Assessing the efficacy of Westminster's Lobbying Act in Scotland

Various campaign scandals have plagued Westminster over the last decade. Ostensibly to avoid a political landscape akin to the US, where special interests are unduly influential, the Conservative-led coalition government passed the controversial Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014, or the Lobbying Act, in January 2014.

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Keeping a language alive: the past and future of Gaelic in Scotland

A couple of weeks ago, another edition of the Seachdain na Gàidhlig (‘Gaelic week’) took place in Edinburgh. The University of Edinburgh introduced this week of events last year to promote and celebrate the Gaelic language. Three centuries ago, Gaelic was a flourishing language spoken by approximately a quarter of the Scottish population. Nowadays, this has dropped to 1.1%

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On home ground…

If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you might have noticed that we are a somewhat eclectic mix of contributors, with a fairly eclectic selection of things to say about a rather eclectic range of topics. That is actually quite a good representation of our home institution – the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. 

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