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          Is it time tae think again about Flower of Scotland?

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          Glasgow Loves EU campaigners brave wind and rain to keep a light on for Scotland

          blue background, A younf woman holding a large black sign that says VOTE ! in white letters

          Scottish elections: young people more likely to vote if they started at 16 – new study

          Healthcare word seen in a scrabble

          “Leave no one behind” – the Health Foundation’s report into health inequalities in Scotland 2023.

          Sign saying NHS Greater Galsgow & Clyde in front of a hospital building

          Concern over patients waiting in corridors for free beds at Glasgow Superhospital

          A row of tall houses on the left, with parked cars in front on the side of the street

          Saving Scotland’s tenements

          Ben Nevis. Forground has green shrubbery, then background a mountain with two tops. Blue sky with a few streaky clouds

          Exploring the Highest Mountain in the British Isles: A Guide to Ben Nevis

          Image via Steller Systems, a potential candidate.

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          Scottish elections: young people more likely to vote if they started at 16 – new study

          A scene of people demonstrating, holding Scotland flags. One man wears a tartan cap and holds a blue flag with both the Scottish cross and the EU stars on it.

          Is Alister Jack sane?

          Image Malcom Laverty

          The Brown plan

          The climate change impacts of Russia’s war with Ukraine

          Britain wastes £1bn on drones to monitor English Channel

          The Autumn Statement – time to take a closer look

          Photo Mtaylor848, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

          Christmas cheer for Tesco if grim reading for the political classes

          Scottish independence isn’t going away

          Russia as a low-tech nation

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          Saving Scotland’s tenements

          A large red researcgh vessel in the sea with ice sheets all around it on the water.

          Rosyth shipyard attracts UK Government contract to maintain fleet of scientific research vessels

          large posts saying 'Glasgow Airport Business Park' on the left and right of a road leading away from the main road in the front. . On that road leading away building with walls almost entirely existing of windows.

          Why doing business in Scotland may be better for your corporate wellbeing

          A mountain of spools forming a tree on the left, a sandy area to the right and a row of houses at the back. mountains in the distance on the right

          The Ullapool Giving Tree

          Electric off-roader heralds return of vehicle mass-production in Scotland after 40 years

          Photo Mtaylor848, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

          Christmas cheer for Tesco if grim reading for the political classes

          Ferguson Marine will weather the storm

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            Sign saying NHS Greater Galsgow & Clyde in front of a hospital building

            Concern over patients waiting in corridors for free beds at Glasgow Superhospital

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            Glasgow hospitals halt non-urgent operations due to pressure

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              When smoke gets in your eyes

              Opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 in Egypt. Photo courtesy of the UNFCCC

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              Why is this Tory leadership madness going on for another month?

              Martin Roche condemns the Tory party’s preoccupation with the leadership race while the country is facing unprecedented crises

              Martin RochebyMartin Roche
              10-08-2022 07:15
              in Opinion, Westminster
              Tory Leadership

              Sunak vs Truss. Cartoon by Stan

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              You know and I know that we have an energy price crisis in the UK. We know that soon we will hear desperate stories of the old, the frail and the poor taking extreme measures to avoid being hungry and cold. Some will take their own lives. Some will die of malnutrition or hypothermia. However, the Tory leadership contest appears to be proving quite the distraction to those in charge.

              You know and I know that UK inflation is the highest of the main European economies, that growth is the lowest of the G7 nations and our export trade has fallen off a cliff since we finally exited the European single market.

              Tory leadership madness

              There are dozens of other crises that should be engaging the government – NHS waiting lists, ambulance response times, the rail dispute, congestion and delays at Dover and at airports, farmers and fishermen facing Brexit ruin and so on. The response of the Conservative Party is to continue with a further four weeks of leadership process and tired electioneering.

              Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned but at least he was in tune. The Conservative Party is conducting a symphony orchestra that is out of tune, out of time and increasingly out of favour with the real electorate. Waltzing around the country are Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Their mission is to try and persuade an electorate smaller than that of Dundee to put their X in the box marked for one or the other.

              By all contemporary accounts, Truss is way out in front with the Tory membership across the land. There has been a slew of cabinet ministers and influential backbench MPs declare for Truss. In these stakes she leads Sunak by 2 to 1.

              To try to wrest back support, Sunak braved an interview with Andrew Neil and then on the Today Programme with Nick Robinson. Truss has turned Neil down. There is about as much chance of either of them being seen on Channel 4 News as there is of Boris Johnson buying a round in the Old Hacks & Charlatans Arms.

              bloody difficult woman
              Arts & Entertainment

              Bloody Difficult Women is rich entertainment: an Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review

              byMartin Roche
              7 August 2022

              Fighting to the bitter end

              It seems to not matter at all that the UK grows less efficient, less stable and for more people, poorer, by the day. The Tory party leadership contest must run its allotted course. It need not be so.

              There is another way the whole matter could be brought to a swift end. One of the candidates could withdraw, thus negating the need for a ballot among the Tory faithful. The obvious person to quit is Sunak, though he may be calculating that the longer Truss is exposed to scrutiny, the greater the chance her campaign will implode. She has performed badly in the latest hustings and the polls say there has been a shift to Sunak. But Truss has the backing of Paul Dacre and his Daily Mail, and of the so-called European Research Group (ERG) and its most powerful member, Steve Baker MP. She should still win.

              Johnson dreams of a triumphant return

              As the whole unnecessary affair rumbles on, not very far in the background is Johnson. The wounded Johnson has not taken his defenestration well. Just as he was a bad prime minister, he is a bad loser. He blames Sunak as the prime assassin and has assured that his closest allies have let the country know his feelings. This has damaged the former chancellor’s chances with ordinary Conservative Party members. Johnson cares little what happens to Truss and even less about Sunak. He will do little to prop either administration. His aim is to see them fail. He imagines returning in triumph to lead his party to a great and spectacular victory in 2024.

              Do you and me, our aunts and cousins, our children and our parents matter very much in the greater scheme of this Tory leadership election? Not at all. It is not about us. It is about power. Raw political power to be used and misused only as this Conservative Party knows how. There is perhaps one benefit to be had from these long weeks of ever-more extreme policy making, rictus smiles and rickety TV sets. It is that the longer it goes on the less they can be in Whitehall and the less damage they may be doing the country.

              Can we go to extra time? No, says the referee called public opinion, there are too many lives at sake. Stop wasting time and start sorting out the mess you helped Johnson create.


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              Martin Roche

              Martin Roche

              Aged 15, Martin began his working life on a Scottish evening newspaper. He then ran his family business before reading politics and international relations at Aberdeen University, as a mature student. He worked in London in investment promotion attraction for Scottish development agencies, followed by a 35-year career in international PR consultancy. He has been a columnist on African Leadership magazine, commenting on geopolitics, a regular contributor to foreign direct investment media and has written for business publications worldwide. He recently returned to Scotland. He lives in Glasgow.

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