Scotland
Glasgow City Council Requests Funding for Universal Basic Income Trial
At the end of October, the Glasgow city council voted in favor of a proposal to request from the governments of the United Kingdom and of Scotland to fund a pilot scheme for a Universal Basic Income (UBI). The proposal was put forward by the town treasurer, Ricky Bell, with… »
Trident must be destroyed, not given to Westminster
There appears to be a presumption that upon Scottish Independence, the Trident submarine fleet and its incredibly destructive WMD’s must simply be handed over to Westminster by Holyrood. That is wrong in international law; if the weapons remain on the territory of Scotland, a sovereign state, it will be for… »
Scotland joins wave of countries blocking tax haven-tied corporations from receiving Covid-19 bailouts
The Scottish Government has backed a Green Party amendment to exclude corporations registered in tax havens, or with subsidiaries or other arrangements in tax havens from receiving Covid19 bailouts. To date, Wales, France, Belgium, Denmark, Poland and Argentina have all announced similar measures. A second Green amendment that did not… »
Spanish nationalism loses the plot
The English nationalism unleashed by Brexit is not the same as the Spanish nationalism unleashed by the Catalan crisis. Not yet. Ignasi Bernat and David Whyte for openDemocracy 14 October 2019 Imagine if what just happened in Spain, happened here. Imagine if the Scottish government declared the… »
Scotland must defend Clara Ponsati [1]; Sturgeon cannot play Pontius Pilate
By Craig Murray [2] It is sickening that Spanish courts continue to jail, and remove from political life, Catalan politicians who are the victors in democratic elections. That the European political class and media is almost entirely complicit and supportive in this truly vicious repression of the Catalan people,… »
WMD out of the Middle East: Achieving the Possible
A preparatory conference was held this week at the Edinburgh City Chambers in which diplomats, experts, academics and civil society representatives with understanding of the Middle East region considered the elements that would be required in order to start work on getting an agreement between countries in the Middle East… »
Scottish football fans #MatchtheFineforPalestine, raise £110k following flag protest
Supporters of Celtic football club known as The Green Brigade raised more than £110,000 (US$144,000) and counting, as of Tuesday afternoon, in reaction to a fine from the sport’s European governing body UEFA over a Palestinian flag-waving incident last week. Disciplinary proceedings against the UK club started after numerous fans… »
The Scottish Parliament declares: ‘No ifs, no buts, no fracking’
Non-binding fracking ban signals ‘growing consensus that stopping climate change means we have to say no to new fossil fuels like fracked gas.’ by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams The Scottish Parliament on Wednesday narrowly passed a motion in support of an outright fracking ban, setting up… »
Scottish nuclear power plant’s lifespan extension ‘undermines democracy’ – Green party
The Scottish Green Party has accused energy film EDF of dictating government policy by extending the life of an East Lothian nuclear power station by seven years. EDF announced on Tuesday the decision to extend the operating life of Torness nuclear power plant, which will be 42 years old… »
UK Trident system is “so broken it can’t even do the tests that prove it works”, says whistleblower
Engineering failures on Trident submarine place crew at risk and raise doubts over whether missiles could actually be launched, says whistleblower This article comes from the Nuclear Information Service website. A Royal Navy whistleblower has exposed a shocking catalogue of equipment failures, security breaches, and near-miss accidents on… »