Stephen Smellie charts a way out of the crisis in both short- and medium-terms Thousands have died in care homes in a fragmented service delivery model designed to generate a market, where operators’ desire to make profit rather than provide quality care is the driving force and where public accountability is weak and regulation light. […]
Megan Gordon reports that a bad situation is getting worse – so much more funding is needed Imagine that you have a partner who constantly belittles you and your children. Or, who controls where you go, who you speak to and what you wear. Imagine that they humiliate you, and that sometimes they are violent. […]
With so much still unknown, Bill Ramsay says the rush to return to school is ill-advised and dangerous When considering Scottish education at this time, it must be borne in mind that the tension between health and economic factors, what I will call the ‘Covid calculus’, is constantly changing. As the ‘Covid calculus’ changes so […]
William Craig surveys the arguments and evidence on a topical subject The enormous upheaval caused by the pandemic has forced us to look at our society as never before and to ask questions about how we interact with each other. Of all the questions, the most overarching one is this: how do we deliver fundamental […]
Gordon Morgan lays out a 22-point plan to bring about a decisive change Across the world, CO2 emissions are falling due to the pandemic with lockdowns, restrictions on aircraft, car use and limitations on world trade. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates emissions will fall by 8% in 2020 and energy use fall by 6%. […]
Lubnaa Joomun reveals some seemingly positive changes but wonders whether they will be permanent Only four years ago, immigration was one of the most topical crises in the British press – one that had Britain at breaking point. Since then the world has met a crisis in the COVID-19 pandemic. With the world turned upside […]
Comment: Four Separate Issues Arising from COVID-19 Response Councils in Scotland have been at the forefront in dealing with COVID-19 humanitarian community response, reinforcing public health messaging and ensuring continued safety and well-being of our most vulnerable. Prior to the pandemic, they were already struggling financially with overall revenue funding having fallen by 7% in […]
Frances Curran recounts her personal and political experience of coming up against ‘male privilege’ Attitudes towards women’s oppression and sexism have become better understood and have advanced positively in the socialist and union movements since the 1980s when I first became involved in politics. This shift has grown in tandem with changes in attitudes in […]
Heather Farley and Saffron Roberts say there should be a non-gendered type of ideal leadership Abuse of power by leading men has dominated the headlines in Scotland over recent years. Yet, compared to England’s leading men, with Johnson’s ‘letterbox’ comments and Cummings’s Durham trips, you’d be forgiven for thinking Scotland was, relatively speaking, progressive. Yet […]
Jonathan Deans explains the how and why of an unregulated business that gets away with murder What do the movement of heavy commercial vehicles in Kent, court fees for proving the validity of a will, and the definition of ‘commercial pornography’ have in common? They are the subject of draft statutory instruments sitting before Parliament […]