LyrArc Article Gist
Peter Murrell was CEO of SNP Scottish National Party from 2001 to 2023.  He was the husband of Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland's government from 2014 to 2023.

LyrArc Article Gist
Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party wins a vote in the Scottish parliament by a 10 vote margin with the help of the Scottish Greens to request  a vote on a referendum around Spring 2019. The British government is likely to agree to a referendum, but on its own timing after Brexit negotiations are completed and Britain leaves the European Union. Scottish voters by a large margin rejected Brexit. This has put England at odds with Scotland, risking a breakup of the union between Scotland and England setup by Acts of the parliaments of the two countries in 1707.

LyrArc Article Gist
Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers, was arrested on July 17, 2011. Sir Paul Stephenson, head of Scotland Yard resigned the same day. Stephenson says he did not reveal information to No. 10 Downing Street that Wallis, a former top editor of News World, was also on Scotland Yard's payroll as a special advisor. Stephenson said: " I did not want to compromise the prime minister in any way by revealing or discussing a potential suspect who clearly had a close relationship with Mr. Coulson." Britain's prime minister Cameron hired Coulson from News World as his communications advisor.

LyrArc Article Gist
Even as huge losses continued at RBS bank bonuses remained high. After $15 billion in losses at RBS in 2013, banker bonuses were $960 million for the year. Banker bonuses declined from 679 million pounds in 2012 to 576 billion pounds in 2013. New CEO Ross McEwan, says "I need to keep people engaged." He announced another reorganization. He says RBS "is the least trusted company in the least trusted sector of the economy." This follows public criticism of RBS for not lending enough to small business and unfair treatment of customers. The new plan is for cost cuts to save 2.2 billion pounds by closing 16 corporate call centers and 11 offices in London. Sales and restructuring cuts are planned for 3.1 billion pounds in savings.

LyrArc Article Gist
Scotland joined with England and Wales to form Great Britain in 1707, at a time of increasing opportunities for Scottish people in the expanding British Empire. Britain's shipbuilding industry had a major base in Glasgow. During the Thatcher Conservative government Scotland suffered, and decades of globalization led to gradual deindustrialization for Scotland, the demise of the shipbuilding and other industries. The Labor Party under prime minister Blair pursued a "devolution of powers" policy, creating the first Scottish parliament following a referendum in 1999. Ironically this has changed the fortunes of the Scottish Nationalist Party led by Jack Salmond, a economist first elected to the British parliament in 1987. Salmond became head of the party in 1990 and led it to second place in 1999 elections, followed by a win in 2007 and 2011 elections. Salmond is seen as a vigorous campaigner, who can speak above others and not seen as a good listener. The party gained the confidence of Scottish voters by running a competent administration led by businessmen who were well aware of problems in local communities. Programs such as free prescriptions for medicines were popular with voters. The Labor Party stands to lose its voter base in Scotland (former Labor prime minister Gordon Brown is from Scotland), and the Conservative Party will also suffer a blow with a yes vote to independence. Polls show voters don't fully trust Salmond, but a majority 39% support an yes vote to 38% no vote, with 23% undecided. Britain just emerging from a deep recession would lose Scottish oil revenues of about 6 billion pounds, and the economy would suffer as business waited to see how things would turn out before making investments. Scotland now manages health, education and transport. Even without independence Scotland now stands to gain more powers and control, and control a higher percentage than the 60% of Scotland's budget that the Scottish government manages today. Scotland represents about 148 billion pounds or 9.2% of the UK GDP....

LyrArc Article Gist
This editorial in the Economist says Scots should get fiscal autonomy, and manage their own affairs including setting minimum wage, and tax rates. It says England should not subsidize Scotland as it currently does, and this will lead to Scotland bearing additional cost of about 8 billion pounds. It reminds readers that only about 50% of Scottish voters voted for the Scottish National party in the 2015 general election, and once Scotland has to balance its own books voters would have a chance to rethink the level to which they want a welfare state. As in Quebec the nationalist party may not have the same voter support when it has to tackle the difficult tasks involved in self government. This also means Scots would not be voting on how to manage affairs in England, leading to a federation for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Seagreen wind farm in the windy North Sea waters off Scotland begins production this week. It is a 3 billion pound project of SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies of France located 17 miles off the Angus Coast of eastern Scotland. Production is 1.1 gigawatts of electricity in the first phase enough to power 1 million homes. It is the world's deepest fixed bottom windfarm- the deepest foundation to be installed in December will be 59 metres below sea level. 

Its location near the old oil and gas capital of Aberdeen, Scotland, shows how the renewable energies acceleration is giving a new life to the region. Seagreen uses new renewables technology because of the rocky difficult conditions in the North Sea. SSE Renewables is a London based company that has $12.5 billion in investments in renewable energy.

LyrArc Article Gist
The national picture for Labor would include Scotland which is where Labor has roots. John Smith of Argyll and Butte in Scotland was elected Labor leader in 1992 and Leader of the Opposition in the British parliament. His untimely death in 1994 from an heart attack deprived Britain of a Labor prime minister from Scotland. Smith was able to get enthusiastic support of Scottish voters. It is this Smith period that Labor aspires to as it seeks to widen its lead of nine points over the Conservative party to be confident of getting an overall majority in parliament.

In 1997 a young Tony Blair of Labor who succeeded Smith won the general election. Blair setup the Scottish parliament not convened since 1707, starting a new chapter in Scottish history. In 2007 the Scottish National Party with Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon formed a new government which is losing the confidence of Scottish voters with the cost of living crisis.

LyrArc Article Gist
Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon leave the Tories and the Scottish Nationalist Party weaker than before providing Labour an advantage in England and Scotland after ten years of austerity and Scottish nationalist policies. Labour's loss of Scotland to the SNP made it hard for the party to win a parliamentary majority in elections. Boris Johnson appealed to Labour's base in the north of England without any significant policy accomplishments to back it up. All this is changing with Labour sweeping the local elections recently.

LyrArc Article Gist
Schmemann ponders over the situation in Spain with Catalonia and Scotland with Britain, where national identity arouses pride and there is a strong sentiment for autonomy or independence. He says the situation in Slovakia which sought its own identity and separated from Czechoslovakia, but sought an otherwise peaceful status in the EU, should not be confused with the nationalism that has aroused conflicts in other regions and periods. He puts Scots interest in autonomy or independence in this light, as simply seeking its own future in the EU, with closer attention being paid to the local interests in Scotland.