Mark Smith of the Herald is longing again for the golden days of the soft-right (Caring Conservatives, New Labour and the Lib Dems) in the UK, when you could enjoy your own success in an deeply unequal country, give a little more in benefits to the poor and not be upset by the too-honest celebrations of that inequality by the hard-right of the Conservative Party. He writes: I’ve just been writing The Herald’s obituary for Baroness Williams of Crosby, otherwise known as Shirley Williams, otherwise known as the woman who might have changed British politics in the 1980s but couldn’t, … Continue reading Baroness Williams of Crosby was no radical

Reworking George Robertson in 2014, when the New Labour Lord and NATO supremo suggested that ‘Forces of Darkness Would Love Scottish Split from United Kingdom‘, former Tory councillor and MEP, Struan Stevenson warns us: It is not only the people of Scotland who should witness this spectacle with fear and trepidation. Joe Biden must be pacing the Oval Office in alarm. If the SNP gets its way and succeeds in breaking up the United Kingdom, it would be a geopolitical catastrophe, not only for Scotland and the UK, but also for the United States. The SNP would destroy, at a stroke, the … Continue reading Sturgeon, a century ahead of Johnson, is Biden’s type

Douglas Ross still supports the right to buy that has starved Scotland of affordable housing yet demands that the Scottish Government fills the gap by building more housing that can then be bought and sold for profit. His confusion is stunning and has prompted this from the SNP: The SNP has called out the Scottish Tories “shameful” record on housing and plans for Scotland, stating that only both votes SNP will return an SNP Government with a bold strategy to deliver affordable housing across Scotland. It comes after Douglas Ross was challenged on Scotland Tonight over his social housing plans for Scotland. … Continue reading Douglas Ross seems to want taxpayers to subsidise house purchases

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” -Albert Einstein From the SNP: Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has reaffirmed his party’s position to support Boris Johnson and the Tories’ commitment to maintaining destructive Trident nuclear weapons on the banks of the River Clyde. During an interview on Good Morning Scotland, Sarwar could not commit to scrapping nuclear weapons and demonstrated his inability to stand up for the people of Scotland. Earlier this year, Keir Starmer confirmed that Labour would not oppose Trident renewal. Despite a … Continue reading Anas Sarwar accepts risk of nuclear holocaust on our behalf

Hot on the heels of Scottish Labour’s leaflets printed in Kettering Northants, Willie Rennie, with his scheme to give every 16 to 24-year-old Scot access to a job or training headlining in the press, offers us the above printed in London. If he can’t even get this sort of thing right what hope is there? The local SNP leaflets coming through doors in the Ayr constituency were printed in Troon. How hard can that be? Are Rennie and Sarwar just following orders? Continue reading Scottish election 2021: Willie Rennie pledges job guarantee for every young person in London

Tom Gordon digs deep into the IFS report on Scotland’s devolved taxation system and pulls out a negative nugget to suit his agenda. Lying scattered and ignored other than in a wee grudging comment, this analysis by the SNP: A study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has shown that the SNP policies on tax and benefits have created a fairer, more progressive system than is in place in the rest of the UK. The report explains that low-income households across Scotland gain much more from the SNP’s progressive tax and benefit reforms, including a top-up to the carer’s … Continue reading Tom Gordon cannot bear to say: ‘Scotland has the fairest, most progressive income tax in the UK’

Prof Mark Woolhouse speaks in Edinburgh to warn us of a third wave which might cause the ‘NHS to buckle’ and that the first lockdown ‘in Scotland’ failed to protect the most vulnerable. First, parts of NHS England did buckle under the strain of rampant infection. Many Covid-19 patients had to be transferred as far as from London to Northumbria. Nothing like that happened here. Indeed, across the country capacity was always well above demand with the overflow facilities unused. Over the period of the pandemic, the infection level was only just over half per head of population of that … Continue reading The English expert flies in to warn us of impending doom with his knowledge of NHS England’s weakness

I’ve been saving the above Conservative reporting from the Buckingham Herald for the next opinion poll. How are the Greens doing? What effect has Harvie’s less servile tribute to all of our dead, had? Well, a bit like the effects of the MSM reporting on SNP support, SFA or maybe even the opposite of what they hoped for. After 5 polls putting the Greens at 1, 2, 2, 0, and 0, in the constituency vote, the latest from Panelbase has them at 4%. On the regional vote, Panelbase has them at a healthy 9%, unchanged from their average over the … Continue reading Voters liked Patrick Harvie’s honest comments on the Duke

After telling us that: A report is calling for mandatory notice periods for shift workers to avoid rotas being changed at the last minute. The study of 2 000 adults by the Living Wage Foundation, suggests that more than 60% of people whose job involves variable hours or shifts, have been given less than a week’s notice of their schedules. While it argues that short notice periods are a problem right across Britain, the practice is less common in Scotland. According to the study, Short notice periods are particularly common in London, 48% of all workers received less than a week’s notice of work schedules. In … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s ‘less common’ short notice shift rotas in Scotland means 37% less common

From SNP Media yesterday: A study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has shown that the SNP policies on tax and benefits have created a fairer, more progressive system than is in place in the rest of the UK. The report explains that low-income households across Scotland gain much more from the SNP’s progressive tax and benefit reforms, including a top-up to the carer’s allowance, more generous housing benefit, and extra payments for families with young children.  Taken together, these measures will boost the incomes of the poorest fifth of Scottish households by an average of almost 1.5% this … Continue reading SNP has ensured Scotland has fairest, most progressive income tax in the UK