As the SNP leadership campaign crawls to the finish post, time for a Big Debate on the political and socio-economic future in Scotland and the UK
Environment
The left must abandon high tax policies
“The left should opt for an eco-fiscal policy, designed to dismantle rentier capitalism. It should accept that high progressive income tax is out of date. It should make clear that income and consumption taxes are mainly for public services and infrastructure, including transport, defence, housing, schools and other social needs. Beyond that, the aim should be to restructure fiscal policy as a means of common justice.”
One snort for hello?
“It doesn’t have to be like this, as David Attenborough has reminded us at the end of every episode of his most urgently powerful and poignant series: Green Planet, and with force in the final fifth, Human Worlds. Solutions are tantalisingly within reach. At no risk to ourselves we can make our own surrounds much greener – and a lot more pleasant.”
From Big Oil to Big Wind
“Challenges lie ahead. But one major difference between Big Oil and Big Wind is that the latter has the potential to help rescue the planet from the climate emergency.”
A brief note on wind and hot air
“So while the first steps towards mass exploitation of the North Sea offshore wind power at industrial scale have been taken, the socioeconomic wrangling as to who will actually benefit from this mass infrastructure is likely only just beginning.”
Kathleen Jamie: the poetry of natural resistance
“But another important thing is that poetry is for everyone. Don’t for one minute think poetry was ever a highfalutin thing. It never was – particularly In Scotland. Think about the ballads, think about Burns – these are ordinary everyday folk.”
Reclaiming life and space at Picardy
‘Now that the traffic engineers have had their say it’s clearly about time that the public, not the notionally public servants, have a say about this space. I still hold to the view that sculpture – and new work in particular , the 4th plinth idea – would work here.’
Garb-Age in the Highlands
“They filled a boat with 15 bags of plastic waste. By weight, 90% of the waste was from the area’s salmon farms, which regularly discard long black snakes of feeding tubes into the sea.”
Jobs and a just transition can deliver climate ambition
“Governments should work with unions and employers to ensure green jobs: offer good wages, benefits and job security;
provide better training and advancement opportunities;
give workers the right to organise, and are safe and accessible to all.”
Regenerative farming could cut methane emissions
Food production will have to change to deliver the methane emissions reductions agreed at COP26. How will this work? Last week, I interviewed a “regenerative farmer” in Fife who may have some answers. Claire Pollock has a mixed farm of animals and arable – she doesn’t plough but sows cereal straight onto harvest stubble. Cows […]