There’s not too much to add to the comprehensive write-ups of the Edinburgh and Belfast events that Mick has posted on Slugger O’Toole apart from a remark about how good it was to meet so many new people that share the mild sense of desperation about the hole that traditional politics has allowed itself to slip into – along with the willingness to look at gamechanging new ideas to break this stalemate.
Edinburgh event slideshow from Snook
Because the events were organised by Slugger O’Toole – a site with a heavy footprint in Northern Ireland, predictably, the Belfast event got down to the conversations around sectarianism, dealing with the past, and the institutional questions that dog he unorthadox array of political parties that exist in the sixlet.
The Edinburgh event, by contrast, had more sessions that raised concerns that would come up almost anywhere in the UK – with the possible exception of a good session on the problems that Scottish Nationalism has with the mainstream media.
So what’s next? Well, we’re keen to do a few more events if we can rustle up a few invitations to do them. We’re also going to be resuming the essays shortly – we aim to have at least ten of them on the site at the end of the year. And then there’s going to be an ‘incubator’ event in the new year where we bring the essayists together with movers and shakers of the governmental, political and entrepreneurial varieties. Watch this space for more detail!
