Something will have to give if Nicola Sturgeon is to finance her admirable policy wish-list for the next five years. After the UK Budget we can only see a shortfall that will have to be made good by – what? The SG’s tax-and-spend options are unclear.
Archives for March 2016
Free childcare: good idea, difficult delivery
Free childcare is a flagship SNP policy, with the First Minister promising to double the number of free hours if (when) she’s re-elected. But the current nursery system, public and private, is creaking and badly needs an overhaul, says the Fair Funding for our Kids campaign.
‘That bloody poster’: exploring Austerity Nostalgia
It’s now some seven years since the notorious ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ sign appeared. Owen Hatherley’s The Ministry of Nostalgia is a witty, exasperated and ferociously well-read exploration of the ‘Austerity Nostalgia’ phenomenon and its politicisation, with parties of both left and right drawing upon competing mythologies of wartime Britain to support their respective positions towards today’s austerity.
Crafting, feasting, fighting: the Celts
The National Museum of Scotland opens its monumental exhibition on the art and identity of the Celts this week. Lots of wonderful, almost unimaginable artifices. But who were the Celts? They didn’t leave any written record and we are none the wiser in truth.
Reasons to be cheerful – or ca’ canny
The Scottish Conservatives talked up their Holyrood election prospects at their recent conference at Murrayfield. But their past record and the wider economic and political context suggest they would be wise to err on the side of caution.
Erased from history: women gardeners
Women were not always welcome in the garden. Fay Young follows the often hidden trail of pioneering women determined to make their way in a man’s world
Putting council tax reform to bed
The SNP still calls its proposed Council Tax ‘reforms’ radical. But one of Scotland’s leading experts on local government finance disagrees profoundly. This is really about ruffling as few feathers as possible.
Overdue homecoming for RLS
Robert Louis Stevenson has been all too easily dismissed as a story writer for boys. Slowly, he has regained his reputation as what Borges called a “literary joy”. We can better judge for ourselves when a collection of his books and letters opens this month.
The myth of Scottish slaves
It wisnae us? Historian Stephen Mullen demolish myths and redirects attention to more uncomfortable truths about Scotland’s involvement in the Caribbean slave trade.
Delaying the fiscal crunch
The Scottish Government emerged from the tortuous talks with the Treasury on the fiscal framework with a relatively generous settlement. But it is one that kicks the can down the road towards renewed acrimony in five years time, argues this leading economist.