In 2017, Scotland Had 61 Salmon Stocks Rated Good. For 2027, Only 22 Are Left
Scotland’s latest assessment of wild Atlantic salmon shows a ten-year deterioration across much of the country. For the 2017 angling season, 61 of Scotland’s assessed salmon stocks were classed as being in good conservation status. For 2027, only 22 are
Scotland, Wales and Ireland’s Nationalist Movements Join Forces in Challenge to Westminster Rule
SNP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin sign Cardiff pact declaring ‘constitutional change is coming’ The leaders of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin have signed an agreement in Cardiff asserting their nations’ right to determine their own futures and calling on the UK Government to prepare for constitutional change, bringing the Scottish and Welsh independence and Irish reunification movements into formalised cooperation. John Swinney, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Michelle O’Neill and Mary Lou McDonald met at St David’s Hotel in Cardiff Bay on Monday, 14 September 2026, before signing a memorandum of understanding between the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn
Scotland Is About to Rewrite the Map of Its Public Bodies
The Scottish Government has begun a five-year programme to reduce a public sector landscape containing more than 130 national bodies. Transport Scotland is to return to government, four environmental organisations may be brought under one body, food regulators are to be combined, transport organisations reviewed for merger and Scotland’s health-board structure radically reduced. The last comparable programme of public-body mergers exceeded some of its original cost estimates. This time the restructuring sits inside a wider plan to remove £1 billion a year from government and public-body corporate costs. Scotland’s public sector contains organisations for regulating food, registering land, protecting nature,
Scotland Plans 150,000 Apprenticeships. Parliament Has Reopened the Question of Where the Money Goes
The Scottish Government intends to fund at least 150,000 apprenticeships over the next five years. As it prepares for that expansion, an older argument over the way apprenticeship money moves between government, managing organisations and colleges has returned to Parliament. In one established plumbing scheme, 40 per cent of the
Scotland Is Preparing to Put Legal Price Ceilings on Food, Potentially Selecting Imported Food Over Scottish Food
The Scottish Government has now published the first detailed framework for statutory controls on the price of essential food. What began as an election proposal has reached consultation with draft legislation, proposed retailer thresholds, enforcement powers and an unresolved question running through the entire scheme: where in the food chain
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Wind Turbines Are Getting Too Big for the Roads. Scotland Is About to Try a Different Design.
A wind farm near Lairg will become the first project in Britain to use GE Vernova’s Cypress turbine. Its blades can be transported in separate sections and assembled closer to the wind
The Invisible Infrastructure Running Scotland’s Water Is Being Rebuilt for £230 Million
Scottish Water’s new technology contracts began on 1 September. Behind Scotland’s reservoirs, treatment works and 64,000 miles of pipes sits another national network: thousands of communications links, operational control systems, cloud platforms
Glasgow’s M8 Is Being Physically Lifted Off Its Supports This Weekend
Engineers will close the eastbound M8 through central Glasgow for extended periods between Friday night and Monday morning while they jack part of the Woodside Viaduct away from the concrete structures that
Another Scottish Energy Company Is Being Sold Overseas
Capricorn Energy has spent more than four decades building businesses from Edinburgh, from the North Sea to India, Senegal and Egypt. A new £292 million takeover by Norway’s DNO could now remove
Scotland’s Peatlands Are Becoming Financial Assets
New restoration contracts appeared this week for peatland on North Uist and in the Highlands. Behind the engineering work is an emerging market in which repairing damaged Scottish land can create carbon
Scotland’s Lost Kingdoms Left Their Art in Church Walls, Graveyards and Broken Stone
Before there was a kingdom recognisably called Scotland, the country south of the Forth and Clyde was divided between competing peoples, churches and rulers. They left comparatively little writing, but they left
DataVita’s North Lanarkshire AI plan gets public backing as Flynn repeats disputed 3,400 jobs claim
A £300 million expansion of DataVita’s North Lanarkshire AI data centres is receiving substantial public financial backing while the Scottish Economy Secretary continues to repeat a claim that the wider development will
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Apparently, Backgammon is Fashionable Again
I discovered on Tuesday morning that backgammon is fashionable again. I was having my second cup
