A busy few days at Scottish Labour party conference

COP28 presents a major challenge to governments around the world. This is certainly the case for the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, who have been embarrassed by inauspicious revelations they intended to use the conference – which is aimed at securing a commitment to end fossil fuel use – as cover to broker new oil and gas deals. But it is also true for both the UK and Scottish governments, who face a growing domestic challenge to balance the competing demands of climate targets, tight government finances, and consumers concerned about the costs of achieving net zero....

Scottish Labour were expected to win in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, but trouncing the SNP by a 9,446 margin, winning almost 60% of the votes cast, exceeded even their wildest expectations. While Labour strategist will be dreaming of these sort of numbers playing out in a General Election next year, how confident can they be when extrapolating the figures? And after a difficult loss following a bruising few months for the SNP is it possible to stem the tide running against them? True North’s Senior Advisor Andrew Liddle unpicks the results below.

Yesterday afternoon the Prime Minister announced a rethink of his government’s green commitments, while simultaneously seeking to reassure both a domestic and international audience on the UK’s net zero targets. As a strategy it’s certainly a gamble and the mixed reaction in today’s press tells its own story. That said, there’s an air of the reasonable to these changes that the UK government are keen to stress and undoubtedly, one year out from a General Election, politics lie at the heart of these policy moves.