Around one million Scots were in poverty before the covid-19 crisis, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s new Poverty in Scotland 2020 report finds. That breaks down as 230,000 children, 640,000 working age adults, and 150,000 pensioners. These numbers have been rising over the past five years, especially child poverty, which is up to 24 per cent, almost one […]

Scotland is going backwards on poverty



Within about 24 hours of a ‘Glasgow Uni Rent Strike’ social media campaign starting, university principal Anton Muscatelli stepped in with a one-month re-fund “to compensate for the disruption they are facing”. It appeared to be some sort of admission of guilt that there was, at minimum, a lack of institutional preparation for students moving […]

Box-room revolt


The Scottish Household Survey has just been published. This data provides the most detailed account of the demographic make-up of Scotland’s communities, and how it has changed over time. It also provides information on people’s views and beliefs on a number of issues, from climate change to religious belonging. Here, we will focus on what the […]

Scotland’s communities: divided by money


Two stories today illuminate the absurdity of modern-day capitalism, where inequality is so profound that the economy appears broken in two, orbiting in completely different realities from one another. On the one hand, food bank usage in Scotland has more than doubled since the pandemic, up 108 per cent on the year previously according to […]

When the Ayn Rand dystopia becomes real




The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s ‘A stronger Scottish lifeline in the economic storm’, a briefing paper published yesterday, is a good starting point for debate about what needs to be in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government in September to stave off the most devastating economic impacts of the crisis in the immediate term. Jobs: 628,000 workers have […]

A stronger Scottish lifeline?