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Opinion

Farage and the Farrago of lies

  By G.A.Ponsonby  A band of hard line Scottish nationalists this week turned on UKIP leader Nigel Farage, forcing the ...

Commentary | Sunday, 19 May 2013 | Comments

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Ukip-Tory UK not for confederalists

By George Kerevan  THINGS are afoot in England. A quarter of English voters now support Ukip – a right wing, ...

Commentary | Thursday, 16 May 2013 | Comments

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'Better Together' just circling the drain

   By Mark McNaught Last week the Queen gave her speech presenting the UK government’s manifesto for the next year.  ...

Commentary | Tuesday, 14 May 2013 | Comments

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News - Scotland and International

News in Brief

Europe's first electricity grid research centre

First Minister Alex Salmond has opened Europe’s first world-class electricity grid research centre. The centre will examine how advanced technologies ... Read More

Amazon should refund £10m Scottish Government handout say Greens

Green MSPs are urging the Scottish Government to recall its grant funding of Amazon UK following news that the c... Read More

Scottish Socialists for Independence announces launch

A new campaigning group for independence has announced it will launch on May 28th.  Scottish Socialists for Independence is a ... Read More

MSP français-ecossais «honoré» de représenter le Nord-Est

New SNP MSP Christian Allard has said that he is 'honoured' to represent the people of the North East, after ... Read More

SNP and Greens welcome record rise in employment in Scotland

The SNP and the Scottish Greens have welcomed a record rise in employment at the same time as the number ... Read More

Free Wi-Fi for Aberdeen station

The announcement today that Aberdeen station is set to benefit from the introduction of Wi-Fi for passengers has been hailed ... Read More
More in: In Brief

World central banks may follow Japan move

By George Kerevan
 
I have been in Asia this week ­talking to business leaders. I turned down golf with one chief executive, who was very proud that his personal course had wild leopards in the grounds.
 
He was complementary about the Old Course at St Andrews, where the animal life is less likely to put you off your stroke.

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The cost of the referendum was news … two weeks ago

By G.A.Ponsonby
 
Yesterday the Herald ran a story on the cost of the independence referendum.  The paper’s political editor Magnus Gardham spun the figure of £13.3 million, describing it as "the cost to the taxpayer".

A bit 'Daily Mailish' perhaps but factually accurate nonetheless, the cost is indeed £13.3 million and the taxpayer will pay.  Previous estimates, wrote Mr Gardham, put the total referendum cost at £9m-£10m.

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Solway's deadly MoD legacy of depleted uranium may be illegal

  By Ken Ferguson

The main claim to fame of the ancient burgh of Kirkcudbright on the Solway coast is its links to a thriving artists colony in the last century which included notables such as Jessie M King and Charles Oppenheimer.

However, under the tranquil waves of the Solway, the British Army has left a more sinister legacy of some 30 tonnes of depleted uranium (DU), fired at the nearby Dundrennan tank testing ranges.

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Four Nations and a Funeral: The Demise of the British Welfare State

By Gerry Hassan, The Scotsman, March 30th 2013

The British welfare state is meant to be one of the ties that bind us together; along with the NHS and the BBC representing our common strands of citizenship.

Each has been remarkably eroded in recent years but on Monday April 1st huge changes will occur in the first two – the welfare state and NHS in England – which will have massive consequences for hundreds of thousands of people up and down this country already hard pressed and vulnerable, and for the very idea of Britain itself.

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Western-Asian fusion causing a storm

By George Kerevan
 
THE world takes on a very different perspective from the middle of Asia. I’m here in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, a sliver of country the size of England and Wales that is sandwiched between the two rising (and rival) powers of China and India.
 
To get here I had to fly over a civil war in Syria, the fractious and fragile polity that is Iraq, and teetering Pakistan – meanwhile skirting bellicose Iran and the quagmire that is Afghanistan. Little wonder the papers here have scant time for rich Europe’s economic tantrums.

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Devolution and independence part of the same home rule journey

By Stephen Noon

My first introduction to politics was in the early 1990s in an organisation called Scotland United - we campaigned for a multi-option referendum in the period just after the 1992 election returned the Tories to government in the UK (despite Scotland voting overwhelmingly against them). For me independence and devolution are very much part of the same 'more powers' continuum. This is an article I wrote on the Yes Scotland website on this very point:

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Fracking company shares plummet as Australia tightens regulations on shale gas

  By Lynda Williamson

The on-going saga of Australian unconventional gas company Dart Energy has taken a dramatic turn as it was revealed that shares in the company have tumbled to a record low.

The value of the company's shares has dropped by a third in the last six months and the company has not posted a profit for over two years.

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Scottish Banks and UK Oil

By G.A.Ponsonby
 
Few could have failed to notice the ‘row’ over oil revenues in an independent Scotland.  The debate has pitched Unionists, the CPPR and the OBR against the Scottish government, academics and the industry.
 
Oil is running out according to Unionists who then apparently claim that there is so much that ‘too wee’ Scotland couldn’t handle it.  Yep, just like Qatar and Norway – these wee countries making such a mess of the resource that their oil funds are creaking at the seams.

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Newsnet Scotland was launched on 12th March 2010 by unpaid volunteers from Greenock. The site was set up in order to address what we believed to be an imbalance in the reporting of Scottish News and Current Affairs.

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