Our Scottish Future

Positive change is possible in Scotland, and it's happening. New podcast with former East Ayrshire local authority leader Katie Kelly on how the council there helped to build vibrant communities. Political consensus needed to promote this brilliant work across Scotland. Thanks for listening! Get the latest by following @scottish_future

In the wake of disappointing PISA results, Our Scottish Future Director Eddie Barnes is joined by two experts in Scottish education: Lindsay Paterson , Emeritus Professor of Education Policy at the University of Edinburgh and Melvyn Roffe , Principal of George Watson's College. Listen as they dive deep into Scotland's PISA results; why do they need to improve and how can they improve? Th...

* LINK TO VIEW SLIDES REFERENCED * The recording of the presentation of the new report from Our Scottish Future. Titled, "A Little Less Conversation: Closing Scotland's Implementation Gap", the report argues that the successes of devolution has been stymied in recent years by a combination of “too much politics, too much government, a failure to cooperate, and a centralised politica...

Our Scottish Future's Eddie Barnes is joined by Alex Neil , former Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Helen Puttick , health reporter at The Times and Professor David Kerr , head of the OSF health commission and professor of cancer medicine at Oxford University, to discuss Scotland's NHS and how it can be improved. Thanks for listening! Get the latest by following @scottish_futu...

Eddie Barnes interviews Robin Harper. They cover; Harper's headline news making decision to resign from the Scottish Greens -the party he once led as the first Green MSP in the Scottish parliament- to climate change and the future of the UK.  Thanks for listening! Get the latest by following @scottish_future

Heat pumps. You've heard a lot about them, but what actually are they? Are they a solution to our energy troubles? Are the Scottish government's lofty goals deliverable? Our Scottish Future's Eddie Barnes speaks with Dr Peter Wood , an Associate Lecturer at The Open University in Scotland, a researcher in sustainability, and a trade unionist to find out more. You can read Pete'...

The Our Scottish Future podcast is looking at key policy areas in Scotland to ask why things aren't working, and what we can do to fix them. This week we look at the scandal of Scottish drug related deaths. More than 1330 suffered a drug related death in the last year, 3.5 times higher than in the rest of the UK. Why? What's going wrong? How should our governments sort it? Two leading Sc...

Welcome to our revamped podcast! Rather than provide a running commentary on recent political events, we want to use this podcast to discuss policy and specifically policy implementation. How can we do things better? This week, Our Scottish Future Campaign Director Eddie Barnes discusses education and the Curriculum for Excellence. He is joined by a stellar cast including: Aveek Bhattacharya, rese...

Our Scottish Future Chair Prof Jim Gallagher fills in for Eddie Barnes this week and is joined by former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP, former Scottish Labour MSP (and proud Dundonian) Jenna Marra and former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft. They discuss the challenges facing new First Minister Humza Yousaf, rebellious party backbenchers, SNP party unity, if there is a plan...

This week’s Our Scottish Future podcast looks ahead to the challenge facing the new SNP leader and First Minister who will be elected next week. What should their priorities be? What do they do about independence? And how should they cooperate with the UK Government?  OSF’s Eddie Barnes is joined by three leading experts to discuss this and more: OSF chair Professor Jim Gallagher, former civil ser...

This week Eddie is joined by James Mitchell, Professor of Public Policy at Edinburgh University and one of Scotland’s foremost experts on devolution and public reform; the former leader of Scottish Labour, Johann Lamont, who was Labour’s representative on the cross-party Commission on Parliamentary Reform; and Donald Cameron MSP, the Scottish Conservative Party’s Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the C...

Prof Jim Gallagher and Cllr Molly Nolan discuss the continuing fallout  from Nicola Sturgeon's decision to quit office. They set out their opinions on the first few hustings events involving the three candidates and all the various issues that they have been discussing from the apparently doomed bottle deposit scheme, to the place of religion in the modern secular society, and the concept of...

Kirsty McNeill and Philip Rycroft join Eddie to chat about the extraordinary couple of weeks we've seen in Scottish politics since Nicola Sturgeon announced that she would be stepping down as FM. They examine where the turmoil in the SNP leaves Scottish politics and our wider constitutional debate - and how this moment represents an opportunity to take Scotland forward. Thanks for listening!...

On Wednesday 6th October we were joined by renowned US political scientist Eitan Hersch, author of "Politics is for Power", for our online event event "Making Change Happen".  We talked to Eitan about how to turn yourself into an effective activist, what it means to be part of a community and the role of young people in making change. Our new chair, Kirsty McNeill, was also on...

In this week's podcast, Eddie Barnes speaks to Ruairidh Macintosh, the author of our report on Scotland's video games industry.  Globally, the video games industry is now worth $200 billion - a figure that is set to double by 2028. Scotland accounts for a disproportionate share of the UK-wide industry, with Scottish based firms punching well above their weight. Yet Scotland’s gaming sect...

In this week's podcast, Eddie Barnes speaks to two experts in sustainable transport, Dr Pete Wood and Mark Ross, the co-authors of our report on reforming Scotland's bus network, which was released earlier this week. They chat about their proposals, which include maximum £2 bus fares, as well as Scotland's ferries row and the nationalisation of Scotland's rail network. Click th...

On Wednesday 16th March, Gordon Brown sat down with an online audience to share his plan to tackle the looming cost of living crisis and reveals why any solution must be rooted in better cooperation between governments. Next month, when gas bills are set to rocket, households across the UK will be plunged into the deepest cost-of living crisis since the 1970s. We urgently need a plan to deal with...

On Friday 4th March, Our Scottish Future and the Scottish Fabians held a joint event near the Scottish Labour conference, joined by Lisa Nandy MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities), Sarah Boyack MSP (Scottish Labour Spokesperson for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture), and Professor Jim Gallagher, the Chair of Our Scottish Future. We took as our theme...

Catherine MacLeod was a special adviser to Alistair Darling when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer and is a former political editor of The Herald. Andrew Dunlop was chief adviser to David Cameron and played a key role in the Government's response to the Independence referendum.  In this week's podcast, they chat to Eddie Barnes about how we can tackle the social, economic and political...

Prof David Kerr is one of the most respected NHS figures in the UK. He is a leading voice in NHS reform and co-author of our report on the UK’s widening health inequalities. In this episode David talks to Our Scottish Future Campaign Director, Eddie Barnes, about growing up in Maryhill, his experiences of NHS reform under the last Labour government, why he considers widening health inequalities to...

Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram are the metro mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region. In this episode they join Gordon Brown to reflect on the nature of the UK, and on how their cities can work more closely with cities and towns in Scotland. Thanks for listening! Get the latest by following @scottish_future