Sunday National, 14th February 2021. “All my life, people have been insisting that social class is no longer relevant” Darren McGarvey says in the opening of Class Wars, a new documentary series whose first episode aired on BBC Scotland this week. Darren’s mission? To “prove to you just how entrenched social class is in Scotland.” … Continue reading The superpower of Scotland’s middle classes? Invisibility →

Sunday National, 7th February 2021. A red letter day. We are, by my reckoning, some 187 days into Douglas Ross’s leadership of the Conservative Party in Scotland. In the summer of last year, Jackson Carlaw’s poll ratings was deemed both unacceptable and unsustainable by his party colleagues. His leadership criticised by colleagues as “thin-skinned” and … Continue reading The Douglas Ross Effect →

Sunday National, 30th January 2021. On 12th of May 1998, the Tory MP Michael Ancram asked Donald Dewar a simple question. The future First Minister was explaining the logical structure of the Scotland Bill to the House of Commons, and the structure of devolved and reserved matters it would create. “The Secretary of State mentioned … Continue reading Indyref2: You call this a “wildcat”? →

Sunday National, 10th January 2021. What would you say is the most important thing you’ve learned from this pandemic? During the last ten months, this column has talked a lot about political lessons of this crisis, but today I’m thinking in more personal terms. A New Year is meant to be a new turn of … Continue reading What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from Covid-19? →

Looking back over this strange year, when much else feels like it is in permanent stasis, one major shift the last twelve months has been the mainstreaming of pro-independence majorities in Scottish polling. When YouGov first reported a 2% lead for the independence campaign on the 6th of September 2014, Downing Street went into meltdown … Continue reading In 2021, I hope Scots remember the lesson →

Sunday National, 20th December 2020. That number. 1,264. The latest drugs death statistics had a dreadful inevitability to them, even before official confirmation of the number of fatalities in Scotland were published this week. That data showed a further 6% increase on last year’s deadly tally, confirming that Scotland now has the highest recorded drug … Continue reading Farewell, Lord Advocate? →

Sunday National, 13th December 2020. So this is what we’ve come to. Boris Johnson - with a Dover sole in either hand - snarling “from my cold dead hands, Pierre,” as he orders Royal Navy gunboats out onto the Thames to keep Britain’s codfish British. As the clock ticks mercilessly down to the end of … Continue reading Scotland can do so much better than unstable ­Brexit Britain →

Sunday National, 6th December 2020. Up yours, Louis Pasteur. It is testament to the small-mindedness of this UK government that it has been able to turn the discovery of a raft of effective vaccines against Covid into an excuse for jingoistic one-upmanship – but here we are, on the cusp of a no-deal Brexit, on … Continue reading Up yours, Louis Pasteur →

Sunday National, 29th November 2020. On any other day, in any other month, on any other year – this hearing would be a huge international news story. The statue of King Charles II in Parliament Square in Edinburgh would be surrounded by journalists. The Court of Session’s colonnades would be sprouting cameras and camera-men, and … Continue reading Last chance saloon for Lockerbie case →

Sunday National, 22nd November 2020. “But how exactly is it illegal?” Sometimes, students ask you very smart questions. This week one of my undergrads at GCU was reading about the exertions of Peter Krykant to establish a safe injecting facility in Glasgow city centre. They’d read about what he was doing in the city – … Continue reading Lord Advocate has a role to play over safe consumption rooms →