A view of a town with a river running through it

Why I support the New Local Democracy for Scotland – Dave Watson

Twenty-five years after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, we rightly celebrate devolution. In the words of Donald Dewar this was, ‘the day when democracy was renewed in Scotland when we revitalised our place in this our United Kingdom.’ While the Scottish Parliament has brought democracy closer to Scotland, it has not created a genuine…

Why Rural Scotland needs a new solution – Ann McGuinness

Why Rural Scotland needs a new solution – Ann McGuinness

Steeped in history and surrounded by natural beauty, our rural communities are often fawned over and fantasised about by inhabitants of our towns and cities, where the promise of an idyllic holiday, or perhaps even retirement, awaits.  Yet these are places filled with people carrying on with their everyday lives.   Living, working and learning in…

We can ‘right-size’ democracy in Scotland – Lesley Riddoch

We can ‘right-size’ democracy in Scotland – Lesley Riddoch

Something special happened in 2022. A Scottish election with the lowest ever number of candidates, a turnout of just 44.8%, the lowest in northern Europe and a high number of wards where there was no election because candidate numbers precisely matched the available seats. But there was very little fuss or recrimination because these were…

Why Build a Local Scotland? – Esther Roberton

Why Build a Local Scotland? – Esther Roberton

This year is the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament and we have seen many events marking the milestone. There continues to be much discussion looking back on what has been achieved and looking forward to what could or should be done over the next 25 years. As Coordinator of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, I…

Community and Resilience: The Keys to Powerful Local Government – Willie Sullivan

Community and Resilience: The Keys to Powerful Local Government – Willie Sullivan

There are many reasons to seek really powerful, really participative local government in Scotland. Electoral Reform Society, Scotland published a longer pamphlet about this in 2022. Here we focus on what could well be the two most important reasons ; Community and Resilience. Ours is a system that combines single, symmetrical units that seeks to…

Building a Local Scotland: an economist’s view – Mike Danson

Building a Local Scotland: an economist’s view – Mike Danson

There is an incorrect presumption embedded into many government frameworks that, by definition, ‘big is beautiful’. The argument is then that that governments at all levels should embrace the need to realise the economies of scale offered by being parts of bigger entities. Best value regimes, public procurement rules, the Green Book (which the UK…

Person Holding a Stress Ball

Even when it’s a Grand Challenge  the solution is often local – Peter McColl

There are a small number of great challenges facing us as a society. The climate emergency is the most significant, but we have a social care crisis that also threatens our wellbeing and that of our loved ones. Too often the scale of the challenge creates a false assumption that the answers lie in changes…