The SNP don’t get to pick and choose the causes we believe in

HOW CONFIDENT would you be to go against the grain in Sturgeon’s Scotland? What if you said something mildly controversial? Or flippantly shared a meme on social media? You’d be lying if you said ...

Housing policy? Build them and they will come

A LONG TERM consequence of the Covid-19 crisis will be increasing numbers of people working from home. On wee wet and windy isles like ours, where is home? Where should it be?

Scottish, Trinidadian and British – not proud but grateful

THE TRAGIC DEATH at the hands of police of George Floyd and others in the USA and before that of Sheku Bayoh in Scotland, have understandably triggered protests and examination of race relations and attitudes ...

Call for essays on the Conservative Party – a response from Scottish Unionists

WHILE WE ARE PREPARING for the Holyrood elections in 2021 the executive of the Scottish Unionists has decided to intervene before our formal launch as a new unionist party for Scotland and the UK given ...

Is substantial change coming to employment law? I rather doubt it…

SINCE THE UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, a running question, whether borne of fear or celebration depending on one’s point of view, has been that Brexit could lead to substantial deregulation when ...

Cummings: Media plays the man while ignoring the lockdown rules

A SENSIBLE and tenacious media is often critical in saving countries when threatened by an assault on democratic institutions. But an irresponsible and demagogic media can also imperil the freedom of countries, even ones ...

Responding to Covid-19 – the way forward

COVID-19 caught virtually all governments and health systems across the world unawares. Leaders seeking to cover their missteps are at pains to emphasize that the pandemic’s progression has been a steep learning curve for all ...

Urban freedoms are being menaced by determined extremists

LAST WEEK the libertarian politician Douglas Carswell came near to admitting that decentralisation measures introduced in Britain over the last twenty years had gone badly awry.  He tweeted:

“Let’s be honest, it’s not ...

Labour and the SNP plot amidst Downing Street’s titanic struggle

THE EASY VICTORY in the Labour leadership contest obtained by 58-year-old Keir Starmer on 4 April was only really noticed by the media classes. They are easily the noisiest and most visible branch of the ...

SNP's Hate Crime Bill fails on all counts

WITHIN THE LAST FORTNIGHT, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf published his proposed Hate Crime Bill and sent it out for a consultation, to conclude on the 24th July 2020. 

This Bill, which includes ...

Scottish Libertarians aim to ‘fill the vacuum increasingly left by the Scottish Conservatives.’

SCOTLAND is increasingly looking like a one party state, which wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1970’s Eastern Europe.  We have an SNP who are ever more authoritarian and who believe in high tax ...

Spare a thought for those who self-isolated from fighting tyranny

TODAY we all* celebrate the defeat of the National Socialists who took over Germany, and most of Europe. The rise of Nazism was a combination of nationalist fervour coupled with the promise of economic recovery ...