On the 22 November 2014, Nicola Sturgeon seemed to hold Scotland in the palm of her hand. That was the day she sold-out Glasgow’s Hydro arena, filling it with 12,000 devoted followers for whom she could do no wrong. It was an eye-popping moment. Just two months earlier, the SNP had been defeated in Scotland’s […]
Earlier this week, the Royal Mail delivered a remarkable piece of election literature to thousands of households across Scotland. It made no mention of any candidate. Nor did it refer to any policies or make any promises of any kind. Most remarkably of all, it did not even mention whether it was concerned with next […]
It is no secret that Scotland, like many parts of the UK, faces deep-rooted social problems. And yet, despite being fetishised in films such as ‘Trainspotting’, these issues have been strangely absent in the independence debate. The renewed calls for Scottish independence, like the old ones, are instead fuelled by nationalist sentiment and focus on the economics of severing […]
Let’s be clear about something that, for some reason, has become lost in the fog of war: a second referendum on Scottish independence should not be about whether the nation rejoins the EU. As things stand, though, that is exactly what it risks being about, to everyone’s diminishment. Brexit may be the trigger for another […]
Oh Lord, not again. The reality of a second independence referendum – of the prolonged, furious and divisive punch-up that inevitably lies ahead – sends my heart plummeting to my boots. The muscle memory remains from last time: shouting matches with friends and family, being called a traitorous **** by anonymous strangers with pseudonyms such as […]
A couple of my best friends and some of my favourite people are Scottish Nationalists. There are decent and intelligent SNP MPs and MSPs who will in their quieter moments share a joke or an insight, even with a rotten old Unionist like wot I am. Although they are patriots and believers in their cause, they […]
Is there anything the SNP won’t do to cause trouble and create tension between England and Scotland? It seems not. Yet even by the party leadership’s usual standards, the intervention at Westminster in English Sunday trading laws is a belter. The law concerns England. Scotland has its own laws. Changing the law on this in […]
What was LBC thinking giving Alex Salmond his own radio show? The London-based talk-radio station is allowing the former SNP leader the run of the airwaves every Wednesday, shepherded by presenter Iain Dale. The answer to that question (what was LBC thinking?) is, of course, clever old LBC, which is trying to expand its reach […]
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