“Scotland has effectively reached the end of its ‘devolution journey’. Once Scotland was promised that it would have ‘the most powerful devolved government in the world’ but it seems that the limits of that high tide has been reached and those powers are now retreating by the day.”
Scottish Government
On Source Direct yesterday morning we asked what the Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes would do differently from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s mini-budget on Wednesday. The answer soon followed. Forbes announced a tax cut to property buying and selling (LBTT), very similar in substance to the Chancellor’s cut to the English version of the same tax (Stamp […]
Is the Scottish Govt really prioritising rising property values when a “tidal wave” of evictions are on their way?
“Sunak is arming the British state with a new language and ethos of economics and civic responsibility – fusing the state, the citizenry, and the ‘private’ economy.”
David Jamieson: Why Sunak’s ‘Economic Unionism’ means the independence movement must rearm
“I say directly to the Scottish Parliament and especially to the SNP MSPs, we haven’t forgotten your promises of 2016. We haven’t forgotten that you identified the rising cost of rent as a problem and then fobbed it off every step of the way. We haven’t forgotten and we are angry.”
‘Angry and growing’: Renters union say they will increase pressure for justice
“The latest side-stepping of protections for tenants comes at a time when they are suffering through the lockdown economy.”
Analysis: Rentier Parliament? How Scots’ demands for fairer rents were locked-out
When Prime Minister Boris Johnson is accusing anyone else of “astonishing and shameful” responses to Covid-19, and when Scottish Secretary Alister Jack is describing others as “reckless” in how they are handling this health crisis, they should be put in their place. The facts are the UK is third highest in the world for excess […]
The First Minister should fight fire with fire over English quarantine row
“The advantages of one National Care Service aligned with the NHS would be considerable… Instead of providers competing with the NHS for scarce staff, resources could be planned and deployed where most needed.”
Nick Kempe: It’s time for debate on a National Care Service for Scotland
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has brushed off “dangerous” calls to re-open New Zealand’s borders to visitors. She said yesterday that this is “a world where the virus is escalating not slowing, and not even peaking in some countries yet, where cases exceed ten million globally, and deaths half a million, where countries are extending and returning […]
Pursuing elimination in Scotland requires Ardern’s single-mindedness
“As ever, a small group of particularly loud voices was presented as representing ‘parent power’. None of this is new in Scotland but for the sake of our kids I really, really wish we could move beyond it.”
‘The only immediate consequence is more uncertainty’: James McEnaney talks Scottish schools and Coronavirus
“One awful affliction suffered by poor Scotland is proving stubbornly difficult to dislodge. That affliction is our perpetual inability to see ourselves as truly a nation, part of the world in our own right. We can’t get past seeing ourselves as a region.”