This week’s Behind the Headlines comes from editor Laura Webster. To receive the newsletter direct to your inbox every week for free, click here.
THIS weekend I’ll be at the Break Up of Britain conference in Edinburgh – a major event on the future of the UK, inspired by the work of political theorist Tom Nairn.
We’ve been publishing lots of special articles on the conference for weeks now, with exclusive pieces from Fintan O’Toole, Caroline Lucas, Anthony Barnett, Peter McColl and many more brilliant writers.
We were excited to announce the event exclusively earlier this year and I’ve been so grateful to be invited to join one of the panels myself.
There are some incredible names from across the world of journalism, politics and academia due to speak on topics on everything from the future of the Yes movement to the economics of a Starmer government.
Hopefully pulling together such a range of speakers from across the UK and Europe will allow for some productive conversations, and I hope to come away from the event with fresh ideas on what more The National can do for Scotland.
I’m particularly looking forward to meeting journalists from the likes of Byline Times and Novara, who know what it’s like to be a little outside the mainstream.
I’m also so proud to see such a number of National columnists represented throughout the day.
On my breakout panel I’m joined by regular columnists Mike Small and Lesley Riddoch – the other two contributors, Jonathon Shafi and Siobhan Tolland, have both worked with us.
In fact much of the programme reads like a who’s who of National writers, which I believe shows what a strong presence we’ve built for ourselves in the Scottish media landscape.
To demonstrate my point: We’re running two great stories from Jamie Driscoll this weekend – he’s the North Tyne mayor who was blocked from standing for a further Labour selection run by Keir Starmer.
READ MORE: Jamie Driscoll: Keir Starmer's Labour government will be 'very unpopular very fast'
Jamie is speaking on one of the main panel events, and could have spoken to any Scottish media title about his concerns around Starmer’s approach to devolution.
Instead he spoke to The National. This shows how valuable our coverage of the constitution is. I hope you’ll enjoy his contributions in Saturday’s paper.
It’s your support for The National and Sunday National that allows us to play a key role in events like the Break Up of Britain, and so I thank all of our subscribers for their commitment to us. See you there, hopefully!
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We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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