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A Land Tax would close local government deficits; But Only If Holyrood Lets Go Of Control

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

Published: May 22, 2025 08:10

The Herald reports today that Local Authorities face growing collective budget deficits, with the funding shortfall of nearly £997 million over the next two years with £647 million of that landing on budgets next year.Much of the increase in this budget…

We can only tackle climate change with honesty and collective action

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

Published: May 21, 2025 10:21

There is very little seriousness about climate change in Scotland and depressingly little honesty. The Climate Change Committee is the most serious body looking at climate change across the UK and its report (covered here) on Scotland today lacks…

Flamingo Land is the power of money distorting reality, it is not democratic

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/20-05-2025-rm

Published: May 20, 2025 09:30

Robin McAlpine says Scotland is turning into a country of corruption after Flamingo Land gets waved through after repeated rejections and opposition from the community.

Nearly one in three private rental flats are uninhabitable - there must be inspections

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-4kxl8

Published: May 20, 2025 09:09

The findings are stark and need little commentary. In 2017 Common Weal published a report called Alienating, insecure and unaffordable: Living in Scotland’s Private Rented Sector. It's findings painted a picture of private rental in Scotland which was…

Carbon Offsets are ineffective. Scotland needs to audit our schemes

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

Published: May 19, 2025 08:09

Australia’s third largest domestic carbon polluter EnergyAustralia has apologised and admitted that its scheme where customers could buy carbon credits to offset the emissions caused by their energy use would not have “prevented or undone” the damage…

Public administrators are out of control; only governance reform will stop them

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

Published: May 16, 2025 09:32

There were strong words in the Public Audit Committee of the Scottish Parliament yesterday. They were examining the case of the Water Industry Committee for Scotland (WICS), ostensibly only a consumer protection regulator doing a basic regulator job. In…

No evidence for Swinney’s claim that increasing the Child Payment will discourage work

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

Published: May 15, 2025 08:06

At the end of April, John Swinney claimed that he wasn’t going to increase the Scottish Child Payment to the £40 per week that many are calling for because he believed that the current rate of £27.15 per week was “at the limits” not of the affordability of…

Being ‘Better than England’ doesn’t mean doing ‘good enough’

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-c6had

Published: May 14, 2025 08:22

The Herald today reports on the Royal Bank of Scotland’s “growth tracker report” with the ‘good news’ that Scotland was the only region of the UK to avoid a fall in private sector employment last month. In other measures within the report, Scotland…

Migrants aren’t the enemy, but the fat cats are

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/14-05-2025-rh

Published: May 13, 2025 20:02

Rory Hamilton explains what the UK government could have done instead of targeting migrants to tackle problems faced by working people.

If you want to make immigration work, make it a care issue

https://www.commonweal.scot/daily-briefings/briefing-84lan

Published: May 13, 2025 09:07

The descent into the kind of rhetoric which was once the preserve of the far right has been perhaps the most visible shift in politics in Britain. The way the Labour Party now talks about immigration would have been unthinkable a short while ago. It seems…