Roch Winds: A Treacherous Guide to the State of Scotland

Did Scotland’s rough wind become something more after the referendum, as so many hoped it would, or did it blow itself out? What power can pessimism have in a nation of newfound self-confidence? A generation ago, the socialist poet Hamish Henderson forecast that ‘mair nor a roch wind’ - more than a rough wind - would rush through the great glen of the world as empires and nations collapsed. In Roch Winds, three young radicals pick through the rubble left in the wake of the storm that propelled the Scottish National Party into a position of unprecedented political dominance in Scotland. This darkly humorous book dissects the rise of the SNP and the fall of Labour during the months leading up to 2014 Independence Referendum and beyond. Drawing on their involvement in the Yes campaign for independence and the Labour Party, the authors cast their eyes to Scotland’s future and to radical horizons. Fluent, funny and full of fighting talk, this book is for everyone who has ever wondered what lies behind the tartan curtain of Scotland’s new establishment.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Scott Hames  Acknowledgements Introduction: How Scotland Got Carried Away Stop the world, Scotland wants to get off Classified Dissecting the body politic At hame wi freedom Chapter 1: Raising the Tartan Curtain Comrade Khrushchev goes to Disneyland Casting the establishment The cage for left-wing nationalism Yes Swampland Revelations Lights out Chapter 2: Labour Loses its Head Better (all go down) together One notion Labour Living in the ruin The last Keynesians Doing the same thing over Chapter 3: The Scottish Ideology Streams of social consciousness Coming of age The chronicles of Nairnia Stars align Kirstification Scotopia Chapter 4: The Underground Current Don’t stop digging Look to Russia Drink to the damned Preach profanity The cunning of treason The blowout Epilogue Unparliamentary Language

About the Author :
Rory (24), Amy (23) and Cailean (25) form the Roch Wind Collective. They have been writing together since 2013, and have left few stones unturned in their attacks on every aspect of the Scottish Establishment. Cailean studied at Oxford University, where he founded the Oxford Left Review, before working as a Labour and trade union organiser for Yes Scotland and then for a socialist Labour MP. He is now studying and working for a trade union in London. Amy studied at Glasgow University, and is currently at St Andrews University. She has worked for multiple third sector organisations, particularly those concerned with tackling violence against women. Rory studied at the universities of Edinburgh and Sussex, and was co-founder of the pro-independence campaign group National Collective. He now works as a researcher and campaign organiser in Edinburgh. All three are revolutionary socialists and members of the Labour Party.

Review :
An engagingly original challenge to received wisdom, be it left or right, nationalist or unionist. – David Torrance Scotland needs this book like a hole in the head. – Colin Kidd