Council tax, rural schools and coalitions
At the point where the assumption was that Council Tax in Scotland would have to be freed to rise, we are on the record as saying that the existing freeze on this tax would have to be extended to...
View ArticleScotland’s food and drink production bucked the recession in 2009 but…
Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead today announced a recession-busting performance in Scotland’s food and drink production for the calendar year of 2009.In that year, food and drink production crossed...
View ArticleArgyll islands lead the way in campervan control
The Scottish Government conducted and extended the Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) scheme, subsidising ferry fares to the islands to make their cost equate to that of a road journey of the same...
View ArticleIs RET ferry fare subsidy for islands to be extended or not?
Three years ago, the Scottish Government came up with an intelligent and imaginative scheme to support the sustainability of Scotland’s inhabited islands by equalising ferry fares with the cost of...
View ArticleSwinney to challenge Chancellor’s economic strategy in a week long analysis
In the coming week, John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, has set himself the job of demonstrating why Chancellor George Osborne’s austerity approach is...
View ArticleMcGrigor challenges government on emissions targets
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) today (31st January) published its first progress report of 2012, showing that total emissions in Scotland fell by 7% in 2009 due to the recession.However, it...
View ArticleCampbeltown and Dunoon – recession risk factors
On Monday 28th May, two of Argyll and Bute’s five major towns jointly topped a list of Scottish towns most at risk of a destructive spiral of recession.This research was done by the Scottish...
View ArticleTime to ask what the people will stand: striking GPs have it all ways
GPs and their hospital-based colleagues are striking this Thursday – 21st June – over changes to pension rights that would see younger doctors working to the age of 68 – the new state retirement age...
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Baillie and Doyle call for growth strategies in face of bad news on recession...
Jackie Baillie MSP – who represents Argyll’s Helensburgh and Lomond within her constituency – and Gemma Doyle MP (pictured together above), are calling for more action from the Scottish and UK...
View ArticleResearch reveals shock insights into reality of Dunoon ferry service provision
Research on statistics and some number crunching draws a very interesting picture of the services currently delivered to Dunoon by its two ferry services.These are: Argyll Ferries’ passenger-only...
View ArticleArgyll and the Isles Tourism reacts to A83 closure
Argyll and The Isles Tourism Cooperative Ltd - the commercial arm of The Argyll and the Isles Strategic Tourism Partnership which represents the 20+ destination marketing groups, has reacted strongly...
View ArticleRussell Bruce: Your wellbeing factor may depend on two more people losing...
I speak of George Osborne and Danny Alexander presently running UK economic policy. Day by day the pressures ratchet up for a major reshuffle as the gloom forecasts for UK plc look ever more...
View ArticleScottish Government reshuffle: the media, the strategy, the challenges, the...
The first thing to be noted about yesterday’s modest reshuffle of his ministerial team by Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, is the sheer selective parochialism of its reporting by BBC...
View ArticleFinance Secretary’s draft budget out on Thursday
Finance Secretary John Swinney is to publish the Scottish Government’s draft Budget plans on Thursday 20th September.This is expected to set out a further phase of support in Scotland’s strategy for...
View ArticleGame show government: the big idea for economic development?
In a markedly poor and fact free address to the SNP conference at Perth, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney, on message, went through the tedious ritual of blaming Westminster for all of...
View ArticleScottish Conservatives underline common ownership of Saltire
The Scottish Conservatives have struck an energetically positive note in the debate on Scottish independence by launching a ‘Union Saltire’ logo that asserts the common – the shared – ownership of...
View ArticleIpsos Mori poll shows major business leaders nervous of impact of independence
Data from a new Ipsos MORI survey of the corporate sector has revealed that the majority of the leaders of major businesses in Scotland believe that Scottish independence would have a negative impact...
View ArticleMore troubling signals from the eurozone
Three pieces of news on developments in the eurozone come at the same time, together indicating potential destabilisation.The Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, has announced downgraded growth...
View ArticleMoody’s downgrades UK’s AAA credit rating
Credit rating agency, Moody’s has tonight reduced to AA1 the Triple A rating the UK has held unbroken since 1978.This has been done because the UK economy indicates little growth for the next few...
View ArticleContradictory EU deal on Cyprus
As predictable, the ‘Troika’ of the EU, European Central Bank [ECB] and the International Monetary Fund [IMF] has done a deal to keep Cyprus in the eurozone.The deal makes a nonsense of the crisis the...
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