Today’s Thinking

Tom Gallagher

Scandal, pandemic and minority nationalism

A POLL released on 29 March giving the SNP 51 per cent of the vote in Scotland has been greeted with disbelief and gloom in quarters anxious to see the wings of the nationalists clipped.

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Tom Gallagher

No cure in sight for SNP’s self-inflicted ills

WHILE THE VULNERABILITY of the world has been exposed by the coronavirus, in a tiny corner a political movement that felt it had the world in the palm of its hand, has suddenly faced its ...

Tom Gallagher

Chancellor Sunak’s Enemy is not just Covid-19

RISHI SUNAK could be trampled underfoot by the wild ferocity of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s bold measures to throw one-third of current spending behind workers and employers in order to keep ...

Jonathan Stanley

What can a new party bring to Scotland and to Britain?

THERE ARE TWO natural roles of political parties in democracies. To form governments and to form oppositions. This is where the UK has a small problem. We don't have either. We have had no effective ...

Tom Gallagher

Mad, bad and dangerous to know: is the SNP scandal-proof?

SCOUNDRELS, misfits, chancers and fantasists will always be drawn to politics. Some have caused havoc and destruction on a frightening scale from Savonarola in 15th century Florence to Hitler in the last century. They surge to ...

Jill Stephenson

Why appeasement and salami-slicing will not defeat the nationalists

APPEASEMENT is a word with a pejorative sense in English. It conjures up images of Neville Chamberlain, in his wing collar shirt and dark coat, returning from a meeting with Hitler in Munich in 1938 ...

Tom Gallagher

Relying on self-serving platitudes won’t strengthen the Union

HELD IN NEWCASTLE, the ‘These Islands’ event was meant to highlight there is more that unites the people of the United Kingdom than divides them. Unfortunately despite the dedication shown by businessman and blogger Kevin ...

Tom Gallagher

Serve the party and no questions shall be asked

THE DUST is beginning to settle after Derek Mackay was forced to resign on 6 February, within a few hours of being due to deliver what would have been his fourth budget as Scottish Finance ...

Jonathan Stanley

Plaguespotting the Coronavirus outbreak shows how little we have really progressed

ATTITUDES TO HIV have changed markedly through the decades. We can believe this is part of some greater social progress and of course this thought is comforting. We could instead believe it is not our ...

Tom Gallagher

All change in Ireland? And what will the impact be in Britain?

LEO ERIC VARADKAR thought that bashing Britain over Brexit would be the campaign theme that would enable his Fine Gael Party to achieve a second decade in power. But instead, at 41, he looks washed-up ...

Tom Gallagher

How Brexit exposes Sturgeon as a lame duck leader

DURING THE 43 MONTHS between Britain voting to leave the EU and the deed being accomplished on 31 January 2020, Nicola Sturgeon’s performance on Brexit can be filed under the category ‘passive aggressive.’ When it ...

Dr Sutherland MacNeill

Ballantyne – a risk worth taking

MICHELLE Ballanytne is ruffling a few feathers. Last night I met her on the campaign trail as she seeks to become the next leader of the Scottish Conservative & unionist Party, at a very well ...