Was it simply a victory for fear over hope?How did the Better Together campaign come so close to losing it?How did the Yes campaign come so close to winning it?What can the people of Scotland - and other aspirant nations - learn from this seismic democratic event? Scotland's independence referendum on 18 September 2014 was the most significant ballot in Scotland's history. The 100 days up to 18 September was the official campaign period and the world's media was watching. David Torrance was there throughout, in front of the cameras, on the radio, in the newspapers, at the debates and gatherings, privy to some of the behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings.A passionate federalist at heart, described disparagingly by the outgoing First Minister as 'Tory-leaning', Torrance made a valiant attempt to remain 'professionally neutral' throughout. His commentary and analysis as the campaign went through its many twists and turns was always insightful, if not always popular.'Reading this diary back during the editing process it was clear that, like (Nate) Silver (the US polling guru whose view was that the Yes campaign had virtually no chance of victory), I got a lot of things wrong (including the likely margin of victory) but also many things broadly correct. At least I can plead, as journalists often do, that I was probably right at the time.'His diary is deliciously gossipy, entertainingly indiscreet, and a must-read for political geeks as well as those who want to see what goes on behind the scenes of Scotland's politics and media.STEPHEN DAISLEY, STVDavid Torrance has emerged as one of the campaign's most important commentators... [his] unauthorised biography of Alex Salmond, Against the Odds, has become the prescribed text for the flying columns of English-based and overseas journalists converging on Scotland in this our hour of destiny.KEVIN McKENNA, Scottish Review of BooksTorrance has secured himself a prominent position in the referendum debate, partly through the strategic use of nice jumpers and expertly crafted hair, but largely on merit ... [he deserves] far better than the lazy impossibilist critiques to which [his federalist] proposals have been subjected.RORY SCOTHORNE on Britain RebootedF*** sake... David Torrance on again. Is the greasy weasel never aff the telly?CALUM FINDLAY [on Twitter]
A biography of the Scottish leader by an author with “an excellent eye for political detail” (Scotland on Sunday). Nicola Sturgeon became involved in politics as a teenager, and then began a law career in Glasgow. She would go on to become Scotland’s youngest parliamentary candidate in 1992, in her early twenties. Considered a rising star, she eventually reached the pinnacle of Scottish government as First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party—the party she’d joined at the age of sixteen. This book explores her reputation for efficiency and shrewd political judgment, her family life, and her role in the country’s turbulent recent years with the campaign for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom and the Brexit vote. It is a portrait of a fascinating woman as well as an “illuminating appraisal” of her impressive career (Spectator).
Great Britain, (abbreviation: UK) England, Wales and Scotland considered as a unit. The name is also often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom. reboot, ri-bu:t , verb to restart or revive... give fresh impetus to... federal, fed ar-al, adj. having or relating to a system of government in which several states form a unity but remain independent in internal affairs. Would federalism work in the UK? Wouldn't England dominate a British federation? How would powers be distributed between federal and home Nation level? What about the House of Lords? In the run up to the historic referendum on Scottish independence there has been a plethora of tracts, articles and books arguing for and against, but there remains a gap in the literature: the case for Scotland becoming part of a 'rebooted' federal Union. It is an old, usually Liberal, dream, but one still worth fighting for. It is often assumed that federalism is somehow 'alien' to the Scottish and British constitutional tradition but in this short book journalist David Torrance argues that not only has the UK already become a quasi-federal state but that formal federation is the best way of squaring the competing demands of Nationalists and Unionists. He also uses Scotland's place within a federal UK to examine other potential reforms with a view to tackling ever-increasing inequality across the British Isles and create a more equal, successful and constitutionally coherent country.
Here are the details of an amazing life. . . . This is a book well worth reading." --Very Revd John Miller "A work rich in human interest, redolent of the grace of God, and completely honest in describing both the author's struggles with a sense of call to ministry, and the highs and lows of subsequent pastoral experience." --Angus Morrison, Church of Scotland Moderator, 2015-16
NEW POST-REFERENDUM EDITION. Alex Salmond is well known in Scotland, the UK and beyond as the leader of the Scottish National Party and Scotland's First Minister, but relatively little is understood about Salmond as a human being, what makes him a Nationalist, what shaped his political views, and what sort of country he believes an independent Scotland can be. In this first biography, with which close colleagues and friends have co-operated, the acclaimed political biographer David Torrance turns his attention to perhaps one of the most capable and interesting politicians Scotland has produced in the last few decades. Utilising a raft of published and unpublished material, Torrance charts the life and career of Alex Salmond from his schooldays, his political activism at St Andrews University, his early career at the Royal Bank of Scotland, his election as the MP for Banff and Buchan and, in greater depth than ever before, his two spells as leader of the SNP and, from 2007, as First Minister of Scotland.
David Torrance reassesses the relationship between 'nationalism' and 'unionism' in Scottish politics, challenging a binary reading of the two ideologies with the concept of 'nationalist unionism'. Scottish nationalism did not begin with the SNP in 1934, nor was it confined to political parties that desired independent statehood. Rather, it was more dispersed, with the Liberal, Conservative and Labour parties all attempting to harness Scottish national identity and nationalism between 1884 and 2014, often with the paradoxical goal of strengthening rather than ending the Union. The book combines nationalist theory with empirical historical and archival research to argue that these conceptions of Scottish nationhood had much more in common with each other than is commonly accepted.
On 18 September 2014, everyone in Scotland aged 16 or over will be asked the question: 'Should Scotland Be An Independent Country? 'As the referendum approaches, the debates over whether or not Scotland should be an independent country are becoming more heated. This guide, produced by respected Scottish journalists and authors, Jamie Maxwell and David Torrance, covers everything you need to know in advance of deciding which way to vote. Maxwell and Torrance summarise the main arguments for and against before delving into the central issues at the heart of the debate, including economics, welfare and pensions, defence and foreign affairs, and culture and national identity. They outline the way that Scotland is currently governed and review where the parties stand on the debate before concluding with speculative chapters on what happens after the vote, whether YES or NO. The referendum on 18 September 2014 is the most significant democratic event in Scotland's history. Get engaged. Be informed. Whatever you do, don't NOT vote!
David Torrance combines nationalist theory with empirical historical and archival research to reassess the relationship between 'nationalism' and 'unionism' in Scottish politics, challenging a binary reading of the two ideologies with the concept of 'nationalist unionism'.
In a culture increasingly secular in its pursuits and indifferent to the voice of the church, how may we ignite the fire for ministry that will bring the gospel to the world? How can weary pastors be sustained amidst a climate of doubt and resistance? For more than half a century, three remarkable brothers have offered a vision that has inspired thousands in churches and seminaries. Today, their message remains fresh and relevant as we enter a new millennium. And for one reason: The Brothers Torrance share a passion for Christ--the Christ of the Scriptures, the Christ of the historic Nicene faith. These essays distill the essence of their thought, and shine with the clarity of their shared vision. A Passion for Christ is a light of encouragement for ministers and lay people elsewhere.
Should the United Kingdom remain a part of the European Union or leave the European Union? This is the question we will have to answer on 23 June, when we head to the ballot boxes to cast our votes in the in/out referendum on EU membership. It's a complicated issue. What, exactly, would the much discussed 'Brexit' mean for the UK? With varied opinions on the EU from all over the political spectrum, do you know enough to make an informed decision? This non-partisan guide features chapters on the history of Britain in Europe, the 'Remain' and 'Leave' campaigns, and the likely timelines following both a 'In' and an 'Out' vote. With maps illustrating the EU and EEA membership and clear exposition of issues key to the debate by journalist and broadcaster David Torrance, author of guides to the 2015 General Election and the Scottish Independence Referendum, this is the only guide to 2016's referendum you will need.
Michael Foot was speaking affectionately when in 1979 he quipped that David Steel had apparently gone from 'rising hope to elder statesman' without any intervening period whatsoever. But the remark also neatly captured a career which had seen 'the Boy David' enter the House of Commons aged only twenty-six, become leader of the Liberal Party in 1976 (at thirty-eight years old one of the youngest party leaders in British history) and then, within months of his election, lead his party into a controversial Lib-Lab Pact with James Callaghan's Labour government. Taking the lead in demanding cooperation with the new Social Democratic Party, Steel helped the Alliance poll an unprecedented share of the vote for a third party in the 1983 election. Alongside David Owen of the SDP, he fought another memorable election four years later as one of the 'two Davids' and later became the major force behind the troubled birth of the Liberal Democrat Party. Based on extensive interviews and fresh archival research, this biography - with which Steel has cooperated - charts both the 'rising hope' and 'elder statesman' phases in Steel's career, as well as his role as the first Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament and his political legacy in light of the post-2010 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.
On 18 September 2014, Scots will decide their future: should the country quit the United Kingdom and take control of its own destiny, or should it remain part of what advocates call the most successful political and economic union of modern times? Everyone in the country has a stake in this decision. Now, in this fascinating and insightful new book, David Torrance charts the countdown to the big day, weaving his way through a minefield of claim and counterclaim, and knocking down fictions and fallacies from both Nationalists and Unionists. He plunges into the key questions that have shaped an often-fraught argument, from the future of the pound to the shape of an independent Scottish army. With access to the strategists and opinion-makers on both sides of the political divide, this book goes straight to the heart of the great debate, providing an incisive, authoritative, occasionally trenchant guide to the most dramatic constitutional question of our times - the battle for Britain.
This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. This volume is one of twelve classic commentaries by John Calvin, theologian par excellence of the Reformation, whose expositions of Scripture remain as relevant as ever. Edited by David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance, these twelve commentaries on the New Testament bring Calvin's authoritative voice to life in clear contemporary English. The translations all strive to retain the close coherence of Calvin's ideas and characteristic images while remaining faithful to the Latin text -- doing full justice to the Reformer's qualities as one of history's finest expositors of the Word of God.
Born Jean Cauvin in Noyon, Picardy, France, John Calvin was only a boy when Martin Luther first raised his challenge concerning indulgences. Calvin was enrolled at the age of 14 at the University of Paris, where he received preliminary training in theology and became an elegant Latinist. However, following the dictates of his father, he left Paris at the age of 19 and went to study law, first at Orleans, then at Bourges, in both of which centers the ideas of Luther were already creating a stir. On his father's death, Calvin returned to Paris, began to study Greek, the language of the New Testament, and decided to devote his life to scholarship. In 1532 he published a commentary on Seneca's De Clementia, but the following year, after experiencing what was considered a sudden conversion, he was forced to flee Paris for his religious views. The next year was given to the study of Hebrew in Basel and to writing the first version of his famous Institutes of the Christian Religion, which he gave to the printer in 1535. The rest of his life-except for a forced exile of three years-he spent in Geneva, where he became chief pastor, without ever being ordained. When he died, the city was solidly on his side, having almost become what one critic called a "theocracy." By then the fourth and much-revised edition of his Institutes had been published in Latin and French, commentaries had appeared on almost the whole Bible, treatises had been written on the Lord's Supper, on the Anabaptists, and on secret Protestants under persecution in France. Thousands of refugees had come to Geneva, and the city-energized by religious fervor-had found room and work for them. Though Calvin was sometimes bitter in his denunciation of those who disagreed with him, intolerant of other points of view, and absolutely sure he was right on the matter of predestination, he was nonetheless one of the great expounders of the faith. From his work the Reformed tradition had its genesis, and from his genius continues to refresh itself. (Bowker Author Biography)These classic commentaries...laid the foundation for all later Protestant exegesis of the Bible. Marked by an honest careful handling of the text, Calvin's expoitions of Scripture remain as "modern" as ever in their relevance to today's students of the Bible. - back cover.
Ideas of kinship play a significant role in structuring everyday life, and yet kinship has been neglected in Christian ethics, moral philosophy and bioethics. Attention has been paid in these disciplines to the ethics of 'family,' but with little regard to the evidence that kinship varies widely from culture-to-culture, suggesting that it is, in fact, culturally constructed. Surveying notions of shared substance (e.g. blood ties), house, gender and personhood, as theorised and practiced in the Christian tradition, Torrance critiques the special privileging of the 'blood tie'. In the place of European and American cultural assumptions to the contrary, it is kinship in Christ that is presented as the basis of a truly Christian account for social ties. Torrance also aims to stimulate the moral imagination to consider Christian kinship might be lived out in miniature, in everyday life.
For more than forty years now there has been a steady stream of interest in Richard Hooker. This renaissance in Hooker Studies began with the publication of the Folger Library Edition of the Works of Richard Hooker. With this renaissance has come a growing recognition that it is anachronistic to classify Hooker simply as an Anglican thinker, but as yet, no generally agreed-upon alternative label, or context for his thought, has replaced this older conception; in particular, the question of Hooker's Reformed identity remains hotly contested. Given the relatively limited engagement of Hooker scholarship with other branches of Reformation and early modern scholarship to date, there is a growing recognition that Hooker must be evaluated not only against the context of English puritanism and conformism but also in light of his broad international Reformed context. At the same time, it has become clear that, if this is so, scholars of continental Reformed orthodoxy must take stock of Hooker's work as one of the landmark theological achievements of the era. This volume aims to facilitate this long-needed conversation, bringing together a wide range of scholars to consider Richard Hooker's theology within the full context of late 16th- and early 17th-century Reformed orthodoxy, both in England and on the Continent. The essays seek to bring Hooker into conversation not merely with contemporaries familiar to Hooker scholarship, such as William Perkins, but also with such contemporaries as Jerome Zanchi and Franciscus Junius, predecessors such as Heinrich Bullinger, and successors such as John Davenant, John Owen, and Hugo Grotius. In considering how these successors of Hooker identified themselves in relation to his theology, these essays will also shed light on how Hooker was perceived within 17th-century Reformed circles. The theological topics touched on in the course of these essays include such central issues as the doctrine of Scripture, predestination, Christology, soteriology, the sacraments, and law. It is hoped that these essays will continue to stimulate further research on these important questions among a wide community of scholars.
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