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John Swinney should retract his comments about the Scottish Child Payment

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/03-05-2025-rm

Published: May 2, 2025 16:44

Robin McAlpine thinks it’s disgusting that children are used as a bargaining chip incentive to get poor parents “back to work”.

Scotland does no need nuclear power and people aren’t being told the truth

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-r57be

Published: May 1, 2025 09:09

The nuclear industry has one of the most aggressive lobbying and public relations campaigns of all energy sources. It pushes relentlessly on politicians and the public to support the merits of nuclear power based on partial or inaccurate information. Very…

Net Zero should be inevitable, not impossible

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-j3gea

Published: April 30, 2025 08:16

The saying, attributed to journalist Upton Sinclair, goes “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.Tony Blair, former British PM who led the UK into illegal wars that killed millions and…

If prison isn’t to be a death sentence we need better prisons - or better alternatives

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-el6w6

Published: April 29, 2025 09:21

The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) have found that deaths in Scottish prisons have risen to one of the highest in Europe. From 40 in 2023 to 64 in 2024, with some of the most common reasons stated as health conditions, suicide and…

If Scotland wants a film industry we really are going to have to make some films

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-s49ja

Published: April 28, 2025 08:49

Today an award-winning Scottish film director has accused the Scottish Government of being more interested in attracting Holyrood movies to Scotland than in supporting Scottish filmmaking. It's not just that he's clearly right, this has very obviously been…

Scotland’s trust in democracy is at risk, but a path out of decline is available

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-agwah

Published: April 25, 2025 08:54

Yesterday's Daily Briefing expressed some scepticism that a summit of Scotland's ruling classes is likely to work as a solution to the 'rise of the far right' in Scotland. It argued that a resurgence of hard-right politics is a symptom of a wider problem,…

When the public has lost faith in you, don’t blame the public

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-hczcp

Published: April 24, 2025 09:05

Yesterday the First Minister hosted a summit to 'stop the rise of the far right'. This produced many more questions than answers, and certainly an awful lot more rhetoric than identifiable action. Perhaps the first question is 'where does the far right…

Taxing Second Homes is welcome, but they should be taxed locally

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-mm6ab

Published: April 23, 2025 08:29

The Scottish Greens are proposing to add an amendment to the Housing Bill that would allow the Additional Dwelling Supplement (the extra tax paid if someone buys a second home in Scotland, currently 8% of the property’s value) to be increased in areas…

Wealth Taxes - Sarwar’s solution is also wrong

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-xyhng

Published: April 22, 2025 08:17

Anas Sarwar has backed away from support for a devolved Scottish wealth tax (following similar backpedalling from Keir Starmer down south) saying that while the “problem” of excessive wealth inequality is a real one, the “solution” of a wealth tax on all…

Public policy in Scotland needs to start paying attention to our ownership crisis

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-9che4

Published: April 18, 2025 08:58

News this week that the Wood Group – an oil engineering firm probably best known to readers of this column for its pronouncements on the projected lifespan of the Scottish oil sector being inversely correlated with how high support for independence was…

Discussion around Scottish tourist taxes ramps up

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-nrbhp

Published: April 17, 2025 08:50

Argyll and Bute Council has concluded a public consultation on a visitor levy (or tourist tax) with more than 3,300 responses taken following a similar consultation in Highlands that drew 4,000 responses. These responses are now in the process of being…

Scotland’s housing sector is unaffordable for young people

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/16-04-2025-kd

Published: April 16, 2025 16:15

Kaitlin Dryburgh says we desperately need rent controls to make it affordable for young people in the housing sector.

There is an easy way to make political pay seem fair to ordinary people

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-xarcj

Published: April 16, 2025 09:09

The predictable fall-out from the decision of Scottish Government Ministers to accept £20,000 pay rises continues, today linked to the various industrial disputes at risk of breaking out in Scotland. This is a perpetually-recurring issue which both dogs…

A big consultancy is once again fined for malpractice – but is still writing government policy

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-2lwja

Published: April 15, 2025 07:25

The large consultancy firm EY has just been fined for an ethical breach, quality control failures and a failure of obligations of independence in its auditing of a Scottish water company. It was fined half a million pounds. This comes less than a week…