Society
Monklands Hospital: lessons from Labour’s flawed campaign
Scottish Labour needs to learn lessons from its recent ( and wrong-headed/ill-informed) high-profile campaigning on Monklands Hospital. “We must be concerned with evidence, developing new policies, doing things differently and respecting communities and staff on…
Silence of the weans: why children need outdoor play
When was the last time you heard the shouts, squeals and laughter of young children as they ran, jumped, climbed, built dens, made mixtures and played ‘Let’s Pretend’ in their local neighbourhood? Sue Palmer of…
The Scottish Bureaucratic Mind
‘Modern Scotland, both before and after devolution, emerges as a country that is more committed to bureaucracy than democracy’.
Opioids: unintended consequences of a good policy
‘Ensuring that police practices reduce, rather than exacerbate, harms to drug users is an important part of that. Policing is part of the picture; now more than ever, collective action can help reduce drug-related deaths.’
Testing time for the Scottish Government
‘The problems now inherent in Scottish education, both falling standards and the attainment gap, are cultural not just structural. Significant progress can only be made with real attempts to alleviate poverty and a genuine alliance…
Why private alternatives to NHS cost so much more
‘I don’t mean to paint the NHS picture as rosy but, in reality, publicly funded healthcare is more efficient and more equ’itable. The UK is heading for a total health bill of £200bn per annum,…
How will NHS Scotland benefit from English hike?
If this happens, the NHS Scotland will see average annual real terms increases of around 3.1% during this parliament (and 4.2% annually over the next three years), more than double the implication of its existing…
Scotland’s ‘addiction to the belt’
‘The fact that young children and adolescents were not only punished for gross disobedience but also minor misdemeanours and errors in schoolwork is, to my mind, unforgivable.’
Solving housing crisis means fixing broken land economy
The long term-aim must be to return to a society where houses are viewed as somewhere to live, not as vehicles for accumulating wealth. This can’t happen overnight, and it won’t be easy. The task…
Police Scotland disarray deepens
The fact that Gormley had direct oversight of undercover policing at the Met before he became Scotland’s chief constable just adds another curious twist to the ongoing Police Scotland saga. Now his resignation puts to…
Adverse childhood, austerity and personal responsibility
‘Carol Craig has seen and shown how the child is father to the adult, identifying the childhood stresses that result in lifelong damage. But without substantial easing of the economic tensions that strain a household…
Advice For Our Times: art meets social service
Advice For Our Times, a pop up event at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery on Thursday 8 February, highlights gaps in advice, support and social services for people suffering adversity of many different kinds.