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Sceptical Scot

Asking Questions. Seeking Answers.

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indyref2

Ten years on: the story behind a front-page pic

September 22, 2024 by Jackie Kemp Leave a Comment

“The British government – whether Conservative or Labour – has decided to veto another independence referendum for Scotland. I think in the end that strategy may prove counterproductive for the Unionist cause. Whether Scotland’s future is as an independent country or within the UK is a matter that the people who live here should be able to decide, hearkening, of course, to the voices of their consciences.” 

Ten years after: the enduring case for indy in Europe

September 15, 2024 by Kirsty Hughes Leave a Comment

“The EU and independence debate have been inevitably intertwined in the last ten years since the independence referendum. The case for independence in the EU is strong in many ways. But why did Brexit not have more of a sustained and dynamising impact on the political push for independence?”

Bias, politics and the need for serious debate on independence

February 6, 2024 by Kirsty Hughes 1 Comment

“As Rishi Sunak says he respects constitutional nationalism in Northern Ireland, the same, of course, is not true for Scotland where the debate has sunk to silly levels in recent days. Are Scottish government officials biased towards independence? Did Nicola Sturgeon ever think about independence during the Covid pandemic? Our politics will be better, the more serious our level of debate is.”

Labour needs a thumping majority at Rutherglen to win big in the UK

October 2, 2023 by Rob Johns Leave a Comment

A thumping Labour gain “would signal that currently the key swing voters in Scotland – that is, those on the left torn between expressing their support for independence and kicking the Tories out – are giving a higher priority to the latter. This is a precondition for Labour progress in Scotland.”

GERS 2023: uptick in oil revenues narrows the budget deficit

August 16, 2023 by Mairi Spowage Leave a Comment

“And here the challenge is stark, with a likely deficit far in excess of the UK as a whole, other comparable countries or that which is deemed to be sustainable in the long-term. It is not enough to say ‘everything will be fine’ or ‘look at this country, they can run a sensible fiscal balance so why can’t Scotland?’. Concrete proposals and ideas are needed.”

Zombie Scotland must wake up to its future

August 14, 2023 by Sceptical Scot Editors 1 Comment

“…suggestions of a return to ‘a government of all the talents’ with bells on and other ideas should form part of an honest Scottish/British conversation about the years ahead – and the best policies and institutions for achieving that rejuvenation and reinvention. One shorn of nostalgia and delusions….”

The rise and rise (?) of the SNP

July 7, 2023 by Ben Jackson 1 Comment

First Minister Humza Yousaf, Scottish Government

“Labour took up the anti-centralising rhetoric originally coined by Unionists and turned it against the Thatcher government in the 1980s, portraying its neoliberal policies as an illegitimate affront to Scottish national traditions. At the same time, Labour in Scotland emphasised the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine whether they wanted to be governed by a devolved parliament within the UK. A rhetoric that had initially been coined to glue together an anti-Labour electoral coalition had now become a staple of the Scottish left.” No more?

Another struggle to deliver independence

March 28, 2023 by Paul Whiteley Leave a Comment

“In fact, given that some people think he is no match for Sturgeon as a political communicator, he is likely to move the dial on the independence issue, but in the opposite direction.

Scotland needs a new politics – and fresh policy options

March 17, 2023 by David Gow 2 Comments

As the SNP leadership campaign crawls to the finish post, time for a Big Debate on the political and socio-economic future in Scotland and the UK

Taking the border out of politics

March 8, 2023 by David Torrance Leave a Comment

David Torrance looks back on the first UK constitutional referendum – the 1973 N Irish border poll. “As Prof James Mitchell has observed, the 1973 referendum ‘suggested that sovereignty rested with the people of Northern Ireland and not Parliament at Westminster’, a suggestion arguably reinforced with respect to Scotland more than 40 years later.”

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