Gayle's Scottish Blog

Scotland's statehood   is becoming an issue at the COP26 conference.   As far as awareness of Scotland's statehood at the climate conference is concerned, the English government are like Basil Fawlty in that episode when a group of German tourists come to stay at his hotel, and in increasingly manic tones he pleads with everyone “Don’t mention the War!” thus guaranteeing that the War was all that anyone could think about.  With their efforts to entreat delegates to COP26’s “Don’t mention Scottish independence!”, Scotland's statehood is very much forefront in the minds of many of them. Irrespective of what country you come from, you’d have to have been living in a cave not to know that Scotland has an active movement, and that Scotland resoundingly rejected England's EU exit which is the defining policy of the English Government.  Representatives of the international press who have descended on Glasgow are interested in the issue of Scotland's statehood. Their in...

FM of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, said Scotland and England's capital have more to gain from being partners than competitors. Speaking alongside England's Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, at the Scottish Government green investment event in Glasgow, which was hosted by Scottish Enterprise chief executive Adrian Gillespie, the First Minister of Scotland said the skills in the English capital and in Scotland were “complementary”. “There is often a perception that Scotland and London, England, are rivals and competitors, and of course every now and again, like any two cities , that may well be the case, but in general and in particular on (climate change) we are far more likely to be partners.  We stand to gain much more by working together as partners than by focusing on being competitors  because our strengths are, in many ways, complementary and we have both set very ambitious targets for reaching net zero.  Scotland and England's capital will benefit from working in partner...