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Tag: Scotland

  • Scottish government urged to shun Trump visit

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-government-urged-shun-trump-visit

    A protester wearing a giant Donald Trump head, outside Holyrood, Edinburgh, ahead of a debate in the Scottish Parliament to decide if the government should investigate the former president’s financing of Scottish golf courses, February 3, 2021

    SCOTTISH ministers have been urged not to meet with US President-elect Donald Trump if he visits Scotland this year.

    Mr Trump plans to visit Scotland in 2025 for the opening of a new golf course at his club in Aberdeenshire — one of the two he owns in the country.

    The Scottish Greens have urged the government to have nothing to do with the visit.

    Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie made the call on the fourth anniversary of riots in Washington after Mr Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.

    Mr Harvie said: “Four years ago Donald Trump was inciting rioters to storm the Capitol and block the democratic process.

    “In the time since, he has doubled-down on right-wing conspiracy theories and refused to show even the slightest shred of contrition or regret.

    “The prospect of four more years of a racist, climate-wrecking and misogynistic Donald Trump in the White House is one that should concern us all.

    “He is a friend of despots, demagogues and dictators, and a threat to migrant communities, LGBTQ+ people and reproductive rights.

    “We cannot stand aside or condone the divisive and hateful politics that he represents.

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-government-urged-shun-trump-visit

  • Support for separation at four-year high as SNP rebound in polls

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/support-for-separation-at-four-year-high-as-snp-rebound-in-polls

    People take part in a Believe in Scotland march and rally in Edinburgh, September 2, 2023

    SNP is on course to retain power in Holyrood as support for independence hit a four-year high of 54 per cent, according to a new poll.

    Despite a year which has seen their former chief executive facing charges related to embezzlement, the loss of a leader, a coalition with the Greens and 38 seats at the general election, research since Wednesday’s draft budget suggests the SNP are on course to win 37 per cent of constituency votes and 32 per cent on the regional lists at the next Holyrood elections in 2026.

    Writing in the Sunday Times — which commissioned the Norstat poll — expert Sir John Curtice suggests this would give SNP 59 seats in Holyrood, as Labour plunge to a new low of 20, and Reform win 13.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/support-for-separation-at-four-year-high-as-snp-rebound-in-polls

  • Scottish budget vows to scrap two-child benefits cap

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-budget-vows-to-scrap-two-child-benefits-cap

    Finance Secretary Shona Robison during a visit to Logan Energy Limited in Edinburgh ahead of the publication of the Scottish Budget, December 4, 2024

    SCOTTISH Finance Secretary Shona Robison announced that the two-child cap on benefits will be scrapped in Scotland as she pledged record spending for both the NHS and councils in next year’s Budget today.

    The moved to scrap the cap would lift 15,000 children out of poverty, Ms Robison said.

    She told MSPs as she outlined her draft Budget plans in Holyrood: “Be in no doubt that the cap will be scrapped.”

    Ms Robison slammed the UK Labour government’s inaction on a “pernicious” policy considered to be a key driver of child poverty by organisations such as the Poverty Alliance.

    She challenged the UK government to work with them and share the necessary information to “build a system” to mitigate it “as early as we can in 2026.”

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-budget-vows-to-scrap-two-child-benefits-cap

    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

  • SNP vow to ‘sabotage’ Labour’s ‘watered-down’ House of Lords reforms

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/snp-vow-sabotage-labours-watered-down-house-lords-reforms

    King Charles III reads the King’s Speech, as Queen Camilla sits beside him during the State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords, London, July 17, 2024

    THE SNP has vowed to “sabotage” Labour’s “watered-down” House of Lords reforms with a deluge of amendments.

    Labour’s House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, aiming to exclude the last remaining 92 hereditary peers from the legislature, faces its third reading in the House of Commons today.

    But SNP MP Pete Wishart has tabled amendments ranging from abolishing the institution altogether to making peers’ £342 daily allowance liable for income tax.

    Pointing to the “egregious example” of £18,808 paid to private healthcare tycoon Lord Hameed of Hampstead last year, despite him playing no role and failing to vote even once, Mr Wishart argues that taxing the £20 million paid out in allowances last year could generate over £9m — enough to restore Winter Fuel Payments to more than 22,000 pensioners in Scotland.

    Urging Scottish Labour MPs to “at least” back him on taxing allowances, Mr Wishart commented: “That’s the only viable option for anyone who believes in democracy.

    …

    “The Labour Party has repeatedly broken its promise to abolish the House of Lords for more than a century and, frankly, this embarrassingly limited Bill is 114 years too little, too late.

    “The undemocratic House of Lords is an archaic institution of the kind you’d find in a banana republic and it’s second only in size to the Congress of China costing taxpayers more than £200m a year.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/snp-vow-sabotage-labours-watered-down-house-lords-reforms

  • Loch Lomond Flamingo Land exclusivity agreement must be ditched, say Greens

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/loch-lomond-flamingo-land-exclusivity-agreement-must-be-ditched-say-greens

    No flamingos: Loch Lomond, Britain’s largest lake by surface area

    THE Scottish government must pull the plug on Flamingo Land’s exclusive rights to build on the banks of Loch Lomond, the Scottish Greens insisted today.

    The demand came after the company’s attempt to build a £40 million holiday resort, comprising two hotels, 100 holiday cottages, a waterpark and a monorail, was unanimously rejected for a second time by the board of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority on Monday.

    Objections were received from almost 150,000 people, organisations such as the National Trust for Scotland and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/loch-lomond-flamingo-land-exclusivity-agreement-must-be-ditched-say-greens