'Why are we here?' A diary of shock and awe on the Iraq War frontline 19 Mar 2023 at 5:55am
Twenty years ago today, the US-led invasion of Iraq got underway. Foreign Editor David Pratt was on the ground then and continued covering the war in the years that followed. From his notebooks of the time, he presents some cameo insights of what it was like to be there
?Men with bats shouted the N-word?: Gary Younge on racism in Scotland 19 Mar 2023 at 5:46am
Gary Younge faced down discrimination to become the most prominent black voice in British newspapers. Today, as his new book exploring the reality of black lives is released, he gives a scathing account of the bigotry and violence he experienced in Scotland
Anger over Deposit Return Scheme boss's £300,000 salary 19 Mar 2023 at 9:40am
The chief executive of the company overseeing Scotland?s deposit return scheme (DRS) will take home a staggering £300,000, according to reports.
Kenzabur? ?e: a writer of real humanity and the real Japan 20 Mar 2023 at 4:55am
The death at 88 of Japanese writer and Nobel prize winner Kenzabur? ?e on March 3 leaves a deep wound in his readers. But also in the Japanese community, which has lost one of its most powerful voices and critics.
Wings over Scotland
Cleaning the stables 19 Mar 2023 at 8:13pm
So we were a couple of days early on this one. In fairness to the Scottish press, it’s had a lot of stuff to fit in recently. But the story finally did appear in today’s Sunday Mail. It’s a bit grim. But because there are still a handful of elected SNP representatives who AREN’T creepy …
Astronomical numbers of boots 19 Mar 2023 at 2:44pm
The SNP having a fondness for lying about their membership wouldn’t have come as quite such a shock to the Scottish press if they paid a little more attention to this website. Because we were pointing it out two and a half years ago. It was in October 2020 that we told you how the …
Quiet Times For Scotland 19 Mar 2023 at 12:33pm
You might think that Scottish political journalists would all be in a shark-like frenzy of excitement at the events of the last few days. But not over on The Guardian. Apparently it’s all a bit too much for the delicate wee flowers. Carrell last tweeted five days ago. And it’s not that he’s been too …
If you find that you just can?t trust them 18 Mar 2023 at 1:53pm
We’ve just been leaked this footage, apparently taken by an alert traveller, of Nicola Sturgeon at Edinburgh Airport, reacting badly to receiving news that Peter Murrell has been “unavoidably detained” and won’t be making their rendezvous to Rio. ? So what now, readers? What now?
The Patsies 18 Mar 2023 at 11:13am
The mainstream Scottish political media might not have many professional standards, but there’s one it’s still pretty diligent about upholding. And that’s that if a political party’s press office starts really taking liberties and making them look like fools, all bets (and gloves) are off. So when SNP chief of comms Murray Foote (one of …
The decline and fall 17 Mar 2023 at 11:43am
…of the SNP has been in the post for quite some time. Because no party can prosper for long when it’s stuffed full of complete dum-dums. In Adam and Tweed’s defence, their audaciously creative approach to arithmetic was also backed up by a cough cough cough cough cough “pro-indy” newspaper columnist: But these are uncomplicated …
The truth will come out 16 Mar 2023 at 4:12pm
How it started, just one month ago: And how it’s going: But it’s quite a lot worse than it looks. Because in fact the SNP has lost a breathtaking 53,505 members in just over three years since it started adopting the policy of gender self-ID. According to the party’s own accounts, it had 125,691 members …
Rogue Trooper 16 Mar 2023 at 10:53am
Hats off to the SNP. Every time we think that the party’s leadership election can’t get any more absurdly farcical, they pull something extra-mad out of the bag. After this happened yesterday, it suddenly become “known” across the Scottish media that the SNP NEC was going to hold an extraordinary meeting in order to authorise …
There Are No Rules 16 Mar 2023 at 12:16am
This is the SNP members’ website tonight. ? Looks like anything goes, folks. We’re definitely getting these kind of vibes. ? ? ? We wonder what it’s like in the bunker.
Do not despair. There may be politicians who have abandoned any genuine intent to gain Scottish Independence, but the path is still open. It is a question of nerve and will. I think we should lift our eyes beyond the current SNP leadership contest – although I shall in future be commenting on its incredible …
A recurring row has broken out over the island of Rockall, an uninhabited rock in the Atlantic whose ownership is disputed between the UK and Ireland. The Scottish government, under whose jurisdiction Rockall falls, has banned Irish vessels which traditionally fish there from doing so. This is an article in the Derry Journal today: Donegal …
Three climate activists in two separate trials have been sent to jail by Judge Silas Reid using the entirely arbitrary powers of Contempt of Court, because they insisted on telling the jury that their protests had been motivated by the climate crisis and fuel poverty. Juries are an essential safeguard from injustice by the state. …
Speaking to the No2Nato meeting on Saturday, I had the challenge of telling a packed and highly motivated audience some things that they very much instinctively disagreed with, from a very different viewpoint to much of what they had heard from some excellent speakers all day. I had to follow a really effective rabble rousing …
It is over ten years since I allowed a guest post on this blog. This is because I never listen to anybody except myself. That way I avoid hearing anything disagreeable. (Those last two sentences are a joke, deliberately in the style of Jane Austen. Of course it ruins the joke to explain it, but …
Unexpectedly, the election for leader of the SNP has become a true hinge moment in the entire history of the Scottish nation. Sure of their control of the party, the devolutionists in the SNP have openly come out with the proposal that Independence is merely an “aspiration” – Humza Yousaf’s exact word. Stewart McDonald and …
Overdue CalMac ferries hit by further delays 16 Mar 2023 at 6:09pm
The two CalMac ferries that are being built at the Fergusons shipyard on the Clyde have been hit by a further delay
Is Alba on course for a list seat in the north-east? 16 Mar 2023 at 10:54pm
I'm going to take a brief break from covering the SNP leadership election, because I was asked two or three threads back to give an opinion on the Alba Party's claim that polling shows them to be o...
Kevin McKenna: SNP?s rivals are hardly a font of political talent 20 Mar 2023 at 5:00am
ONE of the themes emerging from the chaotic SNP leadership contest is that the standard of debate and the personal qualities of the candidates themselves is of a low calibre. This has most often been espoused by politicians of a Unionist stamp, most especially
SNP leadership contest is getting into QAnon territory 20 Mar 2023 at 5:00am
WHO doesn?t love a good conspiracy? Other than the minority groups who are inevitably blamed for whatever fictional atrocities spark them, of course...
Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher the architects of racist obsession 20 Mar 2023 at 5:00am
THE news that Suella Braverman was off to Rwanda to ratify her new (illegal) Illegal Immigration Bill ?accompanied by media representatives from GB News, the Daily Mail, the Express and The Telegraph. The BBC, The Independent, The Guardian and the Daily Mirror were not invited to attend? is quietly terrifying.
UK's ?Stop the Boats? campaign moves UK deeper into the moral abyss 20 Mar 2023 at 5:00am
LAST week saw three developments: An SNP leadership race reached its concluding stages; a Budget that penalised the poor while rewarding those in little need and, at the same time, the heightening of the campaign to
Whoever becomes FM should seek to harness Nicola Sturgeon's talents 19 Mar 2023 at 8:45pm
WHEN First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced her resignation as leader of the SNP on February 15, the first person who came to my mind as a possible successor was the Scottish Government?s able and personable ?economy minister?, Kate Forbes MSP.
The End of the SNP?s Imperial Era, What Comes Next and the Politics of Libera... 19 Mar 2023 at 2:54pm
The SNP?s leadership contest has not so far been the greatest advert for the party. Shaped by the end of the Salmond-Sturgeon era of the SNP and Scottish politics which has lasted for nearly two decades, behind the once impressive, professional and disciplined façade a deep malaise and decay has been revealed. In recent days …
The Origins of Conservative Racism 19 Mar 2023 at 11:46am
The news that Suella Braverman was off to Rwanda to ratify her new (illegal) Illegal Immigration Bill “accompanied by media representatives from GB News, the Daily Mail, the Express and the Telegraph. The BBC, the Independent, the Guardian, the Daily Mirror were not invited to attend” is quietly terrifying. Let’s not give undue credit to …
Saturday Night at The Howff with Rebecca Wade Morris & Jamie Wardrop, Evie Wa... 18 Mar 2023 at 8:19pm
howff /ha?f/. A favourite meeting place or haunt, especially a pub. The Howff is Bella?s Boozer, your virtual lounge for the weekend. Every weekend we bring you new releases and recommendations for your listening and viewing pleasure … In The Belly Of It All – a spoken word collaboration from an idea by Rebecca …
Black Mirror Scotland 17 Mar 2023 at 10:11am
Inside the bin fire of Scottish politics. The leadership campaign has shifted from debacle to high-farce, a distinction not everyone has recognised. Let’s face it things were already going badly ( … ): a trio of low-grade candidates knocking lumps out of each other, and their party and their time in office; a void of …
Tracks 15 Mar 2023 at 9:25pm
Elisapie – Uummati Attanarsimat (Heart of Glass) Nightwave – Prince Of Flowers Right Wing Beast
Growing the Edinburgh Festival, a Tragedy (and a Comedy) 15 Mar 2023 at 7:09pm
Why, you may ask, do I as an artist and cultural researcher feel such disdain and disappointment in the news that the UK government will be giving the Edinburgh Festivals an £8.6 million boost this year? It seems illogical to be frustrated at a financial boost to culture at a time when cultural funding is …
The BBC after Gary Lineker and the Right-Wing Lie Machine 15 Mar 2023 at 9:38am
There has been only one UK story these past few days, to the near exclusion of everything else namely Gary Lineker and the BBC. The Lineker case is not an isolated controversy. On the very same day that Lineker went on gardening leave, it was reported Sir David Attenborough had a BBC programme on the …
The Establishment Choice 14 Mar 2023 at 6:18pm
The story goes that Humza Yousaf is the SNP leadership candidate of choice, and the endless endorsements from the top brass would confirm that, though I’m not sure he was their preferred or expected candidate. But the support for Kate Forbes among the wider British establishment and unionist media is quite remarkable. This morning Kaye …
The Endless Death of Chartered Monopoly 14 Mar 2023 at 1:36pm
The BBC, originally the British Broadcasting Company was founded as an independent business in 1922 (with British manufacturers exclusively permitted to hold shares), led by its first Director General John Reith, and supported by companies like Marconi, who supplied its first studio. This arrangement did not last long after Parliament reflected on the new prospect …
Is the ?Islamic Republic of Iran? a democracy? 13 Mar 2023 at 10:14pm
A look into the elections, government structure, and fundamental democratic features in Iran. The name of the political system in Iran since 1979 has been the ?Islamic Republic of Iran?, so it?s a self-declared democracy, but is it a real democracy in its form, function, and nature? The question is, can we recognize a country …
SNP members feel disempowered, says leadership candidate Kate Forbes 19 Mar 2023 at 4:27pm
In wake of chief executive?s resignation, Scottish finance secretary says decisions being taken by ?too few people?Scottish National party members feel disempowered and in doubt about whether their party is genuinely democratic, Kate Forbes, one of the frontrunners to replace Nicola Sturgeon, has...
Kate Forbes must convert warmth into votes in the Highlands 19 Mar 2023 at 4:00pm
The Gaelic speaker is liked on her home turf, but SNP members are wrestling with the same issues as others across ScotlandPamela MacKenzie presides over an enviable array of fillings at Batty?s Baps sandwich bar on Dingwall high street. ?Kate Forbes has been very good for the area,? she says. ?We...
SNP chief executive Peter Murrell resigns amid membership row 18 Mar 2023 at 3:48pm
Departure of Murrell, husband of Nicola Sturgeon, comes day after media chief quitThe chief executive of the Scottish National party has resigned with immediate effect as an escalating row over party membership figures engulfs the party?s senior echelons, prompting demands for an overhaul of how ...
No 10 refuses to give details of how £4bn pay deal for health workers will be... 17 Mar 2023 at 5:08pm
Downing Street reveals cost of improved pay offer for nurses and paramedics but will not say where the money will come fromDowning Street says the improve pay offer for health workers in England announced yesterday will cost around £4bn.At the morning lobby briefing, a No 10 spokesperson said the...
Who will replace Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland?s next first minister? ? podcast 15 Mar 2023 at 3:00am
The battle to replace Nicola Sturgeon is dividing the SNP and growing increasingly bitter, reports Libby BrooksWhen Nicola Sturgeon announced her imminent departure from the leadership of the Scottish National party, she assured her supporters that there was a wealth of talent vying to take her p...
Labour?s attempt to block illegal migration bill defeated in Commons ? as it ... 13 Mar 2023 at 10:40pm
Opposition amendment to stop the government barring small boat arrivals claiming asylum defeated by 312 votes to 249Junior hospital doctors in England started a 72-hour strike this morning. My colleagues Denis Campbell and Aubrey Allegretti have the story.This morning Prof Philip Banfield, the ch...
Plans by Westminster to block Scottish bottle deposit scheme a ?travesty? 13 Mar 2023 at 3:58pm
Environmental campaigners furious Alister Jack intends to deny trade exemption for bottle recycling proposalsBlocking the Scottish deposit return scheme for bottles would be an environmental travesty, campaigners have said, in a growing backlash to the UK government plans to undermine the project...
Voting opens to select new SNP leader and Scottish first minister 13 Mar 2023 at 1:44pm
Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan vying to succeed Nicola Sturgeon who quit last monthTens of thousands of Scottish National party members will cast their votes from Monday to select their party leader and Scotland?s next first minister, after a snap election forced by Nicola Sturgeon?s sho...
SNP leadership candidates urged to commit to abortion clinic buffer zones 13 Mar 2023 at 11:20am
Concerns that Scotland lagging behind rest of UK as anti-abortion protests continue outside clinicsPro-choice campaigners are urging all Scottish National party leadership candidates to commit to accelerating the imposition of protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics, as healthcare profe...
UK government poised to block Scottish bottle recycling scheme 13 Mar 2023 at 4:00am
SNP request for trade exemption set to be rejected in latest clash after gender recognition rowHolyrood and Westminster are heading for another showdown as the UK government prepares to block a second policy move by the Scottish government this year.Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, intends t...
The real cancel culture is Tory cancel culture 16 Mar 2023 at 2:20pm
To absolutely no-one’s surprise, emails and WhatsApp messages leaked to the Guardian newspaper show that the BBC “regularly” bows to pressure from the Conservative Government over the wording of its headlines and the framing of its stories. The whistle blower claims that among other instances of the BBC pandering to the demands of the Conservatives, …
The BBC : enablers of British nationalist authoritarianism 13 Mar 2023 at 10:55am
The BBC has always insisted that it is politically neutral and unbiased, even as it broadcasts a debate programme from the independence supporting predominantly working class city of Dundee with an audience that seemed to be mostly composed of middle class Brexit supporting Conservatives with English accents. Allegations of pro-government and anti-Scottish independence bias in …
The urban myth of the GERS figures 8 Mar 2023 at 7:46pm
Recently The National newspaper had a week long series looking at the infamous McCrone report and Scotland’s energy potential, which successive Westminster governments have sought to minimise and downplay. As anyone who has paid even passing attention to the Scottish independence debate know, the McCrone report was commissioned by the British government in the 1970s …
The UK : a world beating embarrassment 7 Mar 2023 at 4:04pm
The bloviating man-child Boris Johnson, has gone full Trump over the preliminary findings of the Parliamentary Privileges Committee, which has reported that there is credible evidence that the former Prime Law-breaker misled Parliament on at least four different occasions, and in the process demonstrated that he can indeed drag the tattered credibility of the standards …
Feeling special 2 Mar 2023 at 5:52pm
Are we all feeling special? Rishi Sunak is currently even more unbearably smug than his base state of resting smug face because the wheels have not yet come off his Brexit deal. This is something of a novelty for Sunak, because when he was Chancellor the cracks typically started showing in his budgets within hours …
Escaping the vicious circle 27 Feb 2023 at 10:28am
I’m finally back blogging, a few days later than planned. Our visitors stayed longer than they had originally intended to and then I got some upsetting family news which meant that my head was just not in the game at all. However there has certainly been plenty to keep you all occupied in my absence …
The end of an era 16 Feb 2023 at 12:48pm
The only story in town in Scottish politics is the sudden resignation of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister. It’s bloody typical that this happens when I am trying to enjoy a few days rest. The haters have finally got what they wanted, but even for those who dislike her there can be no doubt that …
Battery recharging 13 Feb 2023 at 5:06pm
I need a wee break from the blog in order to recharge my batteries. I am having another bout of fatigue – although these episodes are certainly getting less frequent, less intense and less long lasting than they were in the months after the stroke. However we have visitors coming to stay from the USA …
A matter of (dis)respect 10 Feb 2023 at 12:33pm
Members of Holyrood’s Finance Committee have for a second time written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, asking him to appear before a meeting of the committee in the Scottish Parliament so that he can answer MSPs’ questions about the impact of British Government economic and financial policies on the Scottish budget. Members …
The Conservatives are gunning for our human rights 8 Feb 2023 at 11:37am
The European Convention on Human Rights was drawn up after WW2 in the Hague in order to ensure a framework of legal protections designed to prevent the rise of fascist regimes like those which had only a few years previously torn the world apart and led to the deaths of millions at the hands of …
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...
Labour Government in Wales asks Sarwar for help?..pulling teeth 19 Mar 2023 at 10:24pm
NHS Wales is in the middle of a dentistry crisis. From the Rhyl, Prestatyn and Abergele Journal, on 15 March 2023 THE MS for Clwyd West, Darren Millar has challenged the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, on the action Welsh Government is taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in Conwy and Denbighshire. In yesterday (March 14)?s Senedd meeting, Mr Millar highlighted the problems his constituent...
Nearly 5 times as many ICU Covid cases in other parts of UK! 19 Mar 2023 at 4:01pm
Regulars may be tiring of this story but it’s getting more dramatic as time goes on. Last year, there were twice as many Covid cases requiring intensive care, per head of population, in English and Welsh hospitals than in Scottish ones. I still have no conclusive proof but it seems that this may have been the result of a better NHS, identifying serious cases and beginning treatment before ICU c...
The Party that will not end? 19 Mar 2023 at 9:47am
These are proper graphs with the vertical axis starting at zero. By shortening the vertical axis, starting at say 38, we could get some peaks and troughs going to suggest trouble for the SNP. The media would so love to see some evidence and they’re in full frothing frenzy today but, in the clear absence of any terminal decline in support, they’re making do with 1 ex-member getting a vote among ...
Racism in Scotland?.forty years ago! 19 Mar 2023 at 9:03am
Neil Mackay, ever determined to tell us that white supremacism, anti-Catholic bigotry and any kind of hate crime you can imagine has not even begun to go away, even if the statistics say otherwise, is today using the personal recollections of one man, in the 1980s, to offer this headline: ?Men with bats shouted the N-word?: Gary Younge on racism in Scotland https://www.heraldscotland.com/politi...
The Guardian needs to remember its own role in the Iraq war and its 1 million... 18 Mar 2023 at 6:38pm
More than 1 million Iraqis died as a consequence of the combined US/UK invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Guardian fully supported the invasion in March of that year. Today the Guardian’s Editor and the writer Jonathan Freedland write self-importantly of the lessons that can be learned. Freedland claims to have argued against it ‘on these pages’ and the Editorial forgets that in 2003, it argued for ...
Only 1 in 390 cared enough to be in the Con Party last year 18 Mar 2023 at 10:23am
As of 2022, only one in 390.46 UK citizens could bear to carry the Con Party card. You have to think that after having that Truss fitted, then quickly pulled off, the numbers must be even worse now. As of 2023, 1 in 75 Scots is an SNP member, 5 times more appealing than the Cons. The Scottish Cons will not reveal their membership. UK Labour claimed 450 000 in 2022, 1 in 149 UK citizens, half as...
Scotland and renewables, a model for the world but not for the UK it seems 18 Mar 2023 at 9:43am
The above extract from a Herald piece, behind the paywall today, reminds that it is not a monolithic anti-independence media machine. Through it’s leading writers, it is a kind of septic think tank dominated by ill-informed and shoddy journalism aimed at undermining the SNP whenever and whenever it can but, now and again, something honest creeps through. This piece today US professor wants to s...
Whisky and the Tories 17 Mar 2023 at 9:30pm
?Deep disappointment? at how Tories treat one of Scotland?s largest and longest-standing industries! By stewartb I see the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) is having a go at the Tory government following the Chancellor?s Budget announcements! This is quite a change of tune: the SWA has been fulsome in its praise of the Tory government for trade deals post-Brexit – including the one with Australi...
HM Treasury generously finances local project judged low priority by Moray Co... 16 Mar 2023 at 8:01am
By stewartb I note the UK Chancellor?s intervention today in local government prioritisation in Scotland! He has announced: ?£1.5 million funding to repair the Cloddach Bridge?. The bridge is located in Moray: the local MP is Tory leader in Scotland, Douglas Ross. From 10 February this year, on. the Scottish Tory Party?s website we learned: ?Ross “disappointed” at Cloddach Bridge decision – but...
Postcode lottery: How very serious patient safety concerns and a toxic cultur... 15 Mar 2023 at 1:08pm
Yesterday BBC Birmingham & Black Country told us: An NHS England investigation into claims of a toxic culture at a hospital trust has been described as lacking transparency and undermining trust. The Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman also said there were “very serious” patient safety issues at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB). https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64943657 ...
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 chief executive Peter Murrell resigns over membership row - BBC 19 Mar 2023 at 12:32am
SNP chief executive Peter Murrell resigns over membership row BBCCalls for SNP chief executive Peter Murrell to resign BBCSNP ?in tremendous mess?, interim party chief Mike Russell admits The Independent
