Tracey Dalling sets out what some creative thinking could achieve for raising revenue for public services Faced with demands for decent public sector pay, the Scottish Government tends to point to London and claim that budgets are fixed. There are many things union members simply won’t be buying this winter and the London blame-game is […]
Mike Danson examines the constraints and options as we face a coming winter of discontent Few are against workers and citizens generally being protected against the cost-of-living crisis caused by Brexit, massive energy price increases and levels of inflation not witnessed for many decades. In a normal economy with a government armed with the fiscal, […]
Sara Cowan says women suffer disproportionately from Covid, climate change and the cost-of-living crisis The Covid-19 crisis is not over for communities across Scotland but it is being closely followed, or eclipsed, by the impact of cost-of-living crisis. Individuals, households and communities are facing uncertain and deeply challenging times as costs keep rising, while there […]
Dave Watson examines a recent investigation and reprises ideas for how to improve the situation This summer, The Ferret, in conjunction with The Herald, ran a series of articles under the heading ‘Are Councils Working?’ The series identified problems across local authority areas and then highlighted some views on local government reform. The long-term impact […]
Francis Stuart details the case for public, not-for-profit care following the publication of the STUC’s ground-breaking report Scotland’s large private social care providers are associated with lower wages, more complaints about care quality, and higher levels of rent extraction than public and third sector care providers. That’s the conclusion of STUC’s new report ‘Profiting from […]
Stephen Low argues the National Care Service will be a case of centralised managerialism gone mad The Scottish Government has published its National Care Service Bill. The title evokes the National Health Service – this title though is deliberately deceptive, evoking as it does the affection felt towards the NHS. The reality of the Bill […]
Vince Mills dissects the disaster that is the Starmer leadership of Labour The Starmer ‘phenomenon’ is not one that history will linger over. Keir Starmer is not Tony Blair. He is not even Neil Kinnock. He is, by contrast, absolutely the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Think back to the […]
Daniel Randall details what Truss and the Tories have in store for unions and workers’ rights Then prospective PM, Liz Truss, announced a raft of new anti-strike laws she plans to introduce if elected. This includes: i) action within 30 days of taking office to introduce the ‘minimum service requirement’ outlawing all-out transport strikes that […]
Katy Clark explains why she has laid a badly needed Bill before the Scottish Parliament This month, I plan to introduce my first Member’s Bill to the Scottish Parliament, with the aim of reforming Freedom of Information (FOI) law and making it fit for the present day. It’s an issue that transcends party lines, and […]
Goran Zangana looks behind the media blackout to explain what is going on and what needs to happen Abass was married for just five days and was spending a honeymoon with his bride near Zakhoo in Southern Kurdistan (Bashoor) when Turkish artillery killed him on 20 July 2022. A child was among the 9 other […]