Many of us are well versed in the negative health consequences of being obese. For those of us who aren’t, public health marketing campaigns such as Live Well in England and Take Life On Scotland and endeavour…
Will the Scots be satisfied with the package of new powers that has been put before them? The Smith Commission, which was tasked with coming up with a new settlement following the September referendum…
There is no copyright in titles, although I must admit when I heard that the name of the new Scottish daily newspaper launched this week was The National, I was momentarily thrown. That is also the name…
First the No victory in the Scottish referendum, now the debate about how much extra power should be extended north of the border. While the commission tasked with coming up with proposals prepares to…
Amid the 14,000-plus submissions to the commission tasked with producing a set of proposals for handing more powers to Scotland, some have proposed devolving some control of energy. Energy was one of the…
Lord Smith of Kelvin’s task of steering the commission for more Scottish devolution is set to a timescale that makes his job chairing the organising committee of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games look like…
The group charged with delivering more devolution to Scotland is to draw up the most significant programme of constitutional change for the UK since 1998 this November. Already the period when citizens…
How ironic that Scottish Labour won the referendum battle but is tearing itself apart. Following Johann Lamont’s incredible resignation comments about the party being treated like a “branch office” to…
Rumours have been swirling for about a month now that Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont was facing an internal challenge. So in one sense, the news of her resignation is not a surprise. But despite…
Scottish National Party (SNP) leader-in-waiting Nicola Sturgeon recently confirmed that her party wants to see the Scottish parliament take control over almost all taxation, pensions, the welfare system…
“Viking!” was the word retired businessman Derek McLennan shouted to metal detector enthusiasts standing in a field in Dumfriesshire in south-west Scotland in September. He had just uncovered a hoard of…
In the wake of the Scottish referendum, Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, renewed his party Sinn Féin’s call for a “border poll” to decide if Northern Ireland should leave…
Political scientist Michael Keating, one of the stalwarts of our Scotland Decides ’14 referendum panel, offers a fascinating view of where the constitutional pieces will land after Scotland’s No vote…
The referendum on Scottish independence was hailed in many parts of the world as a shining example of democracy in action. Not so in China. There, in a concerted campaign to shape public opinion, the state-controlled…
One of the unfortunate things about the independence referendum debate is that it did not help us clarify the most likely outcome: the offer of more powers commonly known as devo max. For some, this refers…
Nowhere was the relief over Scotland’s decision last week to remain part of the United Kingdom more acutely felt than with those responsible for Britain’s nuclear deterrent system, Trident. The Scottish…
After a flurry of interest in the Scottish referendum, with the vote featuring on the front page of the New York Times and dominating nightly news programmes, Americans may now be wondering what all the…
I was asked about three times this week by journalists covering the referendum whether David Cameron would have to resign in the event of a Yes vote. Nobody asked me about Alex Salmond. But when you lose…
In the closing lines of my book, The Scots and the Union: Then and Now, I wrote: The union has been a fact of life for Scots for more than three centuries. Union is a habit, which, currently, large numbers…
In 28 of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas there was a majority in favour of No. The writing was on the wall as soon as the result was declared for Clackmannanshire in central Scotland. If Yes couldn’t…