Take Junction 3 off the road to Hell? That’s the choice ahead on lockdowns

NOW THAT we have satnav, it’s rare to feel the frustration of travelling in a car where the driver resolutely heads in the wrong direction despite being told repeatedly that ‘it’s the other way!’

Pros and cons of Trump’s Twitter termination

WHAT MUST it be like to be Donald John Trump at this very moment? Imagine, if you can; you have lost an election that you guaranteed you would win, have seen a mob organised in ...

Sturgeon and Freeman can’t hide their ducking of Covid care home inquiry

SINCE THE NEW LOCKDOWN measures came into force there have been murmurs from some MSPs about whether or not it would be wise to put the May Scottish Parliament elections on hold while Scotland gets ...

The SNP has failed Scotland’s Children

“Let me be clear – I want to be judged on this. If you are not, as First Minister, prepared to put your neck on the line on the education of our young people then ...

A Scottish currency? The economic choice is yours

THE ECONOMIST Milton Friedman once suggested the US Federal Reserve could be closed down and replaced with a money supply rule targeting the control of inflation.  

I have been contemplating this while ...

Will we really get back our sovereignty?

SOVEREIGNTY in the minds of the proverbial man on the Clapham omnibus is a simple concept. It is that as a country we are the sole determinant of the laws and regulations that govern our ...

The Brexit mission is largely accomplished, now the hard work begins

TEN YEARS AGO, it is questionable if the bookies would have even offered you odds on the UK leaving the European Union. The number of MP’s in Parliament supporting withdrawal, as opposed to nebulous moaning ...

The Covid train is Project Fear on steroids

WE NOW HAVE Project Fear on steroids in Scotland. Headlines shriek about the mutant virus as if it's an extraterrestrial invader. The First Minister parries questions from the Conservative and Labour leaders at Holyrood with ...

ThinkBooks: Poetry, politics and philosophy for self-preservation

TO MY SHAME I had never heard of Louise Glück, the 77-year-old American poet and essayist who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. But what a delicious discovery when I went online and found ...

Christmas – in spite of Covid (and our politicians)

SINCE COVID struck, we have become accustomed to a landscape of flattened affect. There have been waves of fear, glimmers of hope, myriad changes in advice and guidance and regulations, but the state of emergency ...

Fessin-up to being indy-curious – what’s changed?

FINDING OUT what motivates the ‘indy-curious’ – those who voted ‘No’ in the 2014 referendum but might change their minds if another vote were held – has become fashionable in Scottish politics. Recent opinion polls ...

Exporting animals for slaughter faces a ban – but not in Scotland

WHILE ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS will no doubt be praising Brexit for George Eustice’s announcement of plans to ban live animal exports for slaughter and fattening, I wouldn’t open the Champagne just yet.