Spain’s courts averted partition. Will Scotland’s courts facilitate it?

GIVEN THE STATE of Scotland’s public sector, from collapsing urban roads to lengthening waiting times for life-threatening illnesses, who can blame the SNP for putting the constitutional question front and centre at every opportunity?  

The promise of Easter

REMEMBER WHEN Tony Blair was first elected Prime Minister?  As he entered Downing Street the strains of D:Ream's Things can only get better wafted through the air in celebration. Think of the promises that our political leaders ...

Home leave for murderers without full scrutiny must be stopped

IN FEBRUARY, murderer Robbie McIntosh was convicted of a brutal attempted murder on an innocent Dundee dog-walker, whilst on home leave prior to being considered for parole.

McIntosh had previously been sentenced ...

Another #SNP fail: The government needs to act if it wants to deliver

EVERYONE KNOWS WHY the expansion of child care is so important, such is the overwhelming evidence about the benefit of quality care in the early years of a child’s life and the importance of child ...

Deterring Russian aggression requires insight and determination

THERE IS NOT that much in Russia that works, they have practically no exports except oil, gas and commodities, which in part is the reason their economy has been in steep decline lately, but there ...

Dinosaurs are dangerous. We don’t need a country run by them

THAT THE DINOSAURS in the Labour Party who are devoted to socialism still hold to their creed may seem bizarre to many who read these columns.  But they do, and many of our younger generation ...

Banning electric shock collars does not go far enough

I WAS VERY PLEASED to see the announcement from DEFRA Secretary Michael Gove at the weekend proposing government action to ban electric shock collars (ESCs) for cats and dogs.

For some time ...

HMS Queen Elizabeth? What’s in a name?

SELDOM in British military history has so much nonsense been written than has recently been forthcoming on the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth. The biggest warship ever built for the Royal Navy ...

Is the Continuity Bill the most boring constitutional crisis in history?

OUTSIDE THE POLITICAL BUBBLE, no one seems the least interested in the latest drama at Holyrood. The introduction by the SNP government of the EU Continuity Bill, its response to what it rather hysterically calls ...

Narcissism and Scottish Nationalism

RECENTLY, the classicist Bettany Hughes presented a programme on BBC Radio 4 on ‘narcissism’. Much of what she said struck a chord: what she was outlining amounted to a description of the Scottish nationalist approach ...

We must do more to protect our children from cyber crime

RECENTLY I spoke in a debate on cyber security, with a particular focus on young people’s experiences. What was striking was how little I, as an average, reasonably tech-savvy parent in my early 40s, actually ...

Enough of the circus, it’s time for the ringleader to go

GIVEN HOW CRUCIAL the upcoming Brexit Bill is to the wellbeing of our economy and democracy there has been far to many circus antics. Rare is it we have a chance to hold our elected ...