It's conference season and the big question is "Deal or No Deal?"

IT'S THE MOST wonderful time of the political calendar. Party conferences are but once a year. Where politicians air their dirty laundry, where budget plans are washed up, where the under-21s make a discernible case for ...

The GP crisis in Scotland - and the Minister that won't show face

BACK IN 2016 the British Medical Association called for urgent action to tackle a number of problems in Scotland’s NHS. Instead, investment in GP services has fallen from 9.8  per cent of NHS Scotland’s spending ...

Drunk on self-importance, the EU is falling apart

WELL, WHAT A WEEK that was. Catalonia has brought to a head a fundamental question. When a nation is not sovereign, what right does it have to become so?

Is ...

Yes, Germany can be proud of its soldiers too

I WAS DELIGHTED to see Alternativ fuer Deutschland do so well. Over the moon in fact. It brought out three issues about Germany we all love to not discuss.

The ...

Scotland's transport Minister on a road to nowhere

TRANSPORT is one of those quiet but emotive subjects in politics. Nothing much is said when it runs smoothly but all hell breaks loose when it doesn’t.

The opening of the impressive Queensferry ...

Crime and punishment? The SNP is the real offender

THERE HAS BEEN a great deal of negative focus recently on the effectiveness of shorter prison sentences – but what if that criticism is misdirected against a failure of prison itself, and instead should be ...

Porridge to Catalonia! SNP position mirrors Madrid not Barcelona

EFFIE DEANS makes some brilliant contributions to ThinkScotland. She dissects nationalism into those based on people and territory, and those that look outward and inwards.

The UK, France and USA are ...

There is no power grab – except that practised by the SNP

THERE HAS BEEN a constant carping from nationalists in the last few weeks that the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill represents a “power grab” – that it shall take powers away from the Scottish Parliament. This ...

Electric only cars by 2032? A silly idea just got sillier...

THE IDEA that all cars in Britain should be fully electric by 2040, a relatively short space of time for developing a huge and expensive national infrastructure, is so silly and potentially damaging that it ...

How to make Scotland unsafe and open to violence

THE WAY Nicola Sturgeon talks about criminals sentenced to several months in prison, you’d think every single one of them was merely a victim of circumstance.

The lie constantly pushed by the ...

Managerial socialism: just about managing

EMBEDDED in the life of many politicians is a need to boost their prowess in managing the economy, creating future visions of prosperity and advance.  But to what extent is this simply puffery and vote buying ...

Private schools are Scotland’s ‘hidden export’

THE BARCLAY REPORT into non-domestic rates has recommended that private schools should be brought fully into the business rates system. Hitherto exempt because of their charitable status, the proposed change means that the independent sector ...