#AI what will its real impact be on the creative sector in Scotland and what are its benefits/risks to creatives: @dougalperman.bsky.social investigates in the first of a 3-part series - MUST READ! sceptical.scot/2025/10/ai-c...

collective punishment by any other name www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

#October7 two takes on the 2nd anniversary sceptical.scot/2025/10/isra... and sceptical.scot/2025/10/midd...

sceptical.scot/2025/10/buil... @ross-greer.bsky.social et al should read @davidhumeinst.bsky.social report on Scotland's housing polycrisis via Prof Duncan Maclennan - not tinker around legislative edges

#Starmer and how he's set to become the latest in a series of failed UK leaders via @kirstyshughes.bsky.social sceptical.scot/2025/10/does...

#Gaza this has to be one of the most grotesquely cynical comments via @haaretzcom.bsky.social "Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a real estate conference that Gaza "is becoming a real estate bonanza," and negotiations with the U.S. regarding a business plan for the Strip have begun."

Another magisterial, incisive analysis by Walter Humes of the latest effort to improve Scottish education ahead of #Holyrood2026 by building on a "new" partnership btw central and local govt sceptical.scot/2025/09/scot...

Let's hear it for @theferret.scot says @jackiekemp.bsky.social for doggedly exposing radioactive leaks from Trident into a popular Scottish loch sceptical.scot/2025/09/ferr...

#Healthspending how come it's relatively low in real terms v England, asks GERS sleuth John McLaren - and compared with the two other big areas of the Scottish Budget, education and social protection?! With fresh analysis sceptical.scot/2025/08/gers...

#GERS now that's out of the way for another year why can't we have a proper, full debate about what an independent government would do to tackle the deficit it would inherit and fund its plans?! asks John McLaren sceptical.scot/2025/08/inde...

#poverty a cool, analytical look at Starmer's fiscal rectitude plus/versus Labour's anti-poverty values sceptical.scot/2025/07/labo...

#Starmer a year on: sharp critique via @kirstyshughes.bsky.social who belittles @scottishlabour.bsky.social chances of beating Swinney et al in Holyrood26 elections sceptical.scot/2025/07/star...

what happens to Scottish politics post-Hamilton and Reform UK's breakthrough here? Some (bleak) answers here: sceptical.scot/2025/06/the-...

Really good piece by a young Scottish financial journo on the booming (?) start-up scene sceptical.scot/2025/06/scot...

real change in Scotland requires a real change of government via @gowdav.bsky.net sceptical.scot/2025/05/a-co...

substack.com/home/post/p-... - our new Sceptical Scot second home!

Big series of events next week to mark Europe Day/VE 80 and the end of WW2m in Scotland: sign up via here festivalofeuropescotland.org/whats-on and see here: @festivalofeurope.bsky.social

How should we think of UK-Irish relations these days, asks Prof Michael Keating sceptical.scot/2025/04/maki...

Nice piece by @jackiekemp.bsky.social on the trans issue going back over a century sceptical.scot/2025/04/tran...

PIP/ADP: how will Liz Kendall's mooted reforms affect Scotland? An initial analysis: sceptical.scot/2025/03/welf...

Irish neutrality coming under serious question via Mick Fealty sceptical.scot/2025/03/iris...

Aid cuts: Judith Hart and countless others are turning in their graves at the scale of these cuts while today's activists/supporters are prompted to switch to other progressive parties via Martin Farr sceptical.scot/2025/03/what...

A reformed second chamber is urgently required in the UK argues Jackie Kemp[https://sceptical.scot/2025/03/the-uk-needs-a-reformed-second-chamber/

An in-depth look at the impact of the ferries fiasco on Arran via Aidan Rooney of @fraserofallander.org sceptical.scot/2025/03/what...

Trump's transactional business mindset sends him all at sea in complex diplomacy via Alexios Arvanitis sceptical.scot/2025/03/trum...

another one bites the dust: BP votes to kill the planet in order to boost "shareholder value" and dump green "ambition"

why @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social slash the overseas aid budget (and lose votes to Libs/Greens) and not ballooning welfare spending, including PIP that's out of control?

Tough guy Starmer tries to ape Trump by slashing international aid budget to fund extra defence spending: not a shred of principle left in this ex-human rights lawyer

Lavrov: “replace the Euro-Atlantic model that is bankrupt,” with a new initiative “open to all alliances on the continent, including the European part of the greater Eurasia.” Warsaw Pact 2.0 extended westwards and expanded but dominated/run by Big Power Russia - NO THANKS Sergei

co-editor @gowdav.bsky.social on Trump, Putin and Europe...https://open.substack.com/pub/davidgow/p/trumps-brutal-truth?r=lwptg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

What is Starmer's Labour government for? asks @kirstyshughes.bsky.social in anmger and sorrow...https://sceptical.scot/2025/02/insurgent-disruptive-or-flailing-labour/

Yankee imperialism is back with a vengeance

How much would @scottishgov.bsky.social really have to pay to mitigate the two-child benefit cap sceptical.scot/2025/02/fisc...

My take on what Reeves and Starmer consistently leave out of their pro-growth rhetoric: Europe open.substack.com/pub/davidgow...

Today's broligarchs need lessons in the "responsibilities of wealth" from robber barons like Carnegie and Rockefeller via Tobias Jung sceptical.scot/2025/01/yest...

How Trumponomics spells a return to authoritarian capitalism: excellent in-depth analysis from @lauriemacfarlane sceptical.scot/2025/01/trum...

Why and how energy privatisation is fuelling fuel poverty in energy-rich Scotland via @jackiekemp.bsky.social sceptical.scot/2025/01/ener...

Co-editor @gowdav.bsky.social urges collective resistance to the rise of the Far Right in Europe, the US and elsewhere open.substack.com/pub/davidgow...

#ClimateChange. What will denier Trump do? Here are 10 global shifts he can't undo. There's not much hope around as inauguration day looms but Sceptical Scot @scepscot.bsky.social republishes a stimulating view from Australia via @ConversationUK sceptical.scot/2025/01/10-r...

Austria: how its centrists are empowering the Far Right and threatening Europe's democracy: sceptical.scot/2025/01/euro...

We should not dismiss Trump's threatened grab of Greenland/Panama as sabre-rattling: this is Project for a New America revisited (on stilts) sceptical.scot/2025/01/this...

as global warming hits a record high (+1.6C) here are reasons why Trump and his gang cannot halt the march towards a cooler, greener world sceptical.scot/2025/01/10-r...

Le Pen's death (and life explained): legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/01/0...

After Assad what will happen to Syria and the Middle East asks Prof Paul Rogers with some acute answers sceptical.scot/2024/12/how-...

#PressFreedom great victory/vindication for this pair of determined journos and @nujofficial.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

#Climate the cost of failing to deal with the climate emergency is huge but are we willing to pay the price of getting to net zero? asks co-editor @gowdav.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/davidgow...

#Labour is it really being overtaken by Reform asks @paulwhiteley.bsky.social (not really...) sceptical.scot/2024/12/is-r...

#ClimateEmergency sign up! actionnetwork.org/petitions/ha...

#NotreDame and the striking and shaming contrast with how we have dealt with the Mack, Glasgow School of Art, a decade after the first conflagration via @jackiekemp.bsky.social sceptical.scot/2024/12/a-fa...

#ScottishBudget and how Craig Dalzell of Common Weal looked for and, of course, failed to find any plan for council tax reform or proper land tax in @shonarobisonmsp.bsky.social statement this week sceptical.scot/2024/12/stil...