Talk of an SNP landslide and a Labour wipeout in Scotland on May 7 simply underlines the distorting effects of the first-past-the-post voting system in Westminster elections.
Archives for April 2015
Is Scotland the fairest of them all?
Scotland’s supposed moral superiority is too often unchallenged by media and politicians alike. Isn’t it time we took a long, hard look in the mirror?
NATO’s 2% target out of reach
At times, US frustration with European debates is palpable. But most US leaders understand that while NATO remains the primary framework for military coordination and cooperation between America and Europe, it is still an alliance of independent states, which will continue to set their own budgets in light of their own priorities.
Nicola’s premature coronation
Smear or swoon. Attitudes to Nicola Sturgeon lurch between the two. The few days since the #leadersdebate on ITV have seen her vilified as a secret Tory supporter (good for a second referendum with a positive outcome this time, supposedly) and “the most dangerous woman” in UK politics.
Parliamentary reform: Westminster shows Holyrood the way
Anyone who watched the BBC2 documentary series Inside the Commons would agree that it is not only the crumbling building which needs repair. A democracy that depends on its representatives mastering a 45 chapter tome on procedure first written in 1844, is hardly fitted to the digital age. But there is a parliament much closer to home that Ms Sturgeon ought to consider as a candidate for reform.
Ending the sterile row over austerity
The differences between Labour and the SNP in their plans for UK government spending and borrowing are much closer to each other’s than they are to those bequeathed by George Osborne.
Is Scotland brave enough to support a Fourth Plinth?
Hans Haacke’s statue, Gift Horse, in London’s Trafalgar Square invites questions about power and parliament. Could Scotland’s capital support a ‘fourth plinth’? Where would it be? Who would fund it? And would Scottish artists feel free to question Scottish Government or Scottishness?