The UK Gov is holding Scotland back in the race for hydrogen power
Scotland has ambitions to play a lead role in the green hydrogen economy. But the UK Government’s lack of a coherent strategy is holding it back and it is now falling behind the EU and the USA. Here we take a look at some key issues.
The Bank of England’s inflation strategy has the UK sleepwalking into a mortgage crisis
The next financial catastrophe in the UK will be laid at the feet of the Bank of England and will come in the form of a housing crisis
The UK’s “Weak” National Grid is Crippling Scottish Business
The UK’s privatised national energy grid is “weak” and nowhere near where it should be to support the transition to green energy. For some privileged people like Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the lack of capacity can be overcome – he paid tens of thousands to upgrade the grid near his home to heat his personal swimming pool.
Scotland’s EU trade slowly strangled by Brexit red tape
For 16 months in a row, exports from the UK have fallen, due to Brexit. Businesses say they are losing their EU customers. They prefer to avoid the Brexit-related customs checks, delays and uncertainty that dealing with Scottish business now entails, by switching to suppliers in the single market.
Five Ways the UK’s Immigration System is Hurting Scotland
It is clear that the UK Government’s approach to immigration is not working. It is unsuccessful in curbing immigration and has only resulted in treating anyone who tries to come to the UK as subhuman, with the Illegal Migration Bill being criticised for breaking international law.
The UK public thinks high prices and lower incomes are here to stay - Poll suggests
Research published by polling firm Ipsos Mori has found that the UK public has among the lowest confidence in its economy of any country. The poll, conducted between the 24th March and 7th April 2023 featuring 23,309 respondents from 29 countries, found that six in ten people in the UK believe it will take at least a year for inflation to return to normal levels, this is the lowest of any nation surveyed, other than Sweden. 46% also believe that their income after taxes and bills will fall in 2023/24. Continual policy failures by the UK Government lie at the heart of this economic mess – if Scotland is to become economically prosperous, independence and rejoining the EU are essential.
Scottish Unionist Campaigns funded by Dark Money
Report claims These Islands, Our Scottish Future (Gordon Brown), Scottish Business UK, and the Centre for the Union are secretive dark money organisations.
It's time for Scotland to tax the energy giants - £7.6bn in profit for Shell in first three months of 2023
Quarter 1 of 2023 has seen Shell add to its already enormous profits from 2022. This week the oil and gas giant reported that in the first three months of the year it recorded stronger than expected profits of £7.6bn. This is higher than its figure from the same period last year despite a slight fall in energy prices. A slip in the price of energy also doesn’t seem to have affected Shell's main rival BP much either, the company boasted first quarter profits of £4bn.
UK Government policy is causing a population crisis in Scotland
The Scottish Fiscal Commission recently released its Fiscal Sustainability Report and it makes clear that if Scotland remains part of Brexit Britain, the Scottish population will dwindle by almost half a million by 2073. The report serves a similar purpose to the UK Government’s Office for Budget Responsibility ‘Fiscal Risks and Sustainability Report’, in that it attempts to provide a long term forecast of Scotland’s finances and its economic outlook. Within the report, the Fiscal Commission forecasts changes in the Scottish population for the next 50 years. Due to low birth rates, the Fiscal Commission forecasts that the population of Scotland will fall by approximately 400,000 by 2072-73.
"This is what failure looks like" Scottish workers are £11,000 worse off after 15 years of stagnation
New research by the Resolution Foundation shows workers in the UK are £11,000 worse off a year after fifteen years of stagnation. It comes as the OBR warned that UK households face the biggest fall in living standards since records began, with real household disposable income (income adjusted for inflation) expected to fall by 6% between from this year to the next.