Sturgeon’s grandstanding in the pandemic: it’s what she does

SCOTLAND’S FIRST MINISTER is a boundless talker.  Unfortunately for her there is only one inflection – boundless self-assertion. For five years she has used bluster and invective as the facts about how appallingly her administration performs ...

Indesit Proposal: we need to plan now for prolonged shutdowns

I HAVE BECOME the latest victim of the Coronavirus. I'm perfectly well though, not remotely infected, but my ancient Indesit washing machine has decided just now to silently leave this world, like tears in rain, ...

Dangerous decision by Sturgeon needs to be challenged

THE ESTABLISHMENT by Nicola Sturgeon of a separate Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) from that of the Prime Minister is a desperately worrying decision. The obvious thing to say first is that Dr Catherine ...

To protect our medics and nurses they need prophylaxis

WE ARE TWO MONTHS into the world's most significant pandemic in decades. In terms of public concern only HIV struck as deep to the heart of the British people in this way. COVID19 is huge ...

2020 vision has blindsided Unionists - Indy crowd silence is not peace and will not last

HOPE SPRINGS eternal and the gushing of praise laid at the feet of Evita Sturgeon by unionist parties is irritating to many who realise the fight against an idea immune to logic has no rest, ...

Undogmatic about America: How to write about the place without arrogance or cliches

A review of: Bruno Maçães, History has Begun, London: Hurst & Co, 2020

BOOKS FROM European authors which seek to lecture, condemn or ridicule America are legion. In the epoch of Donald Trump ...

Please don’t screw-up Edinburgh’s film future, support the Filmhouse plans

AS MUCH AS it may upset regular readers to hear, Think Scotland is not the only place that you can find my semi-regular cinematic musings. Occasionally, when I’m quick enough off the mark to bagsy ...

Fear and loathing in Lesmahagow: nationalists are on an ether binge

SOMETIMES we can only know in hindsight how significant events have been. Not just events but eras too. Crescendos of logos, ethos and pathos that follow one another. That there is something inherently wrong, that ...

England deserves better from Scotland

ONE OF THE MOST PERPLEXING outcomes of the ‘These Islands’ conference (first discussed here on 24 February) was the condescension or impatience displayed towards England.  England’s poorer regions have made no objections to large ...

Labour has forgotten nothing and learned nothing about its demise in Scotland

I WAS NOT FORTUNATE ENOUGH to attend the conference held by These Islands on the future of Scotland and the Union. Sometimes browsing the media can, however, be informative in a way being on the ...

First Minister’s Questions Bingo

RETIRED, unemployed, just too lazy to get out of bed, or a Scottish government civil servant with time on your hands until lunchtime? Relax! Here’s a fun game all the family can play every Thursday ...

Saying no to #indyref2 allows us to say Yes to so much more

IT TOOK SIX MONTHS from the General Election in April 1992 before the Major government imploded on Black Wednesday. Astonishingly, in just six short weeks since December's General Election, Scotland's SNP government looks beleaguered and ...