Iain Macwhirter
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Corbyn honeymoon is officially over – at least in Scotland.
Corbyn mania hit Brighton this week in the blazing heat. It was the sunrise of the New Politics: a new age of grass-roots radicalism, with the Labour conference sovereign, real debates, and an end to top down machine politics. Well in your dreams. Within 24 hour the old politics reestablished itself as the conference arrangements … Continue reading
Disunited Kingdom. How Westminster won a referendum but lost Scotland
It was a grey dawn that broke over Holyrood on the morning of 19th September 2014. Yes campaigners trooped in the rain to Edinburgh’s Dynamic Earth exhibition centre for what many had hoped and believed would be a victory celebration. It felt more like a wake. Alex Salmond put on his brave face and declared … Continue reading
Testing in primary schools and a review of police governance are hardly going to quell the complaints that Sturgeon has lost her radical edge.
The reintroduction of testing in primary schools and a review of police governance are hardly going to quell the complaints that the Scottish Government has lost its radical edge; that’s if you accept it had one in the first place. Testing was originally a Tory idea, warmly welcomed by Ruth Davidson. And the First Minister … Continue reading
The unholy alliance against Trident is growing fast, and George Osborne is rattled.
If the UK Government wants to sell Trident renewal to Scots voters, I’m not sure George Osborne makes the ideal salesman. The Chancellor’s intervention in the referendum campaign was a near disaster. Almost from the moment he issued his diktat on the pound, support for the Union began to wilt. Yet, there he was again … Continue reading
List wars. The SNP has a new challenge on the left from RISE.
The emergence of a new party of the radical left in Scotland, Rise (Respect, Independence, Socialism, Environmentalism), launched this weekend, has aroused much derision and allusions to Monty Python’s People’s Front of Judea sketch. “How long before Rise sinks?” Ho, ho. But it’s surely a tribute to Holyrood’s proportional electoral system that new political formations … Continue reading
Iain Macwhirter 