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Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor

BBC

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Brian Taylor: Does democracy have any answers as war rages in Middle East?

We gaze with pity upon Gaza. We contemplate the emergence of wider conflict between Israel and Iran. We calculate the impact – humanitarian, global....

20.04.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Why will nobody tell us the blunt truth about tax?

Perhaps it is endemic. More probably, it is election fever. Either way, our political tribunes seem more energised and anxious than ever. Consider...

13.04.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Our NHS is badly bruised – and needs urgent attention

Consider with me the public provision of health care in Scotland. Not simply the Scottish version of the National Health Service, established in 1948....

06.04.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Can things get better for Humza Yousaf – or is he destined to fail?

Let me start with a presumption. Which is that many of you will retain, like me, fond memories of the late and very great Rikki Fulton. I recall him...

30.03.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Tough week but Rishi Sunak will stay as PM. For now at least

Democratic politics is about choice – and churn. The people make their choice and our elected tribunes respond in kind. If rejected, they stand...

23.03.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Are the SNP and independence finished – or just getting started?

The National Council of the Scottish National Party is meeting in Perth this weekend. Are members enthused and enthralled? Other than conference, it...

16.03.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Political protest – and the Westminster conspiracy of silence

Politics and protest go hand in hand. Therefore, I understand why demonstrators disrupted First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood this week. I...

09.03.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Stand by for UK political change – from Wales

So how was it for you? St David’s Day? You know, the annual commemoration of the patron saint of Wales? And all things Welsh? Skipped it again,...

02.03.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Gaza vote illustrates the great divide between SNP and Labour

It would appear to be a common presumption that Labour will form the next UK Government. Perhaps that influenced the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay...

24.02.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Starmer, Scottish Labour – and the Ming Vase strategy

Contemplate Sir Keir Starmer’s perpetual caution. Even after two by-election triumphs. It was described to me as “the Ming Vase strategy”. Step...

17.02.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Forget Matheson – Humza Yousaf’s real problems lie ahead

As of today, Humza Yousaf faces two fundamental and related challenges: how to placate the voters over the Matheson clanjamfrie; and how to convince...

10.02.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Covid – there's something Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon agree on

Boris and Nicola detest each other. True by both. He loathes nationalism. She thinks the former PM is a “clown”. But they have one thing in...

03.02.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Yousaf sets himself apart from Sturgeon over Covid

Let me open by saying that I am somewhat sceptical as to whether we will learn any substantive and new lessons from the two Covid inquiries. For one...

27.01.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Consider sovereignty – and the real power battle on these islands

The House of Commons is a curious place, enhanced or beset by tradition, according to taste. I well recall some of the intriguing customs from my six...

20.01.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Do you want the 'Tory-free' Scotland offered by Humza Yousaf?

Sometimes, as a politician, you lead. Quite frequently, you are led. By fluid public opinion or by circumstances, Macmillan’s “events”. ...

13.01.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Forget the tax row – what about the cost of the NHS?

This week’s budget had a noisy political backing track. The cynical (or Hugh MacDiarmid) might have called it a wheen o’ blethers. However, let...

23.12.2023 7

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Independence, devolution – and the tensions within this United Kingdom

A little abstruse this week, if you will forgive me, chums. Nothing less than the future governance of these islands. Such random thoughts were...

16.12.2023 9

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Who's to blame for slipping school standards? All of us

Alfred Austin faced a dilemma. As Queen Victoria’s Poet Laureate, it was his duty to versify concern over her beloved son, the Prince of Wales, who...

09.12.2023 8

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Scotland should go first on climate change - even if others are idling

Democratic governments require partners. In war, they need allies. In peace, they crave, at minimum, acquiescence with their domestic programme. ...

02.12.2023 3

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: After the Chancellor's tax 'cut', here’s what Holyrood is planning

In government, financial planning is about state and date: the state of the economy, the likely date of the next election. The big snag for Shona...

25.11.2023 7

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Michael Matheson got it wrong - the question is how badly

Michael Matheson, I feel sure, will have elicited a considerable amount of sympathy with his Holyrood statement – and not just for his tearful,...

18.11.2023 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: The Covid inquiries – are they already ruined by the WhatsApp row?

Harold Wilson was much given to pithy comment. He it was who reminded us that a week is a long time in politics. How true. And the former Prime...

04.11.2023 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: The FM’s top aim is to tackle poverty. Here’s a progress report.

It is a word straight out of Hard Times by Dickens. Or Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London. It is a Hogarth portrait. But this is no...

28.10.2023 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: After the council tax freeze, SNP may do the same for income tax rises

Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer won a further contest on the back of those remarkable by-election victories in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire. Yes, he...

21.10.2023 7

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: The SNP conference – what else can go wrong for Humza Yousaf?

In my younger years, I cultivated a fervent admiration for the works of Voltaire, the 18th century French writer and thinker. In his best-known...

14.10.2023 4

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: The SNP conference – what else can go wrong for Humza Yousaf?

In my younger years, I cultivated a fervent admiration for the works of Voltaire, the 18th century French writer and thinker. In his best-known...

14.10.2023 4

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: After Rutherglen, a choice for SNP – fight back or fight each other

It was an insurrection of the discontented, a cry of anguish and anger, a single transferable protest vote. Many congratulations to Michael Shanks...

06.10.2023 2

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Fergus Ewing is now a standing rebuke to Humza Yousaf

The Earl of Beaconsfield, better known as Benjamin Disraeli, was a remarkable individual. A talented and successful novelist, he was the progenitor of...

30.09.2023 20

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Piffle from the PM – but does he have a point?

The Prime Minister declared, at a hastily convened Downing Street news conference, that he was out to strain the consensus on climate action – and...

23.09.2023 20

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: We need to restore order in our town and city centres

You are all far too young and trendy to be familiar with the ditty in question but Petula Clark once topped the US charts with a paean of praise to...

16.09.2023 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Humza Yousaf’s Programme isn’t even half the story

Joe Biden is quoted thus: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value.” Eminently sensible, with the...

09.09.2023 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

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