The ‘Burnham effect’ that propelled Labour to victory in Makerfield is only the latest example of regional and devolved democratic leaders who are miles more popular than their opposite numbers in Westminster. Political talents as diverse as Boris Johnson and Alex Salmond prospered after being sprinkled with devolved political fairy dust. So do these roles […]
A collective howl of despair could be heard throughout the unionist community of Scotland last Friday at the prospect of five more years of SNP rule following the Holyrood elections. I can’t have been alone in feeling a bit like a prisoner, incarcerated for a crime I don’t remember committing, having looked forward with faint […]
It’s back to the 1970s. The Scottish First Minister John Swinney proposes the adoption of price controls on supermarket groceries to ease the pressure on the cost of living. The SNP’s Manifesto, for the election to be held on May 7, declares: To help with the cost of the weekly shop, we will establish legal […]
How can people without capital be expected to believe in capitalism? This is the challenge of our age, as ‘own nothing and be happy’ hardens into a new dividing line in Western politics. Westminster risks ignoring the emerging political economy of housing, even as public anger grows. Green Party leader Zack Polanski is already courting […]
Scotland once punched far, far above its weight. In the 16th century, despite having a population under a quarter the size of its neighbour, England, whose king Henry VIII tried repeatedly to subdue it, it was the smaller nation that prevailed. It is the blood of the cunning and patient James VI and I, and […]
‘Today, on time and on budget, the environmentally friendly pride of Scottish engineering, MV Glen Sannox, makes the first of its four ferry crossings from Ardrossan to Arran, the busiest route on the islands network.’ That’s how it was meant to be. But there’s no pride, only relief, that this island lifeline has finally arrived, […]
Well, the Hate Crime Act is up and running and over the next few weeks and months, Scotland will find out just how like North Korea we have become. Not everyone is taking it lying down: Scottish Family Party (SFP) member Niall Fraser and activist ‘the Glasgow Cabbie’ marked the momentous day with a funeral […]
This month marks the 400th anniversary of the first printed edition of Shakespeare’s plays. Thanks to the First Folio, the Bard’s work continues to be performed all around the world and his words, that so often perfectly encapsulate the human condition, endure. It seems unlikely that the same will be said for This Book Is […]
As a Scot who loves his country, I feel it’s my patriotic duty to raise some of the many issues around Humza Yousaf’s pledge to go directly to the bond market to borrow up to £3bn. As a Fixed Income Investment specialist, I am unlikely to recommend the current proposed bond to my clients, as […]
In less than six months, the Scottish Government will introduce a new deposit return scheme, despite the industry asking for a UK-wide one. It aims to increase recycling and reduce litter – common sense goals we all support. But the scheme has become a costly, complex and confusing mess before its even got off the […]
Now that the heady sense of liberation following Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement of her resignation has begun to die down, it is time to think of the real, underlying problem of her tenure. The real issue was not her own political personality, so much as the way the Scottish Parliament was set up. Now the former […]
Twice over the past two years the UK Government has said ‘no’ to reforming the Gender Recognition Act to remove medical assessment and bring in a system of self-declaration. The first time was in 2020 after an intense consultation and lobbying by Stonewall and other LGBT groups. The second was in December 2021 in response […]
It’s been a busy few weeks for TV’s Nicola Sturgeon. The showbiz personality and Festival Fringe favourite has been interviewed numerous times on Edinburgh’s stages in the last month, sharing her opinions with the likes of Iain Dale and Brian Cox (not the one who lives here; the other one). But, ever the trooper, she […]
When minimum unit pricing was introduced in Scotland in May 2018 it became illegal to sell alcohol for less than 50p per unit. This flagship SNP policy, aimed to reduce alcohol-related harms, including death and crime, by raising the price of the cheap, off-trade (that is, sold to be consumed at home) alcohol that is […]
In my home city of Perth stands the Black Watch Museum. It proudly commemorates the history of that great regiment: ‘from Fontenoy to Fallujah with Ticonderoga, Waterloo, Alamein and two World Wars in between, the Black Watch has been there when the world’s history has been shaped’. It’s a reminder that for over 300 years […]
The AUKUS submarine deal between Britain, the US and Australia has cast an unflattering light on the Scottish National Party’s Cold War-style fixation with getting rid of the Trident submarine base at Faslane on the Clyde. This is important politically because being ‘anti-Trident’ is one of the few remaining policies that the SNP espouses which […]
Last week’s mini-row over Boris Johnson turning down an invitation to meet Nicola Sturgeon was both rather silly and instructive about the state of relations between Westminster and Holyrood. Clearly, the First Minister misjudges her constitutional position and forgets that the Prime Minister needs no invitation to visit a part of the country over which […]
One public health emergency has gripped the headlines over the past 18 months, but there is a second crisis that new statistics have starkly illustrated. The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland has reached a shameful new record yet again, exacerbated by the hardship of the pandemic, with the most deprived areas suffering the most. […]
In my Sunday Times column this week, I wrote about the difficulties Boris Johnson is having in paying for education catch-up – having commissioned Sir Kevan Collins to produce a money-no-object plan to fill the learning gap, before realising that actually money was something of an object after all. The Government has pointed out, in its […]
The Scottish National Party’s approach to government is evolving towards what, in the 1930s, Prince Nikolai Trubetskoy called “ideocracy”. He coined the term in the context of the new ‘Eurasianist’ movement which he helped found amongst émigré Russians in Austria and Germany. It implies a sort of right-wing, nationalistic socialism, which has a lot in […]
There’s one thing missing from the election campaign in Scotland. Despite being one of the most heated of all the elections taking place across the UK next month, there’s been no mention of the f-word. Scotland’s fiscal deficit – which is on track to reach £40bn this year – hasn’t had a look in so […]
What does it take for a ruling party in Scotland to lose power? To judge by Think Scotland’s 72-page report on the SNP’s track record in government, an awful lot. It’s no exaggeration to say the SNP’s record is one of abject failure across every policy area. On social policy, Nationalist rule has seen increasing […]
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