Month: August 2024

Labour takes the devolution ball away

Speymouth August 20, 2024

To paraphrase the famous phrase attributed to the American author Mark Twain, there’s lies, damn lies, and Westminster promises to Scotland. The respect agenda and the promise of greater devolution made to Scotland by the Better Together parties during 2014’s Scottish independence referendum were comprehensively trashed by the Conservatives in the…

Devolution and The F Bomb

Speymouth August 19, 2024

In the Scottish Labour party’s in-house magazine we are told that ‘Labour plan to bypass Holyrood and give direct spending powers to Westminster-run Scotland Office’ – SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: Scottish Secretary Ian Murray’s department is to receive £150m to spend north of the border in a controversial shake-up.’ This is the sort of action expected […] Source

Scotland in Limbo

Speymouth August 18, 2024

For a long while it made sense to talk about Scotland as a liminal space – a space in between – that was going through a process that would allow it to emerge in a different state (hopefully literally). Now that makes little sense. Scotland is in limbo. We are stuck, moribund and directionless. The […] Source

Douglas Ross learns the meaning of karma

Speymouth August 16, 2024

Do you remember how during the SNP leadership contest in 2022 that Kate Forbes uttered some fairly measured criticisms of the record of her rival Humza Yousaf and the Scottish media dined out on how nasty and bitter the leadership race had become? It’s the Scottish Tories’ turn for a leadership…

People, Peat and UNESCO Heritage Status

Speymouth August 16, 2024

This is the first of a two-part series look at the history and future of people within the newly designated Flow Country UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Last month the Flow Country, straddling Caithness and Sutherland in the far north of mainland Scotland, was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status, the first peatland in the world […] Source