Today's Thinking
Something to cheer about, but no cigar
By Catherine McBride OBE TWO CHEERS for Jonathan Reynolds, who has announced that he will not follow the EU and impose additional tariffs on imported
Catherine McBride
October 16, 2026
Is Burnham stupid – or does he know exactly what he’s doing?
PEOPLE OFTEN SAY to me ‘how can they be so stupid?’ They, of course, being the Government. It’s a good question and for a while
Ewen Stewart
October 2, 2026
Trump explains the use of national sovereignty to its enemies
At the United Nations, Trump noticed the noun rather than the adjective and laid out a foreign policy built on recovering the levers of the
Bepi Pezzulli
September 23, 2026
Labour’s Israel policy is blatant electoral pandering
THERE IS something almost admirable about the efficiency with which Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband have converted a modest trade restriction into a diplomatic crisis
Bepi Pezzulli
September 10, 2026
Think Politics
In Edinburgh, 777 seems more like 666
BUS LANE STORIES in the Edinburgh Evening News are like buses themselves. None come for ages then two or three turn up at once. Following
Iain Whyte
October 15, 2026
Labour has accepted mob rule in Northern Ireland
IN CHESS, a player is said to be in ‘zugzwang’ if every possible move he or she can make will result in a bad outcome.
Owen Polley
October 15, 2026
Drug deaths: How many more funerals before the system changes?
ANOTHER YEAR. Another set of drug death statistics. Another 1,133 human beings gone. Drug deaths in Scotland rose by 11 per cent in 2025, from
Annemarie Ward
September 23, 2026
Trams. The biggest and longest running story in Edinburgh
WE’VE HAD the huge cost overruns and delays on the half built original project. The millions of pounds and years spent by Lord Hardie examining
Iain Whyte
September 23, 2026
Think Culture
A new biography of Charles Darwin, a son of capitalism
In praise of unearned income THE WORLD owes to Darwin some ground-breaking insights into the history of life on earth. Mankind and its environment, he
Ian Mitchell
October 15, 2026
A magnificent obsession: Ian Mitchell’s Russia and the Rule of Law
THERE ARE BOOKS that inform, books that provoke, and books that fundamentally rearrange the furniture of one’s mind. Ian Mitchell’s Russia and the Rule of
Dominic Wightman
October 2, 2026
Dinnaken? 4RTR’s re-dedication of its Standard
THE OTHER WEEK I attended a moving and emotional service in the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh in which the Standard of the 4th Royal Tank
Stuart Crawford
October 2, 2026
70 Up! A story of Remainers and Exiteers
REMEMBER THAT TIME you were seven and you had a nightmare that a witch put a spell on you and you woke up in the
Dr Gail MacDonald
October 2, 2026
Think Business
Burnham’s supine loyalty to the EU will cost farmers dear
IT IS THE HEIGHT OF ABSURDITY that the UK Government argues that joining the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme will protect the UK’s exports – when
Catherine McBride
October 2, 2026
Scotland’s dependency culture cannot be denied and must change
THIS MAY SEEM a bit obvious but sometimes one needs to go back to basics such is the nature of the discourse of the ruling
Ewen Stewart
August 19, 2026
Six charts explaining Brexit outcomes accurately
Here is a selection of charts designed to challenge some of the shakier claims about the economic impacts of Brexit, including on the pound, investment,
Julian Jessop
July 10, 2026
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