Monthly Archives: February 2020

It must take its toll, all that phoney outrage, and, true enough, Nicola Sturgeon looked fed up being fed up. At First Minister’s Questions, she did her usual shouting and deployed her familiar demagoguery but her heart wasn’t in it. Not long before FMQs kicked off, one of her most promising MSPs, Highlander Gail Ross,Continue reading “Sturgeon, Whitney, Joe McCarthy… we didn’t start the fire”

Let’s get ready to rumble. In the blue corner is Angus Robertson, former Westminster leader of the SNP, and candidate for his party’s nomination in Edinburgh Central. In the red corner, Joanna Cherry, MP for Edinburgh South West and, as of Saturday evening, also a contender in Edinburgh Central. This is no ordinary selection battle.Continue reading “The Showdown in the New Town”

If you’re a regular viewer of First Minister’s Questions — there’s no shame; it’s either this or an Inspector Morse repeat on the other side — you might recognise this sound: oooorrrrhhhhh. It sounds like Yoda with a heavy cold or a dinosaur that just stood on a Lego but is in fact Richard Lyle,Continue reading “Ohhhhh, Ri-ich-ard Ly-le…”

When news of Jackson Carlaw’s victory came through on Friday, I was in a dentist’s waiting room nursing a jackhammer of a toothache. The announcement was welcome since it provided me with someone other than myself to feel sorry for. After Kezia Dugdale won the Scottish Labour leadership in 2015, I told her my firstContinue reading “A rough road ahead for Scottish Tories but there’s hope too”

The next leader of the Scottish Conservatives will be announced on St Valentine’s Day, though there hasn’t been much love in the air during this campaign. The contest between Jackson Carlaw and Michelle Ballantyne has been unnecessarily acrimonious and key figures on either side given to intemperate outbursts. More than enough knives have been plungedContinue reading “Only one leader in race to replace Ruth”

A round-up of articles you might have missed this week. Sturgeon can deliver every vote save the one that matters My Scottish Daily Mail column on Nicola Sturgeon and independence. Boris Johnson’s greatest challenge is nothing to do with Brexit My Spectator piece on how the Prime Minister should begin responding to the threat ofContinue reading “Sunday Supplement: February 3 — February 9, 2020”

There was no anger in the First Minister’s voice but her face wore the weight of her frustration. As the questions came, she cast razor glances from her notes to Jackson Carlaw and back, gurning and muttering as she did. Carlaw was making it all so much worse by posing measured queries in a measuredContinue reading “On a grim day at Holyrood, the light of a rising star”

Nicola Sturgeon has had more comebacks than Cher, ripped denims and Boris Johnson. The SNP leader’s time in the spotlight has been declared over many times already and each time she finds a way to remain centre stage. Write her off at your peril. We cannot, however, ignore the speech she delivered on Friday orContinue reading “Sturgeon can deliver every vote save the one that matters”

A round-up of articles you might have missed this week. Triumph of patriots and the ruin of a nation My Scottish Daily Mail column on the toll nationalism has taken on Scotland. You’re a grand old flag, you’re a politically useful flag My Scottish Daily Mail sketch of the European flag debate at Holyrood. Boris JohnsonContinue reading “Sunday Supplement: January 27 — February 2, 2020”

Was that it? Nicola Sturgeon assembled the world’s press yesterday to outline her next steps on independence, only to send them away with a two-word story: ‘Not yet’. ‘My job is to lead us down a credible path that can deliver independence,’ she said, ‘and that is what I am absolutely determined to do.’ ThereContinue reading “Setback and decline in the age of Sturgeon”