Wrong assumptions lose political campaigns

ASSUMPTIONS. In politics, as in life itself, if you make the wrong assumptions then you will come a cropper; you will make a mistake, a misjudgement and you will be found out. The best thing ...

Outside the Customs Union the Brexit Diet will be the healthiest yet

IMAGINE IF there was just one decision you could take that would make you healthier. Just one moment on one day that would change everything.

Imagine a country where the incidence of ...

The ‘Pay More, Get Less’ Budget

THE CHOREOGRAPHY was worthy of The Greatest Showman, P.T. Barnum. Just two hours before Derek Mackay was due to stand up in the Scottish Parliament Chamber to present the Budget Bill at Stage 1, it ...

Put Out More Flags

FlAGS HAVE long been emotive emblems. From 1789 and throughout the nineteenth century, the warring sides in France were recognisable by their respective flags, the fleur-de-lys for conservative, clerical monarchists and the blue-white-red tricolour for ...

Losing the news on the flag saga was a loss for unionism's credibility

SOMETIMES THE MEDIA gives us beautiful souls in the form of characters who mysteriously shape the news. The Thick of It, House of Cards gave us Malcolm Tucker and Francis Uruquart. Ruthless, devious, fine tuners ...

The tragic tale of “Tankie Dan”

MANY FOLK will have been as shocked and saddened as I was to learn of the death of ex-soldier Darren “Dan” Greenfield in Edinburgh just before Christmas.

Dan (as he called himself) ...

Advocating change in the NHS is tricky surgery

THREE THINGS are sure in life: death, taxes – and fury at taxes that delay death. No one likes paying tax and no one likes the idea of paying for their healthcare. Such is Britain. ...

SNP fail: When a surcharge turns out to be a subsidy

SOME SNP politicians have been kicking off lately about a so-called surcharge that electricity consumers face in the North of Scotland. As is so often the case with claims about energy costs, ...

Book Review: Fire and Fury reveals how three tribes go to war

MICHAEL WOLFF’S Fire and Fury supercharges conventional views of the forty-fifth President with excited goss from a fractured White House. Wolff’s sourcing is broad, but close reading reveals its imperfections – the closer you get to ...

Free lunch politics means taxes versus freedom

IMAGINE YOU RUN a company and are planning your forward budget. Unlike a government, revenues are not guaranteed, so what you decide is important not just for your success but for your very survival. Being ...

MacKay’s smoke and mirrors budget masks SNP economic failure

IT WAS ALMOST as if Derek MacKay had been taking lessons from George Osborne.  The former Conservative Chancellor had a particular approach to Budget statements – a summary of economic data, a plethora of spending ...

Time to clamp down on parking cowboys

I AM SURE that there are few of us who have not had the experience of being hit with a parking ticket. Usually, we accept that it is our own fault. We overstayed our welcome ...