SOME NUMBERS have given me pause for thought recently about Scotland’s future. The first is the small poll that suggested that more than 65 per cent of
WHAT POLICY APPROACH can support the advance of post-Brexit Scotland? While our nation is being forced to disappear up its own secessionist rear end through the Neverendum Tendency, that basic economic question does not lose its importance – Scots have to make a living somewhere and we need to do a lot of trade to support our […]
AS PUBLIC DEBATE TURNS, no doubt prematurely, to when any release on our lock-down might begin I am reminded of an old Shetland tale. A drunk
COMMENTARY on our present viral predicament is turning towards what happens when lockdown measures are released. The left, predictably, is calling for the end of global
IF YOU HAVE EVER tried guddling for trout you will understand the trials of an observing economist in these strange times. We’re trained to stand away from received
I HAVE STARTED to read the Guardian; lucky me, but my journalism tutor always said we should “read the opposition” and not sit in the comfort
A RECENT VISIT to South East Asia prompts in me a policy challenge. Now that Scotland is freed from the burdens of the EU’s protectionist
EARLY SIGNS suggest that the EU is hoping to play hardball in negotiations over regulation; its negotiators are clearly hell-bent on restricting competition from us. We
Eben Wilson article from Monday 13, January, 2020 CONVERSATIONS in the South of England over the festive season have convinced me of a change taking root. It’s a driven by the political re-focussing towards the needs of the North of England as an outcome of the December election. As a global Scot I have often […]
WE ARE GOING to hear a lot about “level playing fields” in the upcoming months of EU negotiation. Consumers should beware; what sounds like a sentiment
A COLLEAGUE TELLS ME she is struggling with this peculiar election campaign. Too many contrary influences, confused interests and conflicting incentives, she says. But I demur;
A GOOD FRIEND of mine has just resigned from a public service job. In doing so, the organisation she worked for has lost a talent with