Iain Macwhirter

When the Scottish Police, the Catholic Church, the Law Society of Scotland get together to condemn the Scottish government’s Hate Crime Bill for endangering freedom of speech, you’d think that ministers might be tempted to listen. I can’t off-hand think of any issue that has united policemen, lawyers and churchmen in quite this way before … Continue reading →

At the start of 2019, few but the politically committed used the term “woke”. If they’d heard it at all, most people would’ve assumed it had something to do with insomnia. “Woke” only entered the Oxford English dictionary last year as meaning: “alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice”. Like it’s parent “politically correct”, woke … Continue reading →

During an anti-Trump march in London in June an angry young woman confronted an elderly-looking Brexit supporter, repeatedly calling him “Nazi scum!”. She then laughed hysterically as the man was pelted with milkshakes. The video of Soibhan Prigent went viral and became one of the abiding images of 2019. It was a sad case, not … Continue reading →

The SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has landed in Dublin seeking political asylum, along with her deputy, John Swinney, and the party’s constitutional affairs minister, Mike Russell. Their hasty departure follows the conviction of 13 Scottish “separatists” who helped organise the illegal 2022 independence referendum. Prominent nationalist politicians including the Scottish Justice Secretary, Humza Yousaf, the … Continue reading →

MOST people reading this column will surely agree that people who wish to change their gender should have the freedom to do so. We’ve come a long way since the days when people with non-heterosexual lifestyles were discriminated against or vilified. Live and let live.If some people who were born as men wish to live their … Continue reading →

WHEN the obituary of neoliberal capitalism is written – as I’m confident it will be within the next decade or so – Royal Bank of Scotland will merit a chapter all on its own. Up to its neck in sub-prime mortgage lending in the US, it was a major figure in the 2007 financial crash, … Continue reading →

BLISS it was to be alive in those early days of devolution – except that it wasn’t. The rebirth of Scotland’s democracy after 300 years in spring, 1999 proved to be a painful affair, and plunged Scotland into a period of post-natal depression, which ended the careers, and the lives, of some of the architects … Continue reading →

British business is its own worst enemy. The latest 10 per cent increase in top executive pay to an average of £5.5 million is another insult to the working population. These people seem to be under the L’Oreal delusion that “they’re worth it” – but few of their employees or economists agree. Executive pay in … Continue reading →

IT was never entirely clear whether Alex Salmond’s apparent infatuation with Her Majesty the Queen was genuine or merely theatrical. The former First Minister and Mrs Windsor certainly seemed to get on suspiciously well, perhaps because of a shared love of horses.  But did he really believe that she was “Queen of Scots” – a … Continue reading →

MALCOLM Tucker might have called it a “clusterf***mageddon”. Everyone said that last week’s treacherous political infighting was was like Shakespearean tragedy, but it resembled more The Thick Of It – the show producer Armando Iannucci says he can’t bring back because politics is now beyond satire. It’s just not funny any more. The parade of … Continue reading →

IMAGINE the scene: the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, clinking glasses with the Queen, riding in the gold coach down Whitehall, knocking back pints with the Prime Minister in a typical English pub. Outrageous. Unthinkable. The very idea. Putin is a deeply authoritarian figure who has threatened the security of neighbouring countries like Ukraine, exploited tensions … Continue reading →

“Another exceptionally lucid and thoughtful guide to Scotland’s ever shifting political scene will be of great interest whatever the reader’s political affiliation” Justin Reynolds, Scottish Fabians.   “Tsunami: Scotland’s Democratic Revolution” Out now.  Get it here:  http://www.cargopublishing.com/books/tsunami-scotlands-democratic-revolution-e-book-onl   Tsunami: Scotland’s Democratic Revolution is the third in Iain Macwhirter’s series of books attempting to map Scotland’s … Continue reading →

  Mountaineering books tend to follow a fairly predictable pattern. Expedition through exotic locations; long arduous haul up snowy slopes; a near death experience at high altitude; rounded off with some metaphysical reflections. Scottish mountaineer Sandy Allan’s account of his epic climb on the Mazeno ridge of Nanga Parbat (8,126 mtrs), observes the conventions. But … Continue reading →