In the midst of a windy day on the 29th of January 2016, the side of Oxgangs School in Edinburgh collapsed. A large section of the gable wall came crashing down with nine tonnes of bricks falling across the path below. An independent report concluded that it was “a matter of timing and luck” that […]
How much would you pay someone to put up a Christmas tree? We took to the streets of Edinburgh this week to ask people this to demonstrate the disproportionate costs that come with Private Finance Initiatives. Under a complex and unfair PFI contract, Alistair Darling had to pay £900 for the UK Treasury’s Xmas tree. This […]
By Alice Picard, Jubilee Scotland Volunteer (All posts are the views of the author, not Jubilee Scotland as an organisation). I don’t know what you were up to this Tuesday 11 June 2013 but I was demonstrating in front of the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Well, almost. Because despite long negotiations with the police, we never […]
A platform to discuss the key guiding principles and values that should shape Scotland’s international development role. By Alice Picard, Jubilee Scotland Volunteer (All posts are the views of the author, not Jubilee Scotland as an organisation) “Scotland 2013 and Beyond: Our values and principles for a just world” was organised by NIDOS, Network of […]
On International Human Rights day, Jubilee Scotland examines the role of debt and international financial institutions on the people of Guatemala, and questions the role Scotland could play in global development. By Charlotte Snelling. For much of the post-war period, Guatemala’s past has been a story of dictatorships, terror, and genocidal regimes. It is estimated […]
James Picardo, Campaign Director at Jubilee Scotland, spoke as part of the ‘Global Challenges’ series of events hosted by Edinburgh University. Here is what he said: Economics on the one hand, and justice and human rights issues on the other hand, are often discussed as separate phenomena; as ways of looking at the world that […]
On October 5th, Jubilee Scotland hosted a People’s Debt Tribunal at the Scottish Parliament, which saw Lidy Nacpil, representing Freedom from Debt Coalition Philippines and Jubilee South make the case for the cancellation of debt owed by the Philippines to the World Bank. Here an attendee of the Tribunal shares her thoughts. ‘Debt cancellation is […]
Jubilee Scotland is currently trying to convince the UK government to cancel the >£500 million it’s owed by Indonesia. This is a small goal within a much broader international objective, which is to promote the doctrine of ‘odious debt’. ‘Odious debt’ is a concept which enjoys some international credibility, but not nearly enough! Put simply, […]
On the face of it, the G8 debt deal is a scam. The money that qualifying countries save on debt repayments is almost entirely balanced by a corresponding cut in the aid that they receive from the World Bank. The G8’s debt deal seems to work like this: the financial flows out of the country […]
