Economy
Student debt: class matters
The Scottish Government refuses to acknowledge the way student debt hits young working class people hardest. Even the NUS Scotland virtually ignores the issue. Our leading expert cries shame.
Lights going out all over Scotland
Scotland faces an acute energy gap in the near future and the Scottish Government will fall short of its 2020 target of self-sufficiency in energy supply via a ‘balanced mix.’ Key elements of this mix,…
Could private discussions kill the Scotland Act?
The Secretary of State for Scotland wrote to me this week telling me about progress on the Scotland Bill. I don’t know David Mundell and I imagine I am just one of hundreds, if not…
Luddism in the age of Uber
The term Luddism is thrown around as a form of abuse against vested interests resistant to economic/technological change. But the real lesson of its history is that the law and courts should hold powerful companies…
Missed chance to break up big banks
The Competition Commission has missed a trick with its refusal to countenance a break-up of big banks despite powerful evidence of the lack of real competition in the retail market. The situation is even worse…
Bringing Britain together: time to re-address shared interests
Cross-border urban policy, transport, health and industry are just four areas where Scotland the UK should work together in a new “post-unionist” relationship based on a joint action across a shared island.
Angus Deaton: ‘brilliant’ Scots Nobel-winning economist
Edinburgh-born economist Angus Deaton has won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on consumption, poverty and welfare: a fellow economist pays tribute to a remarkable scholar.
Taking a share in Scotland’s solar future
Solar firms are under severe pressure with two solar panel firms going out of business in as many days with hundreds of job losses because of UK Government subsidy cuts. A new Edinburgh-based not-for-profit community…
That £350m Anglian Water contract: what lies behind it
The Scottish Government has finally (see Lucy Hunter Blackburn here) decided to award a £350m contract to run aspects of the provision of water to public bodies/non-domestic customers to Anglian Water, a controversial privately-owned firm…
Scottish Government’s greatest financial asset is… student loans
When student loans have become the Scottish government’s biggest financial asset and one in six Scots of working age owes outstanding loan money to Holyrood it’s time to have a serious look – especially when…
Going global: Corbyn public ownership push
Jeremy Corbyn is pilloried for urging renationalisation of vital public services but he’s simply part of a growing international trend to repair the gaps left by private providers and his call should be heeded.
Privatising Scottish water: the issue gets even murkier
The Scottish Government has been trying to push its so-called plans to hand ownership and control of business water usage to a private English company into the long grass. Time to come crystal clear and…