Time to panic? ‘Climate change scares me rigid’ says Mike Rivington, so all the more reason to act now.
Scotland
Scotland needs its own currency
‘Post-independence, your plan makes as much political and economic sense as unilaterally adopting changes to the financial regulations of Singapore.’
Sex and gender identity in the 2021 Census
“Given where we are, we think the most appropriate and pragmatic response would be to recognise that both sex and gender or lived identity may be relevant to people‘s lived experiences.”
A question of trust
Auditors in England are under the cosh while the Scottish public audit model wins plaudits. But no room for complacency argues the Auditor General for Scotland
Syrian, Scottish, British
‘I knew I was a citizen when I lost sleep over Brexit, full of regret at not being able to vote. I knew I belonged when I held my baby boy for the first time in a maternity ward in Edinburgh, and when he said his first English word.’
Inequality: Scotland’s unmet Nordic aspirations
Inequality in Scotland is on the rise. “It seems likely that more radical changes, such as significant redistribution of income, labour market reforms and major investment in deprived areas, would be needed to bring Scottish inequality close to Nordic levels.”
Economic justice requires a democratic revolution
‘If a future UK – or its consciously uncoupled constituent countries – is to transform itself into a democracy, then it’s imperative that the rules of that state are written not by the politicians of any one party, but through a process which itself is seen as legitimate, democratic, and plural.’
Time to get real – or press the panic button?
‘… it’s time to stop feebly blaming an unacceptable status quo for Scotland’s poor economic and social progress. And, instead of excusing that under-performance via the stock promise that independence will remedy current woes, the SNP must get real and begin serious preparations for the break-up of the UK.’
Will Brexit destroy the UK?
‘There is a saying among global trade negotiators that the world is divided between cannibals and lunch. The UK may be finding painfully that leaving the protection of the cannibals has condemned it to become lunch. It was certainly Stephen (Haseler)’s view that the English superstate was just as incapable of responding to new challenges internationally as it was domestically.’
The Scottish Bureaucratic Mind
‘Modern Scotland, both before and after devolution, emerges as a country that is more committed to bureaucracy than democracy’.