THESE ISLANDS PRESS COVERAGE

On Thursday, These Islands, the think tank founded by Scottish entrepreneur Kevin Hague, published its own analysis of the likely consequences for Scotland were full fiscal autonomy ever to become fiscal reality here. Its core finding is blunt. “The predicament the Scottish Government creates for itself with full fiscal autonomy is quite simple: the expenditure side of its budget increases by far more than the revenue side”.

These Islands puts numbers on the scale of that challenge. “It’s important to emphasise that full fiscal autonomy would have created a £22.7 billion hole in the Scottish Government’s budget in 2023-24”, the analysis says. It goes on to itemise the starker consequences.

“In 2023-24, to avoid having to cut public spending or increase taxes, a fiscally autonomous Scottish Government would have needed to borrow £22.7 billion (10.4 per cent of Scotland’s GDP) from the bond market” it cautions. “But the bond market is an unforgiving judge of fiscal arithmetic. Just ask Liz Truss, whose mini-budget fiscal surprise was a comparatively modest 2 per cent of GDP. The bond market needs to know the total amount of borrowing you are planning before it will lend you anything at all”.

Were a fiscally autonomous Scottish government to signal its intent to borrow 10 per cent of GDP annually, the analysis concludes, “the bond market’s response would be inevitable and unprintable”.
The Sunday Times, 31/5/2025 [Read the full article here]

Marra put it to him that such a policy would require something like a £12.8 billion cut in public spending. This, it seemed to me, should be bigger news than it appears to be. In reply, Robertson reconfirmed his party's commitment to national impoverishment, while saying he did not "recognise the statistic" cited by Marra.

Robertson may not "recognise" that number because it was calculated by These Islands, the pro-union activist group. That is sufficient to tarnish the figure's credibility in the eyes of nationalists for whom alternative facts are the preferred currency. Nevertheless, every credible, independent analysis of Scotland's fiscal reality broadly agrees with These Islands' analysis.
The Times, 17/5/2025 [Read the full article here]

“This episode follows a familiar pattern,” Sam Taylor, chief executive of the pro-UK These Islands think tank, said. “The Scottish government has been loudly trumpeting a headline-grabbing number which was never properly evidenced. And now that reality has caught up with it, the Scottish government chooses obfuscation rather than transparency.”
The Times, 14/5/2025 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, the head of the pro-UK These Islands think tank, said on X: “John Swinney says the ‘compelling and demonstrable’ support for independence that will deliver another referendum is the kind of support there was for establishing the Scottish Parliament before 1997, ie 60-70 per cent. A message that will infuriate the core SNP vote. But he’s right.”
The Telegraph, 11/5/2025 [Read the full article here]

As Sam Taylor from the pro-UK campaign group pointed out on X, last October, Ms Forbes told Holyrood Sources that zonal pricing would right “the greatest injustice of our day”.

On Friday, she told businesses: “Our focus has to be entirely on de-risking and maximising certainty. So, while market reforms are needed, the longer it takes to conclude, the less certainty there is to make funding decisions now.”

In just eight months, for the SNP, zonal pricing has shifted from a rallying cry against unfairness to a complex risk that could threaten investment and delay progress.
The Herald, 28/4/2025 [Read the full article here]

But critics of such a policy points to the most recent Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures, published by the Scottish Government, which state the net fiscal balance in 2023-24 was -£22,684m.

This is the difference between revenue and current expenditure.

These Islands has calculated that, based on these figures and allowing for fiscal transfer, this would result in £12.8bn less for Scotland’s public purse.
Holyrood Magazine, 1/4/2025 [Read the full article here]

Yet "many unionists believe that the nationalist proposition would not stand up to scrutiny from an inquiring electorate during a campaign", said the FT. Sam Taylor, of These Islands, a pro-union group, said that "independence as an abstract and distant concept is much more popular than painful details".
The Week, 24/3/2025 [Read the full article here]

It is understood Murray’s figure is based on the “fiscal transfer” of £8.3 billion between the rest of the UK and Scotland which was calculated based on the Scottish government’s Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures for 2022-23. Last year’s publication suggest the figure has increased to £12.8 billion, according to calculations carried out by the pro-UK group These Islands.
The Times, 26/3/2025 [Read the full article here]

This in turn reinforces an underappreciated reality: renewable energies may support thousands of jobs but the sector promises investors a vastly lower return on their capital than has historically been the case with oil and gas. As Sam Taylor, who runs the pro-Union pressure group These Islands, observed in a paper published last summer: "The profitability of harnessing abundant resources is necessarily low." Almost every country has useful supplies of wind or sun. Many have both.
The Times, 9/2/2025 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, who heads These Islands, said: “You might be tempted to dismiss this as yesterday’s news. Corrections, however grudgingly, have been made. Lessons have been learned.

“But that simply isn’t the case. Just this week, Angus Robertson was yet again pushing the false statistic on social media.”
The Telegraph, 31/1/2025 [Read the full article here]

"Independence as an abstract and distant concept is much more popular than painful details," said Sam Taylor of These Islands, a pro-union group.

The SNP government has failed to answer "really thorny questions" about the fiscal plan, which currency to use and how to manage the border, among others.

In a referendum, the leave side would still need to persuade voters that Scotland, which like other devolved nations currently receives more per capita in public money than England, would be better off as an independent state. As well as uncertainty over whether to use sterling or to launch its own currency, leaving would create regulatory friction at the border with the rest of the UK, Scotland's largest trading partner.

But Taylor added that the pro-union should not be complacent. "Scottish nationalism is currently not going anywhere, but it is not going away."
The Financial Times, 24/12/2024 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, chief executive of pro-UK thinktank These Islands, yesterday revealed SNP ministers had refused to release more information, with the party claiming it was ‘manifestly unreasonable’.

He said: ‘Given the controversy surrounding this particular consent, my freedom of information request was manifestly reasonable. Without a fully transparent response, the story remains decidedly murky.’
The Scottish Daily Mail, 1/11/2024 [Read the full article here]

The rise in expenditure was highlighted and criticised by Sam Taylor, chief executive of the unionist think tank These Islands.

“The Scottish government has published the latest figures for spending on communications staff (ie press officers),” he wrote on X. “Up just 1 per cent in 2023-24, but the real story is that spend is 47 per cent higher than pre-Covid baseline in 2019-20. Difficult to understand how this can be justified.”
The Times, 26/10/2024 [Read the full article here]

"If a nation has plenty of a resource, but few people, then its best chance of using as much of that resource as possible is to be inside a fiscal union that does contain plenty of people. If the rest of that fiscal union is close by, minimising the expensive costs of transmission, then all the better. In other words: if Scotland is to extract the maximum possible economic benefit from renewables, it must remain inside the United Kingdom."
Sam Taylor, for The Times, 29/8/2024 [Read the full article here]

"Scotland is a powerhouse in renewable energy because it is part of the fully integrated single market for electricity in Great Britain. Outside of that fully integrated market, Scotland would be a considerably diminished power."
Sam Taylor, for The Times, 17/7/2024 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, who runs pro-UK think tank These Islands, flagged Mr Alexander’s comments on social media and noted the Dundee council chief had deleted his account.

He told us: “For a council leader to be pushing fabricated claims to a public audience is extremely worrying. He should make a public apology and correction.”

Mr Taylor also claimed the Dundee council leader was peddling a “baseless conspiracy theory”.
The Courier, 24/3/2024 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, of the These Islands think tank, said: 'Humza Yousaf is so inept he cannot even remember what his own party conference voted for just a few months ago. It did not back "most seats". It backed "a majority".'
The Scottish Daily Mail, 22/2/2024 [Read the full article here]

“This is fundamentally a story about transparency,” he said. “Since early last year These Islands has been asking the Scottish government about WhatsApp messages retained in its documents management system. The responses have always been obfuscatory.

“The Scottish government has now finally admitted that it retained zero messages from the ministers most involved in the Covid response — an answer it could and should have given a long time ago.”
The Times, 15/2/2024 [Read the full article here]

In response to a Freedom of Information request from the think-tank These Islands, the Scottish Government confirmed “zero” full WhatsApp messages from Ms Sturgeon were transferred to the electronic records and document management system during the pandemic.
The Scotsman, 15/2/2024 [Read the full article here]

Freedom of information requests from Sam Taylor of the These Islands think tank also show current First Minister Humza Yousaf, former Scottish deputy first minister John Swinney, ex-finance secretary Kate Forbes, and former health secretary Jeane Freeman similarly did not transfer messages.
STV News, 15/2/2024 [Read the full article here]

But when Taylor asked for a breakdown of messages transferred to the eRDM by Sturgeon and other key ministers from January 2020 onwards, he was told in each case “the answer is zero”.
The Independent, 15/2/2024 [Read the full article here]

A Freedom of Information request asked the Scottish Government how many text messages sent or received by the then first minister from January 1 2020 onwards were transferred to its electronic records and document management (eRDM) system.

But in a response published yesterday, a civil servant revealed: "Under our duty to advise and assist, I can confirm the answer is zero."
The Daily Record, 15/2/2024 [Read the full article here]

A freedom of information request by pro-union group These Islands revealed that former first minister Nicola Sturgeon did not transfer or transcribe a single WhatsApp message from the crisis to the Scottish government’s electronic records and document management system.
The Morning Star, 15/2/2024 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, director of the These Islands think tank, wrote: ‘The civic inclusivity of “We are Scotland” might have resonated with SNP voters, but it didn’t feel very inclusive to those outside the nationalist tent.'
The Spectator, 24/1/2024 [Read the full article here]

The exchange from the Covid Inquiry was flagged up on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Sam Taylor of the pro-UK These Islands group.

Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: “This is proof positive that the priorities of the SNP government are not those of the Scottish people. It’s time that this out of touch government was booted out.”
The Daily Record, 21/1/2024 [Read the full article here]

The claims are entirely fictitious. As shown by the painstaking work of These Islands, which is engaged in an ongoing campaign to weed out misinformation in our constitutional debate, Scottish households pay no more than households in the rest of the UK for energy bills.
The Press & Journal, 6/12/2023 [Read the full article here]

Hague said: “What this polling therefore shows is that a small but highly significant 5 per cent of the electorate (12 per cent of Yes supporters) explicitly believe that Scotland can be independent and remain within the UK.

“This means the pro-independence cause gains at least five and perhaps as many as seven percentage points of support from the Yes/No question wording, support which is based on a fundamental misconception of what independence would mean.”

Tom Holland, the bestselling history writer and an adviser to These Islands, described the findings as “top cakeism”.
The Times, 22/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

As things stand, the most effective scrutineers on government in Scotland today lie outside parliament: with the media, with impartial watchdogs such as the heroic Audit Scotland organisation, and think tanks like These Islands, the small pro-Union group whose dogged pursuit of SNP obfuscation has recently forced ministers into some long-overdue truth-telling.
The Scottish Daily Mail, 22/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

Ministers had repeatedly claimed Scotland held 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind potential, but were forced to admit the true figure is closer to seven per cent after pro-union think tank, These Islands, found evidence the misleading nature of the statistic was known to ministers for months.
The Scotsman, 20/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

All this has come out through the dogged persistence of a pro-Union research organisation, These Islands, over a period of years, after it cottoned onto the false claim.
The Scotsman, 18/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, of the think tank These Islands, said this was an “an oblique way of conceding that an independent Scotland could not join the EU until it had established its own new currency”.
The Times, 17/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

Unionists reckon the paper manages to inadvertently confirm the main difficulties that would come with both independence and a subsequent effort to rejoin the EU. “This paper concedes that independence would mean a hard border with England and giving up sterling for an untested new currency. But it downplays or ignores the fiscal and economic costs of separation,” Sam Taylor of the pro-Union These Islands think tank tells Andrew.
Politico, 17/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

“The process of establishing a Scottish pound would be closely aligned with the process of re-joining the EU,” the paper reads. Sam Taylor, who works for the pro-Union think tank These Islands, said this is an “oblique way of conceding” that Scotland cannot rejoin the EU until it has set up its own central bank and currency — two deeply complicated ventures.
Politico, 17/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor of These Islands talked me through how they got to the 6.8% and it’s worth going into because it exposes two things. First, how numbers can be fiddled. And second, how the SNP (and most other governments to be fair) promote some things even if untrue and bury others even if true.
The Herald, 17/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

There is something deeply distasteful about the language politicians use when they are trying to bury inconvenient facts without admitting they are doing so. Last year the pro-union campaign group These Islands published a report called Wrong with the Wind, which showed the 25 per cent figure had been inflated. Freedom of information requests revealed the claim had appeared in many government documents, long after officials had concluded it could not be justified.
The Times, 15/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

In the wake of These Islands exposing the false claim, the Scottish government also eventually committed itself to updating the parliament on what the true figure was. In December 2022, Michael Matheson, then minister for transport, net zero and just transition, said the government had pledged to undertake further work to quantify Scotland’s offshore wind potential and he would update parliament once the work was concluded.
The Times, 15/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

After months of work by the tireless Sam Taylor from the think tank These Islands as well as journalists and opposition politicians, Scottish ministers finally admitted in a footnote to a letter, in a sheaf of letters, hidden among the papers to a parliamentary committee in September, they tried to sneak out the fact that the real figure is more like 9 per cent.
Edinburgh Evening News, 15/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

Interestingly, These Islands stated that it recently submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request for Scottish government correspondence and documentation discussing the updating of the statistic. The organisation revealed that the 25% statistic has now officially been updated to less than 6.8%, however, there was no statement in Parliament and this figure is not clearly visible.
Current News, 14/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

The group These Islands said the new figure had been “buried” in an annex to a letter sent to Edward Mountain, the convener of Holyrood’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee back in September.

As a result, it claimed: “For over a decade, the Scottish Government was overstating Scotland’s share of Europe’s offshore wind potential by a factor of about four times.”
Scottish Business Insider, 14/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

The Scottish Government's attempt to bury an inconvenient statistic, covered by BBC Reporting Scotland.
BBC, 13/11/2023 [Watch the full clip here]

THE Scottish government was accused today of having “tried to bury” figures detailing Scotland’s offshore wind capacity. Ministers had previously claimed Scotland had a quarter of Europe’s capacity for offshore wind power. But pro-union campaign group These Islands said figures from the Scottish government show this to be much lower, at 6.8 per cent.
The Morning Star, 13/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, the chief executive of These Islands, said the SNP had used “sleight of hand” to disguise its exaggerated claims.
The Times, 13/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

Documents obtained by pro-union campaign group These Islands, and shared with BBC Scotland News, show that officials advised against issuing "proactive communications" to highlight the revised figure.
BBC, 13/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

SNP ministers have long claimed Scotland had 25% of Europe’s capacity for offshore wind power, however, the real figure, uncovered by the pro-union thinktank, These Islands, is just 6.8%.
The Herald, 13/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

But a new Freedom of Information request by the pro-Union campaign group These Islands has uncovered the plot to keep the accurate figure from the public. In an email on September 19 this year, an unnamed official in Mr Gray’s department wrote: ‘Cab Sec has commented that the narrative works well and the stats are both useful and impressive.
The Scottish Daily Mail, 13/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, who runs These Islands, said: “For over a decade, the Scottish Government was overstating Scotland’s share of Europe’s offshore wind potential by a factor of about four times.”
The Daily Telegraph, 13/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

Freedom of information requests made by the pro-union campaign group These Islands had revealed the 25% figure was based on a mixture of reports dating as far back as 1993.
Energy Voice, 13/11/2023 [Read the full article here]

But Sam Taylor, chief executive of the These Islands think tank, debunked their claims yesterday and hit out at the 'absolutely rife' culture of dishonesty from the SNP.
The Scottish Daily Mail, 17/10/2023 [Read the full article here]

The “per capita” figure did not appear in the highly redacted email chain which was obtained by pro-union organisation These Islands until 3 July. The officials determined that Scotland generates 651.6GWh per 100,000 people, while the rest of the UK generates 649.7GWh altogether.
Civil Service World, 18/9/2023 [Read the full article here]

Freedom of Information disclosures demonstrated the Government knew for months the claim Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind potential was false, but continued to use it anyway. Only the publication of a report by pro-union think-tank, These Islands, forced a U-turn.
The Scotsman, 16/9/2023 [Read the full article here]

Scottish government emails released under freedom of information (FOI) to pro-Union organisation These Islands show officials established after FMQs on 22 June that Scotland had 26% of UK renewable capacity and 26% of generation in 2022.
BBC, 15/9/2023 [Read the full article here]

The documents, obtained by These Islands, a pro-Union group, show that an official asked for someone to “dig out” the figures, with a subsequent response stating the 26 per cent figure for the UK’s renewable capacity last year.
The Times, 15/9/2023 [Read the full article here]

Per-Capita-Gate covered by BBC Reporting Scotland.
BBC, 14/9/2023 [Watch the full clip here]

The documents, obtained by pro-union group These Islands, shows an official asked for someone to “dig out” the figures, with a subsequent response stating the 26% figure for the UK’s renewable capacity in 2022.
The Independent, 14/9/2023 [Read the full article here]

Internal Scottish Government correspondence released to the pro-Union These Islands group shows that officials asked someone to “dig out” the relevant figures within 30 minutes. Later that afternoon, the reply came back that Scotland had 26% of UK renewable capacity and 26% of generation in 2022, not the majority Mr Yousaf had claimed.
The Herald, 14/9/2023 [Read the full article here]

He said that from documents released under a Freedom of Information request “it appears that a fact may have subsequently been manufactured after June 22 in order to minimise the impact of your need to correct the parliamentary record”.
STV, 14/9/2023 [Read the full article here]

“Scotland is not going to sprout Norwegian-style fjords or suddenly acquire a vast fleet of nuclear power stations simply by becoming independent,” These Islands said. 

The analysis suggests that the mitigations introduced by the UK government over the past couple of years — direct subsidies of energy bills — would “almost certainly have been unaffordable in an independent Scotland, meaning higher bills for Scottish households”.

“Humza Yousaf’s killer argument for independence — that high energy bills in Scotland are ‘entirely linked to the fact that we are not independent’ — collapses under the slightest amount of scrutiny.”
The Times, 11/9/2023 [Read the full article here]

So, is he correct? The answer, shockingly, is no. Unit rates for electricity – the most significant factor in energy bills – are substantially higher in Ireland than in Scotland. As Sam Taylor of These Islands has pointed out, Scots currently pay a unit rate of electricity of 30p every kilowatt hour compared to 35p every kilowatt hour in Ireland.
The Spectator, 3/9/2023 [Read the full article here]

Fifty-seven per cent of pro-independence voters believe Scotland’s public finance figures are ‘made up by Westminster to hide Scotland’s true wealth’. Those figures are, in fact, produced by the Scottish government.
The Spectator, 12/6/2023 [Read the full article here]

Instead, the Government stuck to its line that it became aware of the These Islands report on November 8, refusing multiple times to engage with the fact ministers had been warned earlier of the figure’s misleading nature.
The Scotsman, 28/2/2023 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, from pro-UK think tank These Islands, who obtained the FoI details, said: “The Cabinet Secretary was advised by officials to stop using the 25 per cent claim.

"He ignored that advice, and just six days later pushed the bogus statistic to a French government minister. That’s a serious breach of the ministerial code.”
The Scottish Sun, 7/2/2023 [Read the full article here]

Little more than two months ago, on November 8, the Scottish Government was handed a dossier from pro-union think tank These Islands debunking the much-used claim that Scotland has a quarter of Europe’s offshore wind potential.
The Scotsman, 5/2/2022 [Read the full article here]

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Ministers became aware of the report by These Islands on Nov 8. We are now working to produce an updated figure for Scotland’s offshore wind potential, which will be published in due course.”
The Daily Telegraph, 5/2/2022 [Read the full article here]

Ministers were forced to admit the much-used claim Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind energy potential was incorrect and inaccurate following the publication of a report by the pro-union think-tank These Islands.

When ministers were first made aware of the potential inaccuracy has been subject to fierce scrutiny. The Government has claimed it was first aware on November 8 – the day the report was passed to it by the press.
The Scotsman, 28/1/2023 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor from the These Islands think tank that revealed the figure was wrong, said that "misleading parliament is a serious matter".

He added: "Lorna Slater cannot pretend to have been unaware - several points of order were raised over this issue and now the cabinet secretary in her own department has confirmed that Ms Slater gave an inaccurate statement to parliament.

"Ms Slater should make a correction as a matter of urgency and explain to parliament why it has taken so long to admit the truth."
The Herald, 18/1/2023 [Read the full article here]

Scotland’s energy minister has said he first became aware a statistic on the wind energy potential of Scotland was inaccurate in September last year, directly contradicting the Scottish Government’s official line on the issue.
The Scotsman, 18/1/2023 [Read the full article here]

The Scottish Government has repeatedly claimed that the nation has 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore renewables potential.

But the figure was exposed as wrong by a think-tank study in November, which suggested ministers had known since at least 2020 that the boast cannot be justified.

And the UK statistics regulator later underlined the claim was wrong and “inflated” - even when it was first used in a 2010 Scottish Government document.
The Scottish Sun, 7/1/2023 [Read the full article here]

The revelation undermines the claim ministers were only made aware of issues around the figure the day before the publication of a report debunking the statistic by the pro-union think-tank, These Islands, on November 8.
The Scotsman, 6/1/2023 [Read the full article here]

The SNP and Government ministers have been at the centre of a row over the often used claim that Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind potential. This statistic was debunked in a report by pro-union think-tank These Islands, with the UK Statistics Authority also stating it was “poorly constructed” as well as “outdated”, as claimed by ministers.

Lorna Slater, the Green minister, told MSPs on November 15 that ministers became aware of the issue with the statistic on November 8 when media organisations shared the report by These Islands with the Government.
The Scotsman, 15/12/2022 [Read the full article here]

Flynn’s election led to renewed publicity around a claim he and other SNP politicians made in recent months about the potential of Scotland’s offshore wind energy, which came to light after research from political think tank, These Islands.
The Ferret, 12/12/2022 [Read the full article here]

However, the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) has said the 2010 publication it was based on gave an “inflated” picture of Scotland’s potential wind resources compared with the rest of Europe. The watchdog has written to the SNP to emphasise the importance of using quantitative evidence appropriately.

Several party figures, including Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, and John Swinney, the deputy first minister, have repeated the claim that Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe’s potential offshore wind resource on various forums.

Sir Robert Chote, the UKSA chairman, said: “In summary, the calculation for Europe’s offshore wind potential was much more restrictive than that for Scotland. So when the figures are used together they give an inflated picture of Scotland’s potential relative to the rest of Europe.
The Times, 9/12/2022 [Read the full article here]

An investigation by These Islands, a pro-UK  think tank, found Scottish civil servants had privately raised concerns about the accuracy of the figure more than two years ago, warning in October 2020 that it had “proved very difficult to source”.
The Daily Telegraph, 8/12/2022 [Read the full article here]

The UK’s chief statistician has waded into a dispute over offshore wind that has escalated into a full-scale political row in Scotland, home to some of the industry’s most ambitious projects.

Sir Robert Chote, chair of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), said his office is talking to the governing Scottish National Party (SNP) over its use of an “inaccurate” claim that Scotland’s waters have 25% of Europe’s offshore wind potential.
Recharge News, 9/12/2022 [Read the full article here]

Following an investigation, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Robert Chote, said that “the calculation for Europe’s offshore wind potential was much more restrictive than that for Scotland”.

He added: “So, when the figures are used together, they give an inflated picture of Scotland’s potential relative to the rest of Europe.

"We understand that Scottish Government and ministers are already aware that this 25% figure is inaccurate."
The Herald, 8/12/2022 [Read the full article here]

It came after analysis from pro-UK thinktank These Islands revealed government officials had warned in emails two years ago the stat was not "properly sourced".
The Daily Record, 5/12/222 [Read the full article here]

Earlier this month, pro-unionist think tank, These Islands, found that a Scottish Government claim dating back to 2007 that Scotland holds 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind potential was false and had never been true.
The Herald, 28/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

SNP ministers were forced to admit their claim Scotland has a quarter of Europe’s offshore wind power potential is false earlier this month following the publication of a report by the pro-union think tank These Islands. Internally, officials had conceded as early as October 2020 the figure had never been “properly sourced”.
The Scotsman, 25/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

On Tuesday, Greens minister Lorna Slater told MSPs that the Scottish Government was first made aware of the wrong figure on November 8, before it was revealed in analysis by pro-Union think tank These Islands.
The Herald, 17/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

However, Ms Slater has faced accusations she misled parliament after she was specifically asked by Scottish Tory net zero spokesperson, Liam Kerr, when ministers were first made aware the figure “had not been properly sourced”. In her answer, she said: “Ministers became aware of the issue on Tuesday 8 November ahead of the publication of the report by These Islands.”
The Scotsman, 16/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

Researchers from These Islands, which opposes Scottish independence, said the 25% figure had been included in Alex Salmond's speech to the SNP conference in 2012 and the Scottish government's White Paper ahead of the independence referendum in 2014.
BBC News, 15/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

The report, undertaken by These Islands, demonstrated the claim Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind potential was incorrect, with ministers admitting it was wrong and required updating.
The Scotsman, 15/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

It came to light after campaign group These Islands published information refuting the statement that Scotland has a quarter of Europe’s potential offshore wind resource.
Holyrood Magazine, 15/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

It is of paramount importance that we understand where our energy is coming from and at what cost. Therefore it is particularly alarming to learn SNP politicians have for years been “robotically recycling” the spurious claim Scotland has a quarter of Europe’s offshore wind power potential. Pro-union think-tank These Islands has found the true figure is around five per cent.
The Scotsman, 14/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

The Scottish Government has admitted that the figure is now out of date and will now be updating the data. But These Islands have insisted the figure was never true.
The Herald, 13/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

The problem with this claim — repeated relentlessly by Sturgeon and other senior SNP figures over the years — is that it is simply not true. An investigation by the pro-UK think tank These Islands reveals that the SNP’s claim about offshore potential is based on cherry-picking data from a decades-old report and comparing it with data from a different source. This deliberate mangling of statistics inflates Scotland’s off-shore energy potential fivefold.
The Sunday Times, 12/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

He told MSPs: “The true figure for Scotland’s share of offshore wind potential is thought to be around 5% yet still the 25% appeared in the Finance Secretary’s national strategy for economic transformation this March.

“I can’t recall a comparable situation where a completely fictious statistic has been relied on so often and so widely.

“This matters because the Scottish Government has put this claim at the heart of the debate around Scotland’s energy security, on independence, and on meeting our climate targets.”
Energy Voice, 11/11/2022 [Read the full article here^​]

The Scottish Government has repeatedly claimed that the country has 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind potential – a suggestion dating back as far as the Alex Salmond administration and repeated as recently as last week.

But research by the These Islands think tank has claimed that the true number is around 5% - with the Scottish Government analysis reportedly ignoring Scandanavia as part of Europe.
The Herald, 10/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

These Islands, the unionist campaign group, obtained correspondence from Scottish government officials from 2020 admitting that “the 25 per cent estimate has never . . . been properly sourced” and “we tend not to use it anymore”.
The Times, 9/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

These Islands discovered that the 25 per cent figure was calculated by combining statistics from two old reports, one of which used a definition of Europe that included only 11 countries and was based on information from 1993.
The Daily Telegraph, 9/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

Senior Government figures have been using the claim Scotland is home to 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind resource potential for years. However, a new report from the pro-union think-tank, These Islands, debunks the figure, with ministers now admitting the figure is false and “requires updating”.
The Scotsman, 9/11/2022 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, who runs the pro-Union Scottish think-tank These Islands, also argued that the key lesson of the past week is that “financial markets will punish fiscal irresponsibility, and Scottish independence would be fiscally irresponsible on a vastly greater scale”.

He added: “The Bank of England has intervened to placate the gilt market. It would not be intervening to buy the debt of an independent Scottish Government.

“Kwasi Kwarteng has created a terrible mess, but it is at least a mess that we can clean up ourselves – the electorate can remove the Government at the next general election. With Scottish independence, the mess would be much bigger, and there would be no way of undoing it.”
The i, 28/9/2022 [Read the full articel here]

"Scotland is 8.1% of the UK population, it generates 8% of the UK's tax revenues, but benefits from 9.2% of the UK's public expenditure."
Kevin Hague, on STV Scotland Tonight, 24/8/2022 [Watch clips here]

"In the context of the annual debate around Scotland’s fiscal position within the UK some of us have been saying for a long time that were Scotland to become independent, a combination of tax rises and public spending cuts would be an inevitable consequence. It seems the Scottish government might be edging towards the same conclusion."
Kevin Hague, for The Spectator, 18/6/2022 [Read the full article here]

Sam Taylor, chief executive of anti-independence think tank These Islands: “The first minister’s record is best described as mixed: a very modest pile of achievements, an ever growing pile of failures and scandals, and an enormous pile of votes.”
Politico, 27/5/2022 [Read the full article here]

"A survey last month by the Scottish based pro-Union think tank, These Islands, showed that 73 per cent of Scots said they were not clear about what the SNP's currency policy even was, and 77 per cent were unclear about who would pay their state pension after independence (which SNP leaders had tried, dishonestly, to claim would still be funded for decades to come by English and Welsh taxpayers)."
Daily Mail, 9/5/2022 [Read the full article here]

Kevin Hague, chairman of These Islands, said: “Pursuing the politics of grievance and selling the dream of independence keeps [the SNP] in power; but if they are honest about the economic implications of turning that dream into reality, the dream becomes more distant and their grip over Scottish politics weakens.”
The Times, 5/4/2022 [Read the full article here]

The These Islands polling also looked into which issues Scots deemed the most important when considering whether or not to vote for independence.

It found that the economic consequences of a Yes vote were the largest issue, with 52% of respondents identifying it in their top three key factors.
The National, 5/4/2022 [Read the full article here]

According to a YouGov poll conducted for These Islands, a pro-Union think tank, in the real world just 36 per cent of voters believe there should be a referendum on independence next year. Thirty per cent of SNP voters either oppose a vote in 2023 or do not know what they think on the topic. Like Monty Python’s black knight, the first minister continues to insist that everything is fine and running to plan. Sure, you might think she has lost a limb or two but these are merely flesh wounds. There is nothing to see here. Indeed, this is how she prefers it.
The Times, 5/4/2022 [Read the full article here]

They have been forensically taken apart by Kevin Hague, the founder of the Scotland-based Unionist think-tank, These Islands.

Mr Hague quotes from the official HMRC document on the much-misunderstood link between National Insurance payments and the state pension: 'The National Insurance Scheme is financed on a pay-as-you-go basis with contribution rates set out at a level broadly necessary to meet the expected benefits and expenditures in that year.'
The Daily Mail, 14/2/2022 [Read the full article here]

"Placing a border between Scotland and its largest export market, the market where 60% of our exports go, would be problematic. And the SNP have no answer to that."
Kevin Hague, on BBC Newsnight, 10/2/2022 [Watch clip here]

Sam Taylor, Chief Executive of the pro-Union think-tank These Islands, said: ‘The SNP plan to systematically deceive Scottish pensioners is supported by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp and his SNP front Believe in Scotland.’
The Scottish Daily Mail, 3/2/2022 [Read the full article here]

On the same podcast, Miss Forbes was asked if she agreed with Mr Blackford and said: ‘I wouldn’t dare disagree with Ian Blackford – the expert on all things pension – so I would agree with him.’ However, former fund manager Sam Taylor, who runs These Islands, a pro-Union thinktank, said that Mr Blackford was wrong as ‘current taxation funds current state pensions’.

He said: ‘There is no pension pot into which National Insurance contributions are saved, to later be paid out in retirement. Independence removes a Scotlandsized chunk of the UK tax base. That chunk – taxpayers in an independent Scotland – will have to fund the state pension.’
The Scottish Daily Mail, 2/2/2022 [Read the full article here]

The SNP and Scottish Greens want voters to believe that independence would unleash the full potential of Scotland’s renewable resources but the opposite is true. Independence would effectively kill the growth potential of Scottish renewables and destroy Scotland’s opportunity to play the fullest possible role in delivering net zero in this corner of the world.
Sam Taylor, for The Times, 19/11/2021 [Read the full article here]

MOST indy supporters believe a Scottish Government report laying out the nation’s whopping overspend every year is made up by Westminster, a poll revealed today.

Research by Survation found a list of social media myths were widely believed by more than half of ‘Yes’ backers - with fewer than one in five aware of SNP plans for a new currency.
The Scottish Sun, 4/5/2021 [Read the full article here]

Miss Sturgeon is no fan of conspiracy theories, as she made clear during the Salmond saga when she rejected her former mentor’s claims of a vendetta against him led by the First Minister’s inner circle.

Yet, as These Islands notes, she is a ‘gifted communicator’ – why does she remain ‘strangely reluctant to nail this corrosive myth’?
The Scottish Daily Mail, 4/5/2021 [Read the full article here]

Keen to understand the true scale of this problem, we at These Islands commissioned Survation to poll Scottish voters about their understanding of basic economic facts and their attitudes towards some widely-circulated myths. We were dismayed to learn that economic fact-denial has spread far beyond the swampy backwaters of social media and is now mainstream among Scottish independence supporters.
Kevin Hague, for The Spectator, 3/5/2021 [Read the full article here]

Kevin Hague, chairman of the think-tank, said: “This survey reveals for the first time the true scale of what amounts to a fact-denial epidemic in Scotland.

“We have been tracking the spread of economic disinformation in the Scottish independence debate for some time now, but we are still shocked by these findings.
The Scotsman, 3/5/2021 [Read the full article here]

There is “widespread misunderstanding” of economic facts among Scottish voters, as well as confusion over the SNP’s plans for independence, according to a pro-Union think tank opinion poll.

The new poll, conducted by Survation for the think tank These Islands, found 57% of people who supported independence believed the Scottish Government’s annual GERS figures are “made up by Westminster to hide Scotland’s true wealth”.
The Herald, 3/5/2021 [Read the full article here]

The study — commissioned by the pro-union think tank These Islands — are “truly disturbing”, according to its chairman Kevin Hague, because they suggest an “epidemic of economic fact denial” has swept through the electorate.
The Times, 3/5/2020 [Read the full article here]

Adopting the slogan “uniting, not dividing”, These Islands “stands unabashedly for the view that more unites the three nations of Great Britain than divides them”.
 
Kevin Hague, an entrepreneur turned commentator and campaigner, is its chairman. Its advisory council includes leading figures from Scottish academia and business.

Much of its focus is economic, with recent publications including papers titled “Leaving the Union would harm Scotland more than Brexit” and “Scotland’s next financial crisis".
The Daily Telegraph, 11/3/2021 [Read the full article here]

An independent Scotland would be engaging in a “hugely risky experiment” if it tried to retain the British pound, economists and financiers have warned.

These Islands, a pro-Union think tank, gathered opinions from a range of international experts as part of a report into the impacts of an independent state’s currency plan.
The Times, 9/2/2021 [Read the full article here]

Kevin Hague, chair of These Islands, said the comments "should be a wake-up call to anyone inclined to believe the argument that leaving the UK's currency area can be achieved at no risk". 
The Herald, 8/2/2021 [Read the full article here]

The report compiled by the pro-union ‘These Islands’ think-tank spoke with a number of global financial experts, who also raise concerns over how Scotland would manage the deficit it would face after leaving the UK.
The Scotsman, 8/2/2021 [Read the full article here]

Speaking to These Islands for a report on the currency issue, Dame DeAnne Julius, a founding member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee and a former chief economist at British Airways and Shell, described Nicola Sturgeon's plan to continue to use the British pound outside of the official sterling currency zone or - 'sterlingisation' - as "a hugely risky experiment for Scotland".
Scottish Business Insider, 8/2/2021 [Read the full article here]

Pro-UK organisation These Islands asked banking experts about SNP plans to use the pound after independence and came back with stark warnings of economic disaster.
The Daily Record, 8/2/2021 [Read the full article here]

The original GERS report may have been “Tory-created” 28 years ago, but after 20 years of devolution and 13 years of SNP control, the way the figures are compiled has changed out of all recognition. To claim the numbers are now “engineered to show a false deficit” is to accuse the SNP Government of talking down Scotland’s economy.
Kevin Hague, for The Herald, 4/12/2020 [Read the full article here]

Yet such advocacy is urgently needed, as demonstrated by a research paper published late last week by the commendable think tank These Islands, based on focus groups of people who voted for the Union in 2014, for Remain in 2016 and have now gravitated towards favouring independence. Since this cohort represents around 20 per cent of the current support for separatism, these voters hold the future of the Union in their hands.
Reaction, 4/12/2020 [Read the full article here]

The original GERS report may have been “Tory-created” 28 years ago, but after 20 years of devolution and 13 years of SNP control, the way the figures are compiled has changed out of all recognition. To claim the numbers are now “engineered to show a false deficit” is to accuse the SNP Government of talking down Scotland’s economy.
Kevin Hague, for The Herald, 4/12/2020 [Read the full article here]

Yet such advocacy is urgently needed, as demonstrated by a research paper published late last week by the commendable think tank These Islands, based on focus groups of people who voted for the Union in 2014, for Remain in 2016 and have now gravitated towards favouring independence. Since this cohort represents around 20 per cent of the current support for separatism, these voters hold the future of the Union in their hands.
Reaction, 4/12/2020 [Read the full article here]

Even so, there is a simple explanation for Sturgeon’s success: "Essentially, it’s because she isn’t Boris."
 
Focus groups conducted for the pro-Union think tank These Islands bear this out. Voters who are now curious about independence, though not necessarily yet sold on it, contrast "bungling Boris and Brexit" with "competent Nicola and independence".
The Spectator, 3/12/2020 [Read the full article here]

If you believe that leaving the EU will be economically damaging, leaving the far older, deeper and closer union that is the UK would be so much worse: two wrongs don’t make a right.
Kevin Hague, for The Spectator, 1/12/2020 [Read the full article here]

For those of us who want to keep our country together, and who believe it would be a tragedy if Scotland turned its back on part of itself, the need to fight for the union is becoming urgent. Opinion polls suggest the Scottish National Party will win more than 50 per cent of the votes in next year’s Scottish parliament elections, and that more than 50 per cent of people living in Scotland now support independence.
 
Which is why focus group research carried out by These Islands might be important. The pro-union group published its findings last week, which looked at the arguments that might sway Scottish swing voters.
The Independent, 29/11/2020 [Read the full article here]

Focus groups carried out by These Islands show that support for independence depends on a near-blind faith in Nicola Sturgeon and on voters remaining uninformed about simple facts. It is support built on sand.
Kevin Hague, for The Herald, 27/11/2020 [Read the full article here]

“If this is a personality contest between Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon, there is no doubt that Nicola Sturgeon wins. But, people realise that politicians come and go, their popularity waxes and wanes. And to make a decision today, based on today’s politicians, for separation, which would last forever, would be reckless.”
Kevin Hague, on World at One, BBC Radio 4, 27/11/2020 [Listen to the segment here (from 34 mins)]

This cause of the rise in separatist sentiment is borne out by focus groups conducted by the pro-Union think tank These Islands. Its chairman, Kevin Hague, told me: “The affection for Sturgeon — they always refer to her as ‘Nicola’ — and the dislike of Johnson is mentioned much more than anything else when we ask about the reasons for supporting independence.”
The Sunday Times, 18/10/2020 [Read the full article here]

Unionism in Scotland lacks the political infrastructure of its rival. Organisations like These Islands and Scotland in Union are doing the Lord’s work but they are outmatched by a nationalist movement with superior grassroots and institutional firepower. There are any number of Union-minded philanthropists putting their coin into ideas and policy, but so little of it ever gets out of the capital. Instead of investing in London’s 79th centre-right think tank, how about investing in Glasgow’s first pro-Union think tank?
The Spectator, 15/10/2020 [Read the full article here]

So why break up the UK? If addressing inequality is our motive, why prevent funds flowing from wealthier to poorer parts of these islands? If Brexit damages our economy, why react by leaving the market that is objectively more important and the union within which we share a currency? As so often, we grapple with hypothetical problems that only separation would cause. Far from being the cure, it’s a quack doctor’s prescription that would only make us worse.
Kevin Hague, for The Times, 1/9/2020 [Read the full article here]

“Reducing public spending as a percentage of GDP is a really bad idea. The problem is, for Andrew [Wilson] and those championing independence, is that it’s the only model they have come up with for getting a stand alone Scotland’s deficit down to less than 3% of GDP.” 
Kevin Hague, on BBC Radio Scotland, 26/8/2020 [Listen to the segment here (from 1hr 16mins)]

Saturday morning’s Today programme on BBC Radio 4 squeezed in a discussion on the prospects of another referendum on Scotland’s constitutional future. The participants were Kevin Hague, chairman of These Islands and an insightful blogger on the fiscal implications of independence, and Andrew Wilson, an SNP MSP in the first Holyrood parliament and the main architect of the party’s economic case for leaving the UK.
The Times, 26/8/2020 [Read the full article here]

“What we are seeing, as Andrew [Wilson] quite rightly and reasonably points out, is polling showing increased support for independence. But what we haven't seen is a constructive debate about what independence would mean. People are being given a blank canvas and are able to project onto it."
Kevin Hague, on The Today Programme, BBC Radio 4, 22/8/2020 [Listen to the segment here (from 1hr 47mins)]

It is clearly too soon to judge the effectiveness of different nations’ responses to COVID-19, but headlines based on a metric which understates the true extent of COVID-19 deaths in Scotland are fuelling an unwarranted narrative of Scottish exceptionalism. It is troubling that Scottish Government advisers are using their platforms to promote misleading and partial data.
Sam Taylor, for The Critic Magazine, 8/8/2020 [Read the full article here]

But is the image of a Covid death-free Scotland fair? Interesting analysis by Sam Taylor lays bare the accuracy of Sturgeon’s – and other nationalists’ – claims. Most striking is Sturgeon’s figures claiming day after day of zero Covid deaths in Scotland.
The Spectator, 5/8/2020 [Read the full article here]

The UK Government states in its White Paper that a UK internal market has existed since the Acts of Union of 1706 and 1707, and this view is supported by some commentators.
SPICe Spotlight, 28/7/2020 [Read the full article here]

This echoes an argument from the These Islands think tank that a “single market” was first formed in 1707.
House of Commons Library, 23/7/2020 [Read the full article here]

But as Kevin Hague, chair of campaign group ‘These Islands’, pointed out on Twitter recently, there is one word that never passes Sturgeon’s pursed lips. British.“I’m pretty sure Sturgeon has had the word “British” surgically removed from her vocabulary,” he suggested, and he is right.
The Scotsman, 17/7/2020 [Read the full article here]

So Scotland is not unusual in receiving a fiscal transfer and in fact Northern Ireland, Wales and the North East all receive substantially higher transfers per head. But what does set Scotland apart is that the transfer it receives is almost entirely explained by higher public spending rather than by poorer tax revenue generation.
Kevin Hague, for Reaction, 15/7/2020 [Read the full article here]

In this podcast, The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Kevin Hague, Chairman of These Islands, a cross-party pressure group that seeks to play a prominent role in shaping the debate in favour of maintaining the UK in a future referendum. Is all lost, or do the Unionists have a plan?
The Critic Magazine, 7/7/2020 [Listen to the full podcast here]

“Last month in the northern English city of Newcastle, unionists met to explore how to save the UK. Hosted by These Islands, a forum founded to heal divisions sown in the Indyref and Brexit campaigns, their discussions were imbued with a sense of urgency.” – Sebastian Payne on These Islands’ Newcastle conference
The Financial Times, 11/3/2020 [Read the full article here]

“... this was mostly a reflective, thoughtful gathering in its tone and exchanges. Any partisan party and petty point scoring was kept to a minimum with the exception only coming from the occasional politician.” – Gerry Hassan on These Islands’ Newcastle conference
The National, 1/3/2020 [Read the full article here]

“The challenge is to empower citizens to write the U in the UK, to tell stories of the Union that can resonate in the heart of each and every one of us.” – Professor Katy Shaw speaking at These Islands’ Newcastle conference
The New Statesman, 28/2/2020 [Read the full article here]

“The These Islands group is important to re-energising the pro-Union cause because it seeks to do what few Unionist politicians have achieved – which is to move beyond questions of subsidy and currency and create a compelling narrative of why feeling British is the more optimistic option.” – Graham Stewart on These Islands’ Newcastle conference
The Critic, 26/2/2020 [Read the full article here]

“... it was interesting to read the reports at the weekend from the conference in Newcastle organised by the These Islands think-tank on the future of unionism. The event brought together figures from the worlds of politics, business, media and the arts to look at how the argument might be won for the future of the United Kingdom, and Scotland’s place in it.” – Murdo Fraser on These Islands’ Newcastle conference
The Scotsman, 25/2/2020 [Read the full article here]

“... when These Islands announced its conference in Newcastle over the weekend I thought it was a great opportunity to find out a bit about what the Unionist side was thinking.” – Colin Mackay on These Islands’ Newcastle conference
STV, 24/2/2020 [Read the full  article here]

“... unionism... is a complex and sometimes conflicted state more easily felt than explained. In its better varieties, it rejects exceptionalism and instead embraces a graduated, many-shaded, sense of identity.” – Alex Massie on These Islands’ Newcastle conference
The Times, 23/2/2020 [Read the full article here]

This weekend, politicians and activists of many parties and none, including Gordon Brown, Andy Burnham and David Lidington, are meeting in Newcastle at a These Islands conference to debate alternatives to some of the forces that are trying to pull the country apart.
The Guardian, 21/2/2020 [Read the full article here]

The incoherence is spelled out in “Choose Your Poison: the SNP’s Currency Headache” by These Islands, the forum of Scottish pro-union economists.
The Daily Telegraph, 18/12/2019 [Read the full article here]

These Islands, the think tank established by the businessman Kevin Hague and his colleagues, has done a better job analysing the economics of independence than the Westminster government.
The Times, 17/12/2019 [Read the full article here]

“What the figures show is that Scotland within the UK is able to sustain a level of expenditure on public services that it wouldn’t be able to sustain if it was independent.” Kevin Hague, discussing the GERS figures on BBC Radio Scotland.
Good Morning Scotland, 22/08/2019 [Listen to the segment (from 37 mins) here]

An analysis this week by These Islands, a group that opposes Scottish independence, argued that the fiscal and current account deficits that would face an independent Scotland in its early days would make the SNP’s sterlingisation plan unsustainable.
The Financial Times, 27/04/2019 [Read the full article here]

As befits the fruits of two years of serious thought, the report of the Sustainable Growth Commission continues to provoke rational and reasonable debate on Scotland’s economic future. The need for an exchange of proper arguments, not political theology, was made plain by the authors’ apparent decision to attempt to ignore to death points made by Kevin Hague’s These Islands think tank in its forensic critique.
The Sunday Times, 12/08/2018 [Read the full article here]

Across the report’s 70 pages, it becomes clear that Hague reckons the SNP is trying to do for Scotland what Nick Leeson did for Barings. He resolves that what is sensible among the Commission’s findings could more readily be achieved with Scotland part of the UK, so there’s no need for all this silly independence business. The Nationalists, as you might imagine, are none too keen to hear this and have directed much abuse towards their graph-wielding nemesis.
The Spectator, 25/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

It's not for me to adjudicate between these arguments. But having commended Andrew Wilson two months ago for a serious-minded and valuable contribution to debating Scotland's future, I'll do the same for Kevin Hague.
BBC Scotland Business/Economy Editor, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

Today the pro-UK think tank These Islands publishes a peer-reviewed paper that forensically dissects the SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission Report and its “optimistic” assessment of the prospects for the Scottish economy under independence. For all but the most fanatical, blue paint-daubed separatists it should induce a pause for reflection.
Reaction, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

This is the context within which These Islands, the pro-UK think tank I chair, has published a response paper which objectively and rigorously critiques the Growth Commission’s report. We recognise that the case for maintaining the union must be about much more than narrow economic arguments, but also know that if we are to have an informed and constructive debate about our future then any economic arguments must be fairly and honestly presented.
Kevin Hague, for the New Statesman, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

The commission claimed in May that an independent Scotland could emulate successful small countries such as New Zealand, Finland or the Netherlands. It also set out proposals to bring Scotland’s deficit, estimated at more than 8 per cent of GDP, to 3 per cent within a decade of leaving the UK. The new analysis, led by Kevin Hague, a businessman and chairman of These Islands, a pro-UK think tank, says that the commission relied on optimistic assertions and modelling.
The Times, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

These Islands said the commission tried to justify its conclusions by cherry-picking the figures recorded by better-performing small countries then setting a target to outperform their growth by one per cent annually for 15 years.
The Daily Telegraph, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

These Islands chairman Kevin Hague said: "The Growth Commission’s report contains highly misleading analysis, fails to address the key economic questions and – we presume unintentionally – actually strengthens the economic case for Scotland remaining in the UK."
The Scotsman, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

The paper, which has been peer-reviewed by the These Islands' advisory council and a number of economists, says that far from being realistic as the Commission claimed it is actually more optimistic than Alex Salmond's 2014 White Paper.
Business Insider, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

These Islands, a pro-UK think tank, insisted the party’s Growth Commission actually strengthened the economic case for Scotland remaining in the union. Its findings have drawn support from a range of leading economists including Glasgow University professors Ronald MacDonald and Jim Gallagher, Strathclyde’s Professor Brian Ashcroft and Brian Quinn, the former acting deputy governor of the Bank of England.
The Herald, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

In a debate clouded by smoke and mirrors, the Hague report is a valiant attempt to give hard-pressed voters some much-needed clarity.
The Daily Record, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

The These Islands Response to the Sustainable Growth Commission report, published today, found that by failing to compare independence with any other scenarios, the SNP report fails to make a case for independence.
The Daily Record, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

Tory Murdo Fraser said These Islands’ findings were "damning". Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie added: "It shows an independent Scotland would take an axe to services we rely on."
The Scottish Sun, 23/07/2018 [Read the full article here]

In an essay for the These Islands think tank, the French football commentator and musician Philippe Auclair looks at how he and so many others have come to feel like aliens in a land they took to be their home. I say Auclair is ‘French’ and he is. But you get an idea of the scale of the challenge Brexit has raised when you learn that he has lived in Britain for decades, and has a British wife and child. He writes in English better than half the journalists on the national press, quotes Larkin, and signed up to a lifetime of pain by electing to support the England cricket team.
The Spectator, 12/02/2018 [Read the full article here]

All this is much more easily said than done. The idea that all the parts can be thrown up in the air and then relaid in some perfectly constructed logical way is a fantasy. But there are many things that form part of the answer that can be begun, often in quite small grassroots ways as opposed to grand Napoleonic ones. These Islands, a group that launched in 2017, is one promising approach, based on the crucial recognition that this is an issue that civil society should engage and reason with across borders.
The Guardian, 01/01/2018 [Read the full article here]

Brexit will put “considerable strains” on relations between the nations of the UK and may lead to fragmentation of the Union, according to an adviser to Prince Charles. However, Michael Jary, chairman of Duchy Originals and of the commercial committee of the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation, also said the complexities around Brexit show how damaging Scottish independence would be. In a new essay for These Islands, a pro-UK think tank, Jary, who also chairs the board of trustees at the Fairtrade Foundation, writes: “The experience provides a real-life example of soft power being drained during a complex divorce.”
The Sunday Times, 03/12/2017 [Read the full article here]

This week's New European features a powerful essay on how we can still be a force for good in the world - if we can end the neurosis and introspection. Michael Jary makes the compelling argument that Britain is neither a fading power nor a chauvinistic example of historical exceptionalism. The essay can be read in this week's New European, on sale until Wednesday, or at www.these-islands.co.uk
The New European, 27/11/2017 [Essay appeared in full in print edition]

These Islands is the child of two referendums — the 2014 poll on Scottish independence and the 2016 Brexit vote. These served as “lightning rods” for existential concerns about Britain’s identity: the one put the very integrity of the UK up for grabs, the other has raised profound questions about how the various bits of the union will relate to each other after leaving the EU. [...] These Islands believes that a positive, emotional case needs to be made for a united kingdom, one that goes beyond the sometimes bloodless pocketbook arguments of the referendums. Brexit, says Mr Holland, means that relationships between the constituent nations will need to be clarified. Too much has changed over the past 40-plus years for the UK to simply revert to 1973 when it joined the European Economic Community. He does not expect a happy ride. The polarisation of politics means that consensus is no longer a factor. But it will be a necessary and healthy process. “The UK is the most democratically vital country in Europe right now,” he says.
The Financial Times, 08/11/2017 [Read the full article here]

To help launch These Islands, a pro-UK think tank advancing “the moral, multicultural and economic case” for the Union in the 21st century, Oxford don Nigel Biggar warned against Scottish independence as a solution for those north of the border opposed to Brexit. The regius professor of moral and pastoral theology said: “To enter upon the risks of divorce for grievances that are trivial, temporary and in the past would be reckless and imprudent and therefore morally wrong. [...] One of the benefits of the referendum was that it provoked unionists like me to lift up our feet, look down, and contemplate what it is that supports us. What I discovered is that the UK is good for three things: the greater external security of liberal democracy, a depth of multinational solidarity of which the EU can still only dream, and the upholding of a humane international order. All of that will remain true, whether or not Brexit comes to pass.
The Sunday Times, 29/10/2017 [Read the full article here]

Listening to the participants at the launch of These Islands, I was struck, like others there, by how little of this kind of conversation had gone on before the European referendum, and by how unprepared we had been for the bitter social division left in its wake. Alex Salmond used to talk confidently of how the social union between England and Scotland would survive undamaged by Scottish independence, but post-Brexit England suggests an angrier and more contested outcome, with (to quote Biggar) tough and fraught negotiations awakening old resentments on both sides. England and Scotland, after all, have been far more deeply integrated than the UK and the EU, and for seven times as long.
The Guardian, 28/10/2017 [Read the full article here]

What I like about These Islands is that it’s about something more than just shouting “YOU’LL HAVE A £15 BILLION DEFICIT!“ at Scots and will attempt to draw out the deeper value and indeed values of the Union. Most of our institutions – including the EU – would have benefited from a similar duty of care.
The New Statesman, 27/10/2017 [Read the full article here]

I attended the launch of These Islands, a long-overdue forum for debate on the benefits of the Union. The inaugural paper by Professor Nigel Biggar, entitled What the United Kingdom Is Good For, should be memorised by every No voter seeking good historic, moral, political and economic arguments and information in favour of the UK.
The Herald (letters), 26/10/2017 [Read the full letter here]

A group aiming to articulate a positive case for the UK has been backed by leading academics, business figures and broadcasters. These Islands, which was formally launched in Edinburgh last night, will attempt to provide a counterargument to a characterisation of England as a “country of knuckle-dragging racists” and the UK as an “evil force” on the world stage, the group’s founders said. It will start out by publishing academic papers and fact sheets but hopes to expand by launching social media campaigns and events that will reach a wider audience.
The Times (Scotland), 26/10/2017 [Read the full article here]

... it remains the case that a vague concept of Britain — of the peoples of these islands being connected — predates pretty much every other surviving sense of identity we recognise today. It is certainly older than any coherent ideas of either Scotland or England. [...] It is in this imaginative realm that a new think tank, named These Islands, is launched in London and Edinburgh this week. It seeks to make a case for the relevance of unionism in the 21st century. Gratifyingly, it recognises that the economic argument for Union is not enough, not least since that case, besides being grubbily narrow, will crumble if the numbers change to show an independent Scotland materially better off than a Scotland within the Union.
The Times, 24/10/2017 [Read the full article here]

These Islands” [...] boasts an impressive advisory panel and a mission statement standing “unabashedly for the view that more unites the three nations of Great Britain than divides them”. This, frankly, is long overdue. While the “No” side won the 2014 referendum, it was clear at the time that having been unstated for so long, the Unionist argument was strong in utilitarian terms but existentially weak, a sort of mirror image of a Yes campaign that lacked a credible economic rationale but owned the crucial narrative of what constituted “Scottishness”. These Islands is not only politically ecumenical, but appears to be keeping its distance from the UK Government and Unionist parties (one minister I spoke to had no idea what it was). This makes sense. Unionist arguments, much like Nationalist ones, often end up stymied by too close an association with a particular political party.
The Herald, 23/10/2017 [Read full article here]

As the UK re-assesses its relationship with Europe—and the rest of the world—politicians must focus on the civic as well as the national aspect of British identity. [..] Britishness itself is an identity which views pluralism as a source of strength. It is an identity resolute in its internationalism, defined and redefined over three centuries by men and women looking outward, seeking to understand the place their island should take in the wider world.
Prospect Magazine, 22/10/2017 [Read full article here]

Some earlier (pre launch) press mentions

Holland, who said the advisory council held “very eminent” figures, wants the passion seen in the Yes Scotland campaign of 2014 to apply equally to unionism. He believes the Union is a cause worth promoting given the benefits of its single market, the peace it has brought to the UK and its ability to distribute taxes to the areas most in need.
The Times, 09/04/2017 [Read full article here]

Mr Hague told The Herald the group was not a campaign outfit, but a thinktank backed by academics, business people and peers aimed at influencing public debate and legislation. He said: “It’s a not-for-profit organisation. We’re trying to do is avoid being defined by the Scottish independence question and take a wider UK perspective.
The Herald, 10/04/2017 [Read full article here]

Mr Hague also told a newspaper that “We’re trying to avoid being defined by the Scottish independence question and take a wider perspective. The one thing that we are unashamed about is the belief that more unites us than divides us.
The Scotsman, 10/04/2017 [Read full article here]