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Brian TaylorBBC |
We gaze with pity upon Gaza. We contemplate the emergence of wider conflict between Israel and Iran. We calculate the impact – humanitarian, global....
Perhaps it is endemic. More probably, it is election fever. Either way, our political tribunes seem more energised and anxious than ever. Consider...
Consider with me the public provision of health care in Scotland. Not simply the Scottish version of the National Health Service, established in 1948....
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...
Democratic politics is about choice – and churn. The people make their choice and our elected tribunes respond in kind. If rejected, they stand...
The National Council of the Scottish National Party is meeting in Perth this weekend. Are members enthused and enthralled? Other than conference, it...
Politics and protest go hand in hand. Therefore, I understand why demonstrators disrupted First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood this week. I...
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,...
It would appear to be a common presumption that Labour will form the next UK Government. Perhaps that influenced the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay...
Contemplate Sir Keir Starmer’s perpetual caution. Even after two by-election triumphs. It was described to me as “the Ming Vase strategy”. Step...
As of today, Humza Yousaf faces two fundamental and related challenges: how to placate the voters over the Matheson clanjamfrie; and how to convince...
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...
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...
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...
Sometimes, as a politician, you lead. Quite frequently, you are led. By fluid public opinion or by circumstances, Macmillan’s “events”. ...
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...
A little abstruse this week, if you will forgive me, chums. Nothing less than the future governance of these islands. Such random thoughts were...
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...
Democratic governments require partners. In war, they need allies. In peace, they crave, at minimum, acquiescence with their domestic programme. ...
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...
Michael Matheson, I feel sure, will have elicited a considerable amount of sympathy with his Holyrood statement – and not just for his tearful,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
It was an insurrection of the discontented, a cry of anguish and anger, a single transferable protest vote. Many congratulations to Michael Shanks...
The Earl of Beaconsfield, better known as Benjamin Disraeli, was a remarkable individual. A talented and successful novelist, he was the progenitor of...
The Prime Minister declared, at a hastily convened Downing Street news conference, that he was out to strain the consensus on climate action – and...
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...
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...