Today's Thinking
Council decision-making is becoming less transparent and more opaque
WHEN Councillor Fiona Higgins stood up to question how Glasgow’s education cuts were being presented, she thought she was doing something entirely ordinary. An elected
Annemarie Ward
March 9, 2026
In Scotland the revolution will be properly risk-assessed
IF YOU’VE LIVED in Scotland over the past few years you could be forgiven for thinking public life has become one long group chat argument
Annemarie Ward
February 18, 2026
Auditing the Alliance: Munich, Rubio and the terms of Western survival
The reality behind what really happened in Munich this time round. THERE IS a particular theatre to Bavaria, Southern Germany in February: the snow, the
Bepi Pezzulli
February 16, 2026
How minimum wage is a magnet for migration
The minimum wage and the law of unintended consequence IN RECENT YEARS, British governments of both political hues – Conservative and Labour – have significantly
Mike Nevin
January 13, 2026
Think Politics
Trump and Iran: international law as an alibi, power as the answer
WAR, DIPLOMATS LIKE TO SAY, begins where law ends. Nowadays, the opposite is closer to the truth. Modern international law has become the preferred camouflage
Bepi Pezzulli
March 5, 2026
PM’s questions – when rock beats scissors
IMMEASURABLY sad Rachel Reeves, flanked Keir Starmer last week at the last PMQ’s before recess. She had the look of a woman about to ask
Gail MacDonald
February 18, 2026
Jimmy Lai’s incarceration is a slap in the face for Starmer – and us
I WAS wearing a Giordano T-shirt in Hong Kong when my former Edinburgh University student, Aberdonian Robin Munro, pointed out that Giordano was the company
Hugo de Burgh
February 12, 2026
Nigel Farage has come a long way since Canons’ Gait
AS THE long campaign for the Holyrood election on May 7 began last week, a political tremor has been running through Scotland: electoral politics as
Linda Holt
February 5, 2026
Think Culture
“Wuthering Heights” – the 2026 cover version
REMEMBER Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights? It’s the novel about a sexy romp that scandalised 1820s society written by the enfant terrible of her day? No?
Gail MacDonald
February 12, 2026
Landman: Billy Bob Thornton in a country for old men
SEASON 2 of Paramount TV’s male fantasy Landman just ended (but is available to stream). Throw together a stellar cast, soap opera plotting, take-your-time direction,
Gail MacDonald
February 11, 2026
She saved her country from socialists
The authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, single-volume edition CHARLES MOORE was appointed by Margaret Thatcher as her authorised biographer. He published three volumes between 2013
Ian Mitchell
October 24, 2025
Displaced people – is there room at the inn, or not?
What to do with displaced people who no country wants – lessons from 1945 IS GOVERNMENT supposed to work for the people or are the
Ian Mitchell
September 30, 2025
Think Business
How Scotland can become a wealthier nation
The first of a series from the Wealthy Nation Healthy Nation paper edited by Malcolm Offord This chapter was by Dr Gerard Lyons SINCE THE
Malcolm Offord
December 17, 2025
Private landlords are the solution not the problem
IMAGINE you owned a snazzy two-seater sports car and that, as you were going abroad to work for a while, you decided, rather than leave
David McLennan
December 17, 2025
Required urgently: an economic revolution
TO SAY that Rachel Reeves’ first sixteen months as Chancellor of the Exchequer have not been an unqualified success is something of an understatement. Since
Mike Nevin
November 12, 2025
COP 30 gives focus to salmon farming’s dirty Amazon secret
When Brazil destroys rainforest protections, Scottish fish farms risk fuelling deforestation with every meal THE CRYSTAL-CLEAR waters of Loch Fyne couldn’t be much further from
Brian Monteith
November 3, 2025