1/ An email obtained by @kathleennutt.bsky.social was presumably leaked by someone incensed by Angus Robertson’s performance before a Holyrood committee last week, in which he adamantly denied - 3 times - that he had ever been invited to attend a Historic Environment Scotland board meeting.

1/ An email obtained by @kathleennutt.bsky.social was presumably leaked by someone incensed by Angus Robertson’s performance before a Holyrood committee last week, in which he adamantly denied - 3 times - that he had ever been invited to attend a Historic Environment Scotland board meeting.

Neil Gray participated in just one meeting discussing GP walk-in centres, on a Sunday, the day before John Swinney announced the policy in his SNP conference speech. This is not how a serious government makes serious policy.

Richard Murphy gives the wrongest explanation of the fiscal framework you will ever hear, spiced up with deranged and defamatory accusations about the Fraser of Allander Institute. (Part 1/2)

Richard Murphy gives the wrongest explanation of the fiscal framework you will ever hear, spiced up with deranged and defamatory accusations about the Fraser of Allander Institute. (Part 1/2)

1/ Extraordinary. John Swinney appears genuinely unaware the SNP broke a 2021 manifesto commitment to freeze income tax rates. All the more remarkable as he was personally responsible for one of the increases, when he was acting Finance Secretary in 2022.

John Swinney cheerleading for income tax rises before the general election. Remember this when the SNP complains about Rachel Reeves’ budget later this month.

1/ Farcical. Scot Gov publishes an independence paper which says: “offshore and onshore wind farms can currently provide electricity at a lower cost than gas power plants” So… I asked Scot Gov to identify those wind farms. Obviously it can’t, because the claim is not true.

🚨Very significant FOI. Highlighted text suggests Scot Gov edging towards admitting its flagship tax claim isn’t true. Sounds like SFC will converge with HMRC. Extremely disingenuous to say it was always about what was “expected” to happen, and not about what actually happened.

1/ 👀 Scot Gov has been quietly editing various pages on its website to change a claim that the majority of workers in Scotland pay less income tax than if they lived elsewhere in the UK to a different claim, which replaces the word “workers” with the word “taxpayers”.

If John Swinney hasn’t had enough of experts, he should reflect on what Dieter Helm says here about the cost of offshore wind in Scotland. Swinney’s mantra about Scotland’s “low-cost” renewables is simply false. (Note: the wholesale price in electricity bills today is ~£83/MWh.)

According to the SNP, independence would allow Scotland to emulate renewables leader Denmark, where residential electricity prices are… higher than in GB. Oh.

If John Swinney hasn’t had enough of experts, he should reflect on what Dieter Helm says here about the cost of offshore wind in Scotland. Swinney’s mantra about Scotland’s “low-cost” renewables is simply false. (Note: the wholesale price in electricity bills today is ~£83/MWh.)

1/ Another appalling front page from the Herald. Scotland is ~64% of *onshore* wind generation today, and that won’t change much by 2030. But offshore > onshore. England & Wales expected to generate ~77% of offshore wind power in 2030, and the clear majority of wind power in total.

1/ Another appalling front page from the Herald. Scotland is ~64% of *onshore* wind generation today, and that won’t change much by 2030. But offshore > onshore. England & Wales expected to generate ~77% of offshore wind power in 2030, and the clear majority of wind power in total.

some journalists’ thirst for grievance is insatiable, this is egregiously bad reporting: the UK obviously can’t benefit from electricity which *isn’t generated* and Scotland doesn’t “bear the brunt” of these constraint PAYMENTS, it *benefits* from them (ffs) www.heraldscotland.com/news/2558775...

1/ Revealing coda to story below. At the end of the clip, Shona Robison sheepishly says: “I hadn’t realised. Progress has been made beyond what I had understood.” But she had written to the committee, setting out the details of that progress, just a couple of months previously.

What the Auditor General doesn’t say, but everyone knows, is that the person who is nominally in charge of preparing these detailed plans is not up to the job.

“Don’t mention the currency” going well on @scotnational.bsky.social letters page.

Who says I only ever criticise the Scottish Government? The ScotWind auction really wasn’t a huge public finance scandal.

Kate Forbes’ remarks do indeed suggest exactly this.

Does anyone seriously believe this party is ready to fight another independence referendum?

John Swinney gives a very limp response to the Times story on Kate Forbes telling SNP members to keep quiet about currency. He was speaking this morning at the IPPR Scotland conference in Edinburgh.

John Swinney gives a very limp response to the Times story on Kate Forbes telling SNP members to keep quiet about currency. He was speaking this morning at the IPPR Scotland conference in Edinburgh.

John Swinney was asked about this story at an IPPR conference in Edinburgh this morning. He said there was no problem talking about currency, because all the answers are in his latest independence paper. This will surprise the handful of people who have actually read that paper.

6/ The SNP has no credible answer to the currency question, so no wonder Kate Forbes is pleading with members to stop talking about it...

Kate Forbes discovers the Streisand effect.

1/ 🚨 Kate Forbes says SNP members “must avoid talking publicly about currency”. (According to SNP branch meeting minutes leaked at Tim Rideout’s Scottish Currency Group conference.)

1/ 🚨 Kate Forbes says SNP members “must avoid talking publicly about currency”. (According to SNP branch meeting minutes leaked at Tim Rideout’s Scottish Currency Group conference.)

1/ In today’s Mail, @stephendaisley.bsky.social mentions a conversation we had about the SNP’s energy policies. Short 🧵 with sources and a little bit of additional explanation…

Philippa Whitford channels Emma Harper. Currency problem solved because we now have Apple Pay.

1/ In today’s Mail, @stephendaisley.bsky.social mentions a conversation we had about the SNP’s energy policies. Short 🧵 with sources and a little bit of additional explanation…

Philippa Whitford channels Emma Harper. Currency problem solved because we now have Apple Pay.

Philippa Whitford rails against GDP, claiming it measures only profits, whilst ignoring things like education and health. This is very wrong. When the government spends on eduction or health, or indeed anything that isn’t a transfer payment, that spending is captured in GDP.

Tim Rideout’s anti-EU stance explained. The Scottish Currency Group wants huge fiscal deficits & overt monetary financing (money creation bypassing the bond market) for at least a decade in an independent Scotland. Clearly this would cause the value of that currency to collapse.

Richard Murphy is basically the David Icke of tax accountants. Here he explains why there is no need to worry about currency in an independent Scotland, because the new currency will be imbued with love.

Had not realised quite how doolally Richard Murphy has gone. He is trying to forge a synthesis between quantum mechanics, quantum biology, and Tim Rideout’s currency ideas.

Startling outbreak of honesty as one of Tim Rideout’s sidekicks admits that the bond market might be “significantly frightened” by Tim’s ideas for an independent Scotland. (Ian Stewart was speaking this afternoon at the Scottish Currency Group conference in Dunfermline.)

1/ Tim Rideout has a new website. He believes a stampede of people will rapidly convert their sterling life savings into his new currency, while those with sterling liabilities will be much slower to act on converting their debts. This is not just implausible. It is preposterous.

Robin McAlpine, with perhaps the wrongest description of how the bond market works that I’ve ever read.

1/ A Labour-adjacent think tank stating that policy costs have been the largest source of upwards pressure on electricity bills over the last decade, not the gas price (via marginal pricing of electricity). A watershed moment, not just for the UK government…

The @scotnational.bsky.social letters page is always entertaining, and sometimes quite alarming. Today, there is a letter implying that “citizen-based armed struggle” might be the route to Scottish independence.

Just catching up on Kate Forbes interview with Colin Mackay on Monday. How does she defend an indefensible currency position? By arguing that nobody cares about currency. If people care about their wages, I’m pretty sure they care about which currency those wages are paid in…

1/ This really matters in the independence debate because what is truly pushing bills higher is disproportionately stuff that is happening in Scotland. If Scotland was independent and had to pay for all that stuff by itself, less of that stuff would happen in Scotland…

1/ The most telling moment from the recent Energy Security & Net Zero committee. Simone Rossi (CEO at EDF UK) carefully sets out why the price of gas is not the main factor in high electricity bills, only to be interrupted by a pompous MP who is certain that he knows better.

17/ John Swinney’s refusal to correct the Official Report and withdraw the accusation that Russell Findlay misled parliament depends on him disregarding HMRC data published just 3 months ago in order to rely on SFC forecasts published 3 years ago. This is not a tenable position.

1/ This is a very carefully worded statement from Scot Gov, responding to accusations that John Swinney has misled parliament on tax.🧵

1/ This is a very carefully worded statement from Scot Gov, responding to accusations that John Swinney has misled parliament on tax.🧵

1/ Swinney falsely accused Findlay of misleading parliament Swinney then misled parliament himself Swinney now refusing to apologise and correct the Official Report His justification: stale and obviously incorrect forecasts when actual outturn data proves his claim is false

1/ This is outrageous. John Swinney misled parliament by falsely claiming that more than half of taxpayers in Scotland pay less income tax than if they lived elsewhere in the UK. Scot Gov says this is perfectly fine because his remarks were based on SFC forecasts for 2025-26.