The facts and statements issued by the HMRC are plain and dull: thousands more taxpayers moved to Scotland than left each year in the period after Scottish Income Tax was brought in, an HMRC study has found. Average net migration from within the UK was 4,200 every year from 2017-18 to 2021-22. You can read ..read more

Here’s a playlist compiling every track and album mentioned in this first volume of Stuart Cosgrove’s trilogy Detroit 67: The Year that Changed Soul ..read more

State violence, smalltown prejudice – How two very different films, Hot Fuzz and Children of Men, predicted Britain’s growing intolerance and the COVID-19 pandemic nearly 20 years ago “Whatever the cost, we would make Sandford great again.” So says Frank Butterman, the murderous inspector in Edgar Wright’s 2007 comedy Hot Fuzz, which predicted Brexit and ..read more

We’ve been bringing you daily coverage of Scottish and UK politics for seventeen years. We publish writing on Arts and Culture (with a ton of music, reviews, poetry and film). We publish daily Opinion, Media, Politics pieces (including uncovering the truth about Spycops, clandestine right-wing networks in Scotland, policy, issues of land ownership and ecology, and the protest movement). We also bring you International journalism from ..read more

Your weekend playlist with new releases from Saint Sappho, Ambient Babestation Meltdown, Supermann on da beat and Darren McGarvey, and Bikini Body ..read more

The gap between perception and reality can be vast, and none more so than the rhetoric around the Scottish Government’s Bute Agreement between the SNP and the Greens. If you were to read the collected analysis of Scotland’s finest commentariat you would believe we were under the yolk of an extremist regime of radical green-leftists ..read more

Every war and conflict experience pivotal moments that bring significant risks, often accompanied by suffering and devastation. However, these moments also present fresh possibilities for the parties engaged to reassess whether embracing collective violence aligns with their interests, or if they should instead embrace the avenues of peace and reconciliation. What watershed event might occur ..read more

The Nat C conference in Belgium had great coverage yesterday, the media slavishly regurgitating the narrative that the gathering was ‘shut down’ as part of a terrible ‘cancel culture’ (blah blah blah). The event wasn’t shut down. But as the climate catastrophe begins this summers big reveal – it’s worth noting two things about the ..read more

Bella is delighted to be supporting the Edinburgh’s Folk Film’s 10th anniversary programme. The event is the world’s first film festival devoted to folk cinema, celebrating the lived experiences of communities worldwide, will run at Cameo Picturehouse and the Scottish Storytelling Centre from the 3 – 12 May. We’ll be hosting a Q&A after the ..read more

Yesterday we laid out some of our themes for the year ahead (Spring 2024: Bella re-Boot) – today we are launching a crowdfund to try and gather some resources to pay for, specifically, freelance writers. As we say here: “We have no big-backers, remain ad-free and don’t hide behind a paywall. We set our own agenda ..read more