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Kevin Mckenna

Kevin Mckenna

The Guardian

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Whisper it ... but does anyone actually give a Friar Tuck about reaching net zero?

DOES anyone actually give a Friar Tuck about reaching net zero? By “anyone” I refer, of course, to the people whose lives and futures, we’re...

previous day 1

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Humza Yousaf's week from hell

When Humza Yousaf took to the stage of Dundee’s Caird Hall on Tuesday to address STUC delegates, few among the audience were expecting the rafters...

saturday 7

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: We should celebrate the compassion of JK Rowling

The most divisive and antagonistic debate in modern UK politics effectively started with a message of tolerance and hope. It was tweeted in December,...

15.04.2024 2

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

'Patrick Harvie lives in a make-believe world' says SNP veteran

ONE of the Scottish independence movement’s leading thinkers has accused the Scottish Greens of doing “enormous damage to the SNP”. Jim...

06.04.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Scotland's poor and vulnerable have been failed by Holyrood

HOLYROOD’S four main obsessions are - in no particular order - hate crime; gender recognition reform; assisted dying and minimum unit alcohol...

02.04.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Why does the SNP love doing down Scotland?

No one else does down Scotland quite as often and quite as gleefully as the SNP does down Scotland. As well as being tiresome and downright...

29.03.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Why does the modern Scottish left hate the working class?

An unwelcome consequence of devolution has been the emergence of an elite political class reinforced by a new salon left. What was unavoidable, of...

19.03.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

'He should be on every curriculum' - Kevin McKenna on Scotland's one literary icon

ON the third floor of a gloriously chaotic study in University Gardens in Glasgow mounds of books are defying the laws of precipitation. And so you...

16.03.2024 8

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: We will need a hero like McGahey to defend workers from AI job losses

I was told last week that when it was first proposed that a painting of Mick McGahey be hung in the National Galleries of Scotland in...

12.03.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Minimum unit pricing for alcohol doesn't work and hammers the poorest

Alcohol minimum unit pricing is a policy that divides opinion. As part of our Scotland & Alcohol series, we asked two of our writers to put the case...

07.03.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: BBC Scotland misses yet another chance to ditch the mediocrity

AT the end of my interview with Stuart Cosgrove yesterday, he said this: “I’ll probably get f****** sacked from Off The Ball now.” The prospect...

27.02.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: The ancient evil of anti-Semitism is contaminating modern Britain

I FIRST encountered the plague of anti-Semitism currently disfiguring the UK in a letter that a Jewish friend had shared with me. Only a few days...

20.02.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Why is the SNP obsessed with working families?

The Scottish Government’s attempt to criminalise parents for protecting their children in its proposed conversion therapy ban reveals some troubling...

12.02.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Poor Gregg Wallace - I know how you feel

I’m surely not alone in feeling a shard of sympathy for Gregg Wallace after he shared his Saturday routine in one of those Life in a Day columns...

08.02.2024 2

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: We are in the grip of a political class that sets its own rules

THE US political drama Scandal was purportedly based on the experiences of the Washington fixer, Judy Smith, played by Kerry Washington. During a...

05.02.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: It's clear that the Jews are fair game once more

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the achievement of my old school, St Ninian’s, Kirkintilloch, in reaching its 150th anniversary. In particular, I’m...

29.01.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Labour's 100 years of fighting vs SNP's 17 years of waste

THE centenary of the UK’s first Labour Government will spark a forest of analysis on the extent to which it improved the lives of those whom it...

23.01.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Parents are right to be worried about conversion therapy ban

THE rite of baptism in the Catholic Church states that parents are the first educators of their child and that, as such, they bear all the...

15.01.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Time for SNP to ditch their pretence over independence

OF all the former UK Prime Ministers still active in public life, only Gordon Brown has strived to improve the lives of those most in need of help....

08.01.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Sauchiehall Street could pass for a zombie apocalypse set

Once, a visit to Sauchiehall Street was imbued with pomp and ceremony. It lit up a million west of Scotland childhoods and provided those moments...

08.01.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: I’d rather listen to women football pundits than many of the male ones

IT seems that we’re in the midst of a contrived and fatuous debate about women media pundits in men’s football. It’s rooted in an ignorant...

02.01.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Scotland's political apparatchiks who are truly unbelievable

AS 2024 approaches each of Scotland’s main political parties are finalising their lists of preferred candidates for next year’s UK election. Here,...

19.12.2023 20

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: There's been a tear in the fabric of St Andrews

On each fresh visit to St Andrews you begin with a tour of inspection, lest anything untoward has occurred in your absence. Do the old university...

11.12.2023 20

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

'What are the police doing to protect women?'

IT didn’t take long for Lisa Mackenzie to become aware that raising concerns about self-ID and Gender Recognition Reform from a women’s...

04.12.2023 2

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: When the Tories take a break, Labour will mind the shop for them

There's a view prevalent in some sections of the wider Yes movement that MI5 spooks have been active within the SNP for many years. It explains, they...

04.12.2023 2

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: An antidote to hate: a march of friendship for Glasgow's Jews

On Saturday afternoon, a little procession moved through Glasgow’s city centre and out towards the west. Around 70 souls, representing the main...

27.11.2023 5

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: If Matheson has trust issues then so does the entire SNP government

OF COURSE, judged by any reasonable measure of what voters deem to be acceptable behaviour in high public office Michael Matheson probably should...

20.11.2023 2

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Cameron epitomises arrogance of Sunak but this is a savvy move by PM

WHEN Suella Braverman seeks solace in the tattooed folds of the Tory hard right this morning, she’ll be cheered all the way by Sir Keir Starmer. The...

14.11.2023 8

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: This is why the Catholic Church fears losing sex education opt out

A RIPPLE of consternation swept across some sections of the Catholic Church with the announcement that Nicola Sturgeon had been invited to deliver the...

10.11.2023 8

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Sturgeon and her WhatsApp cabinet have killed chance of independence

Ash Regan's defection to Alba last week should be a teachable moment for the SNP. The party’s immediate response, though, suggests that it will...

07.11.2023 2

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Sturgeon and her WhatsApp cabinet have killed chance of independence

ASH REGAN’S defection to Alba last week should be a teachable moment for the SNP. The party’s immediate response, though, suggests that it will...

06.11.2023 3

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Ash Regan says 14 or 15 SNP MSPs are 'on the edge'

Ash Regan, the former SNP leadership contender, who has joined Alba says many of her former colleagues in Humza Yousaf's party are very unhappy. ...

04.11.2023 4

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: The Secret Covid Diary of a Downing Street adviser

Extract from the Covid Diary of Nigel Harpenden-Chorley, Special Adviser at the Department of Policy Engagement (DoPE). February 7, 2021: Following...

02.11.2023 3

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: The Secret Covid Diary of a Downing Street adviser

Extract from the Covid Diary of Nigel Harpenden-Chorley, Special Adviser at the Department of Policy Engagement (DoPE). February 7, 2021: Following...

01.11.2023 4

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: A stroll with my mum shows what the real Glasgow has to offer

In the middle of Sarti’s at its Bath Street entrance, a long table has been assembled, comprising several smaller ones pushed together.  A party...

30.10.2023 10

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Why we must stand strong with our Jewish neighbours

Three days after the worst atrocity committed against their people since the Holocaust, Glasgow’s Jewish community elected to abjure bitterness and...

23.10.2023 6

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Why the whole country owes Steve Clarke our thanks

IN Germany next summer Scotland will begin the defence of our qualification for the Covid-delayed 2021 Euros. These are heady days for our...

16.10.2023 2

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin Mckenna: Dream of independence is over – killed by SNP – and it breaks my heart

FOR those of us who retained a sliver of hope that independence might yet be achieved in what remains of our allotted timespan the result of the...

09.10.2023 2

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Beale's blues shine a light on the travails of Scottish football

IN the shape-shifting and treacherous terrain of professional football there’s often fun to be had observing sporadic outbreaks of maudlin...

03.10.2023 5

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kate Forbes: Scots are more tolerant on freedom of faith than political class

IN Fort William last Friday afternoon, a gathering took place which captured many of the problems faced by Highland communities after the camper vans...

03.10.2023 6

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kate Forbes: It’s not fair to gaslight ordinary Scots over climate crisis

AT Fort William, on the north-eastern shores of Loch Linnhe where a lukewarm sun is being menaced by delinquent showers, Kate Forbes is the essence of...

02.10.2023 5

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna Diary: Why do SNP swear by 'colourful' language?

MY inbox is bursting with complaints from people who have been triggered by the recent conduct of some in the SNP’s career wing. What seems to...

01.10.2023 3

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Rise of the snobcasts channels the regression of politics

A SERIES of landmark reforms, starting in 1832 slowly opened the door to universal suffrage. Over the course of the next 96 years, Britain went from...

19.09.2023 6

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Kevin McKenna: Yousaf is afraid of his own shadow and it’s killing the Yes cause

GIVEN the circumstances, few attending last year’s SNP conference in Aberdeen were complaining much about the location. After a lengthy hiatus owing...

12.09.2023 10

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

Police attitudes to rugby and football fans are a matter of class

More than 25 years ago at Cartha Queen’s Park rugby club on Glasgow’s south side I hosted an event sponsored by Scotland on Sunday newspaper. We...

11.09.2023 40

Herald Scotland

Kevin Mckenna

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