Glasgow Guardian

Liberal Democrats of the centre left face a battle for the soul and the survival of the party, argues James Maxwell.

Multi-award winning poet Don Paterson discusses life and death, hardcore scientific materialism and his latest collection of poetry, Rain, with James Maxwell Propped against the glossy white wall of the Mitchell Library’s top floor corridor, Don Paterson looks to me every bit the stray musician and vagabond poet. Having discarded his scratched and battered guitar [...]

Journalist and author David Aaronovitch introduces James Maxwell to the curious world of the conspiracist Dramatically speaking, successful conspiracy theories — those that linger in the public consciousness long after the event that inspired them has actually occurred — are composed, in roughly equal measure, of the absurd and the sinister. Take, for instance, the [...]

James Maxwell talks to Patrick Harvie MSP, co-convenor of the Scottish Green party, about the state of cross-party environmental politics Greenhouse gassing Prior to the implosion of the international banking system, Britain’s largest parties poured their efforts into trying to demonstrate the purity of their environmental credentials. David Cameron shamelessly staged an Arctic escapade, complete [...]

James Maxwell meets one of the world’s most influential and controversial intellectuals to discuss extremism, reform and ‘The New We’ To many of his most belligerent critics, Tariq Ramadan — probably the world’s foremost Muslim intellectual — is a pathological manipulator of the truth. If confronted directly with a query concerning the real nature of [...]

Stuart Neville, author of critically acclaimed new crime novel The Twelve, talks to James Maxwell “I just woke up one morning with the image of a man, sitting in a bar, surrounded by all the people that he had killed,” Stuart Neville responds when I ask what inspired him to write The Twelve, his critically [...]

James Maxwell talks Marx and alienation with professional philosopher and documentary-maker Alain de Botton A lot of people don’t like Alain de Botton, the professional philosopher, author and documentary-maker. Or, at least, a lot of people I know don’t like Alain de Botton. He is viewed, by a select-cut of my most cerebral and scholarly [...]

James Maxwell asks Murdo Fraser MSP, Deputy Leader of the Scottish Tories, about his party’s awkward relationship with Scotland As the Labour government continues to crumble and decay, David Cameron’s Conservatives look set to sweep into office this summer. For more than two years now, they have registered a healthy 8 — 12% poll lead [...]

James Maxwell takes a disorientating New Year’s trip around three of Japan’s biggest cities A re-routed trip after my Amsterdam transfer was cancelled. 26 hours on three planes, from Glasgow to Dubai (where they have palm-trees in the waiting lounges) Monday morning, to Seoul airport on a baking Tuesday evening and arriving finally in Tokyo’s [...]

James Maxwell talks to Johann Hari, The Independent’s award-winning columnist, about life on the front-line of political journalism In six years as a political commentator and columnist at The Independent, Johann Hari has assembled a list of enemies the length of the Thames. Peter Mandelson, the Dalai Lama, George Galloway, Daniel Craig, Hizb Ut Tahrir, [...]