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![]() Brian WilsonThe Scotsman |
In his interview with The Herald yesterday, Andy Burnham hit so many nails on the head that resistance to common sense must be in danger of giving...
I am one of these odd people who keeps an eye on council by-elections as a useful guide to the political weather. In periods between elections, I find...
There is a school of Scottish thought that every piece of bad news must involve a “betrayal”. No industry, it seems, expires from natural causes...
Winston Churchill coined the term “special relationship” to encapsulate ties that bind the UK to the United States. In 1944, after American...
Any party which is serious about winning next year’s Scottish elections should be thinking hard about big ideas. Alternatively, it will come down to...
Valdivia sounds a charming place, an old colonial city in the Los Rios region of southern Chile. It just seems an unlikely one in which to build the...
There is something a little sad about the non-relationship between Donald John Trump and Lewis. Despite his genetic proximity to the place, he has...
Be grateful for small mercies. We have been spared this year’s edition of the Scottish Budget faux drama in which a bit player emerges from a...
Both parts of CalMac are in my DNA. I grew up in Dunoon, dependant on the Cal element, symbolised by the yellow livery of the Caledonian Steam...
Labour MPs and particularly Ministers should be given some important work to deliver over their festive breaks. I don’t just mean honourable...
There are very good reasons for the action raised in the Court of Session by Alex Salmond to continue and I hope reports that some public-spirited...
Throughout the ferries debacle which has consumed so many millions of pounds, not to mention column inches, there appeared to be one small light at...
The Scottish Budget statement is a tired ritual and there wasn’t a lot to keep us awake yesterday. “More of the same” would be the most optimistic...
The figures are startling. While unemployment stands at almost 1.5 million, the number classified as “economically inactive” has soared to 9.4...
First, the ferry sad news. With a blast on the horn, the MV Hebridean Isles sailed out of Stornoway for the last time, bound for the Clyde and a...
The SNP’s list of Holyrood candidates has potential as a warm-up act for the Glasgow Comedy Festival at which Nicola Sturgeon is already billed as...
Whatever else has happened since the General Election, there is one manifesto commitment being pursued with relentless vigour. The drive towards...
For the first Labour budget in 14 years, this was pretty good and I don’t even feel it necessary to add the caveat “in the circumstances”. It was a...
It would be pleasing to report that National Geographic’s designation of the Outer Hebrides as a “Best in the World” destination for 2025 was...
Quangos are the hidden hands of government in Scotland; agencies which nobody voted for but hold far more power than is healthy, much of it leeched...
Sometimes, anniversaries remind us of how much has changed. Other times, they serve notice of how little has changed. The current flurry of...
Prejudice against Gaelic can be relied on to make occasional appearances in unexpected places. Who would have thought that an intelligent man like...
The Crown Estate has always been a curious beast with extraordinary powers which I have been tracking on and off for over 40 years. At that time it...
So what did you do on the day of the referendum, daddy? Well, actually, I spent it rather pleasantly in Salzburg, listening for the sound of music...
There is a thin line between political courage and masochism. The former involves having the honesty to tell it like it is, even if it is not what...
When political incompetence and fiscal incontinence collide, you end up with Shona Robison’s statement to Holyrood: a miserable patchwork of blame-...
It might go down in political folklore as Bleak Tuesday. In the Downing Street rose garden, Keir Starmer spread petals of calculated gloom. Closer...
It is always reassuring to be attacked by the Daily Telegraph, which rarely disappoints as a parody of itself. “Labour plans to make Britain even...
I occasionally look at the Scottish Government Appointments web-page, to see which trusties of the quango circuit have been leveraged into another...
It was quite uplifting that in his moment of Olympic glory, Duncan Scott found time to stress the importance of maintaining public swimming pools...