Boris Johnson’s “serial mendacity” or constant lying is a big issue in this election so we go back to Andrew Neil’s interview of July 12 to highlight how he distorts facts and figures – and he’s still at it.
GE2019: the Scottish dimension
Ahead of the Westminster election on 12 December, James Mitchell explains how party competition in Scotland is shaped by interrelated questions of policy, competence, independence and Brexit…’
Drugs, poverty and entertainment Pt 2
Cool Britannia Danny Boyle’s film of Trainspotting was the pitch-perfect opening salvo for Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia. A post-ideological antidote to the conscience-pricking social realism of such politically-driven directors as Peter Watkins and Ken Loach, its purpose was not to evoke sympathy for those enslaved to a drug habit; rather, it was to cash in […]
Drugs, poverty and entertainment
Why are there so many deaths from drugs in Scotland? We know all the standard answers but maybe, too, the creative sector has a part to play? Part One of two
A shift in business thinking?
‘The most technologically savvy generation in history – the ‘Zoomers’ – are about to join the workforce. They have different priorities, one being better stewardship of the planet. Building a better future depends on embracing the positive.’ But there are negatives too…
Scotland’s budget prospects
The Scottish Budget was due on December 12, #GE2019 day, but will almost certainly be pulled until after the UK Budget is presented early next year on the back of wild spending promises. Even pre-Brexit the Scottish outlook is more than unusually uncertain…
Policing the gender identity debate
‘managers need to recognise that both sex and gender identity may be relevant to people’s lives, and to factor both into policy-making decisions. In this way, it should be possible to balance fairly the interests of everyone, in the least discriminatory way possible.’
Five poems for a general election in hard times
A selection of five poems for this general election in hard times. To shine a light on our better nature, to remember how many different people are responding to the urgent issues of 2019 with human kindness, concern, and courageous conscience.
Scotland’s climate emergency
‘Perhaps most of all, the importance of setting out a stable long-term environment for investment will be the most effective policy that anyone could set. It will also require international cooperation, both in terms of connectivity, R&D and investment.’
Scottish democracy: role of citizens’ assembly?
Citizens’ Assemblies are fundamentally an innovative structure for engaging with the public that are characterised by two key features that differentiate them from our more well-established ways of involving the public in the work of government: First, the participants are randomly selected to be broadly representative of the population at large (i.e. this is not […]