‘Should Johnson stumble in any one of these minefields he will quickly find that his upbeat tone and soundbites about the ‘awesome foursome’ are far from enough to keep the union together’.
Scottish devolution
Triumph of rhetoric over reality
‘Education policy as made by the Scottish parliament has certainly been distinctive. But it has not been obviously successful, and it is not, in any historical sense, particularly Scottish.’
National scandal – and emergency
‘We cannot go on like this. Every year since 2014, steep annual increases in drug-related deaths have been met with promises to look into causes and propose solutions. Meanwhile, people continue to die, as evidence-based and life-saving solutions are left on the shelf.’
Brexit: worst crisis for devo
The fact that a cross-party group of MPs has been able to coalesce around the reforms in our report … (underlines) the broad consensus that the time has come for the UK Government to take a serious look at the relationship between the UK and Scottish Governments.’
‘Children of the Devolution’: really?
‘What is missing is any dynamic between insider and outsider Scotland, or an understanding that politics is about power, contested ideas and different social constituencies.’
What now for Holyrood?
‘…whereas a Scottish Parliament within the UK can and has responded to Scottish priorities by forging its own path in many policy areas, from tuition fees to public health to land reform, there is little it can do to resist Brexit.’
Devo 20 and the economy
‘If Scotland is to meet the challenges of the next decade and beyond – and take advantage of the undoubted opportunities that will arise – it is likely to require a much bolder economic policy agenda’
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People O’ Oor Ain
‘Recall the teeth-gnashing of unionists that people were being sold a false prospectus, that ‘real politics’ are what mattered. Indeed so, but people see constitutional matters as the means to better social and economic policy.’
A £1bn Scottish budget shortfall?
‘But what can be said with certainty, if these forecasts are correct, is that the amount of money that the government had planned to have at their disposal – all other factors remaining equal – will be much smaller’.
The narrative of devolution twenty years on
Twenty years of Scottish devolution: who controls the historical narrative and can thereby claim to ‘speak for Scotland’?