Flipping through my calendar over the weekend, my eye fell on this coming Sunday. There was something special about it but it wasn’t a birthday or family occasion, nor had I agreed to meet up with a source to conspire over a beer or six. Then it hit me: this would have been the third [...]
Richard Leonard: An Apology
In the 15 months since he became Scottish Labour leader, I have suggested Richard Leonard lacked the killer instinct needed at First Minister’s Questions. I have bemoaned his earnestness and failure to play dirty. I would now like to withdraw these scurrilous allegations. At Holyrood on Thursday, Leonard delivered a slow-burn own that will have [...]
Sturgeon slaps down Looney Tunes by ruling out ACME independence
It was the shortest crime caper since Wile E Coyote lit the fuse on an ACME rocket then forgot to let go. Thursday morning’s papers had brought news of a speech by SNP deputy leader Keith Brown in which he hinted that Nicola Sturgeon might hold a second independence referendum even if Westminster said No. [...]
Vaccine truthers going viral threatens everyone’s health
It is the thorniest dilemma of the social media age: When, if ever, is it appropriate to ‘unfriend’ someone on Facebook? That rollcall on the right-hand margin of your screen is the real sidebar of shame. The school chums you looked up for a laugh, or a nosey; the university friendships that have not survived [...]
Shining a light on the Ena Sharples of Holyrood
How many MSPs does it take to change a lightbulb? There was an answer, of sorts, at First Minister’s Questions thanks to Christine Grahame. Grahame — imagine Ena Sharples flitted to Galashiels and turned political — is Holyrood’s brashest battleaxe. She is the deputy presiding officer who can reduce senior MSPs to a chin-chewing huff [...]
The Nine lacks oomph but at least there’s no whoosh
I wasn’t sold on The Nine. We already have Good Morning Scotland, BBC Breakfast, the lunchtime bulletin and constant mobile alerts that have turned the nation’s offices into tinnitus breeding grounds. Then we get home to Jackie Bird and the Central Belt’s unique news service, The Slashing Forecast. Just as we start to doze off, [...]
First Minister, with these foreign jaunts you are really spoiling us
Where would Scottish businesses be without Nicola Sturgeon? Well, there might be more of them and none would be currently trying to flog their car park on eBay. But I am a dreadful cynic, for our First Minister is a champion of commerce. She is too modest to tell us this herself so the information [...]
Sturgeon clamped by Tories’ designated driver
Jackson Carlaw was running on fumes. The Tories’ designated driver in Ruth Davidson’s absence had tried to rev up the rhetoric on the SNP’s car park tax. He was getting nowhere — until Nicola Sturgeon gave his sputtering performance a jump start. ‘I hope Jackson Carlaw had more success when he sold second-hand cars than [...]
Hipster iconoclasm is a cowardly attack on Britain’s past
Glaswegians are proud of their past so when they awoke last Wednesday morning, they were indignant at the news. During the night, an unknown vandal had set about a century-old war memorial in Kelvingrove Park, smashing in the face of the sandstone soldier and hacking off its feet. The statue was erected in 1906 in [...]
Is there life after Sturgeon for the SNP?
Nicola Sturgeon is back in Scotland after her five-day tour of North America, though who can know for how long. There might be a trade mission to the Seychelles in the offing, or an important office supplies convention on the French Riviera. These are the excitements of having a Frequent Flyer First Minister. Sturgeon can [...]
