The National newspaper in Scotland has reported that since Donald Trump won the American presidential election there has been a surge in Google searches originating in the USA for “how to move to Scotland” and “Scottish citizenship”. I have been contacted by two American friends the day after the election asking…

Over the weekend Channel 4’s Dispatches programme revealed the extent to which the public is being milked by the greedy and money grabbing Windsor family. Or rather, at least the extent to which the programme and the investigative reporters of the Sunday Times were able to uncover. The Windsors go to…

Donald Trump has weighed into the Scottish independence debate in his typically incoherent and ill-informed way. Earlier this month Trump appeared on the podcast of comedian Andrew Schulz. No, I’d never heard of him either. Schulz has been criticised for his right wing takes, racist stereotyping, and his tendency to punch…

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” George Orwell, Animal Farm. Two council by elections are due in Glasgow. This is not in itself earth shattering political news, council…

The Scottish languages bill is currently winding its way through the Scottish Parliament. The Bill gives the Gaelic and Scots languages official status in Scotland and makes improvement to the support for the Gaelic and Scots languages in Scotland. This also includes changes in relation to Gaelic and Scots in Scotland’s…

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I am not going to be about this week as we have family visiting from the USA. Normal blogging service will be resumed next week. While we are doing our best tour guide impression with our American guests – “Look, there’s a…

In news which has shocked all of Scotland, Alex Salmond has suddenly passed away while on a trip to North Macedonia. Whether you support Scottish independence or not, he was without doubt a giant of Scottish politics who transformed the Scottish political landscape for good, a truly monumental individual, and as…

Yet again Scotland’s languages are making the news, following on from Andrew Marr’s factually incorrect and ignorantly dismissive comments about Gaelic, for which he eventually apologised, this time it’s Scots which is the object of British nationalist ignorance. The graciousness free zone which is the Scottish Tory MSP for Mordor Stephen…

Keir Starmer’s government has not been in power for three months, but it is already shaping up to be as vile and corrupt as the Conservatives it replaced. A new poll has found that Starmer is now viewed as more sleazy than his predecessor Rishi Sunak. A YouGov poll asking people…

Keir Starmer’s hypocrisy is off the charts, over 43,000 Palestinians and Lebanese have died, the great majority innocent civilians, in Israeli attacks since October 7 last year, none of which have elicited much in the way of sympathy or concern from Keir Starmer, yet when Iran launched its missile attack on…

This is an expanded version of a piece I wrote for The National a few days ago. I’m reposting it here with some additions in the light of Marr’s apology for his insulting and ignorant comments about the Gaelic language and its place in Scottish culture. It’s the sad and ignorant…

Before Labour’s inevitable victory in July’s Westminster general election, I predicted that Starmer’s government would soon become very unpopular as voters realised that the ‘change’ which he had promised was no real change at all, it was simply the continuation of the same old damaging Tory neoliberal nostrums, delivered somewhat less…

On Wednesday it will be the tenth anniversary of the independence referendum. This is always a poignant time of year for me, not only because of the what might have been had Scotland grasped the thistle and chosen independence on that fateful day, but because this time of year is also…

It’s only been nine weeks but we already have resounding answer to the question of how much influence Labour’s Scottish branch office has over policy making in Keir Starmer’s government. The answer to that question is none at all. Prior to July’s Westminster general election Anas Sarwar loudly proclaimed that he…

Last weekend, there were elections in the Germans states of Thuringia and Saxony. In both these states the far right Alternative für Deutschland party, which favours the ‘repatriation’ of immigrants and even of some naturalised German citizens – the ones who are muslim or not white of course – performed alarmingly…