator: Gerry Hassan

Media type: Blog

Date published: 2024

The rise of the far right and fascism and raises big questions of why this has happened, how and to what extent mainstream politics has failed, and what can be done in the short and longer-term.


Britain Needs Change: The Politics of Hope and Labour's Challenge

Author / Creator: Gerry Hassan

Media type: Book

Date published: 2024

Many see Britain as undergoing serious social, economic and cultural decline.


Labour, the Starmer Project, the Battle for Britain and Our Collective Future

Author / Creator: Gerry Hassan

Media type: Blog

Date published: 2024

This is an age of anti-incumbency. Yet the scale of Labour’s emerging unpopularity is striking.


The Case for Scottish Independence: A History of Nationalist Political Thought in Modern Scotland

Author / Creator: Ben Jackson

Media type: Article

Date published: 2022

The Case for Scottish Independence: A History
of Nationalist Political Tought in Mod-
ern Scotland presents itself as a major
and recent account of the intellectual
development of contemporary Scottish
nationalism.


Swinney’s Government starts as damaged goods

Author / Creator: Dean M Thomson

Media type: Article

Date published:

THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT is a reputationally challenged disaster-zone, struggling beneath myriad policy-outcome failures. There is a good reason John Swinney has emerged as SNP leader and new First Minister, unopposed. The leadership crown has become something of a poisoned chalice.


‘Civic’ vs. ‘non-civic’: a comparison of individual-level support for the UK’s pro-Brexit and Scotland’s pro-independence nationalism

Author / Creator: Edwrad Goodger

Media type: Article

Date published:

This article challenges the prima facie differences between the Scottish independence and pro-Brexit movements, drawing similarities based on shared promotion of nationalism, incorporation of populism, and policy radicalism challenging consensuses over austerity/immigration.


How did we get here? The SNP’s unravelling political strategy and the 2024 UK General Election.

Author / Creator: Mark McGeoghegan

Media type: Article

Date published:

For the first time in eight years, Scotland will have an election that is not first and foremost about Scottish secession from the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, understanding the dynamics of the constitutional debate in Scotland, and particularly the SNP’s failure to secure a second secessionist referendum and the disarming of the SNP’s most powerful electoral narratives, remains crucial for understanding how we came to this place in Scottish politics.