“Nicola Sturgeon and the other no longer young SNP nationalists are in a hurry. They need Johnson to confirm that his English Europe-hating Tories will indeed deny Scotland its centuries-old place as a small but distinct European nation that has contributed much to European science, philosophy, and culture.”
Elections
Binary choice and multi-party politics
‘.Like the Bourbons, the Conservatives have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing. But Labour are in danger of the same. Time is running out for a reasonably well developed alternative option that might be included in a future referendum. Not only would this enrich a stale debate but would allow Labour to escape the potentially lethal embrace of working with the Tories again.’
“Westminster’s Man at Holyrood” ain’t going to cut it
‘Douglas Ross’s challenge as leader then is clear. He will have to convince the electorate that he looks at Holyrood in the same way as they do: as a place where things can and should be achieved and decided, rather than a pitstop on the way to something better. It’s just a shame he’ll have to wait until after the election before he can even make a start.’
Community empowerment or delivering less with less?
‘..with so much promise offered by new economic democratic agendas such as new municipalism, communities can have a key role as partners with the state against the cosh of market liberalism and declining public services.’
Sanders: the red scare
‘Both Democrats and Republicans are now engaged in a campaign against Bernie Sanders aimed at frightening voters and preventing change. Ironically, the fear-mongering of the Democratic establishment is even more dangerous than that of Trump and the Republican Party.’
Sinn Fein surge and the border
‘This created the space Sinn Féin needed for an election on its terms – in many respects the party had precisely the kind of election the UK Labour Party wanted and failed to get in 2019.’ Why SF won…
Bitter truths in Brussels
‘…there may well be sympathy for the Scottish case but it is, for now, entirely irrelevant to what’s at stake now. As we know from the last 43 months, that’s even more true of Westminster and Whitehall.’
Ten predictions for #EU2020
As the UK gets set to leave the EU on January 31 2020 after 47 years of membership, we look forward to what’s likely to happen in mainland Europe in 2020…
Exit Poll, BBC Election Night and systemic media bias
‘For the BBC especially, the 2019 election night was a gross failure of the Reithian mission to educate and inform citizens at a critical juncture in political life in an open and multi-variant way.’
GE2019 and #indyref2
‘Surveys have shown that almost half of English voters are content to leave the matter to the Scots, with many of the rest having no opinion. There appears to be little appetite for coercing Scotland, should Scotland really want to leave.’