Women in the army? What's the problem?

THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT by the Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson, that all parts of the British Army, in particular the so-called “combat arms” (tanks, infantry, engineers etc), are now open to women is ...

Review: Jordan Peterson in Glasgow – It was emotional

IF YOU HAD told me a few years ago I would be spending north of £50 a ticket to go to go see a Canadian Professor of Psychology give a lecture as part of a ...

Is the UK drifting towards a dictatorship by stealth?

COULD WE END UP under the heels of a dictator and nobody notice? Conservative Party Accounts for the year ending 31st December 2015, item 17 states:

“17. Controlling PartyAs described on page 7, ...

Why is it difficult to remain nice in the SNP?

IN ELEVEN YEARS of rule the Scottish National party has become arguably the most ruthless political outfit in these islands, excluding Sinn Fein.  It has exploited a grievance mentality present in perhaps one-fifth of Scots and been ...

Be warned, the problem is the common rule book

A LEGAL BEAVER friend of mine, married to a medieval historian and a fan of modern industrial history himself after a career spell in Glasgow, once surprised me by expressing a deep-felt sentiment about a ...

We face an energy crisis if the warnings are ignored

AS HAS been widely reported, it is ten years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank and the ensuing financial crisis in the banking system. Many commentators issued warnings preceding the crisis that too few boardroom ...

Is it time to look afresh at the Orange Order?

LAST MONTH, just yards from the offices of a major Scottish newspaper, a Glasgow hotel was hosting a curious event. It was an open day for a civic organisation that has one of the most ...

Ferguson's, Calmac and the SNP Government: Who will pay the ferryman?

BACK IN 2014, one of Scotland’s iconic businesses was in trouble. The Clyde’s last commercial shipbuilder, Ferguson Marine Ltd in Port Glasgow, was up for sale, with few potential buyers in sight, and hundreds of ...

Businesses must unite in telling Scottish Government to focus on growth

SINCE BEFORE THE ACTS of Union in 1707, England has been Scotland’s main trading partner. The United Kingdom is one of the largest economies in the world and Scotland has always played a key part ...

Visiting Brussels is enough to make anyone a Brexiteer

ALTHOUGH I was in favour of remaining in the EU, I have never been a particular fan of the European project. It always seemed to me that there was a self-perpetuating bureaucracy in Brussels which ...

Chequers could cost Welsh Conservatives five MPs in a general election

IT’S NOT JUST IN SCOTLAND that Conservatives face a humiliating rejection over Theresa May’s Chequers policy. The same goes for Wales too.

The Welsh Conservatives face a humiliating loss of five MPs ...

Chequers could cost Scots Tories eleven MPs in a general election

SCOTTISH CONSERVATIVES face a humiliating loss of as many as eleven MPs if the UK government does not accept its proposed Chequers Deal fails to deliver the Brexit voters were expecting. 

That ...