In 2010 George Osborne set out his plan to rescue the UK’s economy, but this week we’ll once again see his failure laid bare. He told the country he would balance the books in this parliament, but his failure to get the economy moving again means that whoever is in government after May 2015 will inherit a deficit of over £90 billion.
Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont has called on SNP backbenchers at Holyrood to grow up and stop sucking up to the Scottish government.
Further questions must now be raised about the competence of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland as one of its leading members urged a Scottish minister not to politicise the Royal Highland Show despite one of the party’s own MEPs launching the ‘Rural Better Together’ campaign at the very same show.
Immediately separating the administration of the welfare system in the event of Scotland opting to become an independent state “would present serious risks to the continuity of payments to people in both Scotland and England”, according to a new report.
David Cameron will today use his speech to the Scottish Conservative Party Conference in Stirling to once again rehearse the arguments in favour of Scotland remaining within the family of the United Kingdom. “There is”, he will say, “simply no challenge we face today where breaking up Britain is the right answer”.
A former Conservative Scottish secretary has called (£) moves by the party north of the border to increase the powers afforded to the Scottish Parliament a “suicide mission”.
All of a sudden, the debate around Scotland’s future has gained the kind of substance that many have been yearning for.
With the CBI having already warned of the risks to industry of Britain no longer being at the heart of the European Union, a further uncomfortable truth surrounding the Conservative Party’s increasingly isolationist rhetoric is now becoming apparent.
Two of Scotland’s biggest political beasts will be pitched against each other later today in the debate over the country’s future.
Polling published today by Ipsos Mori for The Times suggests that the SNP’s independence headache continues as support for Scotland staying in the UK has increased to its highest level since August 2011.
