Stephen Daisley

Tony Blair states the obvious

29 April 2021 11:18 pm

If there is more joy in Heaven over one devolutionist who repenteth, the celestial jubilations must be in full roar…

Why the Cummings row won't harm Boris

27 April 2021 4:43 pm

It’s hard not to agree with those who believe that Boris Johnson, forced into the second Covid-19 lockdown, did say the…

Scotland’s Mean Girls election

21 April 2021 9:10 pm

Presented for whatever is the opposite of your edification, an exchange between the leaders of Scotland’s main political parties. The…

The SNP cannot win a mandate for indyref2

15 April 2021 9:47 pm

This week’s Holyrood election debate should not be allowed to pass without noting how it highlighted the dismal state of…

The SNP’s England obsession

14 April 2021 4:55 am

There is a whiff of something in the current Scottish Parliament elections. It’s not quite strong enough to call it…

Salmond and Galloway are the worst of both worlds

11 April 2021 6:41 pm

The death of the Duke of Edinburgh has paused campaigning in the Scottish Parliament election, which provides an opportunity to…

Salmond could spark a nationalist war over Europe

7 April 2021 4:00 pm

There was a Scooby Doo moment in Alex Salmond’s campaign launch on Tuesday. Something that made me think: ‘Ruh-roh’. The…

The economic case for the Union isn't enough

2 April 2021 5:45 pm

There is a certain kind of critic of independence who hears the news that public funding for Scotland is 30…

What we still don’t know about the Salmond affair

24 March 2021 1:47 am

The inquiry into the Alex Salmond affair has concluded that Nicola Sturgeon misled parliament and potentially breached the ministerial code.…

George Galloway is toxic to the Unionist cause

19 March 2021 5:19 am

My mob originates, we have come to assume, from somewhere in Ireland, though exactly where we don’t know. Humza Yousaf,…

Was the civil service compromised by the Salmond affair?

18 March 2021 4:23 am

The fallout from David Davis’s intervention in the Alex Salmond affair is all about the messages. The texts which the…

Scottish Tories must be more than the angry party of no

16 March 2021 8:03 am

Among the many challenges facing Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has been the question of definition. It is difficult to…

Will Boris Johnson take responsibility for the Union?

15 March 2021 6:00 pm

Even for a virtual party conference, Boris Johnson’s speech to the Scottish Tories was a muted affair. As might be…

Ruth Davidson’s exit reveals Scottish Tories’ independence secret

14 March 2021 5:23 am

Ruth Davidson has used her final speech to the Scottish Conservative conference to appeal to pro-Union voters. In a video…

Nicola Sturgeon is fighting for her political life

3 March 2021 7:32 am

The Alex Salmond inquiry has seen its most remarkable day yet. Three pivotal documents have been released to the Holyrood…

The ICC is playing politics by targeting Israel

9 February 2021 4:31 am

Sovereignty, that old-new friend, is in vogue again thanks to Brexit and the advances made by nationalists across Europe and…

The case for liberal pessimism

17 January 2021 9:27 pm

Liberalism hasn’t had its sorrows to seek of late but its misfortunes show no sign of abating. The confluence of…

In defence of 2020

1 January 2021 2:43 am

In what I am trying to turn into a tradition, I usually take time at the end of the year…

The limits of trans tolerance

19 December 2020 6:27 am

Andy Wightman is — or, as of this afternoon, was — the most independent-minded Green member of the Scottish parliament.…

france american progressives

French republicanism confounds American progressives

29 November 2020 12:42 am

Can an entire country sue for libel? If so, France would have a strong suit against swathes of the American…

Keir Starmer should purge Labour of the far-left

23 November 2020 2:57 am

Sir Keir Starmer was having such a good year. He broke cover early on to attack the government’s handling of…

Boris was right: Scottish devolution has been a disaster

17 November 2020 6:00 pm

Boris Johnson says devolution has been a ‘disaster’. This has the rare quality for a Boris statement of being true…

Why Democrats should abandon coercive progressivism

5 November 2020 4:57 am

The first rule of Pundit Club is: election results always mean what your political prejudices want them to mean. Since…

Scottish devolution has been tested to destruction

23 October 2020 5:55 pm

The Scottish Tories are decidedly unenthusiastic about suggestions Westminster devolve further powers to the Scottish Parliament. A proposal to stave…

Devolutionary theory: How Westminster is killing the Union

21 October 2020 4:25 pm

Robert Conquest’s third law (which may not have been his third law) says that the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is…