In praise of older workers

ACCORDING TO the Equality Act of 2010, it is illegal in most circumstances to discriminate against an employee, or in an advertisement for a job, on account of age. Yet many recruiters and head-hunters will ...

The McNanny State: How the smoking ban closed Scottish pubs

IT WAS SUNDAY 26 March 2006. Nothing much seemed different from the previous weekend. The Old Firm had won their matches, the weather was poor, and the odd empty beer can tumbled down the road. ...

Student politics is not working for Theresa May

LET US START OUT by acknowledging that before Chequers, David Davis, Steve Baker and all of DExEu were completely side-lined (BBC Daily Politics, 9 July: interview with Steve Baker, remarks after 1 min 35 secs). Let us ...

German experience shows how renewable power is not the solution

THE TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED states around the world enjoy a high standard of living. Their priorities vary – European countries, North America, Australia, Japan expend their wealth differently, but have one important characteristic in common.  They all have ...

Brexit “Pants on fire!”

POLITICIANS have never had much of a reputation for straightforwardness – it is of the essence of their calling that hard lines get softened. We are more than a century away from Victorian standards of ...

Renewables fail us again

ONE DOES NOT have to work in electricity supply to recognise how electricity supports almost every aspect of our lives.  There would be no modern financial services, no food storage, no instant power and light, no ...

Theresa May: the worst English ruler since Mary Tudor?

IT WOULD Be foolish not to see the Chequers settlement for the shocker it is. May is transparently trying to shunt any kind of palpable Brexit into the sidings, with baleful consequences. Possibly if they ...

How recycling contributes to marine plastic pollution

WHILE MUCH FUSS is made about recycling, the majority of what we send to so-called mechanical-biological waste treatment plants can’t be recycled at all. So thousands of tonnes of plastic are quietly landfilled, incinerated or ...

Battery storage has a long way to go before it will make a difference to wind power inefficiency

A BATTERY of 1MWh connected to Hywind's 30 MW of offshore wind turbinesdoes not represent a landmark in making wind generation reliable. These two numbers tell the whole story. The turbines can produce 30 ...

The European Council - what needs to be said...

MOST THINGS are what they seem to be. Brexit suffered a stumble three weeks ago, with the lamentable “Technical Note on Temporary Customs Arrangements” and its last minute weasel-words about “intentions” and “backstop”. On the ...

Just what did Jim Sillars say to the Scottish Secretary?

FOR THE AVOIDENCE OF DOUBT Jim Sillars has kindly given us the letter he sent to David Mundell…

21stJune , 2018

The Rt. Hon. David Mundell, Secretary of State, 

Potholes ARE politics!

IT’S A LONG-HELD JOKE that the way to get elected is to start a local pothole campaign. It’s a political love-hate relationship with something that recurs year after year.  It’s British politics through and through; satirical, ...