Has the hour of the SNP’s circular firing squad finally arrived?

AS SHE FACES a showdown this week with the man whom she bizarrely turned on after he placed her on the path to political stardom, Nicola Sturgeon is fighting for survival on multiple fronts.

Financial nationalism means being closed, financial patriotism requires being open

MANY PEOPLE get upset when a company established in Scotland or the UK is sold to a foreign investor, even if there is no loss of jobs or investment. They often demand the government must ...

The Mummy Diaries – “I’ve had enough of this pandemix – I’m off to Gwannies!”

IS THERE finally light at the end of the tunnel? I know that whatever the government decides to do, they are damned either way, but I for one am glad they are taking the ‘go ...

How well has the UK Government performed since it was elected?

BORIS JOHNSON was elected in December 2019 for a variety of reasons. One was undoubtedly to “get Brexit done.” But there were many other reasons why Johnson won.  I would wager an important one was not ...

Scotland’s best growth industry under the SNP – POVERTY!

THE SNP HAS FAILED to tackle poverty in Scotland, which has become appreciably worse under the Salmond-Sturgeon administrations. While poverty rates had been steadily declining in Scotland for many years, once the SNP took over ...

Why Ireland's economic model doesn't help Scottish separatism

MUCH OF the Republic of Ireland’s support for the EU in recent Brexit negotiations was smothered in barely disguised Anglophobia. 

A feature of this was the promotion of a healthy and wealthy ...

Musings of a Real Tank Commander – Part 27 Baghdad retreat, battlefield booty and boredom

FOR ME AT LEAST, the first Gulf War stopped at 0800 hours local time on 28th February 1991. The Iraqis had now collapsed completely and were streaming back north to Baghdad, and it had got ...

Why have SNP MPs nominated a forced labour programme for the Nobel Peace Prize?

IS IT POSSIBLE to find a more unsuitable candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize than a forced labour programme of a communist state that is used to fund its efforts to repress its own citizenry ...

The danger of delusion in political posturing: Part one – World Government

I WAS ASKED recently by a publisher to review a manuscript on the theory of international relations. Its author used a comparison of the ideas of the two Renaissance Florentine writers and near contemporaries, Machiavelli ...

Flags, more flags, everyone’s flags – except our own

FLAGS have long been emotive emblems. From 1789 and throughout the nineteenth century, the warring sides in France were recognisable by their respective flags, the fleur-de-lys for conservative, clerical monarchists and the blue-white-red tricolour for ...

How Scotch beer prospered under the Union – and still can

FROM THE ISLE OF MAN to Edinburgh to Brussels and back I've been getting the hang of brewing strong balanced malty ales. Having worked in Brussels I had the full choice of Belgium's beer to ...

Scotland Matters means taking the message to the people

“IT’S JIST GREAT to see folk coming round wi’ oor side’s leaflets son”. So said an old woman in Brickfield, Stonehaven, a few weeks before the referendum in 2014. She had been bombarded by Yes ...