Scotland’s onshore GDP grew by 0.6% in the three months to May 2026, compared to the three months to February 2026, according to statistics announced by the Chief Statistician. In the three months to May, the largest positive contribution to headline GDP growth was in the Retail, Wholesale & Motor Trades sector, which contributed around 0.2 percentage points towards headline growth.
Why Is Oil Falling While the Middle East Crisis Escalates? The Strange Logic of Energy Markets. Conflict headlines suggest a fuel shock but oil markets are telling a different story.
Mey Highland Games return with expected appearance by King Charles — The inclusive games return to John O’Groats, with King Charles III anticipated as chieftain. £354k cost revealed for average‑speed cameras west of Thurso — A 12‑month deployment on the A836 cost more than £354,000.
For years, the UK’s non‑dom tax regime has been a lightning rod for political argument and economic prediction. Each tightening of the rules from the 2017 overhaul to the government’s latest plan to replace the system entirely was met with dire warnings that Britain’s wealthiest residents would flee en-masse.
Scotland is heading into the new academic year with a mixed and uneven teacher recruitment landscape. Some areas are well‑staffed and even oversubscribed, while others particularly rural and northern regions are struggling to fill key posts.
Hot, dry weather across the UK has pushed many farmers into unusually early harvests, especially in England’s arable regions and parts of eastern Scotland. While early harvesting can protect crops from further heat damage, it also signals stress in the growing season — and that stress has consequences for yields, quality, and ultimately the prices consumers pay.
HMRC is urging customers who receive a Simple Assessment letter this summer to check it carefully and pay any tax owed by the deadline. HMRC will send Simple Assessment letters for the 2025 to 2026 tax year this summer.
A spectacular Harry Potter drone show may look like nothing more than entertainment, but behind the magic is a technology that could have a much darker application. An advertisement for the Harry Potter DroneArt Show caught my attention because it promises something extraordinary: 1,200 drones moving in perfect harmony, creating images from the Harry Potter films in the night sky.
The wheat that becomes a loaf of bread in Caithness or anywhere in the UK is part of one of the most complex and interconnected food supply chains on Earth. Wheat moves through farms, ports, mills, bakeries, and distribution networks that span continents.
The price displayed when booking a flight can look remarkably cheap. But for many travellers, particularly those travelling from more remote parts of Britain, the real cost of flying is becoming considerably higher once all the extras are added.
Is Britain Falling Behind Europe in the Race for Digital Money — and Will Cash Disappear? The European Central Bank has taken another major step towards a digital euro, raising an obvious question in Britain: is the UK falling behind in the race to create the next generation of money — and what does it mean for cash? The question matters because digital payments are already becoming an ordinary part of everyday life. Contactless cards, mobile phones and online banking have transformed how people pay for goods and services.
Andy Burnham’s announcement on social care in England has triggered strong reactions, including a detailed response from The King’s Fund, one of the UK’s leading health and care think tanks. For readers in Scotland, the debate can feel distant — but it’s highly relevant.
E-commerce sales took 29.4% of all retail spending in June. That’s online’s highest market share since April 2021, when non-essential stores finally reopened after Covid, says the home delivery expert Parcelhero.
Oil prices have turned sharply upwards again, raising a question that seemed to be fading only a few days ago: could Brent crude be heading back towards $100 a barrel? On Wednesday, 29 July, Brent crude rose by more than $3 a barrel to around $87.40, while US West Texas Intermediate crude moved above $82. The rise came after three consecutive days of falling prices.
FIFA’s plan to sell up to $10 billion in shares in a new commercial company tied to the World Cup and other major tournaments raises big questions about fairness, transparency, and whether ordinary football fans who already face high ticket prices are effectively subsidising huge profits for private investors, including politically connected families such as Donald Trump’s relatives. This isn’t a simple “right or wrong” issue, but it is one where fans’ interests and investors’ interests may not align.
Hot, dry weather across the UK has pushed many farmers into early harvests — but the impact isn’t uniform. England’s arable powerhouse, East Anglia, faces very different challenges from Scotland’s cooler Aberdeenshire and the rugged Highlands.
Andy Burnham's Government is facing an uncomfortable financial calculation: the new Prime Minister wants to reduce household costs and improve public services at exactly the moment when higher energy prices are making both objectives more expensive. The scale of the problem has now become clearer.
Ofgem has today (29 July) launched a consultation on plans to tackle speculative data centre projects in Britain's electricity connections queue, as part of a wider programme of reforms to ensure network capacity is used for projects that are ready and able to connect. The proposals – which include the introduction of a commitment fee and new project progress milestones – come as demand connection applications have surged from 41 gigawatts (GW) to 125GW, in under a year. This rise is driven largely by data centre projects, accounting for at least 80GWs.
Andy Burnham's suggestion that the Personal Allowance could be increased raises a much bigger question than simply whether people should pay less income tax. It raises the question of whether the tax system should continue drawing more and more people into income tax as wages rise, only to collect relatively small amounts from some of them.