Scotland's creative industries are an international success story, having produced some of the world's best creative talent and some of the world's best-selling creative content. Scotland also hosts the world's largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which brings together performers and audiences from across Scotland, the UK and the world. The creative industries in Scotland have been tremendously successful, and they will no doubt continue to be so. For the potential of these industries to be maximised, however, it is essential that industry views are taken into account by both the UK and Scottish governments in order to create the right policy framework for supporting creative enterprises and benefitting the Scottish economy and Scotland's reputation as a centre of creative talent. Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee recently held an inquiry into the economic impact of the creative industries in Scotland, looking at the film, TV and video games industries, and produced a report in March 2015. Their work focused on devolved areas of responsibility but also considered the impact of reserved matters such as tax reliefs, immigration and broadcasting. The Scottish Government responded to the report in May 2015, accepting a number of their recommendations and committing to take action on them. We launched our inquiry into the creative industries in Scotland to focus on some of the reserved policy areas highlighted by the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee and to look at how the interests of the creative industries in Scotland are represented at a UK-level.

The Scottish Affairs Committee has published a report calling for reform to visa rules for non-EU students studying in Scotland who wish to remain in the UK to work after their studies. In their report the Committee have found that current rules for students studying here to remain in Scotland are too restrictive and are preventing businesses from finding skilled workers. Scotland faces different demographic challenges to the rest of the UK, with a much lower birth rate and significant skills gaps in the workforce. Sectors, such as health, energy and finance face particular problems in recruiting skilled graduate workers. The Committee found that the closure of the Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) visa in 2012, has harmed Scotland by making Scotland less competitive in the global education market, with other nations able to offer prospective students greater employment opportunities after graduation. Closing this visa has also prevented Scotland from making use of a pool of skilled workers, educated in Scotland, who could help mitigate Scotland's demographic challenges. Since the Post-Study Work visa was closed in 2012 the number of non-EU students remaining in the UK after graduating has fallen by 80%.

This report warns that the extraordinary success of the UK's creative industries may be jeopardised by any dilution of intellectual property rights and the failure to tackle online piracy. The Committee also strongly condemns the failure of Google in particular to tackle access of copyright infringing websites through its search engine. Such illegal piracy, combined with proposals arising from the Hargreaves review to introduce copyright exceptions, and a failure to strengthen copyright enforcement as envisaged by the Digital Economy Act 2010, together threaten the livelihoods of the individuals and industries that contribute over £36 billion annually to the UK economy. Also, the Olympics No Marketing Rights scheme is excessively restrictive and is preventing British creative companies from realising the benefits they deserve from the Olympic legacy. The Committee calls for: a central champion of Intellectual Property in Government to promote and protect the interests of UK intellectual property; the maximum penalty for serious online IP theft to be increased to 10 years imprisonment, in line with the punishment for such offences in the physical world; more evidence and scrutiny before any exceptions to copyright such as those suggested by Hargreaves are applied; redoubled efforts to ensure that the video games tax credit is approved by the European Commission and introduced as soon as possible; reforms to the income tax and tax reliefs systems to recognise adequately the freelance nature of much creative work; greater recognition of the importance of arts subjects in the curriculum.

This updated and revised edition outlines strategies and models for how to use technology and knowledge to improve performance, create jobs and increase income. It shows what skills will be required to produce, sell and manage performance over time, and how manual jobs can contribute to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources.

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries are commonly characterised as an age of ‘neoliberalism’ in which individualism, competition, free markets and privatisation came to dominate Britain’s politics, economy and society. This historical framing has proven highly controversial, within both academia and contemporary political and public debate. Standard accounts of neoliberalism generally focus on the influence of political ideas in reshaping British politics; according to this narrative, neoliberalism was a right-wing ideology, peddled by political economists, think-tanks and politicians from the 1930s onwards, which finally triumphed in the 1970s and 1980s. The Neoliberal Age? suggests this narrative is too simplistic. Where the standard story sees neoliberalism as right-wing, this book points to some left-wing origins, too; where the standard story emphasises the agency of think-tanks and politicians, this book shows that other actors from the business world were also highly significant. Where the standard story can suggest that neoliberalism transformed subjectivities and social lives, this book illuminates other forces which helped make Britain more individualistic in the late twentieth century. The analysis thus takes neoliberalism seriously but also shows that it cannot be the only explanatory framework for understanding contemporary Britain. The book showcases cutting-edge research, making it useful to researchers and students, as well as to those interested in understanding the forces that have shaped our recent past.

This powerful book sets out arguments and an agenda of policy proposals for achieving a sustainable and prosperous, but non-growing economy, also known as a steady-state economy. The authors describe a plan for solving the major social and environmental problems which face us today on a finite planet with a rapidly growing population.

Through ten editions, Fox and McDonald's Introduction to Fluid Mechanics has helped students understand the physical concepts, basic principles, and analysis methods of fluid mechanics. This market-leading textbook provides a balanced, systematic approach to mastering critical concepts with the proven Fox-McDonald solution methodology. In-depth yet accessible chapters present governing equations, clearly state assumptions, and relate mathematical results to corresponding physical behavior. Emphasis is placed on the use of control volumes to support a practical, theoretically-inclusive problem-solving approach to the subject. Each comprehensive chapter includes numerous, easy-to-follow examples that illustrate good solution technique and explain challenging points. A broad range of carefully selected topics describe how to apply the governing equations to various problems, and explain physical concepts to enable students to model real-world fluid flow situations. Topics include flow measurement, dimensional analysis and similitude, flow in pipes, ducts, and open channels, fluid machinery, and more. To enhance student learning, the book incorporates numerous pedagogical features including chapter summaries and learning objectives, end-of-chapter problems, useful equations, and design and open-ended problems that encourage students to apply fluid mechanics principles to the design of devices and systems.