How the Brexit interregnum becomes a roller-coaster

UNTIL TUESDAY 23 JULY when the Tories announce their decision, we are stuck in an interregnum. May’s spending commitments have scant purchase upon her successor; her ribbon-cutting on the world stage counts for similarly round ...

Exposing the truth about Scottish exports

SORRY, but we need to talk about Scottish exports. The stuff we throw over our border is being used by all political parties to bounce us into supporting their positions on Brexit. Project fear is ...

Austerity? How the SNP holds back Westminster funding

AS THE CHANCES of a no-deal Brexit on October 31st grow inexorably, COSLA, the Council of Scottish Local Authorities, has just announced that the Scottish Government is awarding £1.6 million to councils for “resilience work” ...

The Channel 4 debate and Brexit

POSSIBLY YOU SAW last night’s “empty chair” Punch and Judy show, visited upon us by the ambitions of the reliably reach-exceeding-grasp programmers of Channel Four and the desperation of the Tory also-rans? It made me ...

Boris Johnson's West End Tax is a menace to Conservatism and the Union

THE TORY LEADERSHIP contest is well under way. It could well be an episode of The Magic Roundabout given the surfeit of drug-fuelled characters.

First there's that bloke on coke Michael Gove. Then ...

Venezuela’s tragedy: Shortages are a feature of the system, not a design bug

DESPITE A NEAR-TOTAL economic collapse and against expectations, the Chavista regime in Venezuela endures. How so? 

In a centrally planned economy, the ruling class can use goods in short supply as a ...

May's trashing of Davidson's strategy makes attacks on Brexit Party look facile

IN COMMON with the UK Conservative Party, the Scottish Conservatives have not issued a manifesto for tomorrow’s EU election. Campaigning on the ground by the Conservatives has been virtually non-existent in Scotland, as if party ...

Is there a way for the Tory Party to avoid oblivion?

THE LOG-JAM IS BREACHED. We may take it that May’s indicative votes will be pulled or have no effect on Parliamentary sentiment; and that she will lose her second reading. No-one has a motive to ...

Econonsense – perfect employers produce imperfect services

A GOOD FRIEND of mine has just resigned from a public service job.  In doing so, the organisation she worked for has lost a talent with a wealth of experience.

The reasons for ...

We are left with a narrow path and a steep hill to achieve Brexit

THE LAST THREE YEARS have been a disagreeable voyage of discovery, leaving the nation sadder and wiser, in particular as to the failings of half-hearted negotiation. To repeat my last post, our diplomats set no ...

Fuel poverty set to rise by forcing electricity over cheaper gas

WE HAVE JUST learned something of the human cost of the government’s increasingly absurd energy policies. It’s not a pretty story. Buried in depths of a rather obscure statistical report, the Department for Business, Energy ...

Hold fast and hold the line to defend liberty and democracy

FISHING FOR LEAVE’S PRIMARY CAUSE has always been the repatriation of our fishing waters from EU management, and a rejuvenation of our coastal communities through enactment of new policy that this will allow.