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Abroad 21 Jun 2013 | 03:23 pm
I’m now working abroad and won’t be blogging on Scotland or anything else for a while.
5 point plan for Scotland’s economy 21 Dec 2012 | 03:16 pm
It’s a common misconception that the Scottish Parliament ‘lacks the tools to improve the Scottish economy’. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact I’d estimate that 85% of what governments c...
Middle-Earth and other worlds 20 Dec 2012 | 09:08 pm
Society is divided into two camps: Those who like thealternative reality of Tolkein / Star Wars and those who find the whole thing infantile and unrealistic. When visiting a ruined castle, those in th...
Scandinavia is Tory 14 Dec 2012 | 04:42 pm
Just as in 1707 the debate on Scottish independence revolves around pounds and pence rather than national identity. I can’t work out whether this is a triumphant display of the continuity of Scottish ...
Post Leveson proves the case against Leveson 4 Dec 2012 | 03:45 pm
Until the Leveson Report came out I was pretty agnostic about the whole thing. Aren’t we all ‘regulated’ by Parliament, after all? In a sense, having to regulate the press via an arm’s length body mig...
The curse of puritan Scotland 29 Nov 2012 | 04:06 pm
I’ve been toying with a theory that there is a correlation between incompetent politicians and their tendency to regulate our lifestyles. Why else would Scotland be both at the vanguard of smoking ban...
The trouble with oil funds 22 Nov 2012 | 02:42 pm
Infrastructure spending is often said to stimulate long term economic growth. But you have to build it in the right place. For example, the last Labour administration in Scotland maxed out its PFI cre...
The churches need to work out what their audiences might like and offer it to them 16 Nov 2012 | 05:24 pm
I attended a wonderful Church of Scotland memorial service yesterday. The eulogies were excellent, the readings appropriate and the hymns were classics such as ‘Onward Christian soldiers’ and ‘I vow t...
The e-cigarette revolution 15 Nov 2012 | 03:38 pm
I’m fascinated by e-cigarettes. In case you haven’t seen them, they look just like real fags, weigh a bit more, and have a light that glows when you puff on them. Instead of inhaling tobacco smoke, yo...
Borders Railway – a case study of pork in action 13 Nov 2012 | 03:00 pm
The economist Tony Mackay dissects and despatches the Borders Railway project with considerable elegance in his Monthly Report. The article is reproduced here in the excellent new Internet bulletin fo...
