Today’s news

The only news in town today is of course the reported arrest of the former SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell as part of Police Scotland’s investigation into the party’s funding. The first thing to stress here is that with an arrest this matter is part of an active criminal investigation which…

Hostages of English nationalism

Over the weekend, travellers trying to catch a ferry to France from Dover faced delays of up to fourteen hours as the port struggled to cope with the increased traffic of holidaymakers over the Easter break, which came on top of the increased customs and passport checks necessitated by Brexit. Last…

The delusions of Labour in Scotland

There’s delusion, and there’s Labour in Scotland delusion. On Wednesday in the Guardian Katherine Sangster, the national manager for Scottish Fabian and a former Labour Holyrood candidate, penned an article optimistically, or you might more accurately say misleadingly, entitled “This is how Labour can win back Scotland – and achieve a…

The foreign parliament

We have now had the last media debate in the SNP leadership contest, and satisfyingly it has ended with the Scottish Tories clutching their pearls in one of their regular bouts of performative outrage. One of the topics that came up in the debate, as might be expected from a Scottish…

A new era in Scottish politics

It has certainly been a torrid week for the SNP with the sudden resignation on Saturday of the party’s Chief Executive Officer Peter Murrell, the husband of out-going party leader Nicola Sturgeon, amidst disagreements about the handling of the party’s leadership election. But the excited claims of sections of the British…

The real cancel culture is Tory cancel culture

To absolutely no-one’s surprise, emails and WhatsApp messages leaked to the Guardian newspaper show that the BBC “regularly” bows to pressure from the Conservative Government over the wording of its headlines and the framing of its stories. The whistle blower claims that among other instances of the BBC pandering to the…

The BBC : enablers of British nationalist authoritarianism

The BBC has always insisted that it is politically neutral and unbiased, even as it broadcasts a debate programme from the independence supporting predominantly working class city of Dundee with an audience that seemed to be mostly composed of middle class Brexit supporting Conservatives with English accents. Allegations of pro-government and…

The urban myth of the GERS figures

Recently The National newspaper had a week long series looking at the infamous McCrone report and Scotland’s energy potential, which successive Westminster governments have sought to minimise and downplay. As anyone who has paid even passing attention to the Scottish independence debate know, the McCrone report was commissioned by the British…

Believe in Scotland App

Everything you need to know about Scotland’s economy, its finances, independence and the impact of Brexit on Scotland in an App Believe in Scotland has put Scotland the Brief in an App to make the content easy to share with friends, family and anyone interested in Scotland’s future. The App…

The UK : a world beating embarrassment

The bloviating man-child Boris Johnson, has gone full Trump over the preliminary findings of the Parliamentary Privileges Committee, which has reported that there is credible evidence that the former Prime Law-breaker misled Parliament on at least four different occasions, and in the process demonstrated that he can indeed drag the tattered…

Feeling special

Are we all feeling special? Rishi Sunak is currently even more unbearably smug than his base state of resting smug face because the wheels have not yet come off his Brexit deal. This is something of a novelty for Sunak, because when he was Chancellor the cracks typically started showing in…

Escaping the vicious circle

I’m finally back blogging, a few days later than planned. Our visitors stayed longer than they had originally intended to and then I got some upsetting family news which meant that my head was just not in the game at all. However there has certainly been plenty to keep you all…

The end of an era

The only story in town in Scottish politics is the sudden resignation of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister. It’s bloody typical that this happens when I am trying to enjoy a few days rest. The haters have finally got what they wanted, but even for those who dislike her there can…

Battery recharging

I need a wee break from the blog in order to recharge my batteries. I am having another bout of fatigue – although these episodes are certainly getting less frequent, less intense and less long lasting than they were in the months after the stroke. However we have visitors coming to…

A matter of (dis)respect

Members of Holyrood’s Finance Committee have for a second time written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, asking him to appear before a meeting of the committee in the Scottish Parliament so that he can answer MSPs’ questions about the impact of British Government economic and financial policies on…