18-480: Kevin Williamson may refer to: Kevin Williamson (writer) (born 1961), Scottish writer Kevin Williamson (screenwriter) (born 1965), American screenwriter, producer, director and actor Kevin Williamson (swimmer) (born 1959), Irish Olympic swimmer Kevin D. Williamson (born 1972), American columnist, pundit, and author [REDACTED] Topics referred to by
36-641: A free newspaper Williamson currently co-edits (with Mike Small ) aimed at stimulating discussion around left libertarian and Scottish republican ideas. Since acrimoniously parting company with Canongate Books, Williamson has worked as a newspaper columnist and cultural commentator, regularly appearing in print and on television and radio. In 2002, his regular weekly column in The Herald was controversially axed because of his outspoken views on Israel . His published work includes A Visitor's Guide To Edinburgh (co-written with Irvine Welsh in 1993), and Drugs and
54-488: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Kevin Williamson (writer) Kevin Williamson (born 1961) is a writer, publisher, and activist originally from Caithness . He is a Scottish socialist and republican and was an activist for the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). He was also the architect of their radical drug policy, which included
72-576: The Labour Party still enjoying high popularity following their landslide victory in the 1997 UK general election as widely expected was the largest party winning 56 seats, mostly in their traditional Central Belt heartlands, which was nine seats short of an overall majority. Labour formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats , who won 17 seats. The Scottish National Party (SNP) had done well in opinion polls running up to
90-620: The "progressive" nature of Scots and Scottish nationalists. In August 2006, in the aftermath of Tommy Sheridan's libel case against the News of the World , Williamson parted company with the Scottish Socialist Party. In November 2007, Williamson signalled a clear break with party politics and his previous Marxian background in an article entitled Scotland's Libertarian Left, which was originally published by Bella Caledonia ,
108-480: The 73 constituencies being grouped together to make eight regions each electing seven additional members to make a total of 129. This meant that it would be unlikely for any party to gain a majority of seats in the new parliament and either minority or coalition Scottish Executives would have to be formed. The first general election to the Scottish Parliament overall produced few surprises with
126-711: The Additional Member System. The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Greens picked up unexpected additional member seats. Robin Harper became the first ever elected Green parliamentarian in the history of the United Kingdom. Dennis Canavan , who had failed to become an approved Labour candidate, won the Falkirk West constituency as an independent candidate. Following the election
144-676: The Party Line (1997). His poetry has been published in anthologies and magazines. In 2005, he won the Robert Louis Stevenson Award for literature. His first collection of poetry, In A Room Darkened , was published by Two Ravens Press in October 2007. Williamson was also a contributor to Pax Edina: The One O' Clock Gun Anthology (Edinburgh, 2010). Since 2011, Williamson had been involved in Neu!Reekie! before it
162-563: The Westminster general election. In 2003, Williamson became the first person to be physically ejected by the police from the Scottish Parliament when he made an anti-war protest wearing a George Bush mask. Williamson is strong supporter of Scottish independence and Independence First . However, in contrast to the civic nationalism of the Scottish National Party , his nationalism is inspired by what he sees as
180-489: The election, gaining 40% in some approval ratings, but this level of support was not maintained. The SNP were the second largest party with 35 seats, which still represented their best performance since the October 1974 general election . The Conservative Party , still recovering from their wipeout in the 1997 general election across Scotland , failed to win a single constituency seat but did manage to win 18 seats through
198-493: The first publishers of such Scottish writers as Irvine Welsh , Laura Hird , Alan Warner , and Toni Davidson. He has also championed such major Scottish writers as James Kelman , Duncan McLean , Gordon Legge and Alasdair Gray . In 1996 Williamson joined forces with Edinburgh-based Canongate Books to create the Rebel Inc imprint which, in the following five years, published almost sixty titles, mixing Scottish fiction with
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#1732787634071216-409: The international counter-culture and the politics of dissent. Within the Rebel Inc imprint, Williamson re-published a series of out of print titles under the heading of Rebel Inc Classics that included writers such as Richard Brautigan , Alexander Trocchi , Charles Bukowski , Nelson Algren , John Fante , Knut Hamsun , Jim Dodge , Robert Sabbag and Jack London . He is a long-time campaigner for
234-550: The legalisation of cannabis and the provision under the National Health Service of free synthetic heroin to addicts under medical supervision to combat the problems of drugs in working class communities. He wrote a regular weekly column, "Rebel Ink", for the Scottish Socialist Voice . In 1992, Williamson launched a literary magazine called Rebel Inc and through its pages, was one of
252-728: The legalisation of cannabis , and unsuccessfully tried to open a "hash cafe" in Edinburgh . In 1997 Williamson went on a "National Change The Drug Laws" tour with former cannabis smuggler Howard Marks . In 1999 , Williamson stood as an SSP candidate in the first ever elections to the Scottish Parliament in the Edinburgh Central constituency. In 2001 , he stood again for the SSP in Edinburgh Central in
270-409: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kevin_Williamson&oldid=835819143 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
288-592: The unique qualities of the Scottish people, noting that "the English are a justice-loving people, according to charter and statute" whose legislature "accentuates stuffy tradition, law and order, rules and regulations, and keeping social order", whereas the Scots put "more emphasis on openness, accessibility and addressing social concerns". He also suggested that Unionism is an intrinsically "right wing" concern, compared to
306-502: Was created after a referendum on devolution took place on 11 September 1997 in which 74.3% of those who voted approved the idea. The Scotland Act (1998) was then passed by the UK Parliament which established the devolved Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive. The parliament was elected using Mixed-member proportional representation , combining 73 (First-past-the-post) constituencies and proportional representation with
324-493: Was disbanded in 2023. 1999 Scottish Parliament election Donald Dewar Labour The first election to the devolved Scottish Parliament , to fill 129 seats, took place on 6 May 1999. Following the election, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats formed the Scottish Executive , with Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Donald Dewar becoming First Minister . The Scottish Parliament
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