The European Parliament’s last plenary session, before the 6-9 June elections, is next week. Is the EU rising to the democratic moment in the face of the climate and biodiversity crisis, and given all the other challenges of our times? For now, the picture looks bleak, a short-sighted shift to the right in an attempt to minimise far-right gains. But replacing climate with security and far-right concerns will help no-one.
Elections
SNP, Labour and the general election
“Labour’s fiscal caution and policy U-turns, not least with Starmer dumping his £28bn green investment plan, have left the door wide open for a strong, broadly social-democratic challenge from the SNP to Labour’s policies at the general election…so why is the SNP being so cautious and over-focusing on the Tories?”
Can Scottish Labour leave the branch office?
Scotland’s influence in Britain will be strongest when you have a Scottish Labour Party working with a Labour Government. If you want a Britain that places Scotland and its interests at the heart of the Westminster debate, if you want a politics that is committed to smashing the class ceiling, if you want to […]
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 western democracies where the role of local democratic organisations is embedded in constitutions, valued and supported.”
Devolution returns to Northern Ireland
“…there is no room for any future withdrawal from government by either veto-holding party, and if that happened, temporary steps to overcome the veto would need to be considered. Issues of longer-term institutional reform may now have slipped down the agenda. But they will have to be dealt with at some point, and a more informed debate on them would be helpful.”
Bias, politics and the need for serious debate on independence
“As Rishi Sunak says he respects constitutional nationalism in Northern Ireland, the same, of course, is not true for Scotland where the debate has sunk to silly levels in recent days. Are Scottish government officials biased towards independence? Did Nicola Sturgeon ever think about independence during the Covid pandemic? Our politics will be better, the more serious our level of debate is.”
Britain’s governance problem laid bare by Covid
Hoping that you can form a decent personal relationship with key Ministers in London isn’t a satisfactory basis on which to run a complex country in the middle of a crisis.Fixing the structural weaknesses revealed by Covid is a task that a pro-UK Government in Scotland will need to tackle. The next time, Britain needs to work better.
Labour’s green gaffe plays into Far Right hands
Labour is dumping its £28bn “green prosperity plan” like farmers dumping manure outside the European Parliament: no way to save the planet, modernise the economy, take on the Far Right backlash…
Starmer can’t afford to be cautious
Labour “is caught between the public policy need for bolder action and an even more sober presentational approach than that of 1997. Bold policies are not incompatible with sober campaigning. But sober campaigning may not excite and mobilise support,” says Prof Mitchell, arguing the case against ultra-caution.
Roch the wind: industrial strategy 3 – Scotland and EU
Both the SNP and Scottish Labour are bigging up industrial policy to modernise the economy as a general election issue. Our co-editor argues this won’t work fully outside Europe.