SNP could be forced to scale back fishing ban plans by Westminster 28 May 2023 at 5:30am
SNP ministers may be forced to scale back controversial plans to ban fishing in one tenth of Scottish waters amid suggestion the UK Government could refuse permission for the full rollout of the proposals.
'Priest who raped me was a police informer - so I fled to Scotland' 28 May 2023 at 6:00am
Victims of a notorious paedophile priest who may have abused 400 children over four decades have come forward to tell their story of suffering, allegations of cover-up by the Catholic Church and collusion with police. Writer at Large Neil Mackay investigates
Victims of 'industrial-scale' paedophile priest demand answers 28 May 2023 at 6:00am
THE victim of a notorious paedophile priest, suspected of being a police informer during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, has told how he had to flee to Scotland to rebuild his life.
UK Government unveil conditions for 'consistent' DRS exemption 27 May 2023 at 11:21am
THE UK Government has effectively killed off the Scottish Government?s design for a Deposit Return Scheme, with Whitehall telling ministers in Edinburgh that it can only go ahead with a number of substantial changes.
The Cod-father 28 May 2023 at 10:59am
It’s a bit disappointing to see an Italian-born man play into Mafia stereotypes. “Nice indy movement you’ve got there. Be a shame if anything… happened to it.” Perhaps aware that the carrots they’ve been feeding Yes supporters for years are beginning to lose their power, the beleaguered SNP are now reaching for the stick. The …
The Battered Can 26 May 2023 at 11:06am
When I was a boy at Balbardie Primary School in Bathgate in the mid-70s, football was banned in the playground. Of course we were all fitba-daft laddies, so we sought ways around the prohibition. Occasionally someone would bring in a tennis ball, but those were difficult to control in school shoes and also apt to …
The Infinite Idiot 24 May 2023 at 9:36am
He just can’t grasp anything, can he? Because no, they don’t. Alert readers will recall the last time the SNP lost a lot of Westminster seats – the snap election of 2017, when the party shed a third of its votes and almost 40% of its MPs, almost the exact same number last night’s Times …
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels 21 May 2023 at 11:05am
If you’re still falling for this idiot-fodder after seven years, give yourself a shake. Because for the love of Christ, an orangutan would have twigged by now. And we’re not talking about the long-suffering fans of Dundee United. In today’s Sunday Times, it’s revealed that Humza Yousaf would actually TURN DOWN a second indyref if …
In your face 20 May 2023 at 10:26pm
The SNP now seem to be involved in some sort of competition where they dare each other to come up with the most blatant insult to their own members and/or the wider independence movement and see just how much they can get people to put up with. First up was this drivel: Humza Yousaf is …
Full ahead backwards 19 May 2023 at 2:15pm
Just slightly under four weeks ago, this site told you “It seems very much as though the strategy has reverted to ‘Beg the UK government for a Section 30, and when they refuse, wait a while then beg them again'”. Once again, we’re dismayed to report that we called it right. Because last night SNP …
Well Ye Huv Noo 19 May 2023 at 10:45am
Just over a year ago, Shona Robison – then the Cabinet Secretary For Social Justice, now the Deputy First Minister – told the Scottish Parliament this: There now follow some quotes from the media regarding the case of Andrew Miller, aka Amy George, who yesterday admitted the kidnap and repeated sexual abuse of an 11-year-old …
Someone tell us the rules 18 May 2023 at 4:17pm
As we told you on Tuesday, this happened today: And we just can’t tell how it works any more. Andrew Miller aka Amy Miller aka Amy George is, like Adam Graham aka Isla Bryson, a transwoman. He has lived as a woman, in so far as that phrase has any meaning, for several years. He …
Two months ago I wrote an article entitled “Fascist judges” about the concerted move by judges in England to outlaw jury nullification. Despite the long and established history of juries refusing to convict for laws they view as an abuse of power by the state, climate protestors have been jailed for contempt simply for trying …
When I started this blog I never envisaged I would be forced to write a defence of the use of juries in Scotland. We live in troubling times indeed. A jury is an essential protection against the power of the state. It is a randomly selected group of citizens who decide on the facts of …
The torrential rain was shed from the policeman’s flat hat via its curved plastic peak, forming a curtain of water that flowed down in front of him, obscuring his face. His name was Martin. A female colleague stood in solidarity beside him. Two other female policemen were filming with a large video camera from three …
Update: Back protesting again today. I learn that 46 protestors who have been arrested have been released on the bail condition that they leave Leicestershire. Yes, the entire county. People arrested for doing absolutely nothing but exercise the democratic right to protest, are thus prevented from exercising that right further, without a long period in …
Though convicted of nothing, and merely in “administrative detention” entitled to the presumption of innocence, for five years Julian Assange’s voice has been effectively silenced. The dreadful place of harsh incarceration that is Belmarsh prison, where terrorists are kept, has not allowed his voice to be heard by the world. Journalists are not permitted to …
Joe Biden will very probably be re-elected. No incumbent President has ever lost a primary (though it should be remembered the current primary system is younger than me). Only one sitting President has ever not been selected by their party to stand again, and that was knocking on two hundred years ago. Both Biden’s main …
Mishap in Liverpool 12 May 2023 at 1:10pm
I had a freak accident last night and ended up spending half the night in hospital. I was walking in the Albert Dock area of Liverpool (where I had just been to the Eurovision semi-final), and I t...
Sheku Bayoh arrest cop denies claims he wanted to join BNP as a teenager 26 May 2023 at 12:20pm
The pre-recorded testimony of Alan Paton, who has since retired from Police Scotland, was played to the inquiry into the death of Mr Bayoh, which occurred in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in 2015 while he was b...
Martin Geissler and Lorna Slater clash over deposit return scheme 28 May 2023 at 12:39pm
A BBC journalist and a Greens minister clashed over Westminster?s meddling in the Scottish Government?s flagship recycling scheme in an ?extraordinarily hostile? interview.
Senior Police Scotland officer says racism admission is progress 28 May 2023 at 11:44am
Sir Iain Livingstone?s admission that Police Scotland is ?institutionally racist and discriminatory? will allow the next chief constable to build on progress to tackle the problem, a senior officer has said.
Labour must return Just Stop Oil-linked donations, says Tory chair 28 May 2023 at 10:55am
THE chairman of the Conservative Party has written to Labour demanding the party return donations from a funder who has also gifted substantial sums to radical eco-protestors.
The shameless ego of Boris Johnson is on trial again 28 May 2023 at 5:00am
IT was the Scottish comedian Mark Nelson who first posed the possibility that it was Boris Johnson and not a laboratory in Wuhan, or an infected bat, that was the first traceable source of Covid.
Looking back at the 1989 Scottish Constitutional Convention 28 May 2023 at 5:00am
THE last Scottish Constitutional Convention took place in very different times, but the demand for political change has far from faded away over the subsequent decades.
Deposit Return Scheme is yet another UK power grab 28 May 2023 at 5:00am
IF there?s ever an example of how devolution isn?t working, it?s the deposit return scheme. Scotland was set to be the first country in the UK to introduce a system of consumers paying a refundable deposit of 20p for drinks in plastic, glass and cans, joining more than 45 other countries around the world that have similar schemes.
?How Britain Broke The World' shows how the breakdown of UK diplomacy 28 May 2023 at 5:00am
ONCE in a while, a book comes along that demands a closer look. How Britain Broke The World is such a volume. Written by Arthur Snell ? who wants ?Britain to do better as a country? ? and published by Canbury Press, it is a devasting account of how the UK messed up its relations with other countries to such a degree that it threatens world order.
Clutching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat 28 May 2023 at 10:52am
Polling published this week from YouGov and IPSOS showed seemingly contradictory insights into the trajectory of Scottish politics. According to new YouGov polling, if a general election held tomorrow the SNP could fall back to 27 seats in Scotland, with Labour gaining 23 from their nationalist rivals to bring their seat tally up to 24, …
A? Dùsgadh na Gaoithe / Waking the Wind; Finding the Folklore of a Fragile Ec... 26 May 2023 at 12:57pm
The exhibition A Fragile Correspondence opened last weekend in Venice, one of the eight collateral events for the 18th International Architecture Exhibition ? La Biennale di Venezia at the Arsenale Docks, S. Pietro di Castello, Venice. Commissioned by the Scotland + Venice partnership and curated by the Architecture Fringe, -ism, and /other, A Fragile Correspondence …
Un Conventional 26 May 2023 at 11:37am
I remember it vividly: a sea of saltires and a soundscape of joy and noise from Mogwai, Frightened Rabbit, Stanley Odd, Franz Ferdinand and loads more at the Usher Hall for A Night for Scotland, sometime in September 2014. It was intense. It was the pinnacle of ecstatic Yes-Certainty. But it was a bubble and …
?Just Listen to the Birdsong Now? ? Possibilities for people and nature in co... 24 May 2023 at 12:29pm
The exhibition A Fragile Correspondence opened last weekend in Venice, one of the eight collateral events for the 18th International Architecture Exhibition ? La Biennale di Venezia at the Arsenale Docks, S. Pietro di Castello, Venice. Commissioned by the Scotland + Venice partnership and curated by the Architecture Fringe, -ism, and /other, A Fragile Correspondence …
Plan 75: A Near Future Warning 23 May 2023 at 3:56pm
Content Warning: Suicide, Assisted Dying, Violence As the Japanese-language film Plan 75, from Chie Hayakawa, nears its final screenings, the following offers a late encouragement that folk catch a screening before the end of its limited run. The film is a feature-length follow-up to Hayakawa?s 2018 short as part of Ten Years Japan in which …
Off the Map 21 May 2023 at 10:56am
“History?s a strange thing. A day went by recently that it?ll remember. But we scarcely noticed at all. Merely a whisper was felt … here we are. Crossing the last thresholds of the greatest event in human history, and it barely makes the news.” – Umair Haque This week, news broke that sometime in the …
Moments of Closure 18 May 2023 at 11:43am
Woodside Library is Aberdeen?s oldest. It first opened to the public in 1883 ? the gift of Sir John Anderson, an ageing industrialist ? and was shuttered a few months shy of its 140th anniversary. Built in grey granite, signature stone of the city?s civic realm, the library interior is bright and airy. Book-lined walls …
On Scottish Seaweed 17 May 2023 at 2:38pm
Back in 2013, seaweed wasn?t really a thing. I was driving up to Fife from Cornwall that September, white van full to the gun?ls with seaweed harvesting and monitoring equipment, towing my currach boat behind me. I?d had enough of Cornwall, too many sharp elbows, too white, too self-satisfied. I?d set up a community seaweed …
The UK populist right has to be defeated or democracy will be trashed 16 May 2023 at 7:39pm
Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics, by Matthew Goodwin, Penguin Press £10.99. Reviewed by Gerry Hassan The state of UK politics is not pretty, which is true of many Western countries. The conventional tropes of the mainstream, left, right and centre, have conspicuously failed. In their places have emerged the insurgent populism of …
The omnipresent heirs of the Blob, have drunk the hemlock of decline 16 May 2023 at 7:16pm
It’s Day Two of the National Conservative conference and the commercial opportunities for t-shirt production are very real. A favourite was this from Prof. Gwythian Prins: “So many, particularly in the establishment, and the omnipresent heirs of the Blob, have drunk the hemlock of decline.” But seriously the gathering was a potent brew of the …
Holyrood accuses Tories of trying to ?sabotage? deposit return scheme 27 May 2023 at 3:07pm
Conservative ministers say Scotland will have to remove glass bottles from its environmental initiativeThe UK government has been accused of trying to ?sabotage? Scotland?s deposit return scheme (DRS) after it ruled the environmental initiative could only go ahead if glass bottles were removed fr...
Sunak says he wants more information before decision on Braverman?s alleged b... 22 May 2023 at 8:07pm
PM has asked for further information before decided whether ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus will be asked to investigate Braverman. This blog is now closedTop Home Office mandarin knew of Braverman?s alleged speeding requestStarmer says Labour would zone in on the biggest killers.He says it woul...
MP Margaret Ferrier loses appeal over Commons ban for Covid rule breaches 22 May 2023 at 2:56pm
Failure of appeal paves way for possible byelection in former SNP MP?s Scottish constituencyUK politics live ? latest updatesMargaret Ferrier has lost her appeal against a proposed 30-day ban from the House of Commons over Covid rule breaches, paving the way for a byelection in the MP?s Scottish ...
Junior doctors in Scotland offered cumulative 14.5% pay rise 22 May 2023 at 11:34am
British Medical Association to put government offer to hospital doctors, who had voted to take strike actionHospital doctors in Scotland have been offered a cumulative 14.5% pay rise in a fresh attempt by Scottish ministers to avert highly disruptive strikes.Junior doctors had voted overwhelmingl...
Kemi Badenoch says global carmakers? UK concerns ?nothing to do with Brexit? ... 18 May 2023 at 5:02pm
This live blog has now closed, you can read more of our UK political coverage hereKemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, has said that the problem raised by car manufacturers worried about exports to the EU facing tariffs from next year ?isn?t to do with Brexit?.She made the comment dur...
Alister Jack spares Tories a byelection by ruling out Lords switch 17 May 2023 at 6:24pm
Boris Johnson ally says he would not accept peerage while still an MP but will stand down at next electionAlister Jack, the Scottish secretary, has spared Rishi Sunak a byelection by ruling out taking the peerage he is understood to have been offered by Boris Johnson.The Dumfries and Galloway MP,...
Braverman urges Tories to avoid Trumpism, saying ?events in US in recent year... 15 May 2023 at 6:04pm
Home secretary makes speech to National Conservatism conference and warns against following path in US. This live blog is now closedQ: Would Labour repeal the Public Order Act?Starmer says Labour was opposed to it as it was going through. Continue reading...
Sturgeon calls for both sides to ?take a breath? in rape trial reform row 15 May 2023 at 12:00pm
Sturgeon laments polarisation in first policy intervention since stepping down as Scotland?s first ministerUK politics live ? latest updatesNicola Sturgeon says the furious backlash to Scottish government plans to pilot jury-less trials for rape cases is the latest example of the polarisation of ...
?We?re going to fight this hard?: Labour keen for byelection test in Rutherglen 14 May 2023 at 1:34pm
Anticipated vote would be chance to take on a shaken SNP and send message to voters UK-wideOn Rutherglen?s Main Street, the mood of Scottish Labour activists was as bright as the afternoon sunshine as they gathered for some teatime door-knocking. They were with Michael Shanks, their new candidate...
Archbishop of Canterbury?s attack on illegal migration bill ?wrong on both co... 10 May 2023 at 6:23pm
Justin Welby says bill is ?morally unacceptable? and rules on protection of refugees are not ?inconvenient obstructions?. This live blog is closedIn the House of Lords peers are just starting to debate the second reading of the illegal migration bill.Simon Murray, aka Lord Murray of Blidworth, is...
The clean fuel of independence 26 May 2023 at 3:28pm
The reasons why Scottish independence is so badly needed for the success, sanity, and security of this country keep piling up. Just in the past few days more reasons have been added to the ever growing pile, not that most people in Scotland would know that because we are saddled with a parochial and provincial …
A tale of two opinion polls 24 May 2023 at 7:24pm
Wednesday was a day of two polls, one of them was loudly touted by the anti-independence Herald and Scotsman newspapers, which these days are becoming almost unreadable in their strident and ceaseless attacks on the SNP even as they ignore far worse stories about the Conservative party. That poll was of course the YouGov poll …
Charting a way forward 22 May 2023 at 11:18am
The SNP has announced a new date for the special independence convention which was originally scheduled to be held on March 19 but was postponed due to the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon. The event was intended to give SNP members the opportunity to decide how to proceed with achieving a vote on independence in the …
National Conservatism, self-pity, idiocy and English fascism 18 May 2023 at 10:48am
The Brextremist hard right culture wing of the Tory party, which these days is most of it, has been holding a conference in London to air its delusional and self-pitying views. The so-called ‘National Conservatism’ conference is giving the Tories full throttle to blame all the ills of modern Britain on migrants, the EU, the …
Starmer?s transforming Labour into the Tories? Mini-Me 15 May 2023 at 11:14am
In a speech to the Progressive Britain conference in central London last week Labour leader Keir Starmer insisted that he didn’t care if people think that his party’s priorities sound conservative. We’ve noticed that Keir, we’ve noticed. In an attack on the the Tory government of Sunak, he claimed it “can no longer claim to …
The SNP are still a force to be reckoned with 11 May 2023 at 10:43am
Reports of the demise of the SNP are most definitely premature. An opinion poll by YouGov published this week shows that the SNP still enjoys a commanding lead over Labour in voting intentions for the next Westminster General Election. The poll showed that the Tories are losing support to Labour with Conservative vote share plummeting …
The authoritarian abhorronation and SNP opportunities 8 May 2023 at 11:06am
The abhorronation has finally finished, barring the usual interminable post match analyses from a British media determined to keep Chas’s special day going on for as long as possible, as it congratulates itself with the assertion that no other country could have put on an event like Saturday’s. That same media, in all its hours …
The English local elections and the Tories? voter suppression tactics 4 May 2023 at 10:40am
On thursday there are council and mayoral elections in England, the first big electoral test for Rishi Sunak since he became leader of the Tory party following Liz Truss’s disastrous short stint in Downing Street. There are elections in 230 local authorities across England as well as elections for mayors in Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield and …
Swearing at the Kingzilla?s special day 1 May 2023 at 4:40pm
Are you all getting ready for the Kingzilla’s special day? People in Scotland are either not interested or actively repelled by the festival of compulsory British nationalim. At the weekend fans at a Celtic match were filmed singing, “You can stick yer coronation up yer arse,” Scotland’s official entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. …
Melting Frost 27 Apr 2023 at 2:29pm
David ‘Lord’ Frost is at it again. A couple of days ago he appeared on GBeebies News for an interview with Dan Wootton, an economic migrant who’s an oozing toxic combination of nastiness and self-regard doing a poor impression of Tucker Carlson on the Price Drop Channel of right wing politics. A few days previously …
How the 1970s began for me and how I was nearly written off at the age of five 23 Jun 2022 at 12:29am
How the 1970s began for me and how I was nearly written off at the age of five Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 22 June 2022 It did not start too well for me: the seventies. I was only a few months into primary school. Making friends. Finding my feet as a shy, sensitive only child …
How the 1970s began for me and how I was nearly written off at the age of five appeared first on Gerry Ha...
Independence is not about process politics. It is about democracy 22 Jun 2022 at 12:18am
Independence is not about process politics. It is about democracy. Gerry Hassan The National, 21 June 2022 The air is thick with talk of referenda. How one is held, its status, who can initiate it and has to agree to it, and the timetable indicated by Nicola Sturgeon and Angus Robertson of October 2023. All …
Independence is not about process politics. It is about democracy appeared ...
What Scotland?s big independence debate is about and should be about 17 Jun 2022 at 7:35pm
What Scotland?s big independence debate is about and should be about Gerry Hassan Bella Caledonia, 15 June 2022 Nicola Sturgeon has fired the gun on Scotland?s independence debate, standing in Bute House yesterday with Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, launching the first of several papers on independence. This has brought forth the usual …
What Scotland’s big indepen...
What independence has to do to win 15 Jun 2022 at 7:36pm
What independence has to do to win Gerry Hassan The National, 14 June 2022 The Scottish Government will make an important announcement on independence today; one long awaited by independence supporters. It has long been apparent that the 2014 offer needs not just updating but completely revising and that serious, substantive work needs to be …
What independence has to do to win appea...
The last days of Boris Johnson and what comes after? 8 Jun 2022 at 7:43pm
The last days of Boris Johnson and what comes after? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 8 June 2022 Tory leadership votes of no confidence come around much more frequently nowadays. This is not a misperception, but rooted in the decline in the authority and quality of Tory leaders, the nature of the Tory tribe and the …
The last days of Boris Johnson and what comes after? appeared first o...
Goodbye to the Britain that we have all grown up with 7 Jun 2022 at 8:18pm
Goodbye to the Britain that we have all grown up with Gerry Hassan The National, 7 June 2022 Four days of Platinum Jubilee celebrations; wall-to-wall endless media coverage and sycophantic commentary on TV, radio and papers; and as the weekend concluded a Tory leadership vote of no confidence was finally triggered against Boris Johnson, beginning …
Goodbye to the Britain that we have...
The relevance of George Orwell today; Standing up for democracy and against f... 1 Jun 2022 at 8:26pm
The relevance of George Orwell today: Standing up for democracy and against fascism Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 1 June 2022 George Orwell?s influence as a writer has grown since his death in 1950 at the age of 46, particularly in recent decades. He was unashamedly a voice on the left – independent minded, an iconoclast …
The relevance of George Orwell today; Standing up for democra...
What are we celebrating in the Queen?s Jubilee? 31 May 2022 at 8:30pm
What are we celebrating in the Queen?s Jubilee? Gerry Hassan The National, 31 May 2022 This is a watershed week for Britain and the monarchy at the marking of the Queen?s Platinum Jubilee. It does however raise the question – what exactly are we celebrating? The Queen has been Head of State for the past …
What are we celebrating in the Queen’s Jubilee? appeared first on Gerry Hassan ...
How do we put government and leadership back in Scotland and the UK? 25 May 2022 at 9:31pm
How do we put government and leadership back in Scotland and the UK? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 25 May 2022 UK government and politics are not in a good place. They have been traduced and trashed in ways once unimaginable. Boris Johnson has presided over an administration from top to bottom of unbelievable incompetence, serial …
How do we put government and leadership back in Scot...
Progressive politics has to talk about class and race, and challenge the fals... 24 May 2022 at 9:32pm
Progressive politics has to talk about class and race, and challenge the false divisions of the right Gerry Hassan The National, 24 May 2022 These are divisive times in politics and public life; strident voices stoking division are all around. Many of them tell us that the age we live is shaped by ?culture wars? …
Progressive politics has to talk about class and race, and challenge t...
If it was first-past-the-post ? 59, 5, 5, 4! 27 May 2023 at 10:37am
Above, the recent Ipsos poll turned into Constituency seat predictions. If Scotland had retained the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system, fiercely defended by both Cons and Labour, for Westminster elections, the Scottish Parliament would have 59 SNP MSPS, 5 Labour, 5 Cons and 4 Lib Dems. In Westminster, it’s currently 59 SNP MPs, 13 Cons, 4 Lib Dems and 1 Labour. In most recent historic...
25 000 patients forced to sleep alongside opposite sex only in England 27 May 2023 at 9:45am
A Scottish newspaper above, the UK Guardian below: Thanks again to Dorothy for alerting me to this. The Guardian makes it clear that this issue applies only to NHS England. I can find no evidence of such failures reported anywhere in Scotland. Perhaps many more beds per head of population averts this? The Herald, the Glasgow Times and even the National have the story with no mention of the word...
SNP Government ensures NHS Scotland has more hospital beds per head of popula... 26 May 2023 at 9:13am
NHS hospital bed numbers per 1,000 population – Scotland better resourced than England and Wales according to new RCEM briefing By stewartb The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has provided summary data on NHS hospital bed capacity – ?RCEM Explains: – Hospital beds across the UK? – dated May 2023. See https://res.cloudinary.com/studio-republic/images/v1684400862/RCEM-Explains-Hospita...
When 45 babies die in Kent does a Conservative notice? 26 May 2023 at 7:56am
Opening BBC Breakfast this morning, the appalling story of a truly dysfunctional maternity service in Kent, almost entirely Tory MPs, but not the biggest story across BBC UK, below: In the full story, above, there’s not a mention of any politician, Government or Labour opposition. It was the same in the even more shocking report from Shropshire in 2020 when we had: More than 1 000 cases! The he...
SNP Government?s Courts Recovery Programme reduces backlog by 36% in just one... 25 May 2023 at 11:31am
BBC Scotland have been headlining this today: Warning Scotland’s court backlogs could take years to clear From Boyle’s actual report this: We’ve had reason to look at Scotland’s Auditor General before. From February 2023: Above the UK National Audit Office home page. Below Audit Scotland: The differences in messaging are sharp. The UK NAO is all progress, support (three times) and recovery. Aud...
Relatively little racism, sexism and homophobia in Police Scotland? 25 May 2023 at 11:09am
From BBC Scotland, yesterday: Police Scotland: Racism, sexism and homophobia uncovered in review A review of the culture within Police Scotland has uncovered first-hand accounts of racism, sexism and homophobia by serving officers. The review group, set up in 2021, heard instances of people being “punished” for raising concerns. It also heard the force’s efforts to improve its culture are being...
92 year-old woman ?didn?t like? to press nurse call button because ?they?re t... 25 May 2023 at 10:31am
This is a true story that won’t make it to BBC Scotland because it’s not about someone being let down by NHS Scotland and by implication, if not direct accusation, the ‘SNP’ Government or ‘Yousaf.’ Six weeks ago, my mother Margaret (92) had a fall and was hospitalised in Kirkcaldy. After four weeks of testing and treatment, she was placed in an assessment ward in Dunfermline. Only days later sh...
Turkey building four new CalMac ferries ?on time? due to massive Turkish gove... 25 May 2023 at 9:58am
By all means read the original BBC Scotland report above, if you feel up to it. You won’t find in it this: or the many forms of support listed here: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.oecd.org/turkiye/48641944.pdf You won’t find this: Turkey is similar to Spain, Poland, Croatia and other European shipbuilding countries, but Turkey is surpassing these countries,? sai...
Road injuries and deaths stabilise at lowest levels on record 24 May 2023 at 8:13pm
BBC Scotland today is headlining: Deaths on Scotland’s roads highest since 2016. This and other media reports fail to inform the public responsibly. The facts: The total casualty figures for 2022 are the third lowest since records began. The number of fatalities increased by 33, from 141 in 2021 to 174 in 2022. This latest rise follows on from a long-term downward trend. Since 2000, the number ...
Latest poll suggests recovering SNP will lose few seats as Labour stagnates 24 May 2023 at 2:33pm
Much is being made of an earlier YouGov poll, still not available for scrutiny, suggesting major SNP Westminster losses. It will be interesting to see how the above today, from IpsosScot, for 15-21 May 2023, is reacted to, if at all. It comes as the latest in a trend suggestion SNP consolidation, perhaps recovery, and Labour stagnation with resulting, at best, minor gains for Labour in 2024: Al...
Breaking the Cycle 31 Mar 2022 at 2:58pm
Holyrood's Chris Marshall talks to Sean Duffy, chief executive of the Wise Group, and SNP MSP Rona Mackay, a member of the Scottish Parliament's Criminal Justice Committee, about Scotland's stubbornly high prison population and the effectiveness of community-based alternatives to incarceration.
This podcast is sponsored by the Wise Group.
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Keeping it human 10 Feb 2022 at 8:38pm
After a bruising week in which the statutory regulator, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, found itself in the eye of the Gender Recognition Act storm, Mandy Rhodes interviews its chair, Baroness Kishwer Falkner.
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Questioning the question 14 Jan 2022 at 12:49pm
After a paper written by the former SNP policy lead, Chris Hanlon, on ?devo max? sparked an almighty row about what question or questions should be asked in any future Independence Referendum, Mandy Rhodes speaks to SNP President, Mike Russell, former Labour MSP Neil Findlay, and academic, Professor James Mitchell, on why it mattered.
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Labour of Love 16 Dec 2021 at 11:45am
Scottish Labour?s Richard Leonard talks to Louise Wilson about his political career and why he decided to step down as party leader earlier this year. Elsewhere, the Holyrood team discuss the coming Omicron wave and whether the controversy over Downing Street parties has made it less likely that people will follow guidelines this Christmas.
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COP26: Where are the Global South? 10 Nov 2021 at 3:35pm
In this special COP26 edition of the podcast, Louise Wilson hears from Alistair Dutton of SCIAF about who is feeling climate change first and worst, the missing $100bn climate finance, and the achievements of COP so far.
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COP26: Can we be cautiously optimistic? 5 Nov 2021 at 11:20am
In this special COP26 edition of the podcast, Louise Wilson speaks to WWF Scotland?s Fabrice Leveque about cautious optimism, how Scotland can prove it?s a climate leader and the work still to be done.
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All Eyes on Scotland 29 Oct 2021 at 11:30am
In the latest edition of the podcast, Mandy Rhodes speaks to SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford about the latest push for independence and the UK Government?s decision not to award a carbon capture plant to Scotland. Elsewhere, the team discusses the upcoming COP26 climate summit and asks ? does Glasgow really have a rat problem?
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An Attack on Democracy 25 Oct 2021 at 9:31am
Following the murder of Sir David Amess MP, there is renewed focus on the growing level of threat and intimidation politicians face, particularly online. In this edition of the podcast, journalist Margaret Taylor speaks to SNP MP Carol Monaghan about what it was like to receive a death threat. Elsewhere, the team discuss whether Sir David?s death will lead to a tightening of security for electe...
Joking aside 13 Oct 2021 at 2:00pm
Former Scottish Conservatives leader Jackson Carlaw is the guest on this week?s edition of the podcast, fresh from being named Wag of the Year at the Holyrood Political Awards. He reflects on a career in politics and what really happened when he stepped down as leader last year. Elsewhere, the team discuss Nicola Sturgeon?s comments about having ?time on her side? when it comes to a second inde...
The case for independence 6 Oct 2021 at 4:35pm
In this edition of the podcast, Mandy Rhodes speaks to former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars about his life in politics and why he believes the current party leadership is failing to articulate the case for independence. Elsewhere, the team discuss a landmark legal ruling by the Supreme Court and Prime Minister Boris Johnson?s speech to the Conservative party conference.
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SNP support down as Yes voters eye Labour, poll finds 25 May 2023 at 8:10am
Link between SNP and Yes voters 'weakening', Ipsos says, as First Minister Humza Yousaf records lower satisfaction rating than Labour leader Anas Sarwar
Rishi Sunak tells the SNP to 'reconsider' DRS 24 May 2023 at 2:19pm
The Prime Minister criticised the SNP/Green scheme telling the Commons that they should ?reconsider? the DRS as it will ?reduce choice and increase prices for consumers?
