Stephen Daisley

‘They will hate you because of who I am,’ Jesus says in the Gospels. He forgot to add: ‘And the ones who don’t have a clue will point and laugh.’ It’s a lesson Carol Monaghan has learned abruptly. Monaghan is MP for Glasgow North West and a member of the Scottish National Party. A formerContinue reading "People of faith are being driven from public life"

Ruth Davidson strode onto stage but she may as well have waltzed. The Scottish Tory leader, rubescent in her rosso corsa skirt suit, was down to deliver the closing speech to her party’s conference. But the Lady in Red was here to dance. She took the country for a few birls but it was LabourContinue reading "Ya dancer! She might just waltz Tories into power"

The only thing missing was the Queen barreling out of a helicopter with Daniel Craig.  Theresa May’s speech to the Scottish Tory conference was straight out of Danny Boyle’s London 2012 spectacular — Britain as bold, bright, outward-looking nation. And like Boyle’s Olympic-opening paean to all that is good about the UK, the Prime Minister’sContinue reading "Theresa May’s hymn to unity was heartfelt and robust"

Humble pie, please waiter. A large portion. No, just one spoon -- the lady will be dining alone. There was a delicious moment near the end of yesterday's First Minister's Questions when Nicola Sturgeon's galloping ascent to the moral high ground took a tumble. Murdo Fraser noted that the SNP leader had spent last weekendContinue reading "Sturgeon sneered and guffawed just like her predecessor"

Sixty-five million people went into the EU referendum but one of us didn’t come home again.  The murder of Jo Cox should have been the defining moment of 2016 but in a year of infamies, one seemed to blend obscenely into another.  When Ian Gow was murdered by the IRA, a cold dread hung overContinue reading "The death of Jo Cox and why kindness must triumph over rancour and anger"

The most dangerous place in Washington DC, the old joke goes, is between a politician and a television camera. It’s a wonder there are any such places left, so intimate have the third and fourth estates become. Periodically, American journalism gets itself into a funk over its proximity to power and the consequences for integrityContinue reading "Trump has done what journalists should have done: boycotted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner"

The 21st century is shaping up to be the era of the angry, bitter man.  On television, on social media, in the corridors of power, you can’t move for stroppy, overgrown teenagers who have lurched from puberty to middle-aged dyspepsia with no intervening period of maturity.  Donald Trump wields all the power any man couldContinue reading "Salmond’s National Party"

When the presiding officer called on John Mason, two dozen notebooks flipped open in the press gallery. The Nationalist MSP is an odd wee polecat -- you sometimes wonder if he joined the SNP for a bet -- but he makes cracking copy. Like when he wanted creationism taught in schools or the time heContinue reading "Sturgeon dodged a banana skin flung down by NatBot 58"