Tag Archives: SNP

As the report of Lord Heseltine showed, the essence of Britain’s energy through the Industrial Revolution was devolved decision-making at city level. The great town halls and classical architecture of many of our cities owe much to the deep-seated civic pride of Victorian industrialists. It is not only in Scotland …

Again, the country has never been asked. Is Great Britain any less a nation than Scotland, Wales or England? Does Great Britain not have a clear identity – clear enough to this writer at least as will be discussed later – with a long (300 years is a reasonable chunk …

Consent for The Vow? Of course none of this would have happened had the UK political establishment remotely expecte Scotland to vote for independence or come anywhere close to it. Great Britain paid a heavy price for this naivety. Not for the first time, the desire to do what is …

In 2007, the SNP took power in Scotland, forming a minority government. Their leader, Alex Salmond, proved to be a persuasive and powerful First Minister. The Scots liked it. The Scots had a respected voice and stronger identity. The Labour alternative (the Conservatives remained largely anathema to Scottish voters), had had their chance …

On June 23rd 2016 one of the most important political events, certainly in recent British political history, occurred when the best part of 34 million British citizens went to the polls to vote in a referendum. This was no ordinary referendum. It had been promised to the people of Great …

In the twenty years that followed the 1992 general election, debate on the constitutional framework of the country and ultimately on the Scottish independence referendum was conveniently limited to “The UK”, “the Union” or “the United Kingdom” but not “Great Britain”. This was new. As we shall see below, the …

Turns out that pooling their strength and holding hands beneath a big progressive rainbow will not help Britain’s left-wing parties get back into power after all. What a shame. Remember the Great British Progressive Majority, that overwhelmingly large (yet always infuriatingly hidden) bloc of centre-leftish voters who together wielded the …

I posted on this site, after the Scottish Independence Referendum and UK’s 2015 General Election that Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon should ‘wind her neck in’.  That she had a sense of her own and her country’s importance to the United Kingdom which is far in excess of reality. Before …

A week after the referendum result, the political landscape has changed. The United Kingdom now has the opportunity to remodel itself as an outward looking nation, free of the constraints of policies decided at an EU level. It would seem that the only constraint now is our own political system. …

Winning the referendum was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’ve been fighting for Brexit for a long time and winning was one the grandest of satisfactions. I see fantastic opportunities for the post-Brexit United Kingdom. However, before those Brexit opportunities are realised we need to address the …

The threat of a second Scottish Independence Referendum (IndyRef2), coming about as a result of the Brexit vote in the UK-wide EU Membership Referendum, is fallacy. It’s spin.  It’s deceitful.  It’s divisive.  It’s complete nonsense. There is no way we are either going to see a second Scottish Independence Referendum, …

The SNP’s failure to win an overall majority in Holyrood was a setback for them and their cause. It will be very hard indeed for Scottish nationalists to push for a second independence referendum in the next five years. Importantly, in the present context, this is the case even if …

What do you think is the life expectancy for a 21st century Scot?  According to official statistics,  the latest averages are 77.1 years for a man and 81.1 years for a woman. What about a ‘generation’.  How many years do you think that might be?  I reckon somewhere between 25 …

2015 was a great and monumental year for British politics. My top ten biggest stories for the year are as follows: The Conservatives winning a majority at the general election. Lynton Crosby did a fantastic job at properly framing the stakes for the British people- that Ed Miliband-led Labour was weak …

If you could replay May and June 1940, I think, nine times out of ten Britain would emerge defeated. If our armies had been destroyed at Dunkirk, we would have surrendered. It took an unlikely combination of German incompetence and something approaching a miracle that this did not occur. The …

When did the SNP last support a war? Was it in 1314 or was it in 1745? They certainly didn’t support “England’s war” in 1939, nor as far as I recall have they supported any war since. Nicola Sturgeon might have pretended that she would listen to the arguments made …

Too many British citizens at the moment are focusing on what divides us rather than what unites us.