The SNP: How to lose voters and offend people

A CRITICISM many of my SNP colleagues have fired my way during this local election campaign is that in our election literature and in our message, The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party has been, well; ...

Scotland is not a colony – and the UK is not an Empire

ALEX SALMOND wishes to inform us that “the days of the British Empire are over, and the days of British prime ministers denying self-determination to the Scottish people are over as well.” 

Teflon coating wearing thin on non-stick Nicola

IT WAS a bad week for the SNP last week. What should have been a period of grandstanding and tub-thumping glory, after many years of carefully steering the agenda back to the notion of independence, ...

Bringing democracy back to local government

THERE IS a pressing need to abolish the current funding structure of local government.  In particular more democratic control is needed over the spending rather than over the raising of taxes.

The dismantling and clearing out ...

End of term report by Midlothian East Independent Councillor Peter de Vink

What is life like on an SNP-run council? This end of term report from retiring Councillor Peter de Vink (pictured) sheds some light on the difficulties of being an independent and putting your ...

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It’s official – Sturgeon doesn’t speak for Scotland

IT IS THE QUESTION that has haunted the Scottish Conservatives for some three decades: how to make a Conservative Prime Minister popular with the Scottish people? Ever since the days of Margaret Thatcher, who despite ...

The Zero Option: repairing local government's afflictions

LOCAL GOVERNMENT in Britain, both north and south of the border, has always been afflicted by three apparently insoluble problems:  (a) to devise an efficient, equitable system of funding between the institution and the electorate, (b) ...

Standing in solidarity with London means standing in solidarity with democracy

LAST WEEK our country witnessed the horrors of terrorism as it once again reared its ugly head on the streets of London.

Reports thus far point towards a so-called Islamic State inspired ...

John Swinney must stop digging and climb out of the hole

SOMETIMES, but unfortunately too rarely, the wall of dissembling bluster in public policy evaporates.  You never know quite why or when, but the general incentive that develops is that the political risk of digging an ...