The NHS needs radical reform – this is how I'd start

FOR TOO LONG the NHS has been treated as an institution instead of a service. The reason politicians do this is because by definition institutions are owned by the establishment ...

How to change Scotland's small towns – avoid big government

SOME YEARS AGO I was asked at a meeting of local councillors how we could revive Scotland’s small towns. At the time, I had to admit that I did not know, but for some time ...

Never mind the facts, feel the faux indignation

IN A SHORT but devastatingly effective speech in the House of Commons on Monday the MP for Moray, Douglas Ross, expertly dispelled the torrent of lies that has spewed forth from the volcanic crater of ...

Ian Blackford rode a pantomime horse to battle

THE SNP can always be relied upon to resort to grudge-laden media stunts when things don't go its way. Its politicians’ lack of respect for democracy and accountability at Holyrood rode south to London yesterday.

The Euro, Brexit and everything about the EU is political, not economic

THERE HAVE been many warnings about the future of the Euro, but so far it has survived the many shocks and crisis it has faced. Now the economic and political challenges from Italy presents its ...

Enjoy the sun but don't rely on wind turbines for your power

MOST OF THE UK has seen ten days of ideal summer weather, with a settled anticyclone producing little rain and daytime temperatures consistently in the range 20-25C.  It may be the holiday season, but industry and ...

Three cheers for the bus!

AS ALL of my friends are only too well aware, the current love of my life is my “free” bus pass. Being of a certain age, I am eligible for this little liberating square of ...

Enough of the fishy business, our trawlermen do not need Europe

THERE WAS a sorry show this week in Brussels and Holyrood. The blue team again played the old game of slamming the Nats – and the rest – for voting in the European Parliament against ...

Brexit Sound and Fury? Expect more of it

HOW JUSTIFIED was my last article in its lordly dismissal of current attempts to derail Brexit as “sound and fury”? My read is that it was bang on the money. 

Consider the ...

The Gaza Strip, Ulster and The Troubles

NOBODY can have been anything other than deeply troubled by events along the Gaza/Israel border recently. There is nothing uplifting in the sight of seemingly unarmed civilians being shot as they protest against as what ...

Did the Church of Scotland just dodge a climate change bullet?

YESTERDAY, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland debated a motion on the subject of climate change and, more specifically, how quickly to divest themselves of investments in fossil fuels. 

In ...

Is environmental damage in the eye of the beholder?

OVER more than a decade the Scientific Alliance has tried to provide a voice of reason on some important matters, often being critical of mainstream environmentalism, but hopefully supported by evidence. When it comes to ...