About The Project

People’s Future Scotland is an independent project. It is not a political party; it is not affiliated to any political party, and it does not currently seek to become one.

The project exists to produce and publish detailed, practical work on two linked questions:

1. What should the major domestic policy positions of a serious Scottish government look like?
2. What would a credible, workable design for Scottish independence actually require?

We do this in public, in writing, and in a form that anyone can read, challenge, and test. The work stands or falls on the quality of the analysis itself.

What We Do

We publish in three main areas.

The 28

Twenty-eight detailed positions on the major domestic challenges facing Scotland. These cover education, health, justice, energy, housing, the defence industry, infrastructure and related fields. Each position is written as policy analysis rather than a political commitment. The language of “commitment” is deliberately avoided.

The Independence Debate

A structured series examining the constitutional, monetary, fiscal, institutional and strategic questions that any independence process would have to answer. This includes the legal route to a referendum, defining a clear mandate, the opening fiscal position, the treatment of UK debt, currency arrangements, nuclear basing, free movement with the rest of the UK, and trade priorities. The series is designed to be read as a whole. It does not assume independence is inevitable or cost-free.

Commentary

Regular writing on Scottish current affairs. The purpose is to test the positions against events as they develop and to keep the wider discussion connected to evidence.

All of this material is published openly and remains free to read. There is no paywall on the analysis itself.

Membership and Participation

Membership exists for those who want to take an active part in the work.

Members can:

• Comment and discuss on all pages within the members’ area
• Submit questions and suggested topics to be considered for inclusion in the Independence Debate series

Submitted questions are reviewed and, where appropriate, incorporated into future updates or new sections of the Independence Debate. This keeps the work responsive to serious scrutiny while maintaining editorial control over quality and coherence.

Membership income supports the project. It does not buy influence over the published positions.

Our Method

Three principles govern the work.

Continuity-first

We treat continuity of institutions, contracts, currency, public services and daily life as a design priority. We do not regard sudden rupture as inherently virtuous. Where a continuity option exists and is workable, we prefer it unless there is a clear and compelling reason to choose otherwise.

Rules-based

We accept the existing legal and constitutional order as the starting point. A lawful referendum on independence requires a Section 30 Order or equivalent primary legislation passed at Westminster. Unilateral or “de facto” routes are rejected because they lack legal authority and would lack practical legitimacy even if attempted.

Scrutiny-ready

Positions are written so that they can be examined in detail. Constraints are stated plainly. This includes the scale of the fiscal deficit shown in the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures, the strategic and industrial realities of nuclear basing on the Clyde, the limits of immediate monetary sovereignty under sterlingisation, and the practical requirements of state capacity. Avoidance, minimisation or denial of these constraints is not part of the method.

This approach produces work that is more constrained than much traditional independence advocacy and more detailed than most party platforms. That outcome is intentional.

Threshold for Forming a Limited Company

A limited company will be established to manage the project when either of the following is reached:

• 1,200 paying members, or
• Taxable turnover of £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period (the current UK VAT registration threshold)

At that point, the project will adopt a formal corporate structure with appropriate governance, separate finances, and limited liability. This threshold is linked to the VAT registration requirement to ensure the project's legal and organisational form matches the scale and complexity of its activities.

Thresholds for Any Future Decision to Become a Political Party

People’s Future Scotland is not a political party and does not contest elections.

The project could, in future, become the basis of a political party. This would be considered only if the required conditions are met. The central numerical threshold is:

50,000 paying members

This figure refers specifically to paying members, not social media followers, email subscribers, or passive readers. Reaching 50,000 paying members would demonstrate a scale of sustained support that justifies serious examination of party status.

Even at that level, membership numbers alone would not be sufficient.

The following additional conditions would also need to be met:

1. Evidence of broader public support for the core positions beyond the membership itself.
2. Full organisational readiness to contest elections across Scotland, including the capacity to field candidates and meet regulatory, financial and campaigning requirements.
3. A realistic prospect of competing seriously for seats, rather than existing only as a small or protest party.
4. A clear public decision-making process, announced in advance, so that any choice to become a party is transparent.

These thresholds are set high for a clear reason: the project will only consider becoming a political party if it has the scale and capacity to contest elections properly across Scotland. A small or medium-sized party is not the objective.

We will not decide to become a party with fewer than 50,000 paying members. We will not make any decision without public notice of the process.

What We Will Not Do

• We will not claim to be a political party while operating as an analysis project.
• We will not convert the project into a party by stealth or gradual rebranding.
• We will not lower the published thresholds after the fact.
• We will not present the positions as “commitments” in the party-manifesto sense while the project remains outside electoral politics.

Funding and Independence

The core analysis is free to read. Membership exists solely for those who wish to comment, discuss, and submit questions. Membership income supports the work; it does not determine the positions.

The project maintains a clear separation between financial support and intellectual independence. The analysis remains open to all, while those who wish to participate in the discussion contribute to the costs of sustaining it.

Accountability

Because the project makes claims about seriousness and scrutiny, it accepts that it should meet a high standard of clarity. The positions are published in full. The method is stated. The conditions under which the project would form a limited company, and the conditions under which it might become a party, are published in advance. The distinction between analysis and electoral politics is maintained in public.

If the work is weak, people can challenge it on its merits. If the thresholds are not met, the project remains what it is: an independent attempt to think clearly about Scotland’s domestic challenges and the practical design of independence.