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  • Zonal Pricing: What Happened

    Zonal pricing of electricity is not going to happen. At least not any time soon. The UK Government’s decision brings to an end three years of intense lobbying from supporters and opponents of zonal pricing. Which camp did the SNP belong to? And why? Did some of the lobbying exaggerate the truth? And does the SNP have a coherent vision for electricity market reform?

  • Full Fiscal Arithmetic

    Imagine the Scottish Government gets what it’s asking for: full fiscal autonomy. What happens then? And what is the significance of the so-called fiscal transfer? This short piece answers these key questions.

  • The McCrone Mythology

    A 1974 memo written by Scottish Office economist Gavin McCrone has acquired a mythical status for Scottish nationalists. But how much of the mythology is true?

  • Infinite and Everywhere

    The journey to net zero means leaving behind the fossil fuel era, and moving towards a world which will power itself by extracting energy from super-abundant resources. This has profoundly important consequences for those attempting to prosecute an argument for Scottish independence based on resource nationalism.

  • Wrong With The Wind

    Scotland has substantial renewable energy resources, and that’s a very good thing. But hugely exaggerating the size of the potential resource for political purposes is not a good thing. This is the story of how the Scottish Government has for years been knowingly inflating Scotland's share of Europe's potential offshore wind resource.