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Iain Macwhirter

Iain Macwhirter

Herald Scotland

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Scotland / Peter Murrell’s re-arrest has plunged the SNP into crisis

There is what can only be described as a mood of despair in SNP circles following the news that the former party chief executive Peter Murrell,...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf could never realise Sturgeon’s fantasy climate plans

It was Cop26 in Glasgow and Nicola Sturgeon was in her element, posing for selfies with Greta Thunberg, David Attenborough and assorted world leaders....

previous day 5

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The Greens are embarrassing the SNP

For an image of the ‘progressive nationalism’ that has disfigured Scottish public life over the past decade, look no further than the Scottish...

12.04.2024 6

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Is Scotland’s Hate Crime Act really a good thing?

The Hate Crime Scotland Act has, by common agreement, been an unmitigated disaster. Less than a week old, there are already calls for it to be...

05.04.2024 20

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Who would trust Holyrood with legalising euthanasia?

Would you trust this lot with assisted dying? The Scottish parliament’s record on issues of personal liberty has been pretty dire. Yet MSPs...

28.03.2024 2

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Scotland’s pound shop Stasi

The Scottish government’s illiberal Hate Crime and Public Order Act isn’t even being enforced yet and already Police Scotland are being accused of...

26.03.2024 30

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Why is the police’s SNP probe taking so long?

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf has plenty to worry about right now with the imminent implementation of his much-criticised Hate Crime...

22.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The scandal of Scotland’s illiberal hate crime law

From next month in Scotland you’ll be able to drop into a sex shop, make an anonymous accusation of hate crime against someone you dislike and...

14.03.2024 20

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf’s UN row is entirely of his own making

Humza Yousaf has a gift for landing himself at the centre of crises of his own making. One recalls his advice during Covid for people to ‘think...

12.03.2024 4

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

George Galloway will be a nuisance for Keir Starmer

The return of ‘Gorgeous’ George Galloway to the House of Commons may not be Keir Starmer’s worst nightmare, but it is certainly the recurrence...

01.03.2024 3

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

How Nicola Sturgeon saved the Union

It may seem perverse to claim that the former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon saved the Union between Scotland and England. She is after...

15.02.2024 5

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Edinburgh University’s new rector must save it from gender ideology

Simon Fanshawe has been installed as the rector of Edinburgh University. The arrival of the comedian and Stonewall dissident to the post will...

14.02.2024 2

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

It’s no surprise that politicians politicised the pandemic

Nicola Sturgeon ‘could cry from one eye if she wanted to,’ Alister Jack told the UK Covid Inquiry this morning. It was an interesting medical...

01.02.2024 6

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s Covid reckoning

We now know from evidence to the Covid Inquiry that Scottish government ministers were as prone to offensive language as Dominic Cummings. Nicola...

26.01.2024 4

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s juryless trial plan is falling apart

The SNP government has rarely demonstrated great respect for legal precedent or the rights of the individual. When Humza Yousaf was justice secretary...

24.01.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Humza’s humiliating XL Bully U-turn

Humza Yousaf has just executed an embarrassing U-turn and effectively banned XL Bully dogs in line with England and Wales. This has inevitably...

12.01.2024 8

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

It’s no surprise Humza Yousaf is courting Brian Souter

It seems that Humza Yousaf is taking diversity seriously – though not as we know it. He has apparently welcomed the Christian fundamentalist former...

04.01.2024 3

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Annus horribilis / Nicola Sturgeon’s remarkable downfall

As she faced her final press conference of 2022 last Christmas, the first minister of Scotland seemed unassailable. Nicola Sturgeon had negotiated the...

31.12.2023 7

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s tax and spend delusion

What do you think when you think about teachers? Two things, if you are anything like me: low pay and time off work with stress. It’s a hard job,...

21.12.2023 50

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Will the Scottish government finally abandon its concerning gender reforms?

Perhaps the Scottish government thinks it’s a good time to put out the rubbish. With the news agenda dominated by the Scottish Budget and with the...

19.12.2023 3

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Is Kate Forbes Scotland’s answer to Giorgia Meloni?

Scottish nationalists have always looked to Scandinavian countries as models of what a caring, social democratic Scotland would look like if only it...

17.12.2023 5

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

It’s time for Humza Yousaf to end this gender bill farce

The first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, has a painful choice following his latest defeat in the Court of Session today over the Gender...

08.12.2023 5

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Alex Salmond’s revenge against the SNP is far from over 

The former First Minister, Alex Salmond, is to sue Nicola Sturgeon and her former civil servants for ‘misfeasance’. In court documents today he...

24.11.2023 4

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s Covid WhatsApp debacle

You have to hand it to the Scottish government: the deletion of WhatsApp messages is good preemptive news management, whether accidental, by default...

01.11.2023 2

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The mystery of the missing WhatsApps

It will no doubt be referred to in Whitehall circles in future as the ‘Jason Leitch protocol’. Scotland’s clinical director appears to have...

27.10.2023 2

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf’s election strategy? Keep the spending taps open

Humza Yousaf’s main objective at this week’s SNP conference, his first as leader, was to free himself from the constitutional millstone placed...

17.10.2023 3

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf has irreparably damaged the independence project

As the SNP gathers for its conference in Aberdeen this weekend, Humza Yousaf faces a sea of trouble. But worst of all for the party leader, he faces...

14.10.2023 2

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

After Rutherglen, the SNP is adrift in Scotland

It’s only one by-election of course and the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election was a most unusual one. It was caused by the sitting SNP MP,...

06.10.2023 2

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf is talking nonsense about Scotland’s oil

For nearly half a century, the Scottish National Party based its independence project on ‘Scotland’s Oil’ which it claimed had been stolen by...

03.10.2023 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

When will Humza Yousaf see sense on his doomed gender bill?

Just when you thought it was safe to go to back in the gender-neutral loo, back comes the row about the Gender Recognition Reform bill. It lands in...

19.09.2023 5

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

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