The future, coming soon 150
Posted on
December 05, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
One more twist of the corkscrew 96
Posted on
December 05, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Herald, 1 June 2014:
Scottish leader Johann Lamont will be joined by former prime minister Gordon Brown at the event.
We’ll let Johann’s rather shaky grasp of the UK and Scottish population sizes slide on this occasion – she taught English, not maths or geography. The important thing is that the No vote in the referendum assured that benefits would remain a central, shared and uniform facet of British life. Right?
Not keeping up with the news 156
Posted on
December 04, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
A real letter sent out by the shadow Secretary of State for Scotland this week.
Someone do us a favour and explain to her in language she’ll understand that as the Scottish Parliament isn’t trusted by her Westminster pals to control its own resources, the price of oil doesn’t actually impact on “the SNP’s economic plan” in any way whatsoever, would you? We’re not very good with crayons.
A lucky escape 104
Posted on
December 04, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Indian giver 123
Posted on
December 04, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
George Osborne’s autumn mini-Budget is the sort of thing that shouldn’t be read late at night. The programme of swingeing cuts to public services it outlined would chill the blood of anyone with an ounce of compassion in their souls.
Fortunately, this site concerns itself chiefly with Scottish politics, so we can leave the full horror to others, turn away in fear and focus on a couple of decisions that are particularly interesting in a constitutional context.
Votes of confidence 297
Posted on
December 03, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Alert readers will already be aware that we’re not the biggest fans of prospective Scottish Labour deputy “leader” Kezia Dugdale. Even this site, however, doesn’t think the Lothian list MSP is so inept and slow-witted that she could single-handedly be held responsible for the party losing the next two general elections.
Some of her comrades, however, have less faith.
The lie and the truth 72
Posted on
December 03, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
The Daily Record, 27 November 2014:
So, IS the Scottish Government budget going to “nearly double”?
Souls in the system 109
Posted on
December 03, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We’ve been watching in some bafflement the continuation of this bizarre non-story from yesterday. (For which, incidentally, the P&J has published a correction today.)
As one in five Scottish children live in poverty and temperatures fall at the beginning of winter with many families facing the choice between heating their homes or buying food, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie apparently arrived at the conclusion that the most important thing he could be doing with his taxpayer-funded time was occupying the Scottish Parliament with a demand to know (for no immediately apparent reason) how often civil servants had accessed Wings Over Scotland in the six months leading up to the referendum.
A less permanent permanence 69
Posted on
December 03, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
World speed-reading record broken again 205
Posted on
December 02, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We didn’t think we’d ever encounter a greater feat of rapid comprehension than Alistair Darling digesting and analysing the entire 670-page White Paper on independence in under two hours back in 2013, readers. But we’re delighted to reveal a new champion.
Matters of life and death 53
Posted on
December 02, 2014 by
Douglas Daniel
Of all the powers that Labour were reportedly responsible for keeping reserved to Westminster, abortion law is perhaps the most revealing about Labour’s true attitude towards Scotland and devolution during the Smith Commission’s deliberations.
It’s one of a handful of issues, including embryology, xenotransplantation (that’s transplanting a cell or organ from one species to another) and surrogacy, which would otherwise fall to the Cabinet Secretary for Health had Labour not specifically reserved them when creating the Scottish Parliament in 1997.
(In fact, it was Tony Blair who personally insisted that abortion law remain reserved to Westminster. Donald Dewar was apparently in favour of devolving it, but we all know who wins in a battle between Scottish Labour and London Labour.)
If the Smith Commission was nothing else, it was an opportunity for unionists – Labour in particular – to prove their commitment to devolution by relinquishing their hold on powers previously considered too important to fall within the Scottish Parliament’s remit. Unsurprisingly, they declined it.
A letter to the editor 234
Posted on
December 02, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
…of the Press & Journal.
