The Queensferry or Second Forth Crossing is no triumph of Scottish engineering but, rather, a reflection of globalisation. George Rosie reports on – and laments – how very few Scottish firms are engaged in building this hugely important and costly infrastructure project.
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Human rights and ethical exceptionalism
Nicola Sturgeon has positioned the Scottish Government as the stoutest defender of the Human Rights Act. But the SNP’s position is not as clear-cut as that, argues penal reformer Lucy Hunter Blackburn.
Scottish politics and the English language
A few years ago, the word Scotland meant more or less the same for most Scots. Today two Scots might use the same word but have two entirely different things in mind. An opinion piece by German linguist Regina Erich on the use – and abuse – of language.
Scotland’s revolutionaries: another perspective on the Yes movement
What is the Yes movement? A protest? A religion? A cult? No: with its discipline, utopianism, strategic intelligence and sense of historic agency it bears the classic hallmarks of a revolutionary movement.
Scottish Government muddies water on privatisation
How the quiet privatisation of some water services not only brings the Scottish Government up against many of its own supporters, but cuts across some of the most powerful rhetoric it has used over the past two years, not least in relation to threats of privatisation in the NHS.
Scotland’s growing influence on UK and EU foreign policy: an interview with Humza Yousaf
Hamza Yousaf, Minister for Europe and International Development in the Scottish government, tells Kirsty Hughes how the SNP’s influence on a policy area neglected in the election campaign is bound to grow – whatever the outcome.
General Election 2015: a clearer view from the window seat
The view from a cruising altitude of 36,000 feet affords clearer insights into at least five crucial global issues missing from the general election campaign debates and obscured by its heat and dust.
Vote SNP, get Brexit
Never has a British general election caused so much concern in Europe. And never has the UK appeared closer to the EU exit door.
NATO’s 2% target out of reach
At times, US frustration with European debates is palpable. But most US leaders understand that while NATO remains the primary framework for military coordination and cooperation between America and Europe, it is still an alliance of independent states, which will continue to set their own budgets in light of their own priorities.
Parliamentary reform: Westminster shows Holyrood the way
Anyone who watched the BBC2 documentary series Inside the Commons would agree that it is not only the crumbling building which needs repair. A democracy that depends on its representatives mastering a 45 chapter tome on procedure first written in 1844, is hardly fitted to the digital age. But there is a parliament much closer to home that Ms Sturgeon ought to consider as a candidate for reform.