Here’s an excellent article from Gerry Hassan in which he takes our politicians and media to task for failing to address the real problems in our society. He argues that the debate on the UK government’s welfare reforms is so narrow and shallow that it completely misses the point: we have a chronic poverty/hardship/welfare/finance problem…
Interesting article by Gerry Hassan suggesting that the tedious binary bickering of SNP yes and establishment Labour is now being challenged by a wave of independent thinking on where we might go with an independent Scotland. He calls it “a third Scotland”, people who are interested in independence in order to change the way that…
A good article here from Jonathan Portes at The New Statesman about the effect of the UK government’s austerity programme on economic growth, which supports my contention that George Osborne is either an idiot or a liar.
George Osborne was on the telly today boasting that his strategy of austerity appeared to be working, the evidence being an unexpected rise in GDP in the second quarter of the year. He was wise enough to urge caution, aware that GDP is a slippery customer that can go down as easily as it goes…
Last night’s televised debate between Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP and Anas Sarwar of Labour was as predictable as it was depressing. It was hard to concentrate on the substance of what was being said because they were persistently talking over each other, but a review of some excerpts this morning reveals that there was…
Another breathe of fresh air in what has been a very superficial debate on Scottish independence. This one’s from David Greig at Bella Caledonia who tells us that the referendum has prompted lots of serious thinking about how we manage our society. But you have to know where to look and have an appetite for…
Good article from Fraser MacDonald on theguardian.com about how the possibility of Scottish independence has energised debate about policy amongst those of us who lie between the dull tub-thumping of the Yes and No campaigns. He suggests that momentum for positive change will persist regardless of which way the vote goes. I hope he’s right.
Good article from Tom Streithorst in which he argues that the problem we now have is a lack of consumption due to a lack of money. He suggests this is because our industry has become very good at producing stuff with very little labour, which means money isn’t being distributed widely enough to allow people…
In response to the conflict in Syria there are many alternatives to military action that are infinitely more worthwhile for the innocent civilians in Syria, and for the UK’s global reputation. Bernadette Meaden gives us a few good ones here. Just because Parliament voted against getting involved in more killing doesn’t mean that we can…
With the referendum on Scottish independence a little more than a year away the debate remains depressingly shallow. The “Yes Scotland” campaign presents us with a wishlist of policies and outcomes that it would like to come to pass in an independent Scotland without acknowledging that the only certain outcomes from the referendum will be…
Views From The Boatshed 