Reward for two decades of failure (SNP)? Last throw of the democratic dice with the authoritarian Far Right (Reform UK)? A year out from the May 2026 Holyrood elections that's the unpalatable choice dangled by those parties' leaders - and some polls - before voters. We Scots can surely do better. The Hamilton by-election result points the way forward...First Minister John … [Read more...] about A coalition willing and delivering change
Europe
Insurgent, disruptive or flailing Labour?
When key Labour advisers, and the prime minister himself, are throwing around consultancy-speak words like disruption and insurgency then it’s clear the government has a deep problem. It doesn’t actually know what it's there for, let alone how to be popular – and the feeble, ever narrower repetition of the word ‘growth’, as growth stalls, is not helping. Keir Starmer told his … [Read more...] about Insurgent, disruptive or flailing Labour?
Why populists are winning: broken promises of liberal democracy
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who lived to the age of 96, reminds us that extreme right populism has been a persistent feature of European politics since the rise of liberal democracy after World War II. First elected to the French parliament in 1956, Le Pen never attained the level of influence that his daughter commands today. This is because, during the golden years of European … [Read more...] about Why populists are winning: broken promises of liberal democracy
We’re allowing the Far Right to set the pace
Remigration on a mass scale is now salonfähig in the political lexicon of Allianz für Deutschland co-leader and Kanzlerkandidatin Alice Weidel - and her party as a whole. Repatriation of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of refugees/asylum-seekers inevitably recalls the 1933-39 period (before the war-time Final Solution) when thousands among the half a million Jews in … [Read more...] about We’re allowing the Far Right to set the pace
Europe’s centrists are empowering the Far Right
At the start of the year, Austria marked the thirtieth anniversary of its accession to the European Union in 1995. However, this celebration was soon overshadowed by the collapse of coalition negotiations among the People’s Party (ÖVP), the Social Democrats (SPÖ), and the liberal NEOS.Europe’s The talks fell apart when NEOS withdrew, quickly followed by the ÖVP. Despite a … [Read more...] about Europe’s centrists are empowering the Far Right