Politics
Catalonia and Spain: future options
Catalonia goes to the polls next month as the pressure for independence from Madrid intensifies. Here a prominent political scientist from Barcelona University analyses the options for the future.
Sturgeon discovers Blairite pragmatism
Scotland’s First Minister has signalled a strictly non-ideological, flexible approach to improving education. “What works best” is a very Blairite concept.
Corbyn has no solution for Scottish Labour
Dundee probably hasn’t seen the like since the independence referendum. The university’s main lecture hall was full to the point that the organisers had to open a large over-spill room to cope with everyone. According…
Scotland’s heightened role in the EU renegotiation process
Some time in the next two years, Scots will face another referendum, on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union. This issue has become deeply entangled with the question of Scotland’s place…
Five little known truths about Scottish politics
Scots are said to be more left-wing than the English but there are plenty of other myths – and surprising truths – about our politics. Here are five of them examined.
Stale old news from Hume and Salmond
It’s the silly season, so before turning to Alex Salmond’s wishful thinking about the inevitability of a second referendum on independence for Scotland, here is an amusing story about David Hume.
The SNP’s fighting 56 could end up feeble
It was 27 years ago when the Jim Sillars, flush from winning the Govan by-election for the SNP, taunted Scottish Labour MPs for being the ‘feeble fifty’, unable to defend Scotland against the excesses of…
EVEL: Westminster is and will be England’s Parliament
Prof Jim Gallagher, former head of devolution in Whitehall, finds serious fault with the government’s plans for English devo and urges a much better consensus
‘Tsunami’ – or the inevitable rise and rise of the SNP
A sympathetic but critical review of Tsunami: Scotland’s Democratic Revolution, the third in Iain Macwhirter’s series of books attempting to map Scotland’s fast changing political landscape where the SNP fortress seems unassailable.
Five damaging side-effects of EVEL
The SNP has flexed its Westminster muscles over fox-hunting in protest at plans to bring in EVEL. The UK government had already retreated on its draft bill but there are other more far-reaching consequences from…
SNP fury over Lords scrutiny of Scotland Bill is synthetic
The SNP’s “fury” about House of Lords scrutiny of the Scotland Bill ignores the role peers play in defending liberties – and sits uneasily with its own centralising modus operandi.
EVEL: final answer to the West Lothian question?
EVEL is designed to bring Westminster up to speed with shifts in the national mood of the English but may set off a new Anglo-Scottish conflict