Blossom

What will it take for Scotland to blossom? Imagine Scotland as a beautifully-knitted, warmth-providing sweater caught on a snag. Its wearer tries to move forward -- but cannot. A pause is needed to lift the garment clear. Scotland is thus snagged. And no amount of tugging will free it from the stubborn, progress-inhibiting three-headed hook of inequality, distant control and top-down governance. Weeding out vital components of Scottish identity from decades of political and social tangle is no mean task, but it's one journalist Lesley Riddoch has undertaken. Dispensing with the tired, yo-yoing jousts over fiscal commissions, Devo Something and EU in-or-out, Blossom pinpoints both the buds of growth and the blight that's holding Scotland back. Drawing from its people, history, and the author's own passionate and outspoken perspective this is a plain-speaking but incisive call to restore control to local communities and let Scotland flourish.

Lesley Riddoch Lesley Riddoch is a Sony award-winning journalist and broadcaster. She was involved in the Isle of Eigg buyout with the local community and became a trustee of the Isle of Eigg Trust. She was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2006 for her columns in The Guardian and The Scotsman. Lesley currently runs her own independent radio, podcast and TV production company known as Feisty Ltd.