George Thorley
And the winner is…The Absent Voters Party
However in all six Scottish Parliamentary elections since 1999 of the roughly 4 million people registered to vote, those actually voting averaged out at around 2.2million. That’s a difference of 1.8 million – the Absent…
Scottish devolution – time to reboot
“If this centralisation trend continues unchecked, nearly all public services will be delivered by unelected quangos or Scottish Government departments with no effective local democratic control or accountability. That would make Scotland an outlier amongst…
A fresh start: time to make devo really work
“A government that operates on the basis of centralisation and control; micro- management and a misplaced lack of faith or worse still, a lack of trust in local government to deliver locally based solutions to…
What have local councils ever done for us?
“A start to redressing this imbalance would be for the UK Government and the devolved governments to sign the European Charter of Local Self Government – then we could at last begin to have serious…
Scottish devolution and the new democratic deficit
After over 20 years existence, instead of extending the principle of devolution within Scotland, the Scottish Government has not only retained all the transfers from Westminster but also taken away functions from Local Government: writes…