Skip to content

Eddie Barnes

Experimenting with drugs

There are lots of people in Scotland who know what they’re doing. The Scottish government need to give them money and get out of the way.

We Have a Scottish Book Town. Why Not More?

Wigtown gained its status as the country’s National Book Town in the late 1990s. The idea came from academics at Strathclyde University which had seen the success of Hay-on-Wye, the national book town of Wales, and thought Scotland should have its equivalent. Up till then, the town had been in sharp decline. After winning the competition, everything changed.

Report: Scotland and USA at Bottom of Life Expectancy League Table

A major new study by health academics has exposed changes in life expectancy in the USA and 19 other western nations between 2019 and 2021, the period of the pandemic. But before we all have our say over what is going wrong on the other side of the Atlantic, shouldn’t we look a little closer to home as well?

And for my next trip…

Nicola Sturgeon is back home after her visit to the USA. However, without any obvious trade deal or economic benefit accruing from the visit, it looks like the trip will be marked down as another item in the Scottish Government’s news grid that is forgotten about within a week. I’d like to suggest that, for her next foreign visit, the First Minister does something a little more long-lasting.

A Way To Help Scots In Poverty, Now

The spectre of poverty hangs over yesterday’s spring statement. 1.3 million more people will be pushed into poverty as the cost of living crisis bites. The squeeze on the standard of living will be the worst since the 1950s. With families across Scotland facing unprecedented difficulties every penny of support therefore needs to go towards those households which need it most.

Arthurs Seat and Edinburgh, from Calton Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland

New Year, New Ideas

We are looking forward to a big year where – Covid permitting – we finally hope to engage properly with communities across the country. Our basic plan is the same one as last year: we hope to set out a positive argument for Scotland’s future as part of the UK, which is open to change and reform, and which reflects the views of “middle Scotland”.

UK PM Boris Johnson wearing a face mask PPE in an NHS hospital

Spend Boris’s Billion On Health Reform

Earlier this week, the Auditor General for Scotland Stephen Boyle wrote powerfully about the continuing gap between ambitious policy announcements and actual delivery on the ground in Scotland. On cue, we learned 24 hours later that the ambitious policy announcement by Nicola Sturgeon to create a new nationally run not-for-profit energy company had been scrapped.

Enjoyed these articles?

To get news and ideas straight to your inbox, subscribe now. 

We’ll email you about campaigns, events and opportunities to get involved. You can manage your preferences or unsubscribe at any time by by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. Find out more about how we use your data.

Enjoying ScotlandCan?​

Join our email list to get the latest news and opinions from ScotlandCan. 

We’ll email you about campaigns, events and opportunities to get involved. You can manage your preferences or unsubscribe at any time by by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. Find out more about how we use your data.

Thank you!

Thank you for subscribing to ScotlandCan! We’ll email you about campaigns, events and opportunities to get involved, and send news and ideas straight to your inbox.

There is only one way we will transform this country – and that’s together.

You can manage your preferences or unsubscribe at any time by by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. Find out more about how we use your data.

Enjoying ScotlandCan?​

Join our email list to get the latest news and opinions from ScotlandCan. 

We’ll email you about campaigns, events and opportunities to get involved. You can manage your preferences or unsubscribe at any time by by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. Find out more about how we use your data.