Scotland under the Conservatives, 1979-1997 – Part one

MRS THATCHER is a much hated figure in Scotland even today. A retrospective assessment of her premiership in The National on 26 June 2018, for example, was headed ‘This is the truth about how Thatcher devastated ...

Viva Moi: The hour of knaves and narcissists is killing Scotland

PEOPLE WHO CANNOT conceal the fact that their primary interest is in themselves rarely make good leaders. Politicians who take extraordinary care with their grooming and place much store on their other personal needs, rarely ...

To lockdown or not to lockdown in Scotland? That is the question

WILL SHE or won’t she? Only a few days ago, Nicola Sturgeon announced her Byzantine system of localised and graduated lockdown levels, attempting to better the Prime Minister’s tiers by renaming them, increasing the number, making them more localised, and introducing a harsher option. Yet Boris, for ...

The rise of the SNP

FROM 1945 to 1964 the Scottish National Party represented no credible threat to the Union. In the 1945 general election it received only 1.27 per cent of the Scottish vote while seven out of its ...

We must abandon fear – it’s time for Recovery

WE’VE ALL HAD to watch a lot of grim TV lately. I’d like to invite you to watch a different channel. 

On the one side, there’s Matt Hancock & the Lockdowners – ...

In praise of the United Kingdom

IN 2017, the British Council conducted a survey among young people across the G20 nations called From the Outside In, which considered how the UK is viewed abroad. It found that the UK ranked fourth equal ...

Scotland and the Second World War

THE MYTH that Britain languished in a deep economic depression in the 1930s – the Slump in other words –  was dispelled in a previous article. It was, in fact, an economically strong Britain that entered ...

Devolution needs reset – returning it to its original limited purpose

ANOTHER WEEK has passed where many of the headlines have revealed the cruelty and absurdity of the world. A teacher in Paris, Samuel Paty, is brutally slain by a Chechen refugee after an imam has ...

The Political peculiarities of interwar Scotland

ALTHOUGH SCOTLAND for the main part reflected British political developments during the interwar period, she demonstrated particular features which need to be examined. She was divided over religion for a start with a marked propensity ...

ThinkBooks: A temperate and sage university gives his insight on Britain and Europe

REGRETTABLY, Vernon Bogdanor is currently one of the few British political scientists likely to have a temperate reaction if presented with an essay from a student which vigorously lays out the failings of the EU. ...

What will end first, the Covid lockdowns or Sturgeon’s leadership?

NICOLA STURGEON is on the ropes as never before. If Scotland’s media and opposition were dogged and savage enough, her interview on Sunday morning with Sky’s Sophy Ridge would have gone down as her Prince Andrew moment. ...

A united Britain was victorious in war – but fallacies about the interwar peace persist

THE REPUTATION of the interwar period but especially of the 1930s as the decade of the slump and appeasement has done untold damage to British self-confidence ever since. It was a period during which supposedly ...