Category Archives: Daily Mail

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”

Mairi who?  It was halfway through First Minister’s Questions when the Presiding Officer called a backbencher. The name sounded like ‘goujon’, though that might have been because lunchtime was approaching. From the din of desk-thumpers behind Nicola Sturgeon — She Who Must Be Applauded At All Times — up popped Mairi Gougeon, who it turnsContinueContinue reading “Sturgeonspeak: A guide to dodging tricky questions”

Sir Teddy Taylor. The name was enough to return a resounding ‘hear, hear’ from Tories and a gasp of horror from liberals. The MP for Glasgow Cathcart and later Southend East, who died on Wednesday, was the sort of politician the euphemism ‘colourful’ was invented for. He was also a man of strong, if notContinueContinue reading “Our faith in politics vanished as dunces replaced firebrands”

Friends, comrades, snivelling Blairite sellouts. Alex Rowley might not have come to bury Anas Sarwar but he may as well have. Whatever possessed Labour’s interim leader to launch into a jeremiad against millionaires, his well-coined would-be successor wound up with a dagger in his back. The scene was First Minister’s Questions, yesterday. Enter stage Left,ContinueContinue reading “Et tu, Alex? Day Sarwar’s ambitions were skewered”

It is the last taboo, a predilection indulged by a small segment of the population and looked upon with disapproval by mainstream society. In Scotland, just seven percent will admit their involvement and even then they are reluctant to talk about it. Churchgoing is a minority pursuit these days, and if you attended services yesterdayContinueContinue reading “Let us all pray for religion. It is slowly dying as a force in public life.”