Nicola Sturgeon thinks that Alex Salmond is a fantasist living in an alternative reality.  It was his behaviour towards women that led to his going to court rather than a conspiracy orchestrated by her. She thinks there is no evidence whatsoever that she did anything wrong. It is quite clear that …

The United Kingdom almost uniquely in the world is threatened by secession. Some people such as Nick Timothy and Gordon Brown have proposed federalism as a solution. But in order to understand a solution it is first necessary to understand the problem. Northern Ireland is threatened with secession, which some …

Imagine there was an inquiry into a Government’s handling of a sexual harassment case in another country and we were following the details from afar. How would we react if we discovered that someone called Fabiani was the chair of this committee, but she had previously been sacked by someone …

The fundamental misunderstanding that forms the basis of Scottish nationalism has been undermined by a statement from the European Commission. When the UK finally left the EU, the Government decided not to continue to take part in the Erasmus Program, but instead to replace it with the Turing Scheme. The …

How should Pro UK people in Scotland respond to threats from the SNP to hold an independence referendum without permission or to use the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections as a proxy referendum on independence leading to a unilateral declaration of independence? The answer as always is to do what your …

My mother is nearly 88. She has yet to receive an invitation for a Covid vaccination. I hope it comes soon. The risk to her comes entirely from me. She has hardly left the house since March, but I have to go shopping. If I caught Covid on one of …

Conservatism above all else is about moderation. It is about conserving rather than overthrowing.  It is for this reason that Conservatives reject both the extremes of Left and Right and the extremism of nationalist and secession movements. The extremes of Left and Right are treated very differently in the media. There …

Nicola Sturgeon said that Scotland will be back soon in Europe. Where does she think we are now? Does she think that somehow Scotland has sped up the process of plate tectonics so that we are somewhere near Jamaica now. If so, why isn’t it warmer? Worse if Scotland is …

When I was growing up in the 1970s, there was no Gaelic TV, there were no Gaelic road signs and there was no Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, but there were a lot more Gaelic speakers than now. Since then huge amounts of time, money and effort has been spent …

Britain has left the EU with a deal. We will continue to trade freely with the EU. There will be no tariffs or quotas. But we will not have to follow EU laws or regulations. We will not be part of the Single Market and we will not be part …

Universities have a privileged position in Britain. The development and testing of Covid vaccines in part justifies this. The scientists worldwide who were behind this showed that they are worth funding because what they do is not merely clever, but useful. While many businesses have failed in Britain due to …

All through the independence referendum in 2014 I campaigned on the basis that a Yes vote would mean Scotland had to leave the EU and how this would have negative consequences for Scotland. This was a true and a legitimate argument. But it wasn’t really about the EU. The SNP’s …

About a year ago I was planning a long-haul trip. I looked the country up on the fitfortravel.nhs.uk website to see what diseases were present there and which vaccinations were recommended. I booked an appointment at Boots and went to get the injections. I didn’t look up any of the …

In recent days the SNP has decided to offer free school meals to all primary school children and to offer £500 to all NHS and social care workers. There is little doubt that free things are popular in Scotland. Who doesn’t like a bargain especially just before Christmas? But there …

There are two reasons for cutting foreign aid and indeed abolishing it entirely. The first is that we cannot afford it. The second is that it harms those who receive it. Since David Cameron came to power there in 2010, there has been no austerity at all in Britain. Public spending in …

The problem with Scottish Conservatism is structural rather than personal. Ruth Davidson is better suited to leadership than either Douglas Ross or Jackson Carlaw. But this is because she is first rate politician. It is not because her ideas are any different from theirs. They all more or less agree …

Did you notice that there has been a war going on in Europe? It started on the 27th of September and concluded with a ceasefire on the 10th of November. The issue of the conflict is the Republic of Artsakh. My guess is that rather few people in Britain know …

In most European countries there is only a moderate amount of coverage of American politics and American elections. They are interested of course in who wins, but they are not that interested. They don’t follow all the day to day details of American political life like we do in Britain. …

In March I supported lockdown and I was rather dismissive of lockdown sceptics. I thought Covid was probably the worst pandemic for one hundred years. Shutting everything down for a few weeks seemed a reasonable response. I still think Covid is probably the worst pandemic for one hundred years. The …

There’s an Austrian school of economics. After Emma Harper an SNP MSP’s confusion about what a currency is, we obviously need an SNP school too. 1. In an independent Scotland we could make money from non-existent secret oil fields even if the price of oil can turn negative. 2. Scotland …