News and opinion

Fractured Union with Michael Kenny. Book Launch. With an image of the book cover and Michael Kenny the author.

'Fractured Union' with Michael Kenny

We are delighted to host Prof. Michael Kenny for the launch of his latest book, Fractured Union: Politics, Sovereignty, and the Fight to Save the UK (Hurst).
A Week That Changed Scottish Politics? From Humza Yousaf to John Swinney. Mark McGeoghegan writes on how Humza Yousaf’s termination of the Bute House Agreement (BHA) was rooted in broader political processes affecting the Scottish independence movement, which continue to be relevant beyond its collapse for his successor as First Minister, John Swinney. With an image of Mark Mcgeogehan and Bute House.

A Week That Changed Scottish Politics? From Humza Yousaf to John Swinney

Mark McGeoghegan writes on how Humza Yousaf’s termination of the Bute House Agreement (BHA) was rooted in broader political processes affecting the Scottish independence movement, which continue to be relevant beyond its collapse for his successor as First Minister, John Swinney.
The SNP's slow route to building independence with an image of the author Richard Parry, Honororay Fellow, University of Edinburgh, and an image of an arrow pointing to a question mark and then diverging.

The SNP’s slow route to building independence

Richard Parry discusses how the SNP is generating a large volume of material in their ‘Building a New Scotland’ series while facing challenges on the use of civil service time to do it and on the uncertain political and legal route to independence
Territorial inequalities under devolution

Territorial inequalities under devolution: do Scottish and Welsh residents perceive a gap between capital cities and their local communities?

Scottish Bonds

What Kilts Might Reveal: A Discussion of Scottish Government Bonds Part 2

Humza Yousaf has claimed that a Scottish bond issue would ‘demonstrate the credibility to international markets that we will need when we become an independent country’. This is questionable for several reasons.
Scottish Bonds

What Kilts Might Reveal: A Discussion of Scottish Government Bonds

Read the first of Iain Hardie’s two-part analysis on the Scottish Bond Issue.
Labour: A New Britain Report

Gordon Brown’s long-run themes pose challenges for Labour

The report of Labour’s Commission for the UK’s Future relaunches themes on devolution and constitutional reform that its former Prime Minister tried to pursue in government. Richard Parry discusses how it might impact on Keir Starmer’s ultra-cautious pursuit of power
Labour: A New Britain Report

Guest Blog – A New Britain

The Labour Party’s Commission on the Future of the UK has published it report, ‘A New Britain: Renewing Our Democracy and Rebuilding our Economy'. In this guest blog, Jim Gallagher, adviser to Commission, sets out the transformative effect that it could have for the UK’s territorial constitution.
Supreme Court

Unhelpful Clarifications

The Supreme Court judgment on the legality of a Scottish independence referendum can be broken down into three elements. Two are unsurprising but the third is very problematic.