Scotland needs a shake-up – why not produce our own Beveridge reports?

CONSIDER THIS…

"After this crisis is over, people may well be in the mood for radical change in Scotland. We need to be sure (insert party name) is the party of radical ...

Fishing with Norway – do the Northern Agreements benefit Scotland and the UK?

THE EU HAS SIGNED so-called Northern Agreements with Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland to allow its fleets to fish in their waters in return for the right of the other party’s fleet to ...

Bridge Over Troublesome virus - playing bridge in the pandemic

I DON’T TEND to find myself with time on my hands. There is always plenty to do – I could, after all be tidying my two studies and spare bedroom, but I’d rather do anything ...

Saithe – a not so Auld Alliance

THE FRENCH have a taste for Saithe and the Saithe they are particularly fond of is Scottish. Nobody else in the EU lands anywhere near as much from Scottish waters – not even the Scots. ...

The growing scandal of how the Scottish Government treated our care homes

FEW PEOPLE have reason to linger in care homes. Fewer still have the energy or will to think about them in the round after dealing with the guilt-ridden and traumatic experience of visiting a relative ...

Drunk on power, why have politicians in charge of the driving wheel?

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 in a bar hears that one third of car accidents ...

Who’s been fishing in our backyard? Someone's Herring a laugh!

AS PART OF ITS ANALYSIS of the EU’s database of fish catches has mapped landings for each of the EU members fishing in the UK for each of the ICES rectangles in the NE. Atlantic ...

Woke thugs terrorise Edinburgh University

APPLETON TOWER is a striking sight on Edinburgh’s skyline and its five lecture theatres alone can house 1,200 students. It also serves as a hub for the University’s informatics students and is decked out with ...

Solving Scotland’s policy sclerosis and spendthrift ways

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 capitalism as we know it, suggesting its replacement with a ...

Ausnahmezustand anxiety in St Andrews

AT LAST MONDAY’S Coronavirus briefing Housing Minister Robert Jendrick announced the UK was now on “an emergency footing” in a way “unprecedented” in peacetime.

Even “unprecedented” is rapidly becoming old hat. “It ...

Planning Edinburgh's future in the time of Coronavirus

WHEN Edinburgh Council went into an early recess and cancelled Committees, emails started coming in from a few constituents asking whether the current consultation Choices for City Plan 2030 would be extended.  My initial, optimistic, response was to ...

ThinkLockdown: a right Royal misjudgement?

EVERYTHING IS GRIST to the nationalist mill, and there is no reason to think that the Covid-19 pandemic would be any exception. The weekend’s influx of visitors to the Highlands and islands brought cries to ...