Opposing the false assertions of the statists will make us all better off

I HAVE STARTED to read the Guardian; lucky me, but my journalism tutor always said we should “read the opposition” and not sit in the comfort of our own silo for ideas. 

Leaving ...

Can we have a real Scottish Conservative approach to migration please?

WELL THAT DID NOT LAST VERY LONG did it? Less than a week after being elected leader Jackson Carlaw’s ruddy red face is on show with his disdain at his Conservative Government’s migration plan with his aids ...

When it comes to exports it’s the cash flow, stupid

A RECENT VISIT to South East Asia prompts in me a policy challenge. Now that Scotland is freed from the burdens of the EU’s protectionist trade stance, and ignoring SNP posturing, how do we use ...

National Conservatism has the progressive left in its sights

I HAVE JUST RETURNED brimming with optimism from my first ever National Conservative conference at the Grand Plaza Hotel in Rome. As the research director of the Bow Group, one of the events main sponsors, ...

Regulating regulation now that we have left the EU

EARLY SIGNS suggest that the EU is hoping to play hardball in negotiations over regulation; its negotiators are clearly hell-bent on restricting competition from us.  We have to hope the UK will seize the opportunity to ...

How Attenborough’s arctic claims cause eco angst and activism

SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH is a highly respected and influential broadcaster. He is undoubtedly a British national treasure – but with an international following. It is therefore all the more vital that the scripts he uses ...

Will British corporatism replace EU mercantilism?

WE ENTER the decade (no pedantry please about when decades kick in) in new political conditions: it’s not so much a Tory government with a healthy majority for the first time in 23 years and ...

The importance of a university Business Committee

YOU MAY NOT have heard of it but the University of Edinburgh’s General Council consists of graduates, academic staff and members of the supreme governing body of the university, the University Court:

Beware the “level playing field”– it is a dangerous myth

WE ARE GOING to hear a lot about “level playing fields” in the upcoming months of EU negotiation.  Consumers should beware; what sounds like a sentiment for fairness ends up being precisely the opposite. 

Changing Scotrail franchise solves nothing

AS WE APPROACH the busy festive period, I know that the everyday frustration felt by commuters, tourists and businesses when another train is cancelled or delayed will only be exaggerated in the coming weeks. And ...

Getting Brexit done - until the next extension?

YOU CANNOT GET AWAY from the Conservative slogan: Get Brexit Done. In newspapers, on television and radio, on social media, it is everywhere. But what does ‘Get Brexit Done’ actually mean? In the famous words ...

Corbynomics takes the mickey out of rational expectations

THE OTHER DAY I got a startled look from a Lib Dem canvasser at my door when I suggested that I was not minded to vote for yet another socialist party.  Clearly, the twenty-something activist ...