Monthly Archives: October 2017

Like those gap yah Tristrams who backpack from one war zone to the next, bagging a few selfies with traumatised locals along the way, Scottish Nationalists have arrived at their latest destination. The rest of the world looks at the Spanish constitutional crisis with a mixture of bafflement and boredom. Is Europe hellbent on tearingContinueContinue reading “Nicola’s ‘freedom fighters’ take up arms (and enjoy a few days in the sun!)”

Willie Rennie is a Lib Dem for people who otherwise view Lib Dems with suspicion. He spurns sandals in favour of sensible brogues and does not have the look of a man who carries an emergency supply of lentils on his person at all times. I doubt a spoonful of muesli has ever passed hisContinueContinue reading “The First Minister is like Judith Chalmers in reverse”

Trigger warning. This column contains ideas you may disagree with and pursues arguments that could cause distress to your existing worldview. Those of a sensitive disposition are advised to find a safe space.  Such advisories are becoming commonplace, another layer of cotton wool for a civilisation insulating itself to the point of suffocation. Last weekContinueContinue reading “They may lean to the Left but today’s millennials are the real reactionaries”

Right from the start she was heading Left. Nicola Sturgeon, suited up in Kremlin red, marched on stage to rouse the masses from a podium branded ‘progress’. The First Minister had got herself one of those radical visions that are all the rage these days. Socialism is now so mainstream they’ll be selling it inContinueContinue reading “Strepsil Sturgeon wheezes on but it’s the same old story”

Party conferences are the pantomime season of political life. Star turns and bit players tread the boards, competing for the limelight with hammy monologues and broad humour. There are in-jokes, knowing looks, the familiarity that nods through gags that would otherwise be considered a bit on the edge. Everyone has a hearty laugh, heads downContinueContinue reading “A pantomime for the party faithful – Oh yes, it was…”

Like a sharp-suited shark-hunter, John Swinney dumped the chum in the water and waited. The blood pooled out, the scent spread, and the feeding frenzy began. It was the first day of SNP conference in Glasgow and Nationalists were having a right old time tearing chunks out of the opposition. The Deputy First Minister gotContinueContinue reading “Progress is bashing Tories and Labour at the same time”

This time last year she was riding high in the polls but her numbers have since plummeted. Her minority government, propped up by a small fringe party, lumbers from crisis to crisis. The country’s future relationship to Europe is fast becoming a source of division in her once united party. Not Theresa May, who doesn’tContinueContinue reading “Spanish batons put paid to the Catalan breakaway – and to the SNP’s EU love-in”

Theresa May’s Manchester meltdown was unfolding on live television, like a particularly excruciating Fisherman’s Friend advert, and Nicola Sturgeon was watching nervously 200 miles to the north. The First Minister fired off a tweet: ‘Spare a thought for those of us still to deliver our conference speech and now fretting about all the things thatContinueContinue reading “Can Nicola Sturgeon talk her way out of a P45?”

There is no rule that says all great things must come from Manchester, it just seems to work out that way. The Warehouse City lays claim to some of England’s finest writers, from Jack Rosenthal to Howard Jacobson, and from its post-industrial streets emerged sounds to define generations of British pop. Without Manchester there wouldContinueContinue reading “What’s the story? Manchester Tories need to find a new oasis of capitalism”