Real governments with real central banks and real borrowing powers are beginning to make real shifts, albeit for self-interest reasons. With COP approaching, Scotland risks being left behind. Two years on, it’s no longer sufficient to declare an emergency. Rhetoric must be matched with action.
Scottish Government
“As our national and international conversations turns increasingly towards post-Covid recovery, we will dwell less on what has traumatised us and more on what might heal us. Of course, this is where it gets tricky.”
Sean Bell: What does a post-Covid recovery for our mental health look like?
“No matter how strict the law on hunting with dogs is made, the question persists of how effectively it can be enforced across the vast tracts of Scotland that remain under private ownership”
Sean Bell: Class war or not, fox-hunting must end
“The Scottish electorate, like the people of Liverpool, have voted against Conservative rule for generations now. There is absolutely no sound argument for democratic deficiencies to be remedied by a government mired in its own corruption scandals, in jurisdictions where it cannot win elections.”
Analysis: Direct Rule for Liverpool should worry Scots
“It would be really, really nice is Hamilton’s verdict signalled a new stage of our political discourse – one which prioritised the issues facing Scotland, rather than its current and former first ministers, and where matters of sovereignty, social and economic justice, and protecting the vulnerable and the marginalised do not take a backseat to tortuous inquiries and the shenanigans they allow.”
Sean Bell: In the wake of Hamilton, Sturgeon’s critics must realise there is no cheat-code to victory
“We should celebrate this successful step forward as loudly as we can, but we should also then consider our next step. The demands of the climate emergency mean that we do need to radically overhaul our transport network.”
Craig Dalzell: The first step to nationalised transport
“Why are our politicians still leading us sleepwalking towards the climate catastrophe? I’ll leave you to decide how much of this is due to the vast amounts of money spent on lobbying by the fossil fuel industry and its patsies, their seemingly endless desire to latch onto the latest shiny new thing”
Keith Baker: Why using hydrogen to heat homes is more hot air
“The reality for many Scottish social workers is that they only become involved when the situations of the people they work with might be beyond help, their skills being largely spent trying to mop up when earlier involvement might have prevented escalation”
Colin Turbett: Feeley’s Missing Link, ‘The Promise’, and reforming social work in Scotland
“It would appear that Police Scotland are more frightened of belligerent football fans than nonviolent anti-racist protestors. That may be entirely rational – one does not need to be an expert in urban pacification to conclude that the latter can be kettled and bullied far more easily than the former. This does not make the double standard any less grating.”