Politics
Scottish council cuts: enough is enough
‘Without real and substantive change in council funding, both fiscal and legislative, then the only budget option for councils will be more cuts, fewer services, fewer workers.’
Bridge over deep, dark water? Five reasons not to build it
The money could be better spent – in good sardonic style, Fraser of Allender lists the reasons for not wasting time on ‘a cracking idea’.
Sinn Fein surge and the border
‘This created the space Sinn Féin needed for an election on its terms – in many respects the party had precisely the kind of election the UK Labour Party wanted and failed to get in…
GE2019 and #indyref2
‘Surveys have shown that almost half of English voters are content to leave the matter to the Scots, with many of the rest having no opinion. There appears to be little appetite for coercing Scotland,…
Scottish Labour for Radical Democracy
‘We call on the left across the UK to back our demand for a second referendum on independence and to fight with us to secure a radical democracy for all the peoples of these islands.’
Crack of light in Northern Ireland
As Northern Ireland’s political plates shift, ‘of course, Johnson may not want to concede another independence referendum. But it seems certain that, one way or another, Scotland will not be able to tolerate indefinite Tories.…
No, no, NO Mr Johnson
Boris Johnson’s “serial mendacity” or constant lying is a big issue in this election so we go back to Andrew Neil’s interview of July 12 to highlight how he distorts facts and figures – and…
GE2019: the Scottish dimension
Ahead of the Westminster election on 12 December, James Mitchell explains how party competition in Scotland is shaped by interrelated questions of policy, competence, independence and Brexit…’
Drowning in a sea of unknowns
‘Given the 1000s of permutations/flavours of possible exit, you’d stand a much greater chance of getting a final flavour you liked the most from a blind-folded Quality Street sweet selection.’
Can tactical voting stop Brexit?
Millions will probably opt for tactical voting but caveat emptor! The very sites that claim to be giving sound advice based on geekish methods such as MRP are at odds with each other….
Will no deal bring break-up of UK?
‘Given that an independence referendum is very unlikely to happen before the latter half of 2021 at the earliest, Scotland would not become an independent country any earlier than the middle years of the next…
A new strategy for the Union
‘The Sewel convention will need to be revived and reformed, with stronger guarantees that Westminster will not rewrite the rules of devolution without agreement.’