Regulation without compliance is just legalising the illegal.
https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/01/21/naturescot-fails-to-make-any-compliance-checks-on-use-of-new-grouse-moor-licences/
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And there we go. Within minutes of becoming President again Trump has breached Article 2.4 of the UN charter by threatening to "take [the Panama canal] back".
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text
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I guess it didn't happen then.
Ach well, in any case. Buckle up.
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Just a few days after the remaining Director of the "Department of Government Efficiency" spread several hundred million dollars of public money across the upper atmosphere.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/vivek-ramaswamy-doge-department-government-efficiency-b2682558.html
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The only constitutional article autocrats love more than a "President-for-Life" clause is an "Emergency Powers" one.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-01-20/trump-to-declare-national-energy-emergency
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Controversial thought and I'm not even sure how /I/ feel about it...so I'll put it out for debate.
"The last presidential pardon Joe Biden signs should be for Donald Trump. Not because the sex offending fraudster deserves it, but specifically to avoid setting a precedent whereby a convicted criminal who becomes President can pardon themselves."
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Not that this ask is unwelcome or that I wouldn't support it. Personally I think the UK would benefit from more subsidiarity and, within the context of Wesminster sovereignty, that would involve all levels of Government having the ability to ask for more powers and for the controlling power above them to presume consent unless they can give a compelling reason to the contrary.
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https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/snp-government-wealth-tax-social-security-bill-shona-robison-scottish-labour-4949201
Holyrood already has the power to introduce a wealth tax (particularly a land tax: https://commonweal.scot/policies/taxing-land-in-scotland/) only with the caveat that the revenue must support local services (meaning it's easiest to do if the power is devolved to Local Authorities).
That, of course, means Holyrood can't control the cash.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5k3v6x6vxo
Reading stories like this reminds me of something we said during the launch of the Circular Economy blueprint in our Green New Deal (see https://commonweal.scot/policies/the-common-home-plan/)
Basically, in Britain, we spend too much on rent-seeking utilities like housing and energy and (thus) not enough on vital "market" goods like food and clothing. This erodes our ability to make ethical choices about any of them.
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The news regulators should treat companies that use AI to produce misleading news with the same* regulations they'd use against companies who use humans to produce misleading news.
https://nation.cymru/news/apple-pauses-ai-generated-news-alerts-over-inaccuracy-issues/
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Good briefing by Josh Doble of Community Land Scotland here on land reform and the weaknesses of the current Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24866090.scotland-sale---buying-question-land-reform/
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France has banned the private renting of EPC G or lower homes as of the start of this year and will ban the renting of EPC F homes in 2028 and EPC E homes in 2034.
Around 7% of Scotland's private rented homes are currently EPC F or G and 12% are EPC E meaning that if Scotland replicated this law, private landlords would be forced to lift around 56,000 households out of the extreme fuel poverty they are keeping their tenants in.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20240212/what-do-energy-ratings-mean-for-french-property-owners
Data source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-house-condition-survey-2022-key-findings/documents/
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My article in this week's Common Weal newsletter.
On how Scotland could bring the price of houses down by stopping giving massive subsidies to landowners.
https://commonweal.scot/to-build-houses-first-buy-the-land/
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UKGov looking at scrapping mortgage rules brought in in the wake of the 2008 Financial Crash that brought down the last Labour government.
Is Starmer trying to speedrun this?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdryy33v13ko
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The politicians signing this are the ones who were supposed to have come up with the plan...
https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,half-of-msps-oppose-oil-and-gas-licence-ban
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It is, of course, candidate selection time for Holyrood '26 and given the way the polls are just now, competition for those regional seats is going to be blazing fierce.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy48p5132qno
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This is at least the second time that an AI developer has admitted to copyright violations in its training data after OpenAI did so last year.
https://lithub.com/it-sure-looks-like-meta-stole-a-lot-of-books-to-build-its-ai/
The UK Government currently wants to legalise such copyright breaches for AI developers (but not, of course, for you or in a way that allows you as a creator to meaningfully recover damages)
https://ipoconsultations.citizenspace.com/ipo/consultation-on-copyright-and-ai/
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With peace there comes a hope of tomorrow.
May that tomorrow bring hope for the peaceful, justice upon those who chose violence beyond reason, and for those who suffered, may tomorrow bring some measure of repair.
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That'll be the UK outsourcing foreign policy to Trump then.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyp3750y3po
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When you see an upsurge in climate denial in British politics and in the media, ask where the money is coming from and who profits from it.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/15/farage-and-truss-attend-uk-launch-of-us-climate-denial-group-heartland
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