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Linda Holt on Muck Rack

Linda Holt

Scotland
As seen in: ThinkScotland, The Herald (Glasgow), London Review of Books, The Daily Independent (Ashland, KY), Reaction
Covers:  Education, Scottish Politics
@Think_Scotland writer, @thescotreformer managing editor
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Nicola Sturgeon: the fear-mongerer's fear-mongerer?

Nicola Sturgeon: the fear-mongerer's fear-mongerer?

thinkscotland.org — A FORTNIGHT AGO, I returned from a week's visit to Amsterdam. I am not given to conspiracy theories, but when Nicola Sturgeon advised people not to book a holiday abroad this year, I couldn't help but think it was a good tactic for keeping people fearful and compliant.
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Linda Holt | 'Believe' · LRB 5 September 2018

Linda Holt | 'Believe' · LRB 5 September 2018

London Review of Books — Alex Salmond has launched a judicial review of the Scottish government's handling of sexual harassment allegations against him. The first few days after the news broke were marked by a curious reticence on the part of both the commentariat and the political establishment in Scotland.
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Linda Holt | Public libraries aren't businesses · LRB 17 December 2015

Linda Holt | Public libraries aren't businesses · LRB 17 December 2015

London Review of Books — My parents were self-made immigrants who never completed their secondary education. Displaced by war and poverty, their families survived by focusing on food and such inflation-proof assets as diamonds and property. The material plenitude my parents showered on their children did not include books because, as my father once asked about poetry, what was the point?
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English universities must learn from Scotland's disastrous Covid restrictions - Reaction

English universities must learn from Scotland's disastrous Covid restrictions - Reaction

Reaction — Follow Reaction on Twitter
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The green energy debate: why wind power will never be the answer

The green energy debate: why wind power will never be the answer

The Herald (Scotland) — Wind farms only work with permanent public subsidy. Subsidy comes in various guises. The most obvious is contractual where the operator receives a guaranteed rate for electricity generated or a guaranteed top-up on what he sells his electricity for. Such subsidy is inherently neither problematic nor exceptional. Nuclear power is also heavily subsidised.
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Linda Holt | It isn't about independence · LRB 18 September 2014

Linda Holt | It isn't about independence · LRB 18 September 2014

London Review of Books — Polling day is suitably dreich in Fife. Since yesterday morning the damp mists of a haar have loomed over us like a hangover that won't go away. We cannot see the Forth, the Isle of May or the Lammermuirs marking the horizon beyond.
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Linda Holt · Our Dear Channel Islands · LRB 25 May 1995

Linda Holt · Our Dear Channel Islands · LRB 25 May 1995

London Review of Books — In 1968, when I was five, my parents moved to Jersey as tax exiles and bought a house in the west of the island. During the German Occupation it had been the site of a slave worker camp.
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Linda Holt · Our Dear Channel Islands · LRB 25 May 1995

Linda Holt · Our Dear Channel Islands · LRB 25 May 1995

London Review of Books — In 1968, when I was five, my parents moved to Jersey as tax exiles and bought a house in the west of the island. During the German Occupation it had been the site of a slave worker camp.
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Simply having more democracy does not make it better

Simply having more democracy does not make it better

thinkscotland.org — LAST THURSDAY during a sunny walkabout inspecting our potholed infrastructure in Crail, my fellow East Neuk councillor, whom I work well with, asked me about the EU elections. He wore a pained expression and said that he was very worried about democracy because of Nigel Farage.
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Has devolution served us well during Covid-19?

Has devolution served us well during Covid-19?

thinkscotland.org — OFFICIALLY, CONSTITUTIONAL HOSTILITIES have been suspended. There is an eerie silence from leading politicians akin to the World War One Christmas truce. The customary manoeuvres about Westminster Tories and indy-obsessed Nats are nowhere to be seen. The First Minister says she has "never been less interested in just reducing something to party politics", though many dictators would envy her daily broadcasts to the nation.
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Leaving the rabbit hole - Boris's Scexit game-changer

Leaving the rabbit hole - Boris's Scexit game-changer

thinkscotland.org — FOR NATIONALISTS, independence is the ultimate carrot; the shining answer to anything less than ideal in present-day Scotland; the be-all and end-all of politics. Such quasi-religious beliefs exercise a terrific lure, as nationalists demonstrate on marches, in the letters pages of newspapers, on social media and indeed at Westminster, Holyrood and council chambers across the country.
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Scottish Conservatives: a dearth of energy imagination and courage?

Scottish Conservatives: a dearth of energy imagination and courage?

thinkscotland.org — NO MATTER how they spin it, the general election result for Scottish Conservatives was grim. The party lost more than half the Scottish MPs it won less than two years previously. The failure was all the more egregious when set against the rest of the UK.
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ThinkLockdown: a right Royal misjudgement?

ThinkLockdown: a right Royal misjudgement?

thinkscotland.org — EVERYTHING IS GRIST to the nationalist mill, and there is no reason to think that the Covid-19 pandemic would be any exception. The weekend's influx of visitors to the Highlands and islands brought cries to refortify Hadrian's Wall, even though the majority of these invaders came from the Central Belt.
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What will end first, the Covid lockdowns or Sturgeon's leadership?

What will end first, the Covid lockdowns or Sturgeon's leadership?

thinkscotland.org — NICOLA STURGEON is on the ropes as never before. If Scotland's media and opposition were dogged and savage enough, her interview on Sunday morning with Sky's Sophy Ridge would have gone down as her Prince Andrew moment. The blinkometer was off the scale, particularly when the First Minister had to defend herself over the Salmond affair.
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Repeated and embarrassing U-turns show Sturgeon is more Heath than Thatcher

Repeated and embarrassing U-turns show Sturgeon is more Heath than Thatcher

thinkscotland.org — NIGHTMARES follow a mad inexorable logic, like a runaway train heading for collision. Increasingly, that's what I feel when I watch the First Minister during her daily briefings. She has set a course through the Covid-19 pandemic, and follow that course she must, come what may.
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Hard of thinking" Ferrier adds to long list of SNP embarrassments

Hard of thinking" Ferrier adds to long list of SNP embarrassments

thinkscotland.org — REACTION to the news that Scottish Nationalist MP Margaret Ferrier (pictured) broke Covid laws multiple times has been swift and unequivocal. Even her boss Nicola Sturgeon has joined calls for her resignation.
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Sturgeon's juggernaut of fear lumbers on in Scotland

Sturgeon's juggernaut of fear lumbers on in Scotland

thinkscotland.org — THE FIRST MINISTER may be waving behind the wheel, but she is no longer in control of the vehicle. Tuesday's announcement that face coverings will become mandatory in schools from August 31 was nothing but political posturing.
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Scottish Tories must emerge from life support soon to make any difference

Scottish Tories must emerge from life support soon to make any difference

thinkscotland.org — RECENT MONTHS have left me more despondent about Scottish politics than ever before. No doubt the ennui and oppression of lockdown, endured in what has felt increasingly like a one-party state, has played its part. The First Minister has climbed ever higher in the leadership ratings, universally lauded over Westminster for her Covid-19 response.
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We must make the union feel real, not a political abstraction

We must make the union feel real, not a political abstraction

thinkscotland.org — DOUGLAS ROSS made his first speech as Scottish Tory leader at a Conservative Party Conference on Saturday. It was a belter - though not because it criticised the SNP. Instead, Ross eviscerated his own party.
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#BackingBallantyne vs. #TeamJackson - is a safe pair of hands what's needed?

#BackingBallantyne vs. #TeamJackson - is a safe pair of hands what's needed?

thinkscotland.org — THE SCOTTISH CONSERVATIVE leadership contest is hotting up. 18,000 Scottish Conservative members* have been sent their ballot papers, and they have under two weeks left to choose their next leader. Before nominations closed, it looked like Jackson Carlaw, Ruth Davidson's deputy since 2011 and the interim leader since last August when she resigned, was heading for a coronation.
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Six is not a number it is arbitrary and dystopian

Six is not a number it is arbitrary and dystopian

thinkscotland.org — WE ARE NOW officially living under the Rule of Six. The police are charged to enforce it. In Scotland, more than six people (not counting children under 12) from a maximum of two households are banned from meeting outside of work, school and certain other specified settings.
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The growing scandal of how the Scottish Government treated our care homes

The growing scandal of how the Scottish Government treated our care homes

thinkscotland.org — FEW PEOPLE have reason to linger in care homes. Fewer still have the energy or will to think about them in the round after dealing with the guilt-ridden and traumatic experience of visiting a relative who no longer recognises you.
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To lockdown or not to lockdown in Scotland? That is the question

To lockdown or not to lockdown in Scotland? That is the question

ThinkScotland — WILL SHE or won't she? Only a few days ago, Nicola Sturgeon announced her Byzantine system of localised and graduated lockdown levels, attempting to better the Prime Minister's tiers by renaming them, increasing the number, making them more localised, and introducing a harsher option.
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