26/10/2007

A new newspaper - “with a republican and libertarian agenda” - is launching tomorrow in Edinburgh, with contributions from broadcaster, Lesley Riddoch, and Andy Wightman - author of Who Owns Scotland - appearing in its debut issue. In it, Wightman argues that the ultimate community buy-out would be to unseat the Queen from Balmoral, which he contends the Windsor's don't actually own.

Bella Caledonia is being unveiled tomorrow evening at the Radical Book Fair, taking place in the capital, and is the brainchild of editors, Mike Small and Kevin Williamson.

With a print run of 10,000, it will be available for free - in pubs, cafes, arts centres, and other public venues. It will be compact size. The title will appear irregularly in support of a web presence which - says Small - “will utilise social networking techniques to create a wave of information”.

Adds Small: “Bella Caledonia believes that the arguments for  independence need to be transformed, enlarged and re-articulated and  this can only be done in new forms. As
allmediascotland’s Alex Bell wrote earlier this year: ‘Where is there one Scottish newspaper furiously demanding a stronger parliament in line with public opinion? Where is there a newspaper that champions independence as favoured, we  are told by pollsters, by a majority of Scots? There is none. Never has been. That is not only anti-democratic, it is a disgrace to journalism and an affront to free speech.’ Bella Caledonia aims to move forward  the debate about self-determination, with a republican and libertarian agenda.”

The magazine is named after Bella Baxter, a character in Scottish author, Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things.

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