Articles

The Croydon Principle - How Westminster secretly sends Scotland's budget south

Our previous article in this series explained how Scotland is not subsidised. However, there is another spending principle that also removes wealth from Scotland, which I call the Croydon Principle. This is summed up best by the former UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who said:

What now that Boris has said No to a Scottish Independence Referendum?

The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has written to the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, to refuse her demand for Westminster to transfer the power to hold a second independence referendum to the Scottish parliament. The letter contains (attached) a clear falsehood that Nicola Sturgeon promised that the 2014 referendum would be a once in a lifetime opportunity - she said that she thought it would be, but made no such promise. That type of bluster and falsehood may win cheers in Westminster, but it will go down very badly with voters in Scotland.

Boris Johnson is repeating Swinson's error and it will end the Union

The Liberal Democrats had the opportunity of a lifetime to do well and maybe even hold the balance of power in GE 2019. Their stars were aligned but they threw it all away by committing the biggest and most basic error in politics. They adopted an idea that had majority support (stopping Brexit) but they turned it into an undemocratic policy.

The UK versus an independent Scotland - which would be better governed?

Scotland will soon be considering independence again, and how well an independent Scotland would be governed is a topical issue for undecided voters. It is important to note that the governance of a nation is not about specific political parties or politicians, it is about the structure and systems of government that deliver for the people and the trust that those people have in their Government in all its forms.

A tale of two governments: 7 key performance comparisons between the Scottish and Westminster Governments

With a general election on the way, focusing on Brexit and independence, there will be a blizzard of claims about government records. Therefore, we have compared and contrasted the two governments, the UK Conservatives and SNP in Scotland, in a number of significant areas.

Scotland’s NHS outperforms the rest of the UK - here’s why

The past seven years of Conservative government has been one in which “the health service has endured the longest period of austerity in its 70-year history”. The most recent data from 2017 shows that Conservative governments since 2010 have introduced more severe austerity on health spending than any of their predecessors. In fact, health spending has seen its lowest increases since records began. The rate of increase in the number of doctors per 1,000 people has slowed dramatically and the number of nurses per 1,000 people has actually fallen since 2010.

US trade deal would rip NHS Scotland from Holyrood's control

Donald Trump on his state visit to the UK confirmed that the NHS should be “on the table” as part of a post-Brexit UK/USA trade deal. The backlash against that statement has now led him to backtrack but the whole point of the UK Government taking the Scottish Government to the Supreme Court to intercept powers over procurement was purely to allow post-Brexit trade deals to happen.

UK state pension worst in developed world and has the highest retirement age

The Claim - Pensions are at risk with independence

The Truth - Pensioners are worse off in the UK, and an independent Scotland can do better by respecting our pensioners in a way the UK does not.

BBC deliberately misreported Scottish local council election result

The BBC as the state broadcaster should set the standard in impartial and factual reporting of election results, but in the case of the Scottish Local Council elections it has failed on both counts.