Robin McAlpine – 7th October 2021
Did Glasgow City Council do Scotland a favour by saying out loud how much it would cost to get all its housing stock up to reasonable energy efficiency standards but then unconvincingly fluffing the line about how it was going to pay for it? Yes, it probably did, because it prompted a debate we very much need to have which we’re not having.
Craig Dalzell – 7th October 2021
The Limits of Rights
The Supreme Court has this week handed down judgement against two bills that were passed by the previous Scottish Parliament and has found that key aspects of both lie outwith the competence of Holyrood. They will now be referred back to Holyrood for amendment.
What sort of country would England be without Scotland and Northern Ireland be? That is perhaps the biggest question of them all and one worth asking before indifference south of the border becomes the handmaiden to nationalist seduction to its north.
A study of activism against austerity in Britain from the financial crisis of 2008 through the Brexit vote of 2016. It finds that austerity has been a key factor in creating new dividing lines in British society and intensifying old divisions.
The Scottish government fuses nationalism with social wage and social investment concepts. It conjures up images of a prosperous, community led, egalitarian welfare state as a future reality. It recuperates “welfare” as a collective endeavour. It describes austerity as a poor distribution of resources between groups and within the UK as the “problem”.
This article shows that the SNP and Plaid Cymru have adopted a left-wing populist discourse, based on a critique of austerity policies.
This analysis of the impact of austerity on nationalism stresses the role of blame as it interacts with political institutions and fiscal pressures.
In this article Alun Evans (formerly Scottish Office making the case for the Union) focuses on the hurly-burly of the 2014 referendum campaign, and his own suggestions for securing a long-term future for the Union. His solutions - full tax devolution, spending, domestic policy, and energy policy. Agreement on shared responsibilities, continuation of the monarchy, monetary policy set by UK, defence and foreign policy set by UK. [The expanded devolution that was promised but neve delivered]
A critique of the Growth Commission's report. "Far from being an asset to the independence cause, the Growth Commission is its biggest liability. It’s time, as we say, ‘tae think again’."
The perception of a democratic deficit began in the Thatcher premiership, long before Brexit. Scottish self government came to be positively linked with European intergation.