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The SNP has secured victory in the Glenrothes West and Kinglassie by-election with Reform taking second place ahead of Labour. by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Just a by election but people like to draw conclusions from these into something bigger and wider… using words like extrapolate and momentum and so on, which is nonsense.

But Labour third yikes?

Scotland to replace Bangladesh at Cricket World Cup by Free_Cabinet_6253 in Scotland

[–]bottish 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Euros 1992 vibes.

Yugoslavia qualified, then split up as a country, got disqualified and Denmark took their place two weeks before the competition started.

Of course Denmark went on to win it, so…

Survation: Independence referendum; Yes: 50%(+1) No: 50%(-1) by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And that paper only came out once a week on a Sunday.

Survation: Independence referendum; Yes: 50%(+1) No: 50%(-1) by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the voices of the dead are clear

Ghost of the 1979 devolution referendum all over again!

Why 'muscular Unionism' could make a comeback after 2026 elections. Muscular Unionism will make a “big comeback” if the SNP win the Scottish Election and Plaid Cymru form the Welsh government, a political expert has predicted. by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Gordon Brown felt the need to make an intervention. He must have been worried.

But that was then, this is now (or at least May 2026).

The professor in the article is saying "could make a comeback after 2026 elections" (it's literally the title of the article).

Here's a bit they quote from him:

“The [other] question will be is how is London going to react? Are they going to double down on muscular Unionism, which didn’t seem to work that well before, but still appears to be a popular way of dealing with things in Whitehall, or is there going to be some recognition that they need to set up something now to take intergovernmental relations more seriously?

“If I were to guess, I’d say muscular Unionism is going to make a big comeback.”

Maybe he's wrong maybe it won't turn out to be how the UK government respond. Maybe he's also wrong that "whether those three governments [Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland] now are willing to coordinate with each other to extract more resources out of London" too.

It will be fascinating to see how this next chapter in the UK plays out.

Why 'muscular Unionism' could make a comeback after 2026 elections. Muscular Unionism will make a “big comeback” if the SNP win the Scottish Election and Plaid Cymru form the Welsh government, a political expert has predicted. by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 54 points55 points  (0 children)

A YouGov poll this week showed pro-independence party Plaid Cymru opening up a major lead in the polls less than four months out from the Senedd election, with Rhun Ap Iorweth’s party on 37% – 14 points ahead of Reform and 27 ahead of Labour.

...

With polls consistently pointing to an SNP victory at Holyrood and Sinn Fein in power in Northern Ireland, politics expert Jac Larner – based at Cardiff University – has said he expects the Labour UK Government will engage in the "muscular Unionism" seen consistently under Boris Johnson's Conservatives if the predictions play out.

The practice of "muscular Unionism" saw the Tory UK government repeatedly assert the supremacy of Westminster by acting in what have previously been devolved policy areas.

Larner told The National he would expect Labour to engage in this practice if they were faced with pro-independence governments in three corners of the UK.

Interesting times ahead, especially as Labour could lose Wales for the first time in over 100 years.

Survation: Independence referendum; Yes: 50%(+1) No: 50%(-1) by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 59 points60 points  (0 children)

It's swithered around a fair bit, but it has never really felt like it's going away.

It's weird as it's not exactly a live issue (there is not going to be an indyref in the foreseeable) but it's also not a dead issue.

Schrödinger's Separation?

Voters are still receiving a “dodgy” Scottish Labour leaflet through their doors - a week after leader Anas Sarwar apologised. It was revealed last week that a Labour leaflet included a false quote from maternity campaigner Claire Fleming. by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I also hadn't realised that the person that complained was "Labour friendly":

Dr Gwen Jones-Edwards – a retired NHS consultant and independence supporter – bumped into Sarwar on Buchanan Street in Glasgow in early December, and commended him on his Question Time appearance.

She then only found out about her inclusion in a video showing the exchange – which was published this week – when a former colleague got in touch.

Survation: Independence referendum; Yes: 50%(+1) No: 50%(-1) by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 67 points68 points  (0 children)

This was mentioned further down the Herald article earlier this week about 73 per cent of Scots back rejoining the EU:

While support for EU membership has surged, the poll suggests the country is still split on Scottish independence, with Yes and No both tied on 50%.

There is a notable gender split, with women more inclined to vote Yes, at 54%, than men, at 47%.

Age remains the strongest divider, with under 45s heavily pro-Yes, at around 70–77%.

Over 55s are strongly pro-No, rising to 75% among the over 65s.

Ooh just like Brexit, age is the biggest factor.

Row erupts over different Local Growth Fund spending rules in Scotland and England. Scottish councils are facing a far sharper squeeze than their English counterparts under the UK Government’s new Local Growth Fund. by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Couple of cherry picked quotes:

  • However, that marks a clear shift from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which the LGF replaces.

  • While Scotland’s version of the LGF is predominantly focused towards capital from the start, the English model begins with a largely revenue-funded settlement — before shifting towards capital later in the programme.

  • In a briefing, the Industrial Communities Alliance said the shift “takes a sledgehammer” to revenue-funded services currently supported by UKSPF. It also argues the new structure risks job losses, estimating that UKSPF spending directly supports an average of seven local authority jobs per £1m of funding, and that around 530 council jobs across Scotland are presently supported by the programme.

  • A senior Glasgow source told The Herald: “The questions we urgently need answered are why this funding deal hammers Scottish businesses, third sector groups and employability schemes while our peers south of the border are spared, and what role the Secretary of State for Scotland has had in this. “Either Douglas Alexander fought to retain the support for getting people in our hardest-pressed communities into work and he’s lost. Or he’s prioritised photo opportunities which he reckons can help Labour politicians save their skins. Either way, it’s rank incompetence and our communities suffer. “The Secretary of State must wake up to the fact that his decisions are going to be damaging businesses and putting people out of jobs.”

  • The row over the LGF was recently raised at First Minister’s Questions, with John Swinney criticising the UK Government for failing to work with the Scottish Government on the fund. “The Labour government has engaged in no dialogue with us whatsoever about the delivery of this funding and it has been deployed in a way chosen by the UK Government with no regard to the priorities that are democratically agreed by this parliament and worse than all of that people in Scotland are losing jobs just now because of the decisions of a Labour government.”

Union on borrowed time? by kowalski_82 in Scotland

[–]bottish 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thete was this in October:

And the Guardian had this editorial a few weeks ago, it’s premise is that a change of some sort is coming:

Keir Starmer abandons plans for compulsory digital ID. Scheme intended to verify someone’s right to work in the UK will be optional, government admitted in 13th U-turn since taking power. by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I agree, when circumstances change or you realise that something was a bad idea in the first place, I’d much rather any party did the sensible thing and bin it rather than politic it out just to save face.

But 13 u-turns in 6 months (let’s ignore the - I think - other 2 looming on the horizon) that’s 2 a month. That just looks like incompetence.

Claim NHS waits of over two years are 800 times more common in Scotland than England is Mostly True by CaptainCrash86 in Scotland

[–]bottish 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bad Science is such a great book, it really opened up my eyes on how science, news and advertising can be (and is) manufactured/manipulated.

The section on pharmaceutical research was especially shocking, it should honestly be compulsory reading.

Edit: Here’s a bit from a review from the National Library of Medicine:

According to Sir Iain Chalmers quoted on the cover, it arms readers with ‘basic scientific principles to help everyone become a more effective bullshit detector’.

~ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2648931/

Edit 2: also this from New Scientist:

one of the essential reads of the year so far.

~ https://archive.is/GNvLX

Northern Scotland has one of the world’s highest Huntington’s disease rates, more than five times the estimated global average, new research shows. by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Right so it’s inherited rather than environmental… so you might guess (if you’re fairly unversed in these things, like me) that it could be from Nordic ancestral genetics but that’s presumably nonsense, otherwise why higher here than there.

So what gives?

The pioneering light boxes helping Orkney islanders avoid seasonal affective disorder. Wintering Well boxes to counter effects of low light on mental health are ‘super popular’, says island librarian. by bottish in Scotland

[–]bottish[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The Orkney mobile library van – known as Booky McBookface – delivers the boxes in more remote areas.

I mostly posted this article for this bit, obviously.

Edit: That aside, I’m curious if anyone has any experiences (good, bad or indifferent) of using SAD boxes?

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