FROM NO TO YES. SCOT

Decent politicians nuance rather than lie outright because if they lie they usually get found out. Some Scottish journos, on the other hand, seem to be trying to act like politicians but skipping the ‘not lying’ part. Rather than doing it for a cause, though, they’re doing it for money. Monday’s winning example was Mark.. read more →

Today’s Daily Record line (via Record journo @Davieclegg) is that Labour promised to cover all costs in the Dugdale case without limit and on this basis took things out of the DR’s hands, and that the DR has now re-instated full cover. A few thoughts. 1. As everyone in the world of journalism and far.. read more →

Wee late comment: Chris Musson, the political editor of the Scottish Sun, has tonight posted a string of tweets explaining much more concisely through proper journalism what I was trying to articulate below. I think that puts it to bed, really. Except for the apology, which  I hope people don’t relish too much because Dugdale is.. read more →

The new-ish Labour Party General Secretary, Jenny Formby, is reportedly not keen to keep funding Kezia Dugdale’s defence of the case taken against her by ‘Wings over Scotland’ Editor Rev Stuart Campbell. Supporters of Dugdale’s are crying foul and see it as Formby threatening revenge for Dugdale’s consistent criticism of Jeremy Corbyn. Is it really as.. read more →

The two historical points below don’t represent news to many independence supporters, but I think they’re worth re-stating together for the sake of contextualising recent comments by some Scottish Labour MPs about the 1979 vote which brought down the then Labour government. 1. The 1979 no-confidence vote did not; ‘usher in the long Thatcher period.. read more →

Scottish political discourse around Type 26/31a frigates seems to reflect a ‘unionist’ v ‘independence supporters’ split. The wider SNP plan for naval procurement under independence certainly deserves challenging questioning, but some Labour MPs seem to be repeating uncritically the UK government line on Type 26s too closely at the moment and that looks like a.. read more →

I remember, when I voted in the Gender Recognition Act  (2004), saying to colleagues of both genders in the ‘Aye’ lobby that the Iraq Conflict was masking the profundity of the legislation were were passing. I’ve written about this before. Labour MPs’ purpose is to reduce structural inequality in society, with gender, social class and.. read more →

Kezia Dugdale’s getting a kicking for going on Sleb. She needn’t worry. She’s done her porridge leading the Scottish Labour Party at a terrible time, she’s a capable young woman and she’s earned the right to be cut a bit of slack and strike out in a new career direction. Obviously, she won’t stick around.. read more →

I wrote this last week. I’ve chatted to a few folk since then whose views, I think, are primarily led by the fact that they don’t believe Boris Johnson’s words on the subject could possibly be anything other than a balls-up.  Well, I don’t disagree that BJ has ballsed-up big-time before by being too casual.. read more →

I’ve just stepped down at the end of my 4-year term on the body responsible for signing the UK up to the very worthwhile Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). As I’d spent years watching NGOs appoint a succession of exclusively white (like me), London-based men who just happened to be paid staff of those very NGOs, I.. read more →

Yesterday, UK government minister Rory Stewart fleshed out the UK’s new extrajudicial killing policy. He said that that the only way to deal with hundreds of British citizens who’ve left to fight with Isis, and remain out there somewhere, is to kill them.  This was immediately backed up by UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and, making.. read more →