Articles
‘I don’t recognise my country’ – in crisis, but what crisis?
Charlie Ellis surveys the 2026 election landscape and finds, as in football, a strangely unpredictable shifting pitch That was former footballer turned pundit Pat Nevin after St Mirren’s late equaliser in the Scottish Cup semi-final…
A quiet election for a tired and poorly Scottish parliament
Scottish party manifestos pledge extra spending without addressing huge challenges facing the next Scottish government – likely to be SNP again despite almost 20 years of underachievement in power. John McLaren sets out four lessons…
When a night club demolition becomes a radical right dog-whistle
Last week, the demolition of the Atik nightclub on West Tollcross attracted substantial media attention. Originally opened as The New Cavendish dance hall in the 1940s, the venue had passed through several incarnations over the…
Public pay settlements: a crisis waiting for the next Scottish government
The Scottish government has long practised the exercise of kicking problematic cans down the road. Perhaps wider world crises will keep eyes off Scotland’s immediate pay problems but Fraser of Allander’s deputy director Dr João…
‘A shambles and a disgrace’ – why have Scotland’s high streets declined? (Part 1)
Andrew Neil blames a “national scandal” of local government failure and incompetence, others argue the rot goes much deeper. In a two-part series for Sceptical Scot, Charlie Ellis explores a complicated landscape: “not just a…
