New Book Published on the Anniversary of the Red Paper on Scotland

That the Parliament notes that 2025 marks half a century since Gordon Brown, the Student Rector at Edinburgh University, edited a series of essays by politicians, commentators academics and trade unionists called The Red Paper on Scotland to address what it considered were social and economic woes facing the country; notes that the book included contributions from, amongst others, Robin Cook, Jim Sillars, Tom Nairn, Vince Cable and playwright John McGrath; understands that to coincide with the anniversary, a new book, Keep Left, Red Paper on Scotland 2025, has been launched, which seeks to address a number of current and recurring themes, including what it sees as Scotland’s democratic crisis, over-centralisation, outsourcing, the loss of democratic control, the crises in public services, and the damage caused to the education system among many other subjects; acknowledges that, in a marked contrast to the original book, which, it understands, did not carry a single contribution by a woman, this edition is edited by Pauline Bryan and contains contributions from a wide range of figures on the left of Scottish politics, including trade unionists, academics, campaigners and writers on culture, and looks forward to this book making a stimulating contribution to the debate on Scotland’s future.