Scotland Articles

With the approach of the Scottish draft budget announcement on the 18 November, following George Osborne’s confirmation in the comprehensive spending review that Scotland will face a real terms reduction in budget of 11 per cent through to 2015, public sector organisations are bracing themselves to see where the largest cuts will fall.

Education is always an issue during any election campaign. Given education’s importance to the voters and for the future of our country, it would be expected that any government would make delivering on education a key focus. Not so the SNP…

Alex Salmond believes that independence will be a ‘major, perhaps dominating, issue’ in the run up to the election in May. Initially this appears a peculiar stance for him to take, given that support for independence in Scotland is currently sitting at less than a third.

The future of the education maintenance allowance (EMA) which was rolled out across Scotland in 2004-5, providing 16-19 year olds with up to £30 a week to stay at school or go on to college, is looking increasingly rocky.