The Lord Freudian slip and the Minimum Wage

British politics is seldom more alive than when a politician’s comments are called into question by the other side. Conservative peer and welfare reform minister Lord Freud has been the centre of media and opposition attention over the last few days after making what has been claimed to be disparaging remarks about the disabled. At a fringe meeting about the Government’s Universal Credit policy at the Conservative party conference last month, Lord Freud was responding to a question about the disabled and the National Minimum — Read more →

Dissecting the Referendum: The Future

Even though we’re not a week out from the referendum, the vision of a post-referendum Scotland is becoming increasingly clear as the dust settles.  Neither side of the debate is carrying on with ‘business as usual’, with both recognising a significant appetite for change in Scotland if not for independence. Westminster is not going to take the No vote as a vote of confidence in their actions, and are going to work on new powers, but they have changed the parameters of what they have — Read more →

Dissecting the Referendum: The Campaigns

Although the time between the polls opening and the final result being declared was only a little more than 25 hours, the real story of how the Scottish independence referendum was won and lost has a deep history of two years or more.  For many it has been a process that has gone on for far too long, and there are calls from people across the country to move on and abandon the fierce politicking that has gripped the nation especially tightly during the last — Read more →

Dissecting the Referendum: The Result

I managed to make it until about half 5 in the morning before calling it quits and going to bed, accepting that Scotland had voted No to independence.  To be honest I was okay with it at that point, the steady stream of results that had come in from YouGov’s initial poll to the actual council-by-council results began to show rather quickly that it wasn’t going to be Yes’ night. But when I woke up a few hours later, to catch the end of the — Read more →

Predicting the Referendum Result

Today’s the day.  Today Scotland goes to the polls to decide its future and by tomorrow morning we will know whether Scotland has chosen to become independent or to remain within the United Kingdom.  There’s no telling which way the nation will vote at the moment, but I’ve tried to use recent polls to give an indication of what might unfold as the counts report their results tonight to make the process a little less nervy and uncertain! First things first, there is no doubt — Read more →