Economy
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…
Osborne’s nuclear nonsense economics
George Osborne has been in China offering taxpayers’ money to subsidise its entry into the UK energy sector with French state-owned EDF while slashing incentives for efficient, clean renewables, many of them based in Scotland.…
Robots, the digital economy and fair shares for all
Prof Richard Freeman, co-director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, calls in this interview for wider ownership of pension funds/employee shares in their companies to manage effects of AI/robots on employment…
Reshoring Scotland: the case for a manufacturing revival
In announcing her Programme for Government at the start of this month, the First Minister committed to publishing a Manufacturing Action Plan for Scotland in the autumn. But it begs the question: what does manufacturing…
ScotPound misses its targets
It’s the currency issue wot lost it for Yes a year ago, they say. So how about a Scottish currency to meet issues with Sterling – and boost equality and the economy? Our financial expert…
An underwhelming programme for government
Nicola Sturgeon’s pre-election programme for government is, well, worthy but provides no evidence that the SNP in power at Holyrood for another five years can make its delivery match its rhetoric
Corbynomics: economic reason and political fantasy?
Jeremy Corbyn’s economic programme has been dismissed as “a return to Bennism and the 1980s” but is in tune with the views of many mainstream economists. So where’s the beef?
The ‘greenest-ever’ Conservative Party? – the summer budget and the environment
In a year when the all-important UN climate change summit will take place in Paris and the UN’s sustainable development goals will be finalised, George Osborne’s summer budget fails to seize the moment to put…