It’s a question that few of us have asked in the last decade or more. The assumption, however misplaced has been that the SNP were the vehicle to exert pressure on the British state to conceded constitutional change. That now seems far-fetched, for many it has for some time. As Jamie Maxwell writes in Politico: […] Source

KEIR Starmer has promised to “preserve jobs” at Grangemouth oil refinery ahead of his meeting with John Swinney … Source

“I am the nothing around which all this spins, I exist so that it can spin, I am a centre that exists only because everything circle has one… I am the centre of everything surrounded by a great nothing.” – Fernando Pesso, The Book of Disquiet IN 1997, a few weeks before Tony Blair’s New […] Source

FORMER Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander has joined Keir Starmer’s Cabinet as business minister … Source

THE future of the North Sea has been a contentious issue in recent years. The new licences for oil and gas under the Conservative government have led to intensifying Just Stop Oil protests with a backdrop of damning predictions of our prospects of reaching net zero by 2050, (or indeed 2045) … Source

Away from the general election in the UK, last week the governor of California declared a state of emergency. California is enduring a brutal drought and heatwave, with temperatures soaring above 40°C and multiple wildfires causing widespread destruction. In the north of the state, one fire has resulted in the evacuation of nearly 30,000 residents. […] Source

Neil Rooney (43) was also found with videos of adults having sex with animals. …

GP-registered local women aged between 50 and 70 will receive an invitation to attend. …

Easing hip, knee and lower back problems. …

Welcome to Britain four years after twenty-twenty We’ve lived through a pandemic now state coffers state empty The cost of living’s gone up in a time of austerity Our Prime Minister wouldn’t resign he was so full of temerity Everybody’s noticed ten pounds won’t go far It will get you even less if you have […] Source

Across the West politics are fractured, divisive, and raise more questions than answers. Biden vs. Trump; the authoritarian US Supreme Court extending Trump’s Presidential immunity; the march of the far-right in the French legislative assembly elections; the UK election and emptiness of the mainstream – a trend reflected by Andrew Hindmoor in Haywire: A Political […] Source

THE reopening of a historic Highland distillery after more than 40 years has been hailed as a “unique” chance for the local community to play a “greater role” in the whisky tourism industry … Source

KEIR Starmer has accepted more freebies than any other MP since the 2019 General Election … Source