Category Archives: Scottish Parliament

There’s no such thing as sustainable palm oil. Cut it out of your diet, yes, but there’s more to be done.

Update 3 (afternoon, 24 April 2021): I still don’t believe there is such a thing as ‘sustainable’ palm oil If you search ‘palm oil you’ll find a plethora of articles arguing that boycotting palm oil is bad and that we should … Continue reading

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History will judge us. Which side are you on? Compassion and humanity, or terrorist apartheid Israel?

History will judge us all History will surely judge the Israeli Zionist state as among the most evil of the present era. It will also judge those who sought to support or appease this terrorist regime as complicit in its crimes against humanity. The … Continue reading

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What’s the truth about taxing the wealthy? Eleven things you should know.

UPDATE, 18 October 2016. This article has appeared on Al Jazeera: US elections: The rich can’t be trusted with money. The more they have, the more they screw up. I highly recommend it. Introduction One hideous neoliberal party forced to throw … Continue reading

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If you don’t like the concept of ‘separation’ you should support Scottish independence.

It seems ludicrous that people are put off Scottish independence because they don’t like the idea of ‘separation’. There is nothing more divisive than neoliberalism, to which all the major UK parties subscribe, and which fosters inequality, division and hatred. … Continue reading

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MSP helps reveal dodgy investments of Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme: Monsanto, tobacco, oil, rotten banks, unethical mining companies…

Many thanks to my MSP, Marco Biagi (of the SNP), who has obtained, on my behalf, the details of the Scottish Parliament’s pension scheme for MSPs. It makes disturbing reading, with some of the investments seeming to run counter to … Continue reading

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MoneyNonsense: RBS, out of our schools! You are not a fit and proper institution to teach children about money.

[Update on Monday 4 June 2012:  The RBS MoneySense reception in the Scottish Parliament has now taken place, but MSPs representing three political parties – Labour, the SNP and the Scottish Greens – have all expressed misgivings about RBS teaching … Continue reading

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Letter in Scotsman

A letter I wrote was published in today’s Scotsman.

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Don’t do politics? You’ll like this, then…

Real Prosperity and Joined-Up Thinking Pat Kane (writer, musician, consultant and activist) is one of the campaign’s supporters. Don’t do politics?  Well, perhaps it’s because politics doesn’t do you!  This is about changing that. Please visit the site and consider … Continue reading

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Please support call for end to “GDP fetish”!

GDP takes no account of health, wellbeing or environmental criteria and even counts such things as expenditure on prisons as positive, so it is a daft criterion with which to measure progress, as France now recognises. With reference to this … Continue reading

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Alternatives to GDP suggested by Sarkozy – hooray!

I am not generally a fan of Sarkozy, but he has it absolutely right when it comes to the inadequacies of GDP.  Vive la France!  Nathaniel, the protagonist of the novel I largely wrote when I lived in Paris, would … Continue reading

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