Sunday National, 5th September 2021. Magicians call it misdirection. Pickpockets too. Keep your audience’s attention fixed on what your right hand is doing, and they won’t notice the left one, slipping into their handbag. Income tax policy in the UK follows the same logic. These days, the main function of income tax bands is to … Continue reading The knights who say NI →

Sunday National, 29th August 2021. I hope you like your gammon well-smoked, because the angry men of Scottish unionism have been at a vigorous boil all week. Triggered by the cooperation agreement between the SNP and Greens, the men of letters and political hacks have been falling over themselves to make the direst prophecy about … Continue reading Opposition oxygen →

Sunday National, 22nd August 2021. I’m a child of the “war of terror.” I was 14 years old when I came home from school to see the Twin Towers falling, and 15 when American and British troops first landed in Afghanistan. At sixteen, I watched the “coalition of the willing” invade Iraq, with President George … Continue reading Come friendly bombs… →

Sunday National, 15th August 2021. “‘Jesus Lord. I cry for mercy. Let me not implore in vain.’ At Fort Augustus, we implored in vain because there was no mercy.” During the 1960s, Sean O’Donovan was a pupil at the boarding schools run by the Benedictine monks at Fort Augustus Abbey and Carlekemp Priory in North … Continue reading “No mercy” →

Sunday National, 8th August 2021. What percentage of the UK cabinet do you reckon have used Class A drugs at some point in their lives? How many MPs? What percentage of Lords? How many of their staff? I’d be prepared to wager a hefty sum that the prevalence of drug use around Westminster is considerably … Continue reading Ending the murderous hypocrisy →

Sunday National, 1st August 2021. Before this week, I bet most of you had never heard of the idea of “Queen’s consent.” Distinct from the royal assent all Bills need to become law, Queen’s consent is one of those arcane conventions in which the UK’s uncodified constitution rejoices. You might have imagined the Scottish Parliament … Continue reading Queen’s consent →

Sunday National, 25th July 2021. Any appointment to the House of Lords is guaranteed to rouse my inner Jacobin. The spectacle of Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links wafting to her red bench in full stoat coat, swearing to be “faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen” is the stuff revolutions are made … Continue reading On the mean streets of Lundin Links →

Sunday National, 18th July 2021. Counterfactual politics can be a fun game to play. What would British politics look like now, if Nick Clegg hadn’t decided to take a long walk with David Cameron in the rose garden and embrace a civil partnership with the Tories in 2010? Would the political damage still have been … Continue reading Paramount Lord of the Bouncy Castle →

Sunday National, 11th July 2021. You might know Lau’s song “Ghosts”: “We say we're not like themA generation agoWe came on the same ships we were hidden below.” The lyric came to mind this week, as our pitiless Home Secretary lodged her new Nationality and Borders Bill in the House of Commons. The Bill introduces … Continue reading Jailing Winton’s ghost →

Sunday National, 4th July 2021. “Mr Tickle, governments do not go into court against each other, do they?” That was Tavish Scott, back in September 2015, scrutinising me unsympathetically across the committee room table in Holyrood. I’d suggested that ambiguities in the Scotland Bill – which was then slowly progressing through Westminster – had the … Continue reading “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law” →