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Matt Kerr
A dejected face worker sits in a Stillingfleet Colliery, York, locker room for the last time
Society / 18 December 2025
18 December 2025
The ExxonMobil's ethylene plant at Mossmorran in Fife, following the announcement that the global energy giant will close the manufacturing plant. Picture date: Tuesday November 25, 2025
Workers' Rights / 18 December 2025
18 December 2025
old man
Workers' Rights / 17 December 2025
17 December 2025
Houses under construction on a housing development in Basingstoke
Housing Crisis / 17 December 2025
17 December 2025
Hundreds of shipping containers at the Grangemouth Terminal near Falkirk, April 7, 2025
Industry / 17 December 2025
17 December 2025
People take part in a
Childcare / 17 December 2025
17 December 2025
Drugs Colin Davis / Creative Commons
Scotland / 17 December 2025
17 December 2025
The wreckage of a Chinook Helicopter which crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994 killing all 29 on board
Scotland / 15 December 2025
15 December 2025
Aberdeen stands 'united against the far-right’s hatred, racism and fascism'
Scotland / 14 December 2025
14 December 2025
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil Gray makes his way to First Minister's Questions at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh, October 2, 2025
Scotland / 14 December 2025
14 December 2025
Scotland / 10 December 2025
10 December 2025
Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde
Scotland / 10 December 2025
10 December 2025
STUC general secretary Roz Foyer addresses the 128th Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) Annual Congress at Caird Hall, Dundee, April 29, 2025
Workers' Rights / 9 December 2025
9 December 2025
Solicitor Aamer Anwar (centre) alongside Margaret Caldwell and family, mother of murder victim Emma Caldwell speak to the media after meeting with the Solicitor General Ruth Charteris KC, September 17, 2025
Policing / 9 December 2025
9 December 2025
Scotland / 9 December 2025
9 December 2025
First Minister of Scotland John Swinney during his visit to the offices of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) in Edinburgh, June 17, 2025
Scotland / 8 December 2025
8 December 2025
Lord Malcolm Offord speaking at the MacDonald Inchyra Hotel & Spa in Falkirk, he was announced by Nigel Farage as the latest defector to join the party during the rally in Falkirk, December 6, 2025
Far Right / 7 December 2025
7 December 2025
Labour MSP for the Glasgow region Pam Duncan Glancy, June 12, 2025
Scottish Labour / 7 December 2025
7 December 2025
9 - EIS pickett.jpg
Workers' Rights / 7 December 2025
7 December 2025
JJ, from Austria, stands on the stage with his trophy after winning the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, May 18, 2025
Eurovision / 5 December 2025
5 December 2025
Children playing on swings in a park near Ashford, Kent
Child Poverty / 5 December 2025
5 December 2025
Reform Party leader Nigel Farage speaks during the Reform UK rally at Venue Cymru, Llandudno, November 24, 2025
Scotland / 5 December 2025
5 December 2025
Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks with Scotland's First Minister John Swinney during the Council of the Nations and Regions in Edinburgh, October 11, 2024
Scotland / 5 December 2025
5 December 2025
A pink supermoon is seen beside a Saltire flag in Falkirk
Scotland / 4 December 2025
4 December 2025
Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray, September 17, 2024
Health Service / 4 December 2025
4 December 2025
Trade unionists and climate activists gather to protest the Rosebank oil field. Photo: Fossil Free London
Climate / 3 December 2025
3 December 2025
A Saltire flag and a Union flag flying above Whitehall in Westminster, London
Scotland / 3 December 2025
3 December 2025
A Shell logo at a petrol station
Climate Crisis / 4 December 2025
4 December 2025
Justice Secretary Angela Constance makes a statement to Parliament at Holyrood, Edinburgh, January 23, 2025
Scotland / 3 December 2025
3 December 2025
Britain / 3 December 2025
3 December 2025
A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward
Scotland / 1 December 2025
1 December 2025
The Morning Star's Scottish Autumn Conference
Scotland / 30 November 2025
30 November 2025
First Minister of Scotland John Swinney takes part in the STUC St Andrew's Day March and Rally in Glasgow, November 29, 2025
Scotland / 30 November 2025
30 November 2025
A person holding a shopping basket in a supermarket
Scotland / 1 December 2025
1 December 2025
Workers' Rights / 28 November 2025
28 November 2025
A view of the Senedd, the Welsh parliament building in Cardi
Wales / 24 November 2025
24 November 2025
SNP's Mairi McAllan, June 6, 2025
Scotland / 24 November 2025
24 November 2025
Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to business leaders during a reception at EY headquarters ahead of the G20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, November 21, 2025
Scotland / 23 November 2025
23 November 2025
Finance Secretary Shona Robison, February 4, 2025
Scotland / 23 November 2025
23 November 2025
Deputy First Minister of Scotland Kate Forbes during the third day at the SNP annual conference at the Event Complex Aberdeen (TECA), October 13, 2025
Scotland / 23 November 2025
23 November 2025
An elderly woman's hands
Britain / 21 November 2025
21 November 2025
NUMBERS GAME: Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth meets with students at Kings Park Secondary School in Glasgow
Aw That / 22 November 2025
22 November 2025

Whether in recycling or energy policy, a deeper crisis in long-term thinking is apparent in Scotland. With the new Budget looming, MATT KERR wonders if we can move beyond shallow, headline-grabbing measures

People look at the Covid Memorial Wall, central London, ahead of the fifth anniversary of lockdown, March 21, 2025
Scotland / 21 November 2025
21 November 2025
A person holding an energy bill
Scotland / 21 November 2025
21 November 2025
A view of the Little Cheyne Court Wind Farm amongst existing electricity pylons on the Romney Marsh in Kent
Energy / 20 November 2025
20 November 2025
Funeral fund victims take case to Holyrood
Scotland / 19 November 2025
19 November 2025
Humza Yousaf (centre, when still first minister) visits the Hillcrest Homes housing development in Dundee, in April 2024. The number of new affordable homes completed in Scotland had fallen in each of the last three years, from 23,486 in 2022 to 19,988 in 2024
Aw That / 8 November 2025
8 November 2025

The right to buy may have been scrapped in Scotland, but the damage it has done lives on even now, writes MATT KERR

Rockstar Strike
Workers' Rights / 6 November 2025
6 November 2025
Workers' Rights / 6 November 2025
6 November 2025
Doon Castle at Loch Doon, Carrick, Scotland
Britain / 6 November 2025
6 November 2025
A ScotRail train at Edinburgh Waverley Station
Workers' Rights / 5 November 2025
5 November 2025
Protesters from Just Stop Oil outside the Shell Centre on the South Bank, take part in what it claims will be their last direct action protest in central London. Picture date: Saturday April 26, 2025
Climate Crisis / 6 November 2025
6 November 2025
A firework Erwan Hesry / Creative Commons
Britain / 5 November 2025
5 November 2025
The Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood in Edinburgh, April 2021
Education / 4 November 2025
4 November 2025
A general view of HMP Pentonville, north London, August 2018
Prisons Crisis / 5 November 2025
5 November 2025
Lorraine Kelly in the press room after being presented with the Bafta Special Award at the Bafta TV Awards 2024, at the Royal Festival Hall in London, May 12, 2024
Class / 2 November 2025
2 November 2025
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and then British ambassador to the US Lord Peter Mandelson  in Washington, DC, February 27, 2025
Honour System / 2 November 2025
2 November 2025
Eleanor Roosevelt holding poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (in English), Lake Success, New York, November 1949
Britain / 2 November 2025
2 November 2025
a baby's foot
Healthcare / 29 October 2025
29 October 2025
Britain / 28 October 2025
28 October 2025
Justice System / 29 October 2025
29 October 2025
A view of turbines at Whitelee Windfarm in East Renfrewshire
Britain / 28 October 2025
28 October 2025

by Matt Kerr
Scotland reporter

Models of a man and woman stand on a pile of coins and bank
Britain / 28 October 2025
28 October 2025
Parking ticket
Britain / 28 October 2025
28 October 2025
27/04/20 of the sun rising behind a redundant oil platform moored in the Firth of Forth near Kirkcaldy, Fife
Workers' Rights / 27 October 2025
27 October 2025
A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London, January 18, 2023
Healthcare / 27 October 2025
27 October 2025
Britain / 24 October 2025
24 October 2025
UNLIKELY RIVALS: Blairite centrist Lucy Powell (left) is an enemy of circumstance to Keir Starmer in her bid for the Labour deputy leadership
Aw That / 25 October 2025
25 October 2025

The choice between two Blairites to revamp the tepid centrism of our ruling party doesn’t even come as cold comfort as we wander the city streets suffering from their third decade of austerity and the fifth of wage stagnation, writes MATT KERR

The oil platform Stena Spey is moved with tugboats amongst other rigs that have been left in the Cromarty Firth near Invergordon in the Highlands of Scotland
Scotland / 24 October 2025
24 October 2025
Chancellor of Exchequer Rachel Reeves with Prudence one of the stills which was named after a Gordon Brown speech as Chancellor during a visit to the Sipsmith Distillery in Chiswick West London, October 9, 2025
Scotland / 24 October 2025
24 October 2025
Actor Brian Cox at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, celebrating the opening of the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival, July 31, 2025
Scotland / 23 October 2025
23 October 2025
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump during a bilateral meeting at Chequers, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, on day two of Trump's second state visit to Britain, September 18, 2025
Scotland / 22 October 2025
22 October 2025
UCU members at Edinburgh University gather for a rally in George Square, Edinburgh, at the start of a planned five-day walk-out in a dispute over plans to cut £140 million from the university budget, September 8, 2025
Workers' Rights / 21 October 2025
21 October 2025
A general view of the University of Edinburgh Old College, Edinburgh
Scotland / 20 October 2025
20 October 2025
Finance Secretary Shona Robison, February 4, 2025
Scotland / 17 October 2025
17 October 2025
Climate activists from Greenpeace and Uplift during a demonstration outside the Scottish Court of Session, Edinburgh, on the first day of the Rosebank and Jackdaw judicial review hearing, November 12, 2024
Scotland / 17 October 2025
17 October 2025
A Capita sign outside their offices in Bournemouth, Dorset
Britain / 15 October 2025
15 October 2025
Bags of mail pushed onto vans at the York Royal mail sorting Office
Britain / 15 October 2025
15 October 2025
The oil platform Stena Spey is moved with tugboats amongst o
Scotland / 15 October 2025
15 October 2025
First Minister John Swinney during the second day of the SNP annual conference at the Event Complex Aberdeen (TECA), October 12, 2025
Scotland / 13 October 2025
13 October 2025
Deputy First Minister of Scotland Kate Forbes during the third day at the SNP annual conference at the Event Complex Aberdeen (TECA), October 13, 2025
Scotland / 13 October 2025
13 October 2025
School children in a classroom
Scotland / 13 October 2025
13 October 2025
First Minister John Swinney moves the motion that the 2026 Scottish Parliament election will be fought by the SNP on a clear platform of national independence during the SNP annual conference at the Event Complex Aberdeen (TECA), October 11, 2025
Scotland / 12 October 2025
12 October 2025
President Donald Trump listens during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the State Dining Room of the White House, September 29, 2025, in Washington
Aw That / 11 October 2025
11 October 2025

Trump’s Gaza deal is a transient, self-aggrandising spectacle that barely distracts from the West’s outright complicity in the massacre in Gaza and our slide into warmongering, writes MATT KERR

The Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood in Edinburgh
Scotland / 9 October 2025
9 October 2025
 Coins and Scottish bank notes
Scotland / 8 October 2025
8 October 2025
Coins in a Saltire purse
Scotland / 8 October 2025
8 October 2025
People welcome a number of activists who took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla that attempted to sail to Gaza after they were released from Israeli prison, at Tunis–Carthage International Airport, October 5, 2025, in Tunis, Tunisia
Britain / 6 October 2025
6 October 2025

Fears grow for flotilla activist Yvonne Ridley, abducted by Israeli soldiers and held in famous Ktzi'ot prison camp

A car drives through floodwater in Galway, October 3, 2025
Scotland / 6 October 2025
6 October 2025
First Minister John Swinney during First Minister's Questions at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh, September 18, 2025
Scotland / 6 October 2025
6 October 2025
Credit cards from Santander, Barclaycard, American Express and HSBC
Climate / 3 October 2025
3 October 2025
Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittar (centre), with Lynn Henderson and Dave Watson of the Jimmy Reid Foundation. Photo: Sharon Thomas
Scotland / 3 October 2025
3 October 2025
A view of houses across Dover in Kent
Scotland / 3 October 2025
3 October 2025
Police officers with demonstrators as people take part in a Lift the Ban on Palestine Action protest organised by Defend our Juries in Parliament Square in London, September 6, 2025
Britain / 1 October 2025
1 October 2025
Model houses on a pile of coins and bank notes
Scotland / 1 October 2025
1 October 2025
Raeda Alian, who was evacuated from Gaza City, wipes a tear as she sits next to her belongings after arriving at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Muwasi, an area that Israel has designated as a ‘safe zone’, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, September 23, 2025
Middle East / 26 September 2025
26 September 2025
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament / 26 September 2025
26 September 2025
Jeremy Corbyn calls for a Gaza inquiry during a march for Palestine in central London, May 21 2025
Aw That / 27 September 2025
27 September 2025

It’s hard to understand how minor divisions can come to dominate the process of building a challenge to the rule of the rich when the desperate need for a vehicle to fight poverty and despair is so abundantly clear, writes MATT KERR

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump during a press conference at Chequers, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, on day two of the president's second state visit to the UK, September 18, 2025
Scotland / 25 September 2025
25 September 2025
Members of Scotland's tenants' union Living Rent organised a protest outside the Edinburgh City Council Chamber to highlight concerns about the scarcity of housing, January 2018
Scotland / 25 September 2025
25 September 2025
HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow
Scotland / 24 September 2025
24 September 2025
A general view of the University of Edinburgh Old College, Edinburgh
Scotland / 24 September 2025
24 September 2025
Scotland / 23 September 2025
23 September 2025
Protesters outside AXA offices. Photo: Extinction Rebellion Scotland
Scotland / 22 September 2025
22 September 2025
SNP Parliamentary Business Minister Jamie Hepburn speaks to the media after Douglas Ross accused the Scottish Government minister of assaulting and verbally abusing him as he left the chamber in Holyrood at the Scottish Parliament, September 18, 2025
Scotland / 22 September 2025
22 September 2025
Money stacked on top of a council tax bill
Scotland / 22 September 2025
22 September 2025
A view of bank notes
Scotland / 19 September 2025
19 September 2025
Former First Minister Humza Yousaf arrives for a debate on free school meals at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh, September 11, 2024
Scotland / 19 September 2025
19 September 2025
A general view of the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh
Scotland / 19 September 2025
19 September 2025
Scotland / 19 September 2025
19 September 2025
Tenement flats along Comely Bank in Edinburgh
Scotland / 19 September 2025
19 September 2025
First Minister John Swinney during First Minister's Questions at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh, September 18, 2025
Scotland / 18 September 2025
18 September 2025
Clydebank TUC makes the case for Welfare Not Warfare
Scotland / 18 September 2025
18 September 2025
A general view of the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh
Scotland / 17 September 2025
17 September 2025
Children playing on swings in a park near Ashford, Kent
Scotland / 17 September 2025
17 September 2025
A tanker pumping out excess sewage from the Lightlands Lane
Scotland / 17 September 2025
17 September 2025
Loch Laxford seen through the hills, close to Foindle on the north-west coast
Scotland / 17 September 2025
17 September 2025
First Minister John Swinney addresses the workforce during a to visit Alexander Dennis in Larbert to meet staff and discuss the government's work with partners to secure the future of the company's manufacturing in Scotland, September 15, 2025
Transport / 15 September 2025
15 September 2025