| Modern Scot - 17/09/2026 · Issue 015 |
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 | | Policy and Government · 14 September 2026 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… |
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| | Policy and Government · 16 September 2026 Westminster Set India Trade Terms as More Than Half of Scotland’s £3bn Trade Projection Flows From India to Scotland The Scottish Government presented India as a £3 billion opportunity for Scottish businesses. Its own central model tells a more complicated story. Technology and digital services make up £1.994 billion of the £3.20 billion scenario, and the methodology assumes 90… |
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| | Community · 17 September 2026 £105m Broadband Build Reaches New Aberdeenshire Communities as Scotland Tries to Close Its Rural Fibre Gap Almost 1,000 homes and businesses around Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen are next in line for full-fibre broadband as one of Scotland’s largest publicly funded digital-infrastructure programmes moves through the North East. Behind the local roadworks is a £105 million government contract… |
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| | Economy · 17 September 2026 £50 Billion Behind the Tax Argument: What Is Really at Stake in the North Sea The offshore industry says 111 oil and gas projects representing £50 billion of potential private investment could move forward under a different tax and regulatory regime. The projects are not committed investment, and the figure comes from the industry pressing… |
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| | Economy · 17 September 2026 Strike at Europe’s Largest and Oldest Grain Distillery in Scotland Puts Diageo Restructuring Under Pressure More than 100 workers at Europe’s largest and oldest grain distillery are preparing for three weeks of industrial action as Diageo restructures its global business and reviews jobs across Scotland. The dispute brings the company’s billion-dollar cost-cutting programme into one… |
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| | Environment · 17 September 2026 Autumn Rain Returns but Eastern Scotland’s Rivers Remain in Significant Water Scarcity Four areas of eastern Scotland remain at the highest level of SEPA’s water-scarcity system despite the return of rain, with 136 abstraction licences temporarily restricted and one Fife river gauge having recorded its second-lowest flow in six decades. Rain has… |
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| | Environment · 17 September 2026 Scotland Moves 35 Beavers to New Homes as 22 Are Killed Under Licence Scotland is deliberately expanding its beaver population into new Highland catchments while continuing to remove animals from farmland and other conflict sites. NatureScot’s latest figures record 84 beavers removed in a year, 35 released elsewhere in Scotland and 22 killed… |
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| | Transport · 17 September 2026 From LitterCam to Digital Warden: Inside the Company Behind Scotland’s New Roadside AI Cameras The cameras newly watching traffic on two of Scotland’s busiest roads are being presented as a six-month experiment in counting rubbish thrown from vehicles. The company behind them is an English enforcement-technology business whose systems can identify number plates, whose… |
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| | Transport · 17 September 2026 Waiting for the School Sea Bus: Ulva’s Run to Mull For children living on Ulva, the journey into Scotland’s education system begins with a boat. A new five-year council contract will keep that crossing operating as part of a transport network in which ferries, school buses and island timetables have… |
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| | Infrastructure · 17 September 2026 Five Thousand Tonnes, One Ship: Islay’s £1.1m Road Plan Hits Dry Dock Argyll and Bute Council devised a new way of getting thousands of tonnes of road material to Islay after repeated ferry disruption affected resurfacing work. The method worked on Jura. Then the only suitable hire vessel went into dry dock.… |
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| | Infrastructure · 17 September 2026 Scotland Has 219 Cladding Assessments Under Way: Only 16 Are Complete Scotland has 219 government-funded cladding safety assessments under way, up by 70 in three months. Sixteen have been completed, a total unchanged since September 2025, while 22 buildings have urgent interim safety measures in place. At the end of March,… |
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| | Energy · 17 September 2026 North Ronaldsay Faces Winter on Diesel as Power Cable Replacement Slips to Spring 2027 North Ronaldsay will spend the coming winter dependent on temporary diesel generation after replacement of its failed electricity cable to Sanday was delayed until spring 2027. Residents with small-scale renewable generation have also faced losses while the island operates under… |
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| | Energy · 17 September 2026 Shetland Expected £700,000 From Viking Wind Farm. It Now Expects £550,000 Shetland Islands Council has cut its forecast rental income from the 103-turbine Viking wind farm by £150,000. The adjustment provides an early measure of how money from the £580 million development is moving through council rent, community benefit, local taxation… |
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| | Policy and Government · 16 September 2026 NHS Scotland Awards New £100,000 Contract for Pelvic Mesh Removal A new NHS Scotland contract will continue specialist pelvic mesh removal treatment for women living with complications from procedures that were halted in Scotland eight years ago. The £100,000 agreement maintains access to independent treatment alongside the national specialist service… |
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| | Community · 16 September 2026 Highland Council Asked to Pause Health and Social Care Integration Review Highland Council is being asked to pause an 18-month review of how health and social care are governed after its own appraisal began moving towards an Integration Joint Board, while Scottish Government reforms may remove that model from Scotland’s future… |
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| | Heritage and Arts · 17 September 2026 The Scottish Roots of the Sixth-Largest Trade Book Publisher in the United States When former chief executive Michael Hyatt wrote The Thomas Neilson Way, the company whose name he led was described as the sixth-largest trade book publisher in the United States. That name belonged to a Scotsman born on a small farm… |
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| | Heritage and Arts · 17 September 2026 The Little Wooden Boxes Scotland Sent Around the World They held powdered tobacco, sewing needles, spectacles, pills, perfume, photographs and reels of thread. They carried pictures of Burns Cottage, Scottish castles and seaside resorts, but also scenes from France, America, Australia and South Africa. Behind these little wooden souvenirs… |
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| | Tea With Gunns · 17 September 2026 Three Hours Without My Phone Nearly Brought Down the Household At six o’clock on Tuesday evening I put my mobile phone in the kitchen drawer. Mr Gunn put his in beside it. He did this without hesitation, which should have warned me that we were not approaching the evening from… |
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