Venezuela’s tragedy: How Chavez destroyed accountability

IT IS A COMMON FEATURE of totalitarian regimes that their leaders face no accountability. In order to exercise total control over a state, totalitarian regimes systematically erode financial, judicial, and political systems designed to check ...

A bit of a (rum) do

WHAT A WEEK! What should have been the first days of Brexit have left me as much a rabbit in the headlights as anyone, astonished by the collapse of national direction. This takes us straight ...

How SNP EU policy would plunge Scotland into darkness

THIS WEEKEND is when we go through the ritual of putting our clocks forward to British Summer Time, an exercise that inevitably reignites the bi-annual debate around changing the clock for half of the year. ...

Wake-up call rings as international decline of Scottish universities due to SNP policies is revealed

THIS WEEK, the European University Association published its latest report into the state of higher education sectors in 33 nations across Europe. It did not make for happy reading for the SNP. It points to ...

Time for Sturgeon to show leadership on 'othering'

I WROTE an article on this site back in January about the language that had crept into political discourse around the Brexit debate, with MPs like Anna Soubry facing regular abuse for their opinions. ...

Come and wave us off! Fishing for Leave to launch ‘March To Leave’ with Tyne Flotilla and parade!

FISHERMEN’S ORGANISATION Fishing for Leave – who organised the referendum’s Thames Flotilla – will stage yet another audacious event to highlight the death sentence MPs thwarting Brexit presents to British fishing and coastal communities.

Venezuela’s tragedy: living in darkness under Maduro

THIS WEEK Venezuela experienced one of the most severe and widespread blackouts in recent memory. The city of Caracas and nineteen of Venezuela’s twenty-three states were plunged into darkness for nineteen hours initially, with ...

New polling shows Brexit Party could benefit strongly from Withdrawal Agreement eventually passing

ON THE 26TH OF NOVEMBER last year, in a moment of frustration bordering on anger, I tweeted: 

“Theresa May has returned from Europe with her #BrexitDeal What happened to #LeaveMeansLeave? Forget #BrexitShambles and ...

Brexit must tear down Europe's last wall – it's our duty to all Cypriots

ON MARCH 30th the UK will wake up to an issue that has slumbered for 45 years. As one of the three Guarantor powers the UK will face, along with Turkey and Greece (via Brussels ...

Venezuela’s tragedy: the environmental disaster NGOs don't want to talk about

VENEZUELA is one of earth’s 18 megadiverse countries, home to many rare and unique species. It’s little known, but in 2016 Nicolás Maduro began to threaten that by designating around 112,000 square kilometres of pristine ...

How Can the Scots Tories capitalise on their success and win power at Holyrood?

As the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party considers its policy options, Tom Miers concludes his three-part look at what might be possible and suggests Walter Scott can provide inspiration.

New BBC Scotland channel has potential, but needs more viewers

WHEN THE NEW BBC Scotland digital TV channel was first proposed, it faced criticism in different quarters. Some hard-line unionists were suspicious that the new channel would become an outlet for Scottish Government propaganda, having ...