Six is not a number it is arbitrary and dystopian

WE ARE NOW officially living under the Rule of Six. The police are charged to enforce it. In Scotland, more than six people (not counting children under 12) from a maximum of two households are ...

It’s time for Scottish unionists to oppose nationalism

I HAVE been selected as the prospective candidate for the Westminster constituency seat of Airdrie & Shotts by the Scottish Unionists. I expect there to be a by-election in the coming months. 

The Scottish Government has no levers – just knobs

THE ANNUAL PANTOMIME over the GERS report has produced its usual storm of conflicting statistical commentary. I won’t add to that fruitless numbers game, but right-minded folk do need to question the claims that more ...

Nicola Sturgeon: a dud who sparkles in fraudulent times

ONE OF THE CURRENT TRUISMS is that Nicola Sturgeon is supremely good at politics. The most visible figures in the political commentariat, such as Kenny Farquharson, Chris Deerin, and Alex Massie volubly assert this ...

Sturgeon’s PPBs must be called out and called off

WE ARE being taken for mugs. There can be no other description of it. There was at the start justification for having a daily public briefing. Beamed and streamed to our homes and phones from ...

2040 – A Scottish dystopia

IT’S 6.00 AM, you awake from your sleeping pod, in your communal accommodation, blurry-eyed to the sounds of ‘Scots Wha Hae! playing on the alarm app on your phone. You languidly roll over to press ...

Scottish Tories must emerge from life support soon to make any difference

RECENT MONTHS have left me more despondent about Scottish politics than ever before. No doubt the ennui and oppression of lockdown, endured in what has felt increasingly like a one-party state, has played its part.

The First Minister has climbed ever higher in the ...

Trigger warning: we are not an effing amusement park

THERE IS SOMETHING special about the British seaside, be it in Orkney or Skeggy. It's the only place you catch crabs and be thankful, because the UK has abundant fish stocks and seaside humour is ...

Political narcissism always eats itself - the SNP will be no different

THREE OF THE WORST regimes of the last century were dominated by narcissist leaders who while red in tooth and claw were very astute in wrapping themselves in their respective national memories. 

Romania ...

Scottish Conservatives need a leader to take the fight to Sturgeon – not make swipes at colleagues

I TAKE NO PLEASURE whatsoever in writing this article. I have been an approved Conservative candidate since 2011 and a committed campaigner with the party for many years prior to that,

I ...

The SNP don’t get to pick and choose the causes we believe in

HOW CONFIDENT would you be to go against the grain in Sturgeon’s Scotland? What if you said something mildly controversial? Or flippantly shared a meme on social media? You’d be lying if you said ...

Housing policy? Build them and they will come

A LONG TERM consequence of the Covid-19 crisis will be increasing numbers of people working from home. On wee wet and windy isles like ours, where is home? Where should it be?