Scottish Affairs Research Articles

Research on gender in education: monitoring bleakness or instigating change?

Scotland has a rather small community of researchers with a particular concern for gender in education. Its smallness is a matter for regret. However, as Maneka Gandhi (quoted in Lindsay Paterson's, 1993a, editorial to the second issue of Scottish Affairs) said 'never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; it is the only thing that ever has done so'. She was speaking in the Lothian European Lectures associated with the European Leaders' Summit in Edinburgh in December 1992. For me, her statement focused attention both on the European dimension and on one special responsibility that we have: to pursue, through research, the interests of gender in education. But what would that mean? What role does research have in this crucial area?

Editorial: Women in Politics

A recent headline in the Guardian newspaper stated 'Britain holds poor record for women in public life' and the author went on to demonstrate that, in terms of the percentage of women in national parliamentary assemblies, Britain ranks 10th out of the 12 European Community countries. This is hardly news to most women in Scotland who arc only too aware of their exclusion from formal arenas of power. If the reporter had pursued his investigations he would have discovered that women in Scotland fare even worse than women in England in terms of political representation. For example, although the representation level of women in the House of Commons stands at just under 9 per cent for the UK as a whole, this rate falls to only 7 per cent for Scotland where just 5 women were elected to represent Scottish parliamentary constituencies from a total of 72 seats at the general election in 1992. A brief examination of the position of women in other public arenas mirrors this poor representation in Parliament. A Gender Audit published by Engender, the new campaign and research organisation for women in Scotland, draws attention to the fact that Scotland's first woman judge was appointed in 1992 (on a temporary basis), 30 years after the first woman judge in England and Wales; a pilot survey of twelve top Scottish businesses revealed only one company with a woman on the Board of Directors; excluding Children's Panels women have less than 20% representation on public bodies; only 3% of headtcachers in Scottish secondary schools are women; and there arc no women editors or depute editors in the Scottish national press. By way of contrast women are grossly over-represented in low grade, low paid, insecure jobs, and many more women than men live in poverty in Scotland. This is a dismal record for a country which often prides itself on its egalitarian and democratic culture and values, and reflects another example of the cultural contradictions referred to in Lindsay Paterson's editorial in the last issue of Scottish Affairs.

McIlvanney, masculinity and Scottish literature

Cynics might be forgiven for suggesting that this sentence, from William McDvanney's first novel Remedy is None (1966), is all he ever needed to write; it contains his elegiac note, his stresses on male family closeness and small-town pride, and a sentimental admiration for hard men. There are, however, things important to McHvanney that are missing from such a list, such as Scottish intellectual pride, pub culture, and loud egaUtarianism, all of which this article will turn to shortly. If there is a reductive bias in the above list of elements in McDvanney it is a deliberate one; my focus will be on McDvanney's masculine values rather than his general novelistic talent His ability to tell stories, to create suspense, to manipulate the emotions of many readers in indubitable, although why this should qualify him as an all-round Leftist guru on Scottish affairs as seen on television and in magazines is another question. His stature as such a listened-to and respected public figure does mean that his outpourings should be subjected to careful scrutiny. An examination in particular of Mcllvanney and masculinity means a look at him in the context of twentieth century Scottish literature.

The broadcast media in Scotland

In an article in Scottish Affairs number 1,1 argued that the continued autonomy of the Scottish press was an important part of the distinct character of Scottish civil society worthy of further examination. This second article looks at broadcasting before going on to consider some theoretical points. Television in Scotland comprises the activities of one of the BBC's three 'national regions'. BBC Scotland, and three Channel 3 companies: Border, Grampian and the biggest commercial company, Scottish Television which covers the Central Belt. Radio comprises BBC Radio Scotland (launched in 1978) and Radio nan Gaidheal (1984), together with BBC local radio, which opts out from the Scottish wide programmes, and ten commercial local radio stations led by one of the UK's most successful commercial operators: Radio Clyde (1973). It owns every other 'independent 9 local radio station in Scotland except one.

Scotland: a new agendaThe launching conference of Scottish Affairs

Scotland: a new agendaThe launching conference of Scottish Affairs

A Valuable Source for Education: theScottish Government Yearbook1976‐92

Summary This paper assesses the significance of articles in the Scottish Government Yearbook, 1976‐92, for understanding of educational issues in that period. Experienced writers contributed 20 such articles on schooling, training, tertiary education, the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative, parental choice and devolved management. All are important for aspects of education systems in the United Kingdom, either because they concern distinctively Scottish approaches or they explore common themes across Britain and beyond. Many draw upon the history and cultures of Scottish and English education, to place educational policy in as broad a social context as is possible within the compass of 10 to 40 pages. The Yearbook has now metamorphosed into a quarterly, Scottish Affairs. It has played a distinctive role as an annual of record and debate to serve the present decade.

Scottish affairs.

Scottish affairs.

SCOTTISH NEWSPAPERS

Historically, the Scottish newspaper came into being in the 17th century, some years after its English counterpart. News was first transmitted to Scotland from London and abroad by means of news‐sheets. However, the preponderance of foreign news tended to limit their interest, as far as readers were concerned, mainly to the Church and to men of letters, and it took some time for the newspaper habit to take hold in Scotland. The earliest surviving Scottish newspaper, in that it was published in Scotland and dealt with Scottish affairs, was Mercurius Scoticus published in Leith in 1651. It was followed by a handful of other titles over the next few decades but by the 18th century the situation had begun to change. More newspaper titles were produced in Scotland, and they began to carry local news as well as news from London and abroad. Advertisements were introduced, in the first instance, mainly for patent medicines and notices of entertainments. Governments recognized at an early stage that newspapers were a potential source of revenue and, in consequence, a newspaper stamp tax was imposed on all weekly newspapers in 1712. This tax, which was dubbed “tax on knowledge”, was strongly resented by the newspaper proprietors, who set about evading it as best they could, and in doing so determined the format of many of the newspapers of the period which were specially designed to circumvent the tax.

The New Select Committees: A Study of the 1979 Reforms. Edited by Gavin Drewry. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. Pp. xiv + 410. $29.95.)

Part 1 Committees and reform: history and rationale of the 1979 reforms, Priscilla Baines select committees in the House of Lords, St John N.Bates. Part 2 The new select committees: the Agriculture Committee, Philip Giddings the Defence Committee R.L.Borthwick the Education, Science and Arts Committee, Michael Rush the Employment Committee, Nevil Johnson the Energy Committee, Martin Burch the Environment Committee, William Reiners the Foreign Affairs Committee, C.Y.Carstairs the Home Affairs Committee, Gavin Drewry the Industry and Trade Committee, J.M.Lee and Donald Shell the Scottish Affairs Committee, H.M.Drucker and J.G.Kellas the Social Services Committee, Michael Rush the Transport Committee, Gabriele Ganz the Treasury and Civil Service Committee, Ann Robinson the Welsh Affairs Committee, J.Barry Jones. Part 3 Assessment of the 1979 reforms: the financial work of the new select committees, Ann Robinson resources and operations of select committees - a survey of the statistics, Geoffrey Lock scenes from committee life - the new committees in action, Gavin Drewry what has been achieved?, Philip Giddings the 1979 reforms - new labels on old bottles?, Gavin Drewry the committees since 1983, Gavin Drewry. Appendix: standing orders of the House of Commons.

Regional fulfilment: Planning into administration in the Clyde Valley 1944–84

Clydeside has been a distinctive case of British regional planning and administration since 1944. With the abolition of the English Metropolitan County Councils in 1986, it became unique. Clydeside's experience has been associated with special Scottish political circumstances, protecting the idea of regional planning which Scottish interests harnessed to bargain for favours in government resources. The Clyde Valley Plan of 1946, West Central Scotland Plan of 1974 and Strathclyde Regional Council of 1975, reflected evolving ideas of the Clydeside region, of planning and administration. The performance and strategic influence of the two advisory Plans is compared with experience under the succeeding Regional Council. Against the successful long‐term achievement of the Clyde Valley Plan's proposals and its significant influence on Scottish public affairs, its historic dispute with Glasgow over the role of the new towns is re‐examined in the light of present circumstances. It is suggested that the unforeseen ...

The role of the sea in the political geography of Scotland

Abstract The broad features of the maritime geography of the seas around Scotland are outlined, followed by examination of the nature of the issues in Scottish maritime affairs. The political implications for Scotland of the growing importance of the sea are reviewed.

Late Gothic architecture in Scotland: considerations on the influence of the Low Countries

Insofar as the surviving evidence will support any conclusion, it may be said that patrons of ecclesiastical building in the Scottish Lowland areas were largely dependent on England for architectural guidance during much of the 12th and 13th centuries. The unprecedented wave of building activity, which followed on the establishment of an effective network of dioceses and monastic houses under the leadership of the Canmore dynasty, created a need for artistic resources which Scotland was not at first equipped to meet, and it was natural that assistance should be sought in the neighbouring kingdom where the royal family and higher nobility had many connections. Despite a much later tradition that David I, who was the Canmore dynasty's most active patron of the Church, had called workmen from France and Flanders to his foundation of Holyrood (Fowler 1903, 24-5), it would be hard to find anything in the greater buildings erected either for him or for his contemporaries which was not essentially Anglo-Norman in inspiration. That is certainly not to say that Scotland was insulated from European influences. Anglo-Norman architecture itself was a complex synthesis of ideas of Rhenish, Burgundian, Lombard and other origins, and architectural solutions with their roots in eastern France, for example, were to be of great importance in the second half of the 12th century. But the evidence is consistent with the likelihood that the majority of these ideas were imported into Scotland indirectly through the medium of northern England—an area of advanced architectural thought, due to widespread Cistercian settlement, which almost certainly supplied Scotland with many craftsmen—rather than that they resulted from direct contact with mainland Europe. In the course of the 13th century aspects of the design of several of the more important buildings, such as Dunblane and Inchmahome, suggest that some of the masons then working in Scotland were beginning to develop their own attitudes to design, presumably because there was a growing pool of craftsmen of native origin. Nevertheless, it would probably not be an exaggeration to suggest that these attitudes represent regional variants on essentially English themes, rather than anything more distinctive. Certainly, those major operations which were nearing completion when the Wars of Independence brought an almost complete halt to ecclesiastical building, including most notably the choirs of Glasgow, Elgin and Sweetheart, can only be fully understood against the background of English architecture. From much of the century which followed Edward I's intervention in Scottish affairs there are so few firmly documented ecclesiastical buildings that it would be of little value to attempt generalizations for this period. Possibly all that can be said on the scant evidence of works such

British History: A Plea for a New Subject

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.-J. C. Beaglehole, of the Victoria University of Wellington, was until his death in 1970 the doyen of New Zealand historians and-together with J. W. Davidson of the Australian National University, who died in 1973-a leader in developing historical consciousness and historiography in the South Pacific world area. His editions of the journals of Captain Cook and his Life of Captain James Cook (published in 1974 by Stanford University Press) are not only masterpieces of scholarship and insight into the eighteenth century but unrivaled in their penetration of oceanic, as well as merely maritime, history. The New Zealand Historical Association maintains an annual lecture in his memory, and the essay which follows was originally delivered as the first Beaglehole Memorial lecture when that association met at the University of Canterbury in May 1973. It was subsequently printed in the New Zealand Journal of History (vol. 8, no. 1, April 1974) and is republished here with minor alterations by the generous permission of that journal's editors. What follows is a modified version of an essay in historical restatement, which owes much to John Beaglehole's own vision and his understanding of what vision is.

THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON SCOTTISH AFFAIRS

Journal Article THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON SCOTTISH AFFAIRS Get access P. Myers P. Myers Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 27, Issue 1974jun, June 1974, Pages 359–370, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a051685 Published: 01 June 1974

The Origin and Growth of the Government Departments Concerned with Scottish Affairs

The Origin and Growth of the Government Departments Concerned with Scottish Affairs

Scots Mercenary Forces in Ireland (1565–1603): an account of their service during that period, of the reaction of their activities on Scottish affairs, and of the effect of their presence in Ireland, together with an examination of the gallóglaigh or galloglas. By Gerard A. Hayes-McCoy. With an introduction by Professor Eoin MacNeill. Pp. Xxi, 391. Dublin and London: Burns Oates.

Scots Mercenary Forces in Ireland (1565–1603): an account of their service during that period, of the reaction of their activities on Scottish affairs, and of the effect of their presence in Ireland, together with an examination of the gallóglaigh or galloglas. By Gerard A. Hayes-McCoy. With an introduction by Professor Eoin MacNeill. Pp. Xxi, 391. Dublin and London: Burns Oates.

A Seal of Edward II for Scottish Affairs

The seal (pl. xxviii) which has led to the following notes was discovered by the Duke of Rutland among his muniments at Belvoir Castle in 1928 and was exhibited by him to the Society of Antiquaries on December 6th of that year, when I gave a brief description of it. Some apology is owing both to the owner and to the Society for the time that has elapsed without anything being printed about a very interesting find; but the fact is, that it raises a number of points which in 1928 I barely mentioned, but which seemed to meof considerable interestand some importance, and which I designed to study in more detail. Up to the present this detailed study has not proved feasible, and I feel that I must not further delay publication; but I hope that by one hand or another the fuller treatment may yet be accomplished.

Letter sought: Scottish ecclesiastical affairs

Letter sought: Scottish ecclesiastical affairs

Presidential Address

So far as historical studies are concerned the most interesting event of the past year has been the magnificent Historical Exhibition which was held in Glasgow. The promoters had in view, as their ultimate object, the establishment of a Chair of Scottish History in the University of Glasgow; and they have been successful in securing the nucleus of a sufficient endowment for this purpose. But the Exhibition itself was so admirably planned, and so successfully carried out, that it must have had an enormous effect in diffusing an interest in the records and the relics of the past. The large amount of space which was rightly devoted to ecclesiastical history was in itself a reminder of the importance of religion in the seventeenth century as a factor in the growth of Scottish nationality. Even more significant was the extraordinary collection of treasures that had been preserved in Scottish mansions, and of portraits which were now generously lent and carefully arranged for display to the public. It helps to bring out the importance of family history for a proper understanding of Scottish affairs. Just because the consolidation of Scottish nationality was so long in being attained, the struggles of the great families continued to furnish the leading motives and incidents in the drama of Scottish history.