“Loch Long is a 20-mile-long seawater loch that flows into the Firth of Clyde. People fish there; they swim and paddleboard. They had a right to know about the leak – and we all had a right to know about sloppy work practices at the (Coulport) base…”
Politics
Demarco’s gauntlet of truth to authoritarianism
“Trump, Rubio, Putin and their fellow travellers in the UK, Europe and across the globe are not the friends of European civilisation. They are the destroyers of freedom. One way to see them defeated is to support writers, artists and performers, whether folk band, local landscape painter, avant garde author, jazz virtuoso or classical orchestra. Free expression in the Arts is freedom for us all.”
Lonely at the top: Sturgeon, leadership and regrets
“This battle over the legacy of Sturgeon has major implications for the future of Scottish politics. Will the SNP continue the same path set by Sturgeon? Are such centrist, cautious politics enough, given the huge challenges Scotland and the world faces?….”
Defence spending in GERS: anatomy of a myth
“Through an official government news release, Scotland’s Finance Secretary has created a false narrative which has now become an outright falsehood being promoted by SNP activists on social media. This should concern anybody interested in the problem of misinformation in political debate.”
Labour and ending poverty
“When governments are remembered after they lose office, their achievements are unforgivingly distilled into a few pithy bullet points. Does Keir Starmer really want one of his bullet points to be that he was the unusual Labour prime minister who presided over an increase in child poverty?”
Reclaim the Enlightenment
“History is never a sure guide to the future but one thing that we can be certain of is that empires rise and fall. That has been true of the British, French and Russian empires, though in all three cases we are suffering from the long-term hangovers from imperial eras. It will also be true of the newer American empire. It is also true that dictators always fall.”
Starmer risks self-harm by alienating his party
Political parties with commanding parliamentary majorities are often tempted by the promise of assertive leadership and decisive action. Yet, as the events of the last few weeks reveal, a large majority is no substitute for the subtler arts of political management, party cohesion and narrative discipline. Missteps like suspending four MPs and sacking three trade […]
Starmer Y1: what now for Scotland and a fractured union?
“Labour’s hopes, when it won the general election, to be in government in England, Wales and Scotland by 2026 currently look off the agenda, not to say absurd. A fractured Labour government and parliamentary party is not well positioned to think about the fractured union that it claims to govern. And a UK government focused on England looks set to continue doing so.”
Why Israel won’t stick to any ceasefire in Gaza/Iran brokered by Trump
“..a core issue for Netanyahu is that his three war aims simply have not been achieved; the theocratic Iranian regime has not collapsed, its nuclear programme can readily be resurrected, and Hamas has survived. All of this means that Israel is likely willing to strike Iran again, already intends to maintain its control of Iranian airspace for months and probably years, and is intensifying its operations in Gaza at a terrible cost to Palestinians.”
Fiscal challenges for the Scottish Government, Pt 96
The new Medium Term Financial Strategy from the Scottish Government sets the scene for the upcoming Scottish Budget in December and marks a step forward in providing fiscal detail