Stuff your wheels, it's swing that will wreck the SNP

AT THE LAST General Election in 2015 I voted for the Lib Dems. This was partly because I thought they had done a good job as part of the coalition government, but it was mainly ...

Reaching for the skies requires more ambition

AIR PASSENGER DUTY (“APD”) is being devolved to Scotland and, as a result of the Air Departure Tax (Scotland) Bill, an Air Departure Tax (“ADT”) will replace APD in Scotland from April 2018.

Sixth time lucky? Vive la République, Arise Macron

SO, IT WAS AS WE THOUGHT. This weekend the Brexit candidate won the French presidential election and the other one wanders without party nor reason for another five years. Emmanuel Macron is the first president ...

It's Scotland vs Sturgeon – and Scotland is winning

IT WAS THE LOOK on the faces of the SNP activists this morning which told the story. At the election count in Bells Sports Centre, Perth, the scene of so many Nationalist victories over the ...

Springbroom for Dugdale and Jeremy! Why Labour wins most by losing

I PROMISE, I won't mention Ken Livingstone's favourite socialist excessively in this article but The Producers, otherwise known as Springtime for Hitler, is a cult classic I relish for its cut throat humour and ...

Now is the time to be backing blue

IN LESS THAN six weeks, the country will go to the polls in what is, without doubt, one of the most unique and multifaceted general elections in living memory. I am delighted to have been ...

Pupil Equity Funding: The first major test of John Swinney’s “presumption”

“The presumption…at the heart of the [Governance] review… [will be that] …decisions should be taken at school level”

Deputy First Minister (DFM), John Swinney Statement to Parliament 13 September, 2016.

Equality and fairness are not the same thing – which matters more?

THE AMBITION to create a “fairer, more equal” society has been a stated aim of the current Scottish Government for many years. This is a form of words which has appeared in numerous speeches by ...

“It’s the economy, stupid” means nothing to the SNP

TWENTY-FIVE years ago James Carville (pictured) coined the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” for the then Democrat’s nominee for Presidency of the United States, Bill Clinton. The meaning behind the phrase is clear: the public ...

The promise of a second EU referendum could shoot the Lib Dem canary

WE WERE WAITING for the Liberal democrats to jump the shark weren't we? How could they possibly push the Remoan vote even higher following their win in Richmond Park recently? Surely they couldn't be so stupid ...

What to look out for from the General Election

WHILE I WAS SLACKING in sunny Spain over a late Easter break, Theresa May surprised us all by calling the election which I first pushed in A Doctors Mandate five months ago. It turns out ...

The Scottish economy will sink if the SNP does not change course

ONCE AGAIN this week in the Scottish Parliament my Conservative colleagues and I brought forward a motion on the worrying trend of the Scottish economy.  A subject, like its failings in education, which the Scottish ...