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Sceptical Scot

Asking Questions. Seeking Answers.

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devolution

What have local councils ever done for us?

February 13, 2022 by George Thorley 3 Comments

“A start to redressing this imbalance would be for the UK Government and the devolved governments to sign the European Charter of Local Self Government – then we could at last begin to have serious conversations, based on a joint understanding of and respect for each other’s roles, on how we are to successfully tackle the substantial and increasingly complex issues of the future.”

Time to shake up Scotland

January 8, 2022 by John McLaren 8 Comments

“…now would be a good time to shake things up even further. Who will make that happen? I expect little from the Government or the Parliament, it’ll be for others to push for change..”

A Labour-SNP coalition is the answer to gridlock

December 12, 2021 by David Gow 5 Comments

“What Scotland needs is something similar: a Scottish Labour-SNP pact – probably after 2024 or 2026 – with or without the Greens to deliver social and economic modernisation, including the just transition, digital transformation and local government reform, plus constitutional change.”

A Welsh rethink

September 16, 2021 by Anwen Elias and Matt Wall 1 Comment

A conversation about a future which has already been decided from the top won’t encourage people to talk. Genuine consensus must emerge from the bottom up.

Emerging from the shadows

September 7, 2021 by James Mitchell 3 Comments

“Opportunities for Labour arise from an SNP that excels in performative politics but fails in policy performance.  The respective and competing nationalisms of Edinburgh and London governments are shrill and limited in their understanding of self-government.  You cannot ‘take back control’ by focusing on empowering London or Edinburgh at the cost to all else.  Labour has some way to go but with an independence referendum unlikely any time soon it does have some time.”

Holyrood needs a second, reforming chamber

March 27, 2021 by James Mitchell 2 Comments

Scottish Parliament designed by Enric Miralles bearing strong resemblance to Barcelona market

“Holyrood needs to revive its commitment to power sharing and subsidiarity.  At its inception, the Scottish Parliament could legitimately claim to be bold and innovative.  It can be again.”

England’s constitutional key

November 1, 2020 by Jim Gallagher 7 Comments

‘… a different kind of constitutional structure from a typical federal state, but a structure which discharges the same functions…For Scots, endlessly split over the unhelpfully binary independence question, change in the UK offers a different option which not just constructive unionists but thoughtful nationalists will be attracted to…’

GERS 2019 and indyref2

August 22, 2019 by John McLaren 1 Comment

A small ship, hopelessly at sea

‘The comment by the Scottish Finance Secretary at the time of publication that “Scotland’s economy and public finances are strong” seems fanciful given any reasonable analysis of recent low economic growth figures and a still high, by international standards, fiscal deficit.’

Boris’s pork-barrel politics

August 2, 2019 by Michael Keating Leave a Comment

‘Westminster is also extending its reach to some detailed local policies that are clearly devolved and local. It is not clear, for example, why UK ministers should have a say in the decision about a new concert hall in Edinburgh…’

A new post-Brexit UK of quasi-independent member states?

April 24, 2019 by Roddy Thomson Leave a Comment

‘Just as the nation-state replaced Empire, so the plates delineating optimal, governable units within larger, common systems are again moving.’

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A small ship, hopelessly at sea

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