James Sillars is a Scottish politician and campaigner for Scottish independence. Sillars served as a Labour Party MP for South Ayrshire from 1970 to 1976. He founded and led the pro-Scottish Home Rule Scottish Labour Party in 1976, continuing as MP for South Ayrshire until he lost the seat in 1979.
George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock PC is an English politician and life peer who served as Minister of State for Scotland from 2001 to 2002. A member of the Scottish Labour Party and Co-operative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, formerly South Ayrshire, from 1979 to 2005. He was later a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the Lothians region, from 2007 to 2011.
Angus Struan Carolus Robertson is a Scottish politician serving as the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture since 2021. Former Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2016 to 2018, he has served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Edinburgh Central since 2021. Robertson previously served as a Westminster MP for Moray from 2001 to 2017, where he served from 2007 to 2017 as the Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons.
Mark Ballard is a former Scottish Green Party politician. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothians region from 2003 to 2007, and co-convener of the Edinburgh Green Party from 2007 to 2010. He was Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh from 2006 to 2009, and now works for the children's charity Children 1st.
Scottish Labour is the part of the UK Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and unionist, it currently holds 22 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and one of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons. It is represented by 262 of the 1,227 local councillors across Scotland.
Iain Cumming Gray is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 to 2011. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the East Lothian constituency from 2007 to 2021, having previously represented Edinburgh Pentlands from 1999 to 2003. A former aid worker and teacher of mathematics and physics, Gray was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 as MSP for the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency, which he lost to Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party David McLetchie in 2003. Gray was returned to Holyrood in 2007 as MSP for East Lothian. Following Wendy Alexander's resignation as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2008, Gray stood at the subsequent leadership election, and was elected with a 57.8% share of the vote in the second round.
Politics in the Dundee Citycouncil area are evident in the deliberations and decisions of Dundee City Council, in elections to the council, and in elections to the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) and the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster).
In Scotland, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is a left-wing political party. The party was formed in 1998 from an alliance of left-wing organisations in Scotland. In 1999, it saw its first MSP returned to Holyrood, with five more MSPs elected in 2003. It lost all MSPs in the 2007 elections and has lacked representation in the Scottish Parliament ever since.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.
Westminster Live is a weekly television programme that focused on political developments within the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The programme began on 21 November 1989 on the same day as television cameras were first allowed into the House of Commons. The programme lasted until 20 December 2002 when it was discontinued, and succeeded by the Daily Politics.
Politics Show is an hour-long BBC One television political programme which was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sundays between 2003 and 2011, broadcasting usually at midday.
Kenyon Edward Wright was a priest of the Scottish Episcopal Church and a political campaigner. Wright chaired the Scottish Constitutional Convention (1989–1999), which laid the groundwork for the creation of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999.
Brian Taylor is a former political editor for BBC Scotland and columnist for the Scottish broadsheet newspaper The Herald. Taylor – who joined the BBC in 1985 – originally co-presented Left, Right and Centre and was political correspondent prior to his political editor role. He covered politics on television beginning from the 1979 United Kingdom general election.
Alasdair James Gray was a Scottish writer and artist. His first novel, Lanark (1981), is seen as a landmark of Scottish fiction. He published novels, short stories, plays, poetry and translations, and wrote on politics and the history of English and Scots literature. His works of fiction combine realism, fantasy, and science fiction with the use of his own typography and illustrations, and won several awards.
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond is a Scottish politician, economist and television host, who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure in the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as Leader of the Alba Party since 2021. Salmond was leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014. He served as the party's depute leader from 1987 to 1990. Salmond hosted The Alex Salmond Show (2017–2022) on RT UK. He currently hosts Scotland Speaks with Alex Salmond (2023–present).
Rory Goes to Holyrood is a 2013 satirical documentary presented by Scottish impressionist and comedian Rory Bremner. Aired by BBC Two Scotland on 13 June 2013, the hour-long programme takes a satirical look at Scottish politics and the independence debate, two subjects that had largely seen an absence of humour up to that point. The film sees Bremner visit the Scottish Parliament and interview politicians and other senior public figures as he gets to grips with the issues of the Scottish political scene. Bremner recorded the programme after moving back to live in Scotland and realising he knew very little about the politics of that country.
Gerry Hassan is a Scottish writer, commentator and academic. He is Professor of Social Change at Glasgow Caledonian University, having previously worked at the University of Dundee and the University of the West of Scotland, where he completed his doctorate. He has also previously worked for the Institute for Public Policy Research and Demos where he led their Scotland 2020 and Glasgow 2020 programmes and OpenDemocracy. He has written widely in the Scottish and UK press, including The Spectator, The Scotsman, The Herald, Holyrood, Sunday Mail, The Guardian and The National (Scotland) on topics and issues related to the United Kingdom, particularly Scotland and Scottish Independence.
Joanna Catherine Cherry is a Scottish politician and lawyer serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh South West since 2015. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she was the party's Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice in the House of Commons from 2015 to 2021.
Ross John Greer is a Scottish politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since 2016. A member of the Scottish Greens, he was the youngest MSP elected in the 2016 election.
All for Unity was a political and electoral alliance in Scotland. Founded in July 2020 by George Galloway, it was a British unionist party which opposed Scottish independence and fielded candidates at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
