5 Myths About the Scottish Lobbying Bill This is a guest post by Pete Mills from Unlock Democracy In the first week back after Christmas, MSPs debated a Bill to introduce a lobbying register designed to let ordinary people know who is... Posted 25 Jan 2016
Scotland needs a stronger Lobbying Bill Remember the phone-hacking scandal? It seems long ago, but we shouldn’t forget how much we learned about the ways big private interests try to influence policy. The Leveson Inquiry dug up all sorts of stories... Posted 07 Jan 2016
The Scottish people should be involved in the devolution debate Yesterday (Wednesday 16th September) the Scottish Parliament debated ‘Scotland’s Future: Democracy and Devolution’. One year on from the independence referendum, and with the Scotland Bill due to go to report stage in the next few... Posted 17 Sep 2015
What is the Scotland Bill? The Scotland Bill was no surprise when it was announced in the Queens Speech. In the lead up to the Scottish independence referendum vote last September and following a particular cliff-edge poll, unionist parties became very... Posted 12 Jun 2015
What’s happening in Scotland? If the polls are to be believed, next Thursday Scotland will vote to send more SNP MPs to the House of Commons than ever before. Why is what used to be a stable voting pattern... Posted 29 Apr 2015
Something in the air Scotland is shrouded in a muggy haar today, and it feels as if we’ve been cut off from the rest of the world in order to concentrate and exercise our democratic right to vote: for... Posted 18 Sep 2014
A new Scotland As a politically active individual and an elections geek you’d think I would be excited beyond reason about the independence referendum. In actual fact, I have found the debate to be depressingly repetitive, providing few... Posted 05 Sep 2014
Women and Scottish independence This blog was first posted on Engender As the date of the referendum draws ever nearer, and the gender gap in the polls shows no sign of closing, there seem to be more events targeting women... Posted 03 Jul 2014
Scottish Public want bigger voice in politics Last week politicians in Scotland were queuing up to call for more power to be exercised at local level. But it seems our politicians are coming late to the party on localism. Today we launch the... Posted 12 Mar 2013
Politics is too important to be left to the politicians As the first stage in a yearlong process to imagine what a ‘Good Scottish Democracy’ might look like we asked for volunteers to take part in a discussion about the future of Scotland Democracy. ... Posted 12 Oct 2012