Scottish Government
“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.”
Sean Bell: It is Police Scotland’s responsibility to answer to us, not vice versa
“Care homes are asked to ‘undertake individual risk assessments to assess the rights and needs of individual residents’. The whole point of human rights surely is that no-one should be able to ‘assess’ anyone as not having them?”
Nick Kempe: The politics of care and care home visiting
“Tenants were already being driven into poverty by unaffordable rents before the pandemic, but the situation is now beyond repair, and we need to undo the damage that has already been done before we start to talk about stabilising things.”
Gordon Maloney: “The Scottish Government had multiple opportunities to freeze rents over the course of the pandemic, but they rejected all of them”
“In order to care about journalism, one must care about journalists. That care must be demonstrated through advocacy, organisation and a clear articulation of what will and will not be tolerated.”