Keir Starmer is a gift to Scottish nationalism
Southside Central is the kind of ward Scottish Labour needs to be winning. It’s in Glasgow, home to significant pockets…
No one will thank Liz Kendall for doing her job
There are three thankless posts in a modern Labour government. There’s the Chancellor, who has to announce the tightening of…
Why can’t the SNP attract anyone with any talent?
Here’s a political conundrum for you. You’re the SNP. You’ve been in power in Scotland since 2007. You’re 13 points…
Nicola Sturgeon wasted eight years in power
As Nicola Sturgeon announces that she is standing down from the Scottish parliament, it is worth reflecting on what a…
What would Reform be without Nigel Farage?
Barely have they abandoned the sinking ship that is HMS Tory than right-wingers are finding their liferaft taking on water.…
Trump can’t override everything
‘There are judges in Jerusalem,’ Menachem Begin is reputed to have proclaimed, following a court ruling which he believed vindicated one…
Trump is a bully but it’s a mistake to stand up to him
Everything they taught you in school is a lie. Carthage was not salted, Canute knew he couldn’t control the tide,…
What Europe can learn from the White House clash
The Trump-Zelensky summit is a geopolitical Rashomon. Some saw a lying, maniacal bully and his snarling sidekick berate a patriot…
Palestinians blew their best chance for peace
Every time the Palestinians rebuff a peace proposal, commentators reach for an observation by the Israeli diplomat Abba Eban: ‘The…
Scotland’s public sector is growing out of control
There is a perception that Scotland is a socialist basket case where a mammoth public sector is showered with English…
Parliament is embarrassing itself
Sidney Low said that ‘government in England is government by amateurs’, and parliament seems to be doing its level best…
Israelis and Palestinians will be here again, and again, and again
‘When the Lord returned the captives to Zion,’ Psalm 126 goes, ‘we were like dreamers. Our mouths were filled with…
The question that should be asked about the West Bank
In all the argle-bargle over Donald Trump’s proposal for Gaza, there have been countless questions about legality, morality and feasibility.…
Trump’s ICC sanctions will test an outdated institution
Once you get beyond trade and maritime borders, you will find that much of international law is, pace Clausewitz, the continuation of…
How John Swinney changes his stripes
Turning around a government that has lost its way is one of the trickiest feats in politics, all the more…
At least Rachel Reeves is trying
Rachel from accounts is settling up. In a speech at Siemens Healthineers near Oxford, the Chancellor signalled her commitment to…
Against the death penalty, even for Axel Rudakubana
Should the Southport killer swing? Lee Anderson thinks so. The Reform MP posted an image of a noose on X,…
Axel Rudakubana should never have been free to kill
Coulter’s Law, named after its originator, the right-wing polemicist Ann Coulter, holds that the longer it takes the authorities or…
Nine reasons why Trump means business this time
Since Franklin D. Roosevelt, every new US administration has been judged on its first hundred days, but it is in…
It’s no surprise that democracy is losing its appeal
The Guardian reports that one in five voters under the age of 45 would prefer to do away with democracy…
Devolution is shortchanging England
The English taxpayer is not the primary audience for the Scottish government’s annual Budget, but one wonders what they might…
The slippery slope to the return of the death penalty
Parliament has voted to proceed with Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill, which will see the NHS offer terminally ill people…
Britain has a blasphemy law in all but name
Anyone outraged by Labour MP Tahir Ali calling on the government to introduce blasphemy laws has clearly not been paying…
Why Scots are less angry than the English
The Scots have long been stereotyped as dour, miserable whingers, and we finally have proof that this is pure slander.…
The International Criminal Court must fall
The arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant should be the last the…
