Monthly Archives: November 2017

Michael Gove doesn’t have the look of a cat-strangler. You could leave your miniature dachshund in the care of the Environment Secretary and, at worst, it might find itself embroiled in a hapless Tory leadership plot.  There are, however, a great many people out there — perhaps millions — who think Mr Gove would gladlyContinueContinue reading “Why fake news is not about Michael Gove being beastly to a bichon frise”

As Kezia Dugdale was put through her paces on I’m a Celebrity, her successor Richard Leonard, salt-of-the-earth Yorkshireman, was making his debut at First Minister’s Questions. Miss Dugdale found herself crawling through a tunnel of fish guts deep in the Australian jungle. Fish guts? Luxury! Richard Leonard could only dream of having a tunnel of fishContinueContinue reading “Nicola nipped by Yorkshire terrier’s bite”

When is a £2billion windfall a cause for righteous indignation? When you’re the SNP and eternally overdrawn from the bank of disgruntlement.  Philip Hammond unveiled the additional money to cheers from the Tory benches during yesterday’s Budget. Three hundred miles northwards, Derek Mackay seethed. The Scottish Government Finance Secretary greeted the boost to his coffersContinueContinue reading “A £2billion windfall but the SNP is still overdrawn at the bank of grievance”

Politician of the Year is a concept to be viewed with the utmost suspicion. It’s like Top Ten Estate Agents or World’s Greatest Traffic Warden. Surely giving them an award only encourages them. Ruth Davidson has picked up the gong for the second year in a row, a reflection of the remarkable gains made byContinueContinue reading “Ruth is headed for the top. Lazy Tory passengers should alight immediately.”

To Holyrood for First Minister’s Questions, where there is a distinct lack of a First Minister. In her place sits John Swinney. Zimbabweans have ousted Robert Mugabe after a long, colourful tyranny. Could a military coup have claimed our own snazzily-dressed megalomaniac? Nicola Sturgeon would be blissfully unaware if there were tanks in the streetsContinueContinue reading “Holyrood sketch: No more Mr Nice Guy… The return of Angry John”

They can’t hide it anymore. The contempt in which the political class holds the rest of us has erupted from the confines of the bubble and oozed its way across the entire body politic. The worst politicians no longer pretend they respect us or seek our approval. Ego is all and the best interests ofContinueContinue reading “How bounders, chancers and charlatans took over politics”

The Sturgeometer, the most reliable scale of outrage in Scottish politics, was pealing full pitch.  A growing part of the First Minister’s job involves condemning things that are already deplored and don’t require her opprobrium but which she must be seen to be against all the same. So she summons all her lamentations and informsContinueContinue reading “Tax talk sends the Sturgeometer into overdrive”