“We can do better than this, and we have no right not to try. We have no shortage of those who have not given up.”
Scottish politics
“Should we feel defeated? Only if we have forgotten that history has its own ways. The season will turn.”
David Jamieson: Scotland, the locust years?
“A low tax regime and de-regulation are the preferred models of attracting foreign investment, and the Scottish Government is certainly exploring just such incentives.”
Analysis: Does foreign investment mean the rise of ‘global Scotland’?
“Enforcing higher employment standards is yet another area where the Scottish Government has more freedom than it cares to admit.”
Analysis: Failures of ‘fair work’ expose the limits of government pleading with business
There is a thread linking criticisms about financial transparency with Biagi’s resignation. Both centre on claims that the SNP is not making preparations for a referendum this term.
Source Direct: Something Rotten?
From the SNP’s perspective, there are clear advantages. This buys Sturgeon (a politician broadly in the centrist tradition) oodles of left cover at low cost. Questions thus centre on the Greens.
Source Direct: Coalition? The Dog That Didn’t Bark – Then Did
Sturgeon remains intent on governing as before, appeasing the Left with low-cost cultural liberalism, appeasing the right with low taxes and by perpetuating wealth and privilege intact.
Source Direct: Non-Coalition of Chaos
“By the time of the 2021 vote, the greatest share of the damage to Scottish Labour had already been done, and failing to reverse any of this needs to be seen as significant in itself.”
Analysis: The 2021 drubbing leaves Scottish Labour no closer a solution to its problems
“Infamously, there are 339 local authorities across the UK, and only 32 in Scotland – making us the most centralised polity in Europe.”
