Iain Macwhirter
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Who won the phoney war of the independence referendum?
So, who won the referendum phoney war? There was an air of quiet satisfaction among senior Tories at their conference in Birmingham recently. “Wily” Alex Salmond had been put back in his box, I was told. Forced to drop his devious plan to turn the ballot on Scottish independence into an each way bet … Continue reading
Tory Muff and Jeff routine. Caring Cameron feels their pain.
The Tories under David Cameron have become the masters of the conference Mutt and Jeff routine. All week ministerial Muttleys put the boot into big families on welfare, batter burglars, threaten referendums on Europe, kick the Liberal Democrats in the goolies by rejecting their wealth tax. This all goes down well; red meat for the … Continue reading
Why do the Tories think they’ve lost already?
There has been an unmistakeable air of defeatism hanging over this Tory conference. “Cameron in Free Fall” declares the cover story on the conference issue of The Spectator magazine, home journal of the British Right. Inside, its editor, Fraser Nelson, does not mince his words. “By now”, he writes, “it will be clear even … Continue reading
Scotland: the "something for nothing" society. Johann Lamont joins the Tories.
The “something for nothing” society. That’s how Johann Lamont characterised Scotland under the SNP in her first serious policy speech as leader of the Scottish Labour Party last week. A land where greedy and ignorant voters have been seduced by Alex Salmond’s electoral bribes on free personal care, tuition fees, bus passes, prescriptions. The … Continue reading
How many nations was that Ed?
How many nations was that, exactly? Ed Miliband borrowed the tailcoat of Benjamin Disraeli this week to pronounce his faith in “one nation”. Constitutional pedants (like me) might have pointed out that there are actually two nations in the United Kingdom, Scotland and England. Oh, and one of them might be about to … Continue reading
Iain Macwhirter 