Welcome to Host City Glasgow, a series of articles that will examine different aspects of the 2014 Commonwealth Games destination as part of our countdown to the main event. To begin, Adam Aitken looks…
I recently wrote a piece for The Conversation in which I argued that for several important reasons, an independent Scotland would not be worse off than it is now – contrary to the views of a majority of…
One long-running sore in the Scottish independence referendum campaign concerns the future UK’s nuclear deterrent. Scottish Nationalists say an independent Scotland will no longer house any of the UK’s…
A peculiar omission in the Scottish government’s new strategy for eliminating violence against women and girls – Equally Safe – was highlighted last month by a North American expert in this field. Consultant…
The surge of interest in British shale oil and gas has focused on central Scotland in recent days. A forward look at national planning to 2019 was published by the Scottish government on June 23. It has…
To date, the debate on the Scottish independence referendum has focused on why the Scots should or shouldn’t back independence. There has also been some recent academic research on why the Scots have arrived…
Two different sets of statistics on Scottish illegal drug use have been published in the past few days – the Scottish drug misuse database (SDMD) on initial assessments for specialist drug treatment; and…
Bannockburn in Stirlingshire is playing host to a major event to commemorate the 700-year anniversary of the battle of the same name, where the Scots under the leadership of Robert the Bruce won a famous…
Michael Gove’s recent proposal that English schools must “actively promote British values” caused a predictable storm of merriment on Twitter. He made his statement earlier this month ahead of the launch…
Everyone’s heard it, but nobody knows how true it is. The old adage that the Scots support anyone the English are playing during football internationals crops up every World Cup. This year, with the independence…
The recent publication of an extensive survey of leading economists by the Centre for Macroeconomics showed that an overwhelming majority did not think Scotland would be better off if it were independent…
Two distinguished Scottish journalists have recently expressed their concern at the state of the Scottish press. Both Magnus Linklater, in an article in the British Journalism Review, and Iain Macwhirter…
Mix the Scots and sport and you’re bound to end up with trouble. Just ask William Hague, who gaffed this week that Team GB would break a leg at next month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow – forgetting that…
Recent figures suggest there are around 800,000 people in the UK with dementia. People usually associate the condition with later life, but around 17,000 of people with the condition are under the age…
Scotland’s referendum debate has so far centred mainly on practical issues and medium-term choices like currency, new entities’ share of public debt, and membership of the EU. Far less has been said about…
Who cares what Gordon Brown says? Weighing in at this late stage to throw his well-worn Labour hat into the ring … Who cares, really, what he thinks he may add to the debate by now? Who cares what any…
One of the key themes of the referendum campaign will soon be aired when the three unionist parties in Scotland make a joint declaration about plans for more powers for Holyrood in the event of a no vote…
There seems to be a contradiction in the media reports about young people and their voting intentions in the Scottish referendum. While many polls and the Scottish Social Attitudes survey have found that…
The number of people with diabetes in the UK has more than doubled over the past two decades, with more than 3.8 million people currently affected. Around 10% of them have Type 1 diabetes, which is caused…
Surprisingly perhaps, researchers know less about what makes young children feel unhappy than what they know about the causes of children’s behavioural and emotional problems. Most existing studies of…