Author's Christmas Visit

On Tuesday 8 December at 1.20pm in Room 103, Nonsuch HP Society is lucky enough to have the author Brian Landers in to give a talk. He has written a book called 'Empires Apart' analysing the parallel development of Russian and American Empires over the course of 400 years. It has some great reviews and promises to spark some debate about the role of Russia and America in the world today.
Everyone is invited but it will obviously be particularly useful to GCSE students and above. See his website here for more information about the book and the author.

Scottish Independence?

It was St Andrew's Day yesterday and Alex Salmond grabbed the opportunity to publish his plans for Scotland's constitutional future including a proposal to put forward a referendum on independence. Although it is unlikely to happen as he does not have enough support in the Scottish Parliament, it is raising the issue of independence and putting more pressure on the government to give more powers to the Scots. Jim Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, has in fact already tried to pre-empt this announcement with proposals that do give more powers to the Scots.
What do you think? Should the Scots go independent? Or would it mean the break up of the rest of the UK and a significant drop in European and World status? What might be the benefits and drawbacks? Here is the Economist's view on the issue and here is a comprehensive look at the issue from the BBC.