| Modern Scot - 06/08/2026 · Issue 009 |
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 | | Environment · 6 August 2026 Scotland Delays Its Private-Jet Levy While Empty Private Jets Remain Beyond Reach Ministers say private-jet users should pay a fair share because their emissions per passenger are disproportionately high. Yet Scotland’s additional levy will not begin until April 2028, a year after Air Departure Tax starts, while empty private jets remain beyond… |
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| | Transport · 6 August 2026 War Exposes Scotland’s Dependence On English Supply Routes Scotland has avoided a sustained nationwide shortage of fuel, food or essential goods. Yet 21.1 million tonnes entered the country by road from elsewhere in the UK in 2024, with 97 per cent of that measured flow coming from England.… |
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| | Economy · 6 August 2026 Scotland’s International Services Exports May Have Reached £19 Billion – But The Official Estimate Stops At 2023 A report commissioned by the Scottish Government estimates that Scotland’s international services exports may have reached £19.2 billion in 2025. The corresponding official estimate is not expected until 2027, exposing a wider problem: Scotland has several accounts of its economy,… |
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| | Policy and Government · 6 August 2026 Scotland Looks To Displaced Care Workers To Add 45,000 Hours A Month The Scottish Government says a recruitment scheme could add 45,000 hours of adult social-care work each month, but the figure describes potential staffing capacity rather than care already delivered—and cannot be matched against Scotland’s incomplete record of people waiting for… |
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| | Heritage and Arts · 5 August 2026 Scotland’s Rivers In 1831: What A Remarkable Atlas Reveals About Two Centuries Of Change A hand-coloured chart published nearly two centuries ago attempted to place Scotland’s great rivers side by side. The Tay still stands at the head of the country, but closer examination reveals altered waterfalls, engineered channels, shifting measurements and a landscape… |
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| | Policy and Government · 5 August 2026 Scotland’s Elected Representatives, Counted: 1,407 Names Across Councils, Holyrood and Westminster Modern Scot assembled the current official details of Scotland’s serving councillors, MSPs and MPs. The directory contains 1,407 elected representatives: 1,221 councillors, 129 MSPs and 57 MPs. Scotland’s 32 councils provide 1,226 statutory council seats, five of which were vacant… |
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| | Policy and Government · 3 August 2026 Twenty Of Scotland’s 24 Community Energy Meetings Came From One Consultation Twenty of the 24 community energy meetings identified by the Scottish Government over a 12-month period came from a single offshore-wind consultation. The record shows that Scotland has machinery for consulting communities about individual plans, but no continuing national system… |
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| | Environment · 3 August 2026 Scotland Launches £15 Million Flood Fund After Years Of Delayed And Rising-Cost Schemes The Scottish Government has launched a £15 million flood-resilience fund, but communities will not begin receiving money for local projects until 2027 and ministers have not yet explained how much individual councils or areas may receive. The three-year programme will… |
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| | Economy · 3 August 2026 Highland Councillors Back New Controls On Holiday Lets Councillors in Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh have backed plans that could require planning permission before more permanent homes are converted into short-term holiday accommodation. The area committee voted to recommend including the ward in a proposed Highland Rural Short-Term… |
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| | Infrastructure · 3 August 2026 The Two Water Systems Of Scotland Thousands of people in rural Scotland rely on private water supplies, but ministers have never assessed how their costs and responsibilities compare with those of households connected to the public network. A Scottish Government information response published on 21 July… |
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| | Infrastructure · 3 August 2026 Ministers Confirm Scotland’s 20GW Wind Ambition Was Not Mapped To Specific Areas The Scottish Government has confirmed that its ambition to install 20 gigawatts of onshore wind capacity by 2030 was not accompanied by a national spatial allocation showing where the additional turbines and associated infrastructure were expected to go. The clarification… |
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| | Economy · 31 July 2026 Fourteen Councils Exceed Welfare Fund Budgets As Crisis Applications Rise Scottish councils received more than 258,000 Crisis Grant applications in one year, while emergency spending increased by 26 per cent and fourteen local authorities exceeded their estimated available budgets. Scotland’s emergency welfare system ended the financial year approximately £1 million… |
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| | Energy · 3 August 2026 Scotland’s Local Electricity Network Coordination Group Ended Without A Replacement A Scottish Government group established to resolve barriers preventing homes, businesses and public infrastructure from connecting to local electricity networks stopped meeting in August 2024 and was never replaced. The Local Electricity Network Coordination Group was created in June 2023… |
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| | Policy and Government · 31 July 2026 Scotland Promised Every Pupil A Device. Five Years Later, The National Account Is Still Incomplete The Scottish Government said every school-aged child would receive a digital device by 2026. Its latest report records widespread shared provision, leaves councils unnamed and contains figures that cannot be fully reconciled from the published text. In 2021, the Scottish… |
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| | Community · 1 August 2026 KEEK Launches To Give Scotland A Fairer Way To Be Found Online Modern Scot has launched the beta version of KEEK, a human-reviewed search engine for Scottish websites built without paid rankings, sponsored placement or hidden adjustments intended to favour one business over another. Scotland has thousands of independent businesses, community organisations,… |
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| | Tea With Gunns · 2 August 2026 Clothes Don’t Make The Woman I had finished afternoon tea at a lovely establishment in the Highlands and was sitting on a bench outside, waiting for Mr Gunn. It had been a very satisfactory afternoon tea. The sandwiches had been small enough to suggest refinement,… |
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