This paper is issued alongside the Scotland Bill (Bill 115, ISBN 9780215557414, and its associated explanatory notes, Bill 115-EN, ISBN 9780215546548) which implements the changes to legislation recommended in the final report of the Commission on Scottish Devolution (chairman Sir Kenneth Calman) - "Serving Scotland better: Scotland and the United Kingdom in the 21st Century" (available at http://www.scotlandoffice.gov.uk/scotlandoffice/files/Calman%20report.pdf). The Commission's central view was that Scotland should be responsible for raising more of its revenue, and the Government proposes a transfer of fiscal power so that the Scottish Parliament will have powers to raise some 35 per cent of its own budget (the current level is 15 per cent). Proposals include: a Scottish income tax to replace part of the UK income tax; the devolution of land tax and landfill tax; the power to create of devolve other taxes to the Scottish Parliament; extensive new borrowing powers; a Scottish cash reserve to manage fluctuations around devolved tax receipts; a seat for Scottish ministers on a new UK-Scottish tax committee. This paper also outlines the Government's response in other policy areas: strengthening relations between Parliaments and Governments; improving the constitutional framework; administration of elections; policing and justice; health and public safety; business, corporate affairs and academic research; environment and rural affairs; social security and welfare reform; charities; the Scottish Government; and technical amendments to the Scotland Act 1998.

In a sweeping vision for the future of work, Neumeier shows that the massive problems of the 21st century are largely the consequence of a paradigm shift—a shuddering gear-change from the familiar Industrial Age to the unfamiliar “Robotic Age,” an era of increasing man-machine collaboration. This change is creating the “Robot Curve,” an accelerating waterfall of obsolescence and opportunity that is currently reshuffling the fortunes of workers, companies, and national economies. It demonstrates how the cost and value of a unit of work go down as it moves from creative to skilled to rote, and, finally, to robotic. While the Robot Curve is dangerous to those with brittle or limited skills, it offers unlimited potential to those with metaskills—master skills that enable other skills. Neumeier believes that the metaskills we need in a post-industrial economy are feeling (intuition and empathy), seeing (systems thinking), dreaming (applied imagination), making (design), and learning (autodidactics). These are not the skills we were taught in school. Yet they’re the skills we’ll need to harness the curve. In explaining each of the metaskills, he offers encouragement and concrete advice for mastering their intricacies. At the end of the book he lays out seven changes that education can make to foster these important talents. This is a rich, exciting book for forward-thinking educators, entrepreneurs, designers, artists, scientists, and future leaders in every field. It comes illustrated with clear diagrams and a 16-page color photo essay. Those who enjoy this book may be interested in its slimmer companion, The 46 Rules of Genius, also by Marty Neumeier. Things you’ll learn in Metaskills: - How to stay ahead of the “robot curve” - How to account for “latency” in your predictions - The 9 most common traps of systems behavior - How to distinguish among 4 types of originality - The 3 key steps in generating innovative solutions - 6 ways to think like Steve Jobs - How to recognize the 3 essential qualities of beauty - 24 aesthetic tools you can apply to any kind of work - 10 strategies to trigger breakthrough ideas - Why every team needs an X-shaped person - How to overcome the 5 forces arrayed against simplicity - 6 tests for measuring the freshness of a concept - How to deploy the 5 principles of “uncluding” - The 10 tests for measuring great work - How to sell an innovative concept to an organization - 12 principles for constructing a theory of learning - How to choose a personal mission for the real world - The 4 levels of professional achievement - 7 steps for revolutionizing education From the back cover "Help! A robot ate my job!" If you haven't heard this complaint yet, you will. Today's widespread unemployment is not a jobs crisis. It's a talent crisis. Technology is taking every job that doesn't need a high degree of creativity, humanity, or leadership. The solution? Stay on top of the Robot Curve--a constant waterfall of obsolescence and opportunity fed by competition and innovation. Neumeier presents five metaskills--feeling, seeing, dreaming, making, and learning--that will accelerate your success in the Robotic Age.

The UK Government is undertaking a major cross-government programme of analysis prior to the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014. The aim is to provide a comprehensive and detailed analysis of Scotland's place in the UK. This paper, the first of a series to be published in 2013 and 2014, examines the UK's constitutional set-up and the legal implications of independence. The UK Government is convinced that the current devolution offers the best for Scotland: the Scottish Parliament and Government are empowered to take decisions on a range of domestic policy areas - such as health, education, policing - while Scotland continues to benefit from decisions made for the UK as a whole - defence and security, foreign representation, economic affairs. Independence is very different to devolution. Based on independent expert opinion (published as Annex A), the paper concludes that if there were to be a vote in favour of leaving the UK, Scotland would become an entirely new state whilst the remainder of the UK would continue as before, retaining the rights and obligations of the UK as it currently stands. Any separation would have to be negotiated between both governments. Legal and practical implications of independence, both at home and abroad, are addressed. An independent Scotland would have to apply to and/or negotiate to become a member of whichever international organisations it wished to join, including the EU and NATO. Scotland would also have to work through its positions on thousands of international treaties to which the UK is currently party.

Traces the development of the ideology of modern Scottish nationalism from the 1960s to the independence referendum in 2014.

Scotland faces its biggest choice since the 1707 union that made the United Kingdom - should Scotland be an independent country? The Yes and No campaigns are well under way but with the vote looming closer the information available to the public is still limited. What will happen after the referendum? What are the international implications? What about the UK's nuclear deterrant, currently housed in Scotland? What happens if the vote is 'No'? Is it even clear what independence will mean? What about the oil? What will the currency be? What will happen to the Old Age Pension pot if the UK splits? Scotland's Choices, now fully revised for the critical last few months before the referendum, does just that. Written by one former civil servant, one academic and one think-tanker - one a resident Scot, one a Scot living in England and one an Englishman - the authors clearly explain the issues you may not have considered and detail how each of the options would be put into place after the referendum.

This book presents a narrative of Scottish politics since devolution in 1999. It compares eight years of coalition government under Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats with four years of Scottish National Party minority government. It outlines the relative effect of each government on Scottish politics and public policy in various contexts, including: high expectations for ‘new politics' that were never fully realised; the influence of, and reactions from, the media and public; the role of political parties; the Scottish Government's relations with the UK Government, EU institutions, local government, quasi-governmental and non-governmental actors; and, the finance available to fund policy initiatives. It then considers how far Scotland has travelled on the road to constitutional change, comparing the original devolved framework with calls for independence or a new devolution settlement. The book draws heavily on information produced since 1999 by the Scottish Devolution Monitoring project (which forms one part of the devolution monitoring project led by the Constitution Unit, UCL) and is supplemented by new research on public policy, minority government, intergovernmental relations and constitutional change.

The Scottish Affairs Committee report on the Scotland Bill, states that the Bill achieves its stated purpose of increasing the financial accountability of the Scottish Parliament, but identifies a number of areas for improvement. The committee stresses the need for transparency and calls for the figures used to calculate all parts of the financial arrangements of the Scotland Bill to be opened up for scrutiny, in order to enhance decision-making. It says it intends to keep this area under review and requests regular reports on progress. At the heart of the Government's proposals are the provisions to give the Scottish Parliament the powers to raise a single rate of Scottish income tax, and to reduce the block grant accordingly. The committee says it is a major omission that neither the Bill nor the Command Paper provides an adequate explanation as to how the balance between income tax and the reduction to the block grant will be calculated. The Government should have put forward a considered proposal on the principles and methodology of this system, and detailed consideration should be given, as a matter of urgency, to how the reduction in the block grant will be calculated. Provisions in the Bill for both capital and revenue borrowing powers are to be welcomed, but the committee notes the concern of witnesses that the limits are too low. It recommends that the Government, in close consultation with the Scottish Parliament and with the committee, reconsiders the proposed limits, and it suggests as a starting point for discussion the amount of £1bn, with a limit of £500 million in any one year.The report also highlights the committee's intention to continue its scrutiny role as the proposals are implemented. In particular, it intends to closely monitor the roles of the UK Government, HMRC and the Office for Budget Responsibility.