Author Archives: Mark Ballard
Where to go, what to do? Greens and the Corbyn challenge
Mark Ballard was Green MSP for Lothian from 2003-2007. He writes here is a personal capacity. When I left the Labour Party in the early nineties and started to put…
Is a 2015 Scottish Labour wipe out on the cards?
The support for 'Yes' in some Labour heartlands, together with the recent success of the SNP, Scottish Greens and SSP in attracting new members has created some exited speculation about…
Great Green Campaigns: Scotland 2003
Was the Scottish Green Party’s Scottish Parliament election campaign in 2003 an example of a ‘great green campaign’? In many ways, no. We had very little money, few activists outside…
The Scottish Independence Debate and England
I’ve just finished listening to a particularly unenlightening discussion of the UK’s constitutional future on BBC Radio 4 and, once again, I’m left despairing at the shallowness of the analysis.…
Caroline Hoffmann: a Tribute
Dr Caroline Hoffmann (1964-2011) was a member of the Scottish Green Party and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, an ecologist, a sailor and an LGBT rights campaigner. She died on the 4th…
Ignore the Hype: The Scottish Election will be Won on the Ground
To read some of the more lurid political commentary you’d think the outcome of the Holyrood election was already clear – Alex Salmond’s charismatic display in the televised leader’s debate…
Welcome to Bright Green
Like many other places, Scotland has a proud history of social progress. The Highlands were the home of the first socialised medicine in the UK. For generations Scottish universities were…