Iain Macwhirter
Archive for
AV is not PR so WTF?
It is now looking almost certain that next week’s referendum will lead to a defeat of the Alternative Vote. Not many people will lose any sleep over this since not many people are interested in electoral reform, and even fewer are proponents of AV. But I fear that this will be a disaster for … Continue reading
From the killing fields of Cambodia to the meatball marinara.
From the killing fields if Cambodia to the perilous platforms of Glasgow Central Station, Iain Gray has demonstrated how not to win an election campaign. It was the image that will define the 2011 Scottish parliamentary election campaign. Pursued by anti-cuts protesters, the Scottish Labour leader fearlessly retreated into a Subway sandwich bar, before being … Continue reading
Tommy Sheridan to the Sun – is anyone NOT backing the SNP?
From imprisoned Trotskyite, Tommy Sheridan, to the Sun newspaper. From bisexual hollywood star, Alan Cumming, to David Murray of Rangers Football Club. The Alex Salmond supporters club continues to throw up ever more bizarre alliances. None of it means anything of course since celebrity endorsements can be counterproductive. They antagonise as many … Continue reading
Even the SNP don’t believe their polling numbers.
Opinion polls don’t get much more sensational than today’s YouGov poll in Scotland on Sunday. It suggests that the SNP’s lead over Labour has bumped from 2% to 13% in the constituency vote in only a week. This is quite astonishing, and indicates that the Ipsos/Mori poll last week. which showed Alex Salmond’s party … Continue reading
Can Alex Salmond be stopped?
They think it’s all over. Chattering Scotland has already held the Holyrood election in its head, and Alex Salmond has won. The bookies have slashed the odds on an SNP victory. Labour are already fighting amongst themselves about whom to blame. Unionists are vainly hoping that the royal wedding might somehow upset the … Continue reading
Sectarianism: it starts in the home and is perpetuated in the classroom.
Well, someone has to say it. Religious sectarianism in Scotland will never fully be eradicated while religious apartheid is written into the state education system. So long as children grow up to define themselves as Catholic or Protestant, in segregated schools, and associate predominantly with their own kind, then the old antagonisms and rivalries will … Continue reading
Iain Macwhirter 