There’s a scene in Yes Prime Minister with Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey, the Machiavellian head of the civil service. Hacker has just become PM and has decided that he wants to ‘take action’. This consists of cancelling Trident, investing £15billion in conventional defences and re-introducing conscription, thus saving on the balance of payments,… Read More »Why is the Budget not being Stopped?
Kings and Queens and Great White Stags It’s been a week of kings and queens so we thought we would give you a royal story. One morning a king set out to hunt in one of his royal forests. It wasn’t any old day; it was the feast of the Holy Cross, the… Read More »Kings and Queens and Great White Stags
So Boris Johnson finally makes the slow sulky walk out of the classroom and Liz Truss takes his place. We’ve not said much about the Westminster leadership contest the past few weeks, mainly because it doesn’t make much difference. Whoever it was, was going to be a Tory and unfriendly to Scotland. There… Read More »Preparing the Battlefield – Westminster Flies Some Kites
06/08/22 – 12/08/22 Naming the Dead – the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Anniversaries Last week, the 6th and 9th August marked the 77th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb attacks. It was remembered in a dutiful but unexceptional fashion by all concerned. It’s in stark contrast to the annual reporting and ceremonies that precede… Read More »This Week in Scotland – 06/08/22 – 12/08/22
30/07/22 – 05/08/22 Rebel Yell – the Conservatives discover Scotland The horror show that is the Conservative leadership contest continues. We don’t know which flunkey in the Tory party thought it would be a good idea to give this national coverage. We think they might live to regret it. Anyway, after a… Read More »This Week in Scotland 30/07/22 – 05/08/22
Do you remember the 2011 AV referendum? Probably not. It came and went in the blink of an eye, a few months after the 2010 Westminster election. It was part of the deal that Nick Clegg did with David Cameron in return for forming a coalition with the Tories. The Tories shook hands on it… Read More »It’s 2026 or Bust
How will the ISP mark this event? In response to International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Women’s Committee of the Independence for Scotland Party decided on an online event, planned for the afternoon of Saturday 15th January 2022, to allow men into the discussion of this challenging topic. It will… Read More »Elimination of Violence Against Women
The lessons of history are so poorly observed, we may as well be looking at the past through a telescope the wrong way round. In attempting to understand the motivation and context of our ancestors, the academic refers to not only archaeological evidence but the written record. Articles that reference songs and other oral traditions… Read More »A History of Violence
The first rule of politics is to turn up. More than anything people want your presence. They want you to be amongst them, to see what they see and feel what they feel. It’s one thing speaking on people’s behalf in a debating chamber, but the real rockface of politics is the politician’s constituency. House… Read More »Sir David Amess
The SNP and the Greens entered a coalition this week. This is probably the least surprising thing to happen in Scottish politics for a while, and the policy direction that they have taken is completely unsurprising as well. However, it consolidates and confirms some of the things we have been saying. We thought it would… Read More »The More Things Change – the SNP/Green Coalition
