ThinkScotland
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ThinkScotland was established as a virtual think tank in 2006 by Scottish entrepreneur Robert Kilgour to encourage greater discussion in Scotland about economic, social and constitutional policies – from the perspective of mainly Scottish Conservative authors.
The site relaunched in July 2012 seeking a far broader constituency as an independent not-for-profit debating forum with a cross-section of topical, political and cultural writing on a daily basis.
ThinkScotland’s editorial outlook has always been right of centre – with the aim of explaining and defending free markets and an open liberal society – but crucially without endorsing any one political party – or taking a corporate view. Source
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| Scope | International |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Country | United Kingdom |
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Recent Articles
Search ArticlesA magnificent obsession: Ian Mitchell’s Russia and the Rule of Law
THERE ARE BOOKS that inform, books that provoke, and books that fundamentally rearrange the furniture of one’s mind. Ian Mitchell’s Russia and the Rule of Law, Volume I: Status Unbound (862–1856) belongs emphatically to the third category.
Is Burnham stupid – or does he know exactly what he’s doing?
PEOPLE OFTEN SAY to me ‘how can they be so stupid?’ They, of course, being the Government. It’s a good question and for a while I thought we need to sharpen our arguments so they will see sense. But actually, it was me who was being stupid. The prime minister’s speech to Labour Conference was another day of State stupidity. Just as the 10-year bond flirts 4.5 per cent – the highest in all the G8 and flashing deep amber – Burnham comes out with a masterclass in stupidity.
Dinnaken? 4RTR’s re-dedication of its Standard
THE OTHER WEEK I attended a moving and emotional service in the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh in which the Standard of the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (Scotland’s Own) was re-dedicated in a simple but memorable church service. For those of you who may not be quite up to speed, the Fourth, or more commonly 4RTR, was one of four Royal Tank Regiments still in existence when I joined the Regiment as a wet-behind-the-ears subaltern in 1980.
70 Up! A story of Remainers and Exiteers
REMEMBER THAT TIME you were seven and you had a nightmare that a witch put a spell on you and you woke up in the body of an old man and you were screaming but you couldn’t wake up? Remember everyone then thought it was so moving and poignant? No, me neither. In Britain we do cosy mysteries perfectly. From Poirot to Ludwig to Vera, we love high tea with murder. Well, turns out, we can also do cosy-horror. Put on the tea, love, another one’s dropped dead. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry.
Burnham’s supine loyalty to the EU will cost farmers dear
IT IS THE HEIGHT OF ABSURDITY that the UK Government argues that joining the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme will protect the UK’s exports – when the outcome means adding higher taxes to ammonia or the fertiliser it makes that is used by our farmers.. Thanks to the devastating energy policies of past and present UK Governments Britain no longer makes ammonia – the key feedstock for most fertilisers.
Russia and the Rule of Law: Scotland’s relevance and our undoing
A new book about Russia which illuminates the state of Scotland today AFTER SOME YEARS of reviewing other people’s books for ThinkScotland, the editor has kindly allowed me to draw attention to my own title, published last week. It is called Russia and the Rule of Law. I hope it will be of interest to anyone who is worried about the fact that Russia and other authoritarian or autocratic states are making nuisances of themselves all over the place and the West seems incapable of dealing with them.
Drug deaths: How many more funerals before the system changes?
ANOTHER YEAR. Another set of drug death statistics. Another 1,133 human beings gone. Drug deaths in Scotland rose by 11 per cent in 2025, from 1,017 to 1,133. But buried inside that dreadful number is something even more disturbing. Male deaths rose by 19 per cent, to 830, while female deaths actually fell. The highest death rates remain among people aged 35 to 54. In our poorest communities, the drug death rate is fifteen times that of our wealthiest. These are not numbers from the distant past.
Trump explains the use of national sovereignty to its enemies
At the United Nations, Trump noticed the noun rather than the adjective and laid out a foreign policy built on recovering the levers of the sovereign state DONALD TRUMP went to the United Nations to explain that the United Nations is not the government of the world. Judging from some of the reaction, this came as news.
Trams. The biggest and longest running story in Edinburgh
WE’VE HAD the huge cost overruns and delays on the half built original project. The millions of pounds and years spent by Lord Hardie examining what went wrong. And the double disruption and cost of digging up Leith twice to get to Newhaven. After twenty years you might have expected some respite, but Edinburgh’s council seems determined to press ahead with more lines although the planning for this resembles Railroad Tycoon rather than the construction of real life infrastructure.
What does the Auction House say about culture?
THE PARADOX of the auction house is the profession is as old as the hills and many of the great British auction houses have been around for as long as family firms of funeral undertakers. But it is also an industry rejuvenated by modern technology. Gone is the trip to the local saleroom hoping for a bargain when the world of algorithms and the saleroom.com brings almost very auction house live to your living room. The market has thus become remarkably efficient.