William Podmore

Excellent, factual study of the history of fascism in Scotland, 20 May 2013

Gavin Bowd teaches French at St Andrews University. This very illuminating book, which should really be titled fascism in Scotland, gives us many facts about the Scottish National Party's past which make uncomfortable reading for its members.

Many of its early leaders were fascist landowners, who backed Hitler and Mussolini. In the 1930s, it allowed the Scottish Union of Fascists to join en bloc.

In January 1939, Douglas Young, who led the SNP from 1942 to 1945, wrote, "If Hitler could neatly remove our imperial breeks somehow and thus dissipate the mirage of Imperial partnership with England etc he would do a great service to Scottish Nationalism." In August 1940,… Read more

Very useful collection of essays on the Union, 7 May 2013

Thomas Devine, Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography at the University of Edinburgh, edited this intriguing collection of essays. There are three essays in a section on the foundations of the Union, four on the history of the Union, three on challenges to the Union, and three on devolution and the future.

The 1707 Treaty was not a conquest or a colonisation. It recognised and respected Scotland's ancient sovereignty. It overcame English assumptions of superiority over Scotland.

Capitalists did well out of the Empire, but not the working class - as Devine notes, "the majority ... remained mired in poverty." Between 1815 and 1939, two million people emigrated… Read more

Useful account of a 'shining wit', 22 April 2013

This little book is a useful exposé of the late Christopher Hitchens. The author has found a lot of material, evidence that Hitchens was what Dr Spooner would have called a shining wit.

Hitchens boasted in 2010, "I've made more money than I ever thought I would." By the end of his life, he was making nearly $1 million a year from his regular slots in Vanity Fair, the Atlantic and Slate, from his books and his place on the lecture circuit. He was even on the Forbes Rich List. Nobody ever made money writing for the anti-war press.

Seymour shows us Hitchens as an egoist, a liar and a plagiarist, a coward and sycophant who only attacked the relatively powerless,… Read more