What’s the real story of Covid-19 in Scotland?

WE ARE LIVING in extraordinary times. Whatever your view of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting mitigation strategies undertaken by governments worldwide, there has never been a time when governments had such wide-ranging control over ...

What a difference a decade makes thanks to the separatists

IT IS DIFFICULT NOW to remember what life in Scotland was like a decade or so ago. Part of this is because of the Coronavirus, but, even before it struck us this year, there were ...

Alex Salmond's imperious reign leaves independence denied

THOMAS JEFFERSON’S Declaration of Independence ran to 1,320 words. Alex Salmond’s equivalent, his 26 November 2013 white paper, entitled ‘A Better Future’, which outlined his vision of Scottish independence, ran to 670 ...

A rogue media is driving Britain towards territorial strife

THE COLUMNIST at Unherd Ari Roussinos made a startling prediction recently. It concerned the not unlikely possibility of Scottish nationalists seeking a confrontation with the London government in order to try and end “Westminster rule” in Scotland. 

Scotland’s Covid restrictions – where are the Holyrood rebels?

LAST WEEK I wrote a piece decrying the lack of any contrary voices in Scotland regarding Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid strategy, including her love of lockdown restrictions and her dodgy use of data. For particular disappointment, ...

How do we solve the threat to devolution?

I BELIEVE a simple one paragraph Act of Parliament to tidy up the Scotland Act would ensure the devolution we voted twenty-three years ago is delivered. Having seen all the twists and turns of Brexit ...

Labour’s road to perdition – Devolution for Scotland

THE DISTINGUISHED American historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. once wrote a fascinating book entitled ‘Cycles in American History’, which analysed how America went through periods of reform followed by periods of reaction. He would have done ...

Unionism is dead – long live Unity

SLOWLY the Scottish commentariat is beginning to acknowledge the grassroots movement Alliance for Unity as a force to be reckoned with at the coming Holyrood election. We have come a long way in a few ...

Scotland under the Conservatives, 1979-1997 – Part two.

THE FIRST PART of this section concentrated on Britain’s relative economic decline in the 1960s and 1970s. Thatcher was well aware of the country’s reputation and on 13 May 1975 told the Scottish Tory conference: “It is to ...

The hypocritical paradoxes of the SNP

MANY PEOPLE THINK the SNP believes in Scottish independence and is against unionism – and yet the nationalist’s utopia is a paradox. Why, in what way? 

Look no further than the SNP ...

The greatest risk we face is risk aversion itself

THE VAST MAJORITY of us presume British democracy is stable and everlasting. In fact it is in a continuous state of evolution as it reacts to events. There are institutions charged with its protection but ...

Scotland under the Conservatives, 1979-1997 – Part one

MRS THATCHER is a much hated figure in Scotland even today. A retrospective assessment of her premiership in The National on 26 June 2018, for example, was headed ‘This is the truth about how Thatcher devastated ...