THE Festival of Politics at the Scottish Parliament starts today and although there is no single event aimed at the Yes movement there are several events which the Yes DIY Hub is happy to recommend for independence supporters.
One of the most emotive subjects which all lovers of Scotland should know more about is the Clearances.
Scotland’s pre-eminent historian Sir Tom Devine OBE’s groundbreaking new book The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed (1600-1900), is a unique and challenging re-interpretation of one of the most controversial subjects in Scottish history.
On Friday at 5.30pm you can join presiding officer Ken McIntosh, Devine and Stana Nenadic, professor of social and cultural history at the University of Edinburgh, as they discuss fresh perspectives on the many men, women and children affected by the clearances.
Devine claims this is his most ambitious and challenging project on Scottish history to date. The Festival says: “Come and learn why the book threatens to undermine some of the nation’s most cherished orthodoxies about its past.”
On Saturday at 6.15pm, the festival, in partnership with Scotland’s Futures Forum, will examine democracy in the internet age and ask the question “Is the Internet Killing Democracy?”
As the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data breach highlighted, democracy is not infallible in the face of the digital revolution.
Dr Rebekah Widdowfield, chief executive of The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), and panellists Jamie Bartlett, director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, television presenter and author of The People v Tech: how the internet is killing democracy; and James Williams, of the Oxford Internet Institute, Digital Ethics Lab and formerly of Google, will “debate the need to become active citizens, protect free elections and save the democratic world” – this Yes movement needs to learn that lesson fast.
For some reason we also think that this session might be of interest – The Future of Public Service Broadcasting, at 1.30pm on Saturday.
The question being asked is “Does the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon mark the end of TV as we know it, or is public service broadcasting needed now more than ever?
Chair Torin Douglas, former BBC media correspondent and panellists including Andrew Billen of The Times and James Bennett, professor in television and digital culture at the Royal Holloway University of London, will ask how public service broadcasting can adapt to meet the needs of a digital world.
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