First do no harm – An open letter from health professionals and scientists to the UK Prime Minister & First Ministers of the home nations

An open letter signed by nearly 500 health professionals and scientists has been sent to the Boris Johnson, Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford. The letter, entitled “First do no harm” – the medical principle that ...

Michele Ballantyne’s resignation highlights Scottish Tory blues

REMEMBER that heady time after Better Together when Ruth Davidson seemed to be leading a Scottish Conservative renaissance, throwing off the crusty old image of Scottish Tories as Westminster lackeys and delivering one breathtaking election ...

Scotland needs direct democracy not an authoritarian leader

THE TIMES REPORTED last year that increasing numbers of young people want a strong leader. Two thirds of younger voters are in favour of “strongman leaders” prepared to defy parliament. A quarter believe that democracy is ...

The India Cross – pandering to imperialism or apologising for the truth?

FROM A MORAL PERSPECTIVE, empire, which by definition implies conquest, can never be justified. Yet for most of world history empire was the normal mode of government and under different names it still exists today. Historians ...

No region of Scotland should be dragged out of Britain against its will

THE 2014 INDYREF required only a Scotland-wide simple majority of valid votes cast.  If there were to be a repeat an IndyRef2 should, conversely, require a simple majority of the registered electorate.

In ...

New defence spending has the potential to revive British shipbuilding

CREDIT where credit is due. The predicted announcement by Boris Johnson that the UK will launch its largest investment in defence since the Cold War, with a call to end an “era of retreat”, and ...

It is time to call out the Scottish Government’s Voodoo Data

WHAT IS WRONG with Scotland? For many ThinkScotland readers, the short answer will be nationalism and/or the SNP. But even if the SNP weren’t running Scotland, would we really be alright? Would the rest of ...

Scotland’s Brexit must seize opportunities like fishing and CANZUK

WHILE COVID-19 appears to impact primarily the old and those with pre-existing health problems, the long-term ramifications of lockdowns will disproportionately impact the young. This week we learned that the UK unemployment rate rose by ...

Would you really put yourself ‘in for a penny….’?

IF ONE THING has bedevilled the SNP’s Scexit campaign, it is the currency issue. Losing the pound Sterling was one of the greatest concerns in 2014 among those who voted No to leaving the UK. 

The evidence does not lie – the SNP is bad for your health

I VOTED FOR DEVOLUTION in 1997 from a sense of Scottishness and because I thought bringing decision making closer to home would improve our public services. But Scotland has never been so divided and unhappy ...

In defence of David Hume

IN HIS PLAY, “The Crucible”, Arthur Miller has the protagonist John Proctor, say the following,         

"We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the ...

How we found 93 per cent of No voters would like to vote tactically to defeat the SNP

TWO YEARS AGO a few Aberdeen City and Shire Better Together veterans, including the two chairmen Ian Lakin and Professor Hugh Pennington (better known as Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid bête noire) got together to create Scotland Matters.