Tag Archives: SNP

We all have our own ways of using social media. I use Facebook mainly to share my articles with various groups and I use it to talk to people I know as I prefer it to Skype.  I’ve rarely if ever had any trouble on Facebook. Most of the people you …

The SNP has introduced a Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill. At present hate crime laws cover disability, race (and related characteristics), religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. The bill will add age and allows sex to be added later. It also will abolish the offence of blasphemy. What …

The problem with Scottish politics is that we have a devolved parliament that is uninterested in devolution. Scottish politicians of all political parties pretend to be interested in those areas of life that the Scottish Parliament actually controls, but campaign primarily on issues that we don’t control. The same goes …

Parents in Scotland may differ with regard to politics, but they almost always share a desire that their children grow up healthy, do well in school get married and have children of their own. I wonder how many Scottish parents of a five-year-old boy want him to return from school …

In Moscow Lavrentiy Beria head of the NKVD used to cruise around in his limousine looking for cute girls. When he found what he was looking for he would point her out and have her brought to his dacha. There would be wine and food and afterwards he would sleep …

The Conservative manifesto promised that there would not be a second Scottish independence referendum. The Conservatives won a large majority. That should be the end of the matter. But this being Scotland it isn’t. Independence is the bone Nicola Sturgeon is the dog.  Scottish nationalists will teach their toddlers that “No …

There is something odd about the present Conservative Government. On the one hand there has just been a decisive purge of Tory Remainer Wets, on the other Boris Johnson’s Government at least initially is liable to be one of the most left-wing in Conservative Party history. Early signs are that …

The UK is now definitely going to leave the EU. What does this mean for an independent Scotland joining the EU? 1. Political union. Scotland would have to promise to accept the aims of the EU. The EU aims to achieve monetary, fiscal and political union. It might have been …

Politics is the continuation of war by other means is to rather mangle Clausewitz but expresses a truth that the SNP and most other Scots missed yesterday.  The SNP may have won a tactical victory, but they suffered a strategic defeat. The SNP goal of creating an independent Scotland, depends on …

It’s a UK General Election. What matters is who wins a UK majority. It doesn’t matter who wins in Devizes, nor does it matter who wins in East Antrim.  Clwyd West doesn’t get to choose which party leads us and who is our Prime Minister and nor does Na h-Eileanan an …

There is one thing that matters in politics above everything else. It matters more than Brexit. It matters more than economics. The only thing that really matters is keeping our country intact. The United Kingdom is our country. This is the way the word “country” is primarily used by everyone …

I remember seeing Alex Salmond sometime in 2017. He lives quite near me and it was common enough to see him around, but this time there was something different. He was locked out of his car. He was on his phone. He was trying to pull the door handles. He …

My first reaction to the announcement that we would have a General Election in December was to see whether it was possible to arrange a long holiday somewhere as far away as possible. The University of Almaty looked a more inviting prospect than Aberdeen’s granite turning ever more grey in …

Some independence supporting Scottish journalists and SNP politicians are attempting to portray the Scottish independence referendum as some sort of joyful, peaceful yearlong party. They contrast this with the referendum on the EU. But they are not comparing like with like. Worse there is a tendency to exaggerate on all …

Prior to the 2016 European Union Referendum I had certain assumptions about Britain, our laws and our politics. It was inconceivable to me that we would have an election and the result not be implemented. I couldn’t imagine Labour winning an election and somehow being prevented from forming a Government. …

There are only two issues of consequence in Scottish politics, Brexit and independence. I don’t follow what happens from day to day in the Scottish Parliament. In this, I strongly suspect, I am identical to the vast majority of Scots. Most Scots may want the Scottish Parliament but they are …

In 2015 I campaigned for the Lib Dems in Gordon. I signed up to the tactical voting campaign that some Pro UK people support. There was a graphic showing which party we should vote for in each constituency to keep the SNP out. The whole thing was chaotic. Labour, Lib …

Imagine if sometime in mid-2014 we had discovered that Alex Salmond had been accused of committing a serious crime in 2013. What sort of effect would this have had on the independence referendum? Imagine too if between the alleged crime and the summer of 2014 the SNP Government had made …

There is a conventional wisdom in Scotland about politics that everyone agrees on. It doesn’t much matter which party the Scottish establishment support, they still hold the same assumptions. The problem is that this same Scottish establishment has been wrong about everything ever since they came up with the idea …

It may be that we have reached a stage in Scotland where the whole debate about Scottish independence has gone beyond reason. Some people want independence come what may, just because they want it. There is a limit to the power of argument. People support political positions and then find …