Stephen Daisley

They say one man alone can’t change things. Tell that to Alex Salmond: He just upended the tax policy of a government which he (in theory) no longer leads. Over the weekend Mr Salmond broke ranks and joined the chorus of condemnation over the SNP’s inaction on business rates. Entrepreneurs, especially those in the tourismContinue reading "Flip-flops, U-turns and proof SNP can’t be trusted on taxation"

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs.  They lived not in a magical kingdom but a dangerous world where anyone building their house out of straw was liable to end up in a bacon butty.  But straw was cheap and two of the pigs wanted to spend their fortune on creature comforts. PigContinue reading "Uncle Sam’s Nato broadside should be a call to arms for the whole of Europe"

Given our seamy obsession with serial killers, real and fictional, one would expect the crimes of Stephen Port to have made more of a mark on the national psyche.  Port was convicted in November of the rape and murder of four young men in Barking, east London over a 15-month period. His modus operandi was cold andContinue reading "How to get away with murder"

Yakov Blotnik, world-weary custodian of the synagogue in Philip Roth’s short story ‘The Conversion of the Jews’, has a simple outlook on life: “Things were either good-for-the-Jews or no-good-for-the-Jews”.  The Blotnik Test confronts us as the new administration in Washington begins to take shape. We’ve just seen the first hints of what to expect at today’s joint pressContinue reading "Is Donald Trump good for the Jews?"

'Small businesses sit at the heart of local economies and with the right support they will flourish… a wealthier Scotland with lower local tax and our small businesses freed from the burden of business rates and able to grow.' Where did this bold paean to free enterprise and limited government spring from? The leader columnContinue reading "Businesses are crying out for help but the SNP is refusing to listen"

John Bercow is a curious little poppet.  He’s come a long way since his spotty days of undergraduate hangem’n’floggery in the Federation of Conservative Students, an organisation banned by Norman Tebbit for being too right-wing. Today he’s more likely to be found welcoming one acronym or another to Parliament or accosting the word ‘progressive’ andContinue reading "John Bercow must be saved from the paroxysms of Parliament’s angry men"

That’s it then, lads. Run down the Union Jack and up with the white flag. Faced with the dread prospect of another independence referendum, a gloom is settling over Unionist Scotland. The nationalists were only just subdued last time around; now they’re back and, armed with Brexit, certain to win. This year, Last Night ofContinue reading "Sorry, First Minister, you don’t hold all the cards on indyref2"

I won’t be taking up a placard against Donald Trump.  The last time I marched was against the war in Iraq in 2003. At the end, I apologised to a police officer for the litter we’d left behind.  And while I understand why they're taking to the streets to vent their frustration, I can't help but detectContinue reading "It’s time for real liberals (not ones with lazy protest slogans) to stand up"

The rise of nationalism around the world is a shocking, disorienting experience. Mainstream politics is under threat like at no time since the 1930s. Demagogues are coming to power, journalists face intimidation, once sturdy institutions and assumptions are collapsing like derelict tower blocks. The political character of entire countries is transforming almost overnight. Nowhere isContinue reading "SNP tried to silence me. And their freedom to bully, vilify and malign is a chilling glimpse of one-party Scotland"

I have contributed a chapter to a new book of historical counterfactuals.  Prime Minister Corbyn: And Other Things That Never Happened, edited by Duncan Brack and Iain Dale, runs through a series of "what ifs". Chris Huhne posits an alternative reality in which Britain joins the euro and Asa Bennett rewrites the Labour leadership contestContinue reading "What if Scotland had voted Yes in 2014?"