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 ...

As the Great Game is played in Holyrood, no one is fit to write the rules

ONE WOULD BE FORGIVEN for thinking there was more to life in Scotland now than policing our thought and speech but as always when crisis strikes the SNP can be relied upon to ask those ...

The power of education: Part II – Considering the broader context

THEY SAY that travel broadens the mind. Perhaps it does, but it certainly opens one’s eyes. 

I used to think that, for linguistic purposes, going abroad simply meant taking a phrase ...

Not So Ready Scotland

LIKE MANY, I find myself in an unusual situation. I am working from home but I have spare time as my day-to-day job usually involves meeting people and scrutinising the work of North Lanarkshire Council. ...

Has devolution served us well during Covid-19?

OFFICIALLY, CONSTITUTIONAL HOSTILITIES have been suspended. There is an eerie silence from leading politicians akin to the World War One Christmas truce. The customary manoeuvres about Westminster Tories and indy-obsessed Nats are nowhere to be seen.

Conservatives must be sceptical of state solutions to post Covid-19 problems

THE CHALLENGES of tackling a viral pandemic have exposed flaws in the current political system in ways not seen since perhaps the HIV epidemic at the end of the last century.

When ...

Who delivers the goods for Scotland – the UK or EU?

MY PREVIOUS ARTICLE in this series, The UK or EU - which is the model union for the Scottish fishing industry?, contrasted the way the European Union and the United Kingdom share out ...

Louisa Jordan was a fine nurse but Joseph Lister is a far better choice for our NHS Crisis centre

IT HAS BEEN a difficult few weeks for Scotland in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our Prime Minister is sick in intensive care. He cuts a powerful figure because he is also now our Prime Patient. ...

Sturgeon’s grandstanding in the pandemic: it’s what she does

SCOTLAND’S FIRST MINISTER is a boundless talker.  Unfortunately for her there is only one inflection – boundless self-assertion. For five years she has used bluster and invective as the facts about how appallingly her administration performs ...