Today's Thinking
When Makerfield votes, it will choose the UK’s future
BY-ELECTIONS are straws in the wind – a side-show that cannot change the Government of the UK, but give people a free hit to express
Jonathan Thunderbridge
June 4, 2026
The elephant is still in the SNP’s room
Peter Murrell, collective denial, and the reckoning Scotland hasn’t had THE SOCIOLOGIST Eviatar Zerubavel observed that denial is never merely a personal act. It is
Dean M Thomson
June 3, 2026
Is the SNP’s cash flow management a cover for false accounting?
First published on 17 June 2021 WHEN Nicola Sturgeon was pressed by an STV journalist for comment on swirling allegations of a missing £600,000 independence
Dean M Thomson
May 26, 2026
How the Scottish Government has nationalised the voluntary sector
FOR YEARS in Scotland we have been told the third sector is the beating heart of civil society. Volunteers. Campaigners. Stakeholders. Independent voices speaking truth
Jonathan Stanley
May 20, 2026
Think Politics
Murrell’s Tartan Special Brew is more than Bad Manners
THE ADMISSION of embezzlement by the leader of House Murrell compounds a resignation across Scotland that the SNP has some serious issues with integrity. It
Jonathan Stanley
June 4, 2026
Pop goes Sturgeon: downfall of a myopic autocrat
First published on 18 February 2023 The following article is an addition to a chapter on Nicola Sturgeon by Tom Gallagher in light of recent
Tom Gallagher
May 26, 2026
Do our politicians really understand poverty?
THERE IS A CERTAIN TYPE of person in politics, media and public life who genuinely believes they understand poverty because they have read reports about
Audrey Dempsey
May 26, 2026
Do the British people REALLY want to rejoin the EU?
HEADLINES from recent opinion polls suggest that a majority of Brits now want to reverse Brexit. But a deeper dive shows that this support is
Julian Jessop
May 20, 2026
Think Culture
In the league of India’s rulers, the British appear benign
An interesting account of the long history of the Indian sub-continent WRITING OF THE FIRST European conquest in India, Audrey Truschke says in her fascinating
Ian Mitchell
June 3, 2026
Let Scotland showcase the UK’s Eurovision entry
FOR YEARS, the United Kingdom has approached the Eurovision Song Contest with a strange mixture of nostalgia, embarrassment and resignation. We joke about “nul points”,
Jonathan Stanley
May 26, 2026
The dangerous uselessness of bureaucratically-minded politicians
Nevil Shute’s experience of Air Ministry incompetence in the crucial 1930s, focussing on the R 101 disaster MANY OF THOSE who enjoyed either reading or
Ian Mitchell
May 12, 2026
Oranges are not the only marmalade
AS THE UK re-aligns itself with EU food regulations (like 2016 never happened) marmalade is being relabelled. Marmalade to the Spanish and Italians can come from
Dr Gail MacDonald
April 11, 2026
Think Business
With party finances – as with everything – the fish rots from the head down
First published on 22 March 2021 WHEN WRITING about the ongoing saga in Bute House it is difficult to know when and where to begin.
Jonathan Stanley
May 26, 2026
Dumping EU regulations on the UK will not boost our growth
The Bank of England Governor ought to understand this. NOT SO LONG AGO, the head of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said of EU financial
Catherine McBride
May 26, 2026
Do the British people REALLY want to rejoin the EU?
HEADLINES from recent opinion polls suggest that a majority of Brits now want to reverse Brexit. But a deeper dive shows that this support is
Julian Jessop
May 20, 2026
Debunked! The dodgy stats used by Project Rejoin
A cut-out-and-keep summary of the claims most commonly made about the harm that Brexit has supposedly done to UK GDP, their sources, their methodology and
Julian Jessop
May 13, 2026