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Smith Commission welfare powers don’t imply more spending
Great play was made of the devolution of aspects of UK welfare provision to the Scottish Parliament as part of the Smith process. However this may not be as simple or as significant as its proponents suggest.
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Thoughts for life
Sexual desire, the search for happiness, dealing with death and living as a member of a minority are just some of the topics Muslim theologian Mona Siddiqui discusses in her new book – part handbook to life, part autobiography: My Way, which she will discuss at Glasgow’s Aye Write festival this April.
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Trident: an expensive and useless status symbol
It is extraordinary that, even at a time of intense pressure on Britain’s defence budget, questioning the biggest, most expensive, unique, controversial weapons system – one whose rationale depends on it never being used – carries the risk of being treated like the characters in an old Bateman cartoon – mocked or embarrassed for offending…
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Restoring trust in bankers? Start by breaking up RBS
Shortly after my book on the collapse of HBOS came out I was speaking to a meeting of savings and post bank executives from Europe and further afield. These are institutions which have largely disappeared from the UK (the Airdrie Savings Bank being a rare surviving example), but abroad they thrive, servicing local businesses and…
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No fees? No pain?
For many people, it is obvious that Scotland must have a fair system for funding students. Since the abolition of the graduate endowment in 2007, the government has pressed home that we should be proud to have a system based on “ability to learn, not ability to pay.” The alternative story is not so strong…
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