Rosemary Goring: Leaders across the globe aspire to the Roman model but ignor... 17 Aug 2022 at 6:34am
IT was a day a Roman legionary would have longed for: hot as a skillet, with a cloudless sky the colour of the Mediterranean under brilliant sun. On Hadrian?s Wall, once the most far-flung frontier of the Roman Empire, you more usually find weather that fits a southerner?s idea of the north. Wind, rain, sleet and biting cold come as standard out here on the Northumberland moors. No doubt such conditions helped cement the idea that those who lived beyond were primitive.
Iain Macwhirter: Europe faces a nuclear winter as Putin prepares to ramp up h... 17 Aug 2022 at 5:00am
THE Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in south-eastern Ukraine is the largest in Europe. It is being shelled almost by the day as Ukrainian and Russian soldiers contest the strategically important power station on the Dnieper river. The situation is almost unimaginably dangerous, not least because, right now, it is in the interest of neither side to make the installation safe.
Letters: Tories should follow SNP lead in fighting cost of living crisis 17 Aug 2022 at 5:00am
NEIL Mackay ("The political parties are useless. We are on our own", The Herald, August 16) rightly calls out Labour?s plan for tackling the cost of living crisis ("Starmer defends costly freeze on energy bills", The Herald, August 16) as a mere sticking plaster.
Adam Tomkins: No one has to read Rushdie or see Sadowitz but free speech is s... 17 Aug 2022 at 6:00am
FREEDOM of speech is not a given: it has to be fought for. Always there will be those who want to silence people they dislike or disagree with. And ? always ? those of us who consider this wrongheaded and, indeed, dangerous, must fight back.
Slight improvement in Scottish A&E waiting times 16 Aug 2022 at 10:14am
WAITING time performance across Scotland?s A&E units has improved slightly for a second week although almost a third of patients still wait too long to be treated.
Neil Mackay: The political parties are useless. In this class war, the people... 16 Aug 2022 at 5:00am
PSYCHIATRISTS always listen carefully to the metaphors people use. Symbolic language is a map to the soul, after all. Tune in to phone-in shows today and you?ll hear folk saying they feel "beat up", they "can?t take any more punishment", they?re "under attack". Their words reveal an unmistakable sense of victimhood, of inherent violence done by those in power to those without power.
English Channel swim shows how close UK and Europe are and should be despite ... 16 Aug 2022 at 12:30pm
Swimming from the somewhat patriotically named Shakespeare Beach near Dover to ?Cape Grey Nose? ? more correctly Cap Gris-Nez ? on the French coast, Andrew Donaldson took just eight hours, exactly, to cross the English Channel, aka La Manche.
Wings over Scotland
Home Of The Deranged 16 Aug 2022 at 12:45pm
It’s not exactly a secret that Nicola Sturgeon’s grotesque and diseased perversion of the SNP is home to a motley collection of fundamentalist lunatics allied with the most extremist wing of the Scottish Greens, whose only interest in independence is to use it as a tool to facilitate the “queering” of society. For anyone with the …
The Great Terror 14 Aug 2022 at 1:24pm
I am greatly honoured to have been targeted for censorship in the same weekend as two great artists as rightly esteemed as Salman Rushdie and Jerry Sadowitz. (Though thankful to have not yet been violently physically attacked for my views, as both have.) To be honest, I was amazed my most recent Twitter account lasted …
The Little Country That Lost Its Mind 5 Aug 2022 at 5:08pm
So this just happened. Which even in the hopelessly politically-debased world of the modern Scottish judiciary might be one of the most extraordinary miscarriages of justice in the nation’s history. Because what Dave Llewelyn actually did was quote George Galloway’s own words. He didn’t just say it once, either. He then went on to found …
Cracking the code 31 Jul 2022 at 1:42am
First of all, congratulations to the Herald for only being eight days behind a retired website on this story. Unusually fast work, lads. Now let’s deal with the spin. Gillian Martin is an Aberdeenshire MSP who’s had her own run-ins with the SNP’s Tranish Inquisition and has absolutely no excuse for not knowing what the …
Shut up or get out 24 Jul 2022 at 1:05pm
When I entered front line politics in 2012 as an SNP councillor, I was clear that my guiding ambition was to play a full part in the restoration of independence to Scotland. Over the past 10 years that commitment has only strengthened as the need for independence has grown ever more urgent. From oil and …
A Little Respect 15 Jul 2022 at 11:40am
Readers, meet SNP councillor Fatima Joji. As you can see, she’s part of the hyperwoke “Aberdeen Independence Movement” faction which recently took it upon itself to issue a “code of conduct” for independence campaigners, demanding that everyone in the Yes movement should debate things: “politely and positively at all times, without rancour and bitterness … in …
On their fat behinds 13 Jul 2022 at 5:00pm
By now Wings readers will likely have already seen today’s events in the House Of Commons, where Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle completely lost his rag at Alba MPs (and Wings contributors) Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey for protesting against the UK government’s refusal to respect Scotland’s mandate for an independence referendum. ?Get them out? demand …
Trying Not To Think About Time 12 Jul 2022 at 12:11pm
A quick schedule for the future. BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2022 According to Joanna Cherry, we should expect some sort of outcome from the Lord Advocate’s referral of proposed indyref legislation to the Supreme Court by no later than the end of this year. Possibly the SC will refuse to adjudicate on the matter at all, but more …
Free beer tomorrow 6 Jul 2022 at 2:10am
You know how the SNP are always going on about how bad the Tories are and how urgently we need to get rid of them? Well, it turns out they don’t want that to happen for at least a couple of years. They just want a different Tory as Prime Minister, even though they keep …
The trouble with remembering 4 Jul 2022 at 6:19pm
One might almost imagine that once every Parliament, a drawing of lots is conducted at The Times’ offices in Scotland and the loser is obliged to write this column, on pain of a ceremonial debagging and a jolly good paddling with an old cricket bat from all the other chaps in the newsroom. Perhaps the …
Politics in the mainstream media is entirely seen through the prism of the relentless race to the right of the Tory leadership election. The only people who can vote are two football crowds worth of overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male, comparatively wealthy, mostly pensionable, overwhelmingly southern, people. Brexit and the folding of UKIP into the Tory …
Saturday will be a proud day for our family, after a very difficult year. Winners, Nadira’s first feature film as Producer, will have its World Premiere as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. To be part of the official selection at the world’s oldest film festival is a real achievement, and to be given …
The imposition of sanctions against British citizen and journalist Graham Phillips is an appalling violation of freedom of speech – which to have meaning must mean freedom to say things which disagree with the government, the media and/or majority public opinion. Phillips has for almost a decade published and broadcast from Ukraine material which is …
The lives of the latest fifteen Palestinian children to be murdered by Israel in Gaza, lives ripped from their small, terrified bodies with devastating violence, do not seem of much concern to the powerful in the West, or indeed anywhere. The BBC repeated without question Israel’s claim that its latest launch of high explosive at …
The Lord Advocate’s “reference” to the UK Supreme Court on whether the Scottish Parliament has the power to instigate an Independence Referendum is carefully wrought to get the answer “No”. From the opening pleading on whether the Supreme Court should hear the petition at all – which Lord advocate Bain founds solely on the argument …
Independence, Justice and the Unionist Lord Advocate
Nobody can accuse the authors of the Forde report of having a low opinion of themselves. Its lofty tone reflects profound disdain for the views and actions of mere mortals, and it utters judgments with an air of deep profundity. This is amusing as it is banal in the extreme. The Forde Report is, peculiarly, …
Scot Goes Pop Fundraising for Independence Polling: an update 3 Aug 2022 at 9:26pm
As you'll probably have gathered, I was away from home last week in a place with very sporadic internet access, so I have a backlog of about four blogposts I want to write at the back of my mind. ...
What are the Greens thinking of? 1 Aug 2022 at 2:09pm
If true, this is absolutely idiotic (the stand in every seat part, I mean). There are a number of constituencies in Edinburgh and Glasgow where the Greens could win 10-20% of the vote, thus splitti...
VIDEO: Our Precious Union is Precious 29 Jul 2022 at 11:26pm
* * *We've already seen since Nicola Sturgeon's announcement that the overwhelmingly unionist mainstream media are attempting a 'shock and awe' campaign to try to kill off independence - and the ...
Tory right-wingers have reached their decision day 19 Jul 2022 at 2:09pm
We're not going to find out the identity of the next Prime Minister today, but we have finally reached a genuine crunch-point in the race, because the Tory right will have to decide once and for al...
Kevin McKenna: Here's the speech Liz Truss might have given in Tory Perth hus... 17 Aug 2022 at 5:00am
?MY fellow Scots, one of our most cherished memories as a family was watching Sir David Attenborough?s Scottish wildlife programmes shot on location from the wilds of Perthshire. Watching packs of wolves roaming your glens and grizzly bears hunting for fish in the silvery Tay showed us all the variety of life on this our United Kingdom.
The Dead Center: Reflections on Liberalism and Democracy 16 Aug 2022 at 7:34pm
The Dead Center: Reflections on Liberalism and Democracy After the End of History by Luke Savage In 2016, Tony Blair reached his conceptual limits: ?I?m not sure I fully understand politics right now,? the former Labour leader told The Guardian and Financial Times. The emergence of Corbyn and Sanders, he said, signalled a baffling desire on behalf …
Self-Determination, Autonomy, Independence 16 Aug 2022 at 10:39am
Today we are launching our updated new website. Our fresh look has been brewing for a while and will coincide with a few other changes. We have improved navigation and moved to dedicated servers to offer better protection against the sort of DDoS attacks we were experiencing. The thinking behind the new look is described …
On Freedom of Speech 15 Aug 2022 at 2:59pm
The news that Salman Rushdie is recovering and ‘joking’ is good, though his family are also saying his injuries are ‘life changing’. His agent, Andrew Wylie, said his liver had been damaged and that he was likely to lose an eye. We are lucky that Rushdie is an icon of free speech and not a …
Stealing The Constitution 14 Aug 2022 at 5:35pm
In the greatest economic crisis since the 2007 financial crash, with imminent threats to the public?s standard of living even greater than the near collapse of the banking system; and before that the world changing crisis of World War II, the Conservative Party has now abandoned even the fatiguing chore of overseeing government, for basic …
God Save the Regime 28 Jul 2022 at 1:52pm
The British royal family are beyond the law. They operate in a secret world within a world and pay no heed to the societal obligations and responsibilities that regulate their subjects. In truth their exact wealth is unknown but, as the wheels come off the British state, also being revealed are the legal and financial …
Was habe ich in meinen Sommerferien gemacht? 28 Jul 2022 at 12:42pm
Here we are on day 41 of my Duolingo German streak and I?m still confused about the gender of a laptop and am embarrassed to say that it?s taken me 45 years to work out that George Lucas must have been studying German when he constructed Yoda?s back to front way of speaking: “The greatest …
What Climate Emergency? 28 Jul 2022 at 9:19am
In the aftermath of the experience of last week’s ‘extreme weather’, something has ‘broken though’ in the parlance of media chatter. Several friends have asked “What should I do? “I want to do something”. “I want to join something.” Do nothing I tell them. Just stop it. Many of us have been saying this for …
Remembering Jiyan Tolhildan 27 Jul 2022 at 10:23am
She led the fight against ISIS, and was murdered by Turkey. RIP Jiyan Tolhildan. Last Sunday, the United States Central Command extended condolences to three women fighters ? members of their ?SDF partners? who were ?killed in an attack near Qamishli, Syria, on July 22, 2022?. They omitted to mention that the perpetrator of the …
The Conservative Party and the National Debt 25 Jul 2022 at 11:47pm
In Rishi Sunak?s pursuit of the leadership of a Conservative Party increasingly committed to the lunatic right fringe of politics, represented by Liz Truss and the ERG, he calculatedly chose the Thatcher shrine of Grantham to make a defining speech on his supposed responsible approach to the management of the economy; which in Conservative thought, …
Distinctively British 25 Jul 2022 at 4:17pm
The efforts to shoehorn and impose a British identity onto people in Scotland, and England and Wales is a strange phenomenon. Today Keir Starmer, spluttered out an assembly of words, some of which didn’t really mean anything at all, like ?A productive Liverpool is good for Birkenhead. A strong Dudley is good for Birmingham?, all …
Sunak and Truss rule out freezing energy prices at leadership hustings 16 Aug 2022 at 9:12pm
Rival candidates questioned in Perth after frontrunner Truss makes belligerent remarks about SturgeonPolitics news ? live updatesRishi Sunak and Liz Truss have ruled out freezing energy prices by claiming it would be an expensive, short-term fix that would fail to solve the underlying problem wit...
?The world is my oyster?: Nicola Sturgeon on feminism, her last push for inde... 13 Aug 2022 at 8:00am
Scotland?s first minister is one of the most capable, if divisive, politicians of her era. Could her record-breaking reign conclude with the end of the union?Nicola Sturgeon won?t take ?no? for an answer. Standing at one end of the long table in the cabinet room at her official Edinburgh residenc...
Liz Truss dismissal of ?attention seeker? Sturgeon will horrify Scots, says SNP 2 Aug 2022 at 10:37am
Tory activists cheered leadership favourite when she said first minister should be ignoredPolitics live: latest updatesLiz Truss has been accused of tarnishing the unionist case against Scottish independence after calling Nicola Sturgeon an ?attention seeker? who ought to be ignored.John Swinney,...
Scottish government under pressure as drug deaths fell by just nine in 2021 28 Jul 2022 at 1:06pm
?Heart-breaking? figures are first decrease since 2013 but raise questions over slow progressThe Scottish government remains under huge pressure to deliver on its ?national mission? to save lives as new figures show drug-related deaths fell by just nine, or 1%, to 1,330 in 2021.Described as ?hear...
Nicola Sturgeon accuses Labour of giving 'the proverbial two fingers' to Scot... 14 Jul 2022 at 7:02pm
First minister accuses Labour of giving 'the proverbial two fingers' to Scottish voters after Keir Starmer said his party wouldn't allow a second referendum on Scottish independence if it were to win the next general electionSturgeon says Labour is giving Scottish voters ?proverbial two fingers? ...
Sturgeon says Labour is giving Scottish voters ?proverbial two fingers? 14 Jul 2022 at 1:55pm
First minister hits out at party?s vow to block second referendum, and warns of further Tory shift to the rightLatest politics news ? liveNicola Sturgeon has accused Labour of giving ?the proverbial two fingers? to Scottish voters, as she warned that regardless of who wins the Tory leadership rac...
Scottish referendum moves ?premature?, says UK government 12 Jul 2022 at 3:17pm
Lawyers advise supreme court that Sturgeon not entitled to a ruling on legality of holding a vote without Westminster?s consentNicola Sturgeon?s request for a supreme court ruling on the legality of holding a second Scottish independence referendum without Westminster?s permission should be throw...
Time to repair the fabric of our disunited kingdom | Letters 11 Jul 2022 at 5:21pm
Paul Tattam calls for a good-humoured national debate about the future of the union, and Iain Forbes says the problem is many English people don?t seem to care about it. Plus letters from John Skrine and Michael CunninghamSimon Jenkins? article (The United Kingdom is broken. It?s time for a new B...
Nationalism has a dark side, but it?s not all bad | Letters 8 Jul 2022 at 6:21pm
Colin Mann says his support for Scottish independence is driven by his social democratic values. Plus letters from Adam Rennie, Giselle Dye, Christopher Rainger and Pauline CarruthersMartin Kettle?s view on a Scottish independence referendum is distorted by his understandable suspicion of nationa...
Independence vote may be ?unlawful?, says Scotland?s lord advocate 5 Jul 2022 at 5:51pm
Dorothy Bain QC releases her letter to the UK supreme court seeking its ruling on Nicola Sturgeon?s plans for a second referendum Scotland?s lord advocate has confirmed she fears Nicola Sturgeon?s plans for a fresh independence referendum may be unlawful.Dorothy Bain QC has now released the lette...
The hustings in Perth are the last gasp for the Tories in Scotland 16 Aug 2022 at 1:21pm
The Conservatives are holding a leadership coven, sorry, hustings in Scotland today. This is the seventh hustings of the leadership Lie-Off and the only event to be held in Scotland. Ballots have already gone out to party members who tend to vote early, so most of the tiny number of people eligible to vote will …
Fury, denial and intellectual poverty : the state of British nationalism in S... 15 Aug 2022 at 11:38am
Possibly it was an outbreak of masochism, or a curiosity verging on the foolish, but the other day, using a burner account, I had a peek at anti-independence social media to get a feel of where the opposition is at. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting a huge amount, but I was shocked by the …
This is a cost of corporate greed crisis 11 Aug 2022 at 11:01am
An American Buddhist nun called Perma Chödrön wrote a famous self-help book called When Things Fall Apart, she later expounded on the message of the first book with a follow up, subtitled A Guide to Fearlessness. The books give advice to dealing with personal crises such as the loss of a loved one, or dealing …
Hasta la vista, he wants to come back 9 Aug 2022 at 11:52am
The new Prime Minister is due to take over from Boris Johnson on 5 September, that however is unlikely to be the last that we hear from the serial liar and law breaker who spent years plotting and conniving to get the top job only to be wheeched out of it just halfway through a …
Scottish democracy will be the big loser of the Tory leadership contest 7 Aug 2022 at 8:35pm
It ought to be unnecessary in a country with a long and well established democratic tradition that the basic principles of democracy and parliamentary mandates should have to be explained and reiterated. Sadly however that is where we are in Scotland in 2022 where in their panicked desperation the opponents of Scottish independence, who are …
The real nationalist extremists we need to worry about 4 Aug 2022 at 11:29am
One of the supposed advantages of being British which those who oppose independence are so proud of used to be the freedom to criticise the government, the monarchy, the army, the establishment, or the myths and sacred cows of Britishness without any repercussion. This was the much vaunted tolerance which we were always told was …
Attention seeking Truss 2 Aug 2022 at 8:58pm
Anyone who has been paying even passing attention to the Scottish independence debate has known for some time that the only strategy that the Conservatives have in order to fend off independence is to ignore all demands for another referendum in the hope that this entire independence thing will just give up and go away. …
Human rights and Tory wrongs 2 Aug 2022 at 10:59am
In an interview over the weekend, Rish! Sunak and his exclamation mark of ambition, tried to make up the ground in the “I’m a total Tory bastard stakes” that he was losing to Liz Truss, whose campaign is assisted by the fact that the only ideology she’s ever had is whatever is going to aid …
The Tory chancers trashing the rule of law 1 Aug 2022 at 10:42am
The British Government has now pretty much abandoned any pretence that the rule of law counts for anything. At least that is, when the rule of law is supposed to apply to the British Government. They are still extremely keen on enforcing laws on everyone else in order to prevent them challenging Conservative diktats, such …
The farce that is PIP 26 Jul 2022 at 7:42pm
It seems that my bad experience with PIP is sadly typical, so I have decided to share it in more detail, partly in order to help me get my thoughts together for getting the DWP to reassess my claim but also because I hope that by sharing my experience it will put pressure on the …
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...
Holding Sunak to account for England?s failure to close the attainment gap 17 Aug 2022 at 10:11am
Both candidates for PM have been banging on about the SNP’s track record. Education is a favourite for them but today the Guardian reports: The attainment gap between poorer pupils and their better-off class mates is just as large now as it was 20 years ago, according to a damning new report which says the coronavirus pandemic is likely to have increased the inequalities in education The landma...
Exam Results: Times Education Supplement weak on statistics too 17 Aug 2022 at 9:02am
By stewartb I continue to be irritated by the coverage of the SQA exam results for Scotland?s schools. Recall the Scottish Tory Party?s education spokesperson, Oliver Mundell: ?Education spokesman Oliver Mundell said the widening attainment gap was a ?badge of shame? for the first minister.? (BBC News website) Of course the Tories are comparing statistics for 2022 with 2021. What is notable is ...
Degrees of Apprenticeship 17 Aug 2022 at 8:46am
Alasdair Galloway The problem I have with this story in the Independent is that what they intend to achieve is right, but they are doing it for all the wrong reasons ?Students should turn to apprenticeships to ease soaring demand for degrees, Ucas boss warns? The presentation of encouraging school leavers to go for “apprenticeships” is that its directed “to bring down soaring demand for higher...
UK Government data confirm much higher drug death rate among younger users in... 16 Aug 2022 at 5:22pm
Today, I received data (a re-run of table 2 for the link below) from the UK Statistics Authority, to enable me to confirm that drug deaths among younger users are much higher in England & Wales than in Scotland. The researcher sent me a rerun of the data for the 25-34 group so that I could compare with Scotland’s equivalent group. The published data in the link below uses different groupings fr...
Sorry Prof Devine but Sarwar was a hypocrite and you?re wrong 16 Aug 2022 at 12:26pm
I hesitate to correct Professor Tom Devine in his defence of Anas Sarwar. Once compared with Prof John Curtice, a writer said he was like a premier league footballer and I was like a third-team reserve at Elgin City. Anyone who saw me play would agree that I should have been so lucky. Goodness knows what league I’ll be relegated to if I question Prof Devine. Anyhow, Sarwar’s support for Pakista...
Scrutiny: Significant improvement in emergency waiting times despite increase... 16 Aug 2022 at 10:10am
In the week ending 7 August 2022, demand at Scotland’s A&E departments climbed from 24 699 to 24 731. Despite that 67.9% were seen in 4 hours, up from 66.3% and 65% in the previous two weeks. Those waiting over 8 hours fell from 2 798 to 2 541 and those waiting over 12 hours fell from 1 040 to 916. Only Scotland publishes weekly figures but in July, the figure was only 57%. For the local health...
Breath-taking arrogance of the Tories 16 Aug 2022 at 9:07am
Just which part of the SNP record do they feel entitled to scrutinise? Is it: the superior NHS performance? the much lower crime rate? the much lower drug death rate among the under 35s? the higher NHS staffing? the higher police staffing? the higher firefighter staffing? the lower cumulative Covid death rate? the effective contact tracing? the lower child poverty? the greater affordable housin...
Disclosure: More than 99.99% of people with learning difficulties or autism N... 15 Aug 2022 at 2:35pm
BBC Scotland, advertising their timid wee pals at Disclosure, tell us: Scots with learning disabilities and autism have been locked in secure hospitals and psychiatric wards for decades, a BBC investigation has found. They remain unable to get out despite Labour Scottish ministers saying 22 years ago that they should be living independently in the community. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scot...
BBC 1 News: ?Scotland has made public health history? 15 Aug 2022 at 2:21pm
Towards the end of Reporting Scotland, after tales of being locked in, being cancelled, of fire deaths, road deaths and of storms, we heard: Scotland has become the first country in the World to legally protect access to free period products. They’re already available in many places but from this morning, councils, schools and colleges are required to make sanitary towels and tampons available ...
There will be no tax exodus from Scotland 15 Aug 2022 at 10:26am
We’ve seen this before as the right-wing media try to undermine Scotland’s gradually improving, more progressive, tax regime. In 2015, the Telegraph predicted an exodus of the wealthy and young and 2017, Border Region Tories predicted an exodus to England. I can find no subsequent hard evidence that this ever happened. What is clear is this: Figure 3.1 shows estimates of net migration between S...
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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British leadership candidates against new Scottish independence push - Reuter... 16 Aug 2022 at 10:27pm
British leadership candidates against new Scottish independence push Reuters UKUK Leadership Race: Next Prime Minister Faces Challenge of Scottish Independence BloombergScottish independence: Liz Truss says she will 'never, ever' allow UK 'family' to be split up The ScotsmanScottish independence support to go up with Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss, poll finds The NationalView Full coverage on Goo...
It?s a shambles. Period - how the SNP have made a mess over new 'period pover... 17 Aug 2022 at 12:01am
It?s a shambles. Period - how the SNP have made a mess over new 'period poverty' laws Scottish Daily ExpressThe SNP is using independence as a Trojan Horse to impose extreme trans ideology on Scotland The TelegraphSNP council appoint man as 'period dignity officer' The SpectatorFury as Scottish council appoints a MAN as first ever period poverty rights officer Daily MailSNP Hails Appointmen...
British leadership candidates against new Scottish independence push - Reuter... 16 Aug 2022 at 10:27pm
British leadership candidates against new Scottish independence push Reuters UKUK Leadership Race: Next Prime Minister Faces Challenge of Scottish Independence BloombergTruss and Sunak attack SNP record and dismiss 'barmy' calls for Scottish independence vote iNewsRishi Sunak and Liz Truss unite on ruling out second Scottish referendum The NationalView Full coverage on Google News
Scotland set to be world first for biometric data Code of Practice 16 Aug 2022 at 5:10pm
In a new letter, justice and veterans secretary Keith Brown told?Scottish Biometrics Commissioner?Dr Brian Plastow the Criminal Justice committee had approved his proposed Code of Practice without amendment
Scottish Tories split on leadership election 16 Aug 2022 at 4:09pm
Ahead of a crunch hustings in Perth this evening, Scottish Tories are on the fence about who to succeed Boris Johnson as the next Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party
