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.
5 Things you need to know from the Spring Statement (2 minute read)
Today, the UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled his Spring Budget for 2023. It included numerous measures aimed at returning people to work and weak attempts to tackle the cost of living crisis. This blog will break down the top 5 measures and cover them from a Scottish perspective.
No honesty in Budget about Brexit's economic damage
When the Chancellor of the UK Exchequer Jeremy Hunt delivers his budget on Wednesday, he will trumpet whatever sticking plaster measures he and his team come up with - but don't expect any honesty about the damage that Brexit is doing to the UK economy.
SNP leadership candidates respond to Business for Scotland's 10 key questions
Last week Business for Scotland wrote on behalf of our members to each of the candidates for the SNP leadership asking them to answer ten key questions about the economic policy, relations with business, EU membership, and independence. We would like to thank the candidates not only for their time and effort to respond within a tight deadline but also for calling to discuss our priorities in detail whilst also traversing the country attending hustings after hustings.
Light-touch border between Ireland/NI and the UK could be a model for independent Scotland
The 'Windsor Framework' doesn't change the underlying reality that Northern Ireland has what Scotland wanted and voted for - access to the EU single market. But it does streamline the light-touch border between Ireland/Northern Ireland and the UK - that could be a model for an independent Scotland.
Business for Scotland seeks clarity from SNP leadership candidates on business and economic policy
Business for Scotland, the campaigning business network for pro-independence businesspeople, has written to all of the candidates in the SNP leadership race seeking clarity on how they intend to reset the SNP's relationship with business and to explain their business and economic vision for an independent Scotland.
Scottish business leaders angered by Brexit - as at least £2.5bn is lost in investment
Scottish business leaders are speaking out in ever stronger terms as they count the cost of a hard Brexit Scotland didn't vote for. In one example, the President of the National Farmers Union of Scotland told their annual conference last week that the post-Brexit chaos could “write off” the Scottish farming industry.