Month: January 2015
Today’s Independence Rally
You can see me speaking 24 minutes in here. Can’t work out how to embed this one. It was literally freezing and the very small crowd was understandable. I think four hour rallies outdoors in Scotland in midwinter are somewhat optimistic. I think we also need …read more
What are we going to do about the Europeans?
That was a question I was asked at an economics debate last year and my answer, “We are the Europeans”, resulted in a tirade about glib answers, but I thought I had nailed it. It seems to me that that throughout the UK (less so in Scotland) there is a …read more
Demanding Relatives
By Mike Small “If Scotland votes no, Westminster’s claim to undivided authority over the country? Dead and buried. After a no vote we’ll have a system of government as close to federalism as you can have in a nation where… Read More › …read more
The lost art of keeping a secret
Kate Devlin of the Herald has been a political journalist as long as we can remember. So it’s quite surprising that she’s apparently never heard of Gordon Brown before. But it’s a phrase a few paragraphs into the article that’s more revealing: “Mr Brown has been credited by some as …read more
Screwfix comes to Elgin
SCREWFIX will open its first store in Elgin next week. …read more
The Pushmi-Pullyu
An unsettling development
Since we’ve been talking about mad letters from Scottish Labour MPs today, we’re sharing this one with you too. We’ve been trying to make sense of it all evening. We haven’t made any progress. It’s not just a simple accidental transposition of words, because if you switch “increased” and “decreased” …read more
Five Magic Words
Greg Moodie on the Labour leader’s recent visit to Scotland. …read more
A couple of hours off
Because there’s really no satire we can add to this magnificent zoomery: So we might as well pop out to the shops for a bit. …read more
Major Elgin DIY store earmarked for closure
A MAJOR do-it-yourself retailer is to close its store in Elgin. …read more
Greece: The End of Austerity?
Director: Theopi Skarlatos Syriza had 22 days to make history. This is how they did it. We followed Syriza’s activists, candidates and leadership from the waterfront, to remote mountain villages, to the nail biting final days. (C) Theopi Skarlatos 2015 facebook.com/EndOfAusterityFiled… Read More › …read more
Match Fixing
By Mike Small While the Scottish media goes into a froth and a frenzy of Old Firm (sic) coverage before the League Cup semi-final – coverage which, apart from the rest of license-fee payers I’d imagine the fans of Aberdeen… Read More › …read more
Hubris and nemesis
With a knife-edge general election just 90-odd days away, we must confess ourselves surprised at the sudden rash of candour/indiscipline (depending on how generously you want to frame it) that’s broken out in Scottish Labour. It started soon after the referendum, when Edinburgh Labour chairman Trevor Davies felt confident enough, …read more
A Green New Deal for Europe
Alistair Davidson looks at the possibility for uniting an anti-austerty agenda with a new green politics. We are used to thinking of ourselves as just a wee country, but Scottish votes at the 2015 general election could play a decisive… Read More › …read more
Gathering speed
Ed Miliband, who is apparently the leader of the Labour Party, is in Scotland today to make some promises about his lifelong commitment to “Home Rule”, a policy which his MSPs were flatly denying ever mentioning earlier this month. We’re sure he’ll be as good as his word. After all, …read more