A Spectacular election approaches in Spain

AFTER THE RESTORATION of democracy in 1977, the first thirty years of competitive politics in Spain was a two-horse race. The Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE) under the moderate Felipe Gonzales and the centre-right Popular ...

How can the Scots Tories capitalise on their success and win power at Holyrood?

As the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party considers its policy options, Tom Miers continues his three-part look at what might be possible and suggests a European ‘Christian Democrat’ approach to public service reform.

Review: The Lego Movie 2

WHEN THE EDITOR of ThinkScotland asked me to review The Lego Movie 2, he added that we are fortunate enough to attract a readership that includes a fair number of parents. The point of this aside was ...

The Accounts Commission and Scottish Government are condoning local council waste and largesse

OVER 150 DAYS ON from revealing results of a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests aimed at obtaining a detailed breakdown of all 32 Scottish local councils’ wasteful spending on building and running their ...

Climate thoughts for today's schoolchildren

YOU PROBABLY don’t need me to tell you this. You or members of your extended family are the ones who go to school, not me.

There are subjects with a right and ...

Closure of Newlands College damns SNP education policy

THE RECENT CLOSURE of Newlands Junior College on the south side of Glasgow is not only very disheartening but also sends out a strong message about what is wrong with the current education system in ...

The Mummy Diaries: Two babies – Week 35

WHAT’S WORSE than toilet training a toddler and taking care of an eight-month-old baby with a cold?

Having a husband with a sore back, that’s what. 

It all started ...

Westminster Brexit arithmetic: So now we know

DOESN'T IT just get your goat? All those reminders of Lyndon Johnson’s good ol’ boy throwaway that politicians need first to know how to count. But then again, his homespun shrewdness fairly does bear down ...

Anti-Social Behaviour and how we can combat it

IN PARLIAMENT, my colleagues and I spend a lot of time discussing high profile crimes. However, we rarely discuss anti-social behavior, which can have a major impact on the quality of peoples’ lives; the cohesion ...

It’s not just the backstop: Fishing should not be in the Withdrawal Agreement

THE ABHORRENCE over the backstop in the Withdrawal Agreement misses the point that much of what’s left of Britain’s fishing industry won’t survive the proposed “transition” or “implementation” period it is designed to establish. Fishing ...

This is not striking, this is political grooming by the Greens

THEY'RE AT IT AGAIN. There is something about the left that means they cannot resist trying to interfere with other people's children. Especially those adults who have none of their own. 

Conditioning a ...

It's not just the backstop: UK Defence should not be in the Withdrawal Agreement

WHILE MOST DEBATE over the draft UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement has revolved around the so-called “backstop” ensuring no hard border is created in Ireland, the sections that seek to tie the UK into the EU’s military ...