Grant Thoms

As we approach the festive season, we are often told it’s more important to give than to receive. As far as the Prime Minister is concerned, he is the gift to Scottish independence that keeps on giving. In a private Zoom call to Northern English Tories, he pronounced that “devolution has been a disaster” and poor we Dougie Ross is left apoplectic. However, to the diehard Unionist cause, it is manna from heaven. They hate devolution and believe now that abolishing the Scottish Parliament is the answer. Meanwhile, the rumour mill over the past week has been strong on suggestions the Scottish Tories are re-shapingRead More →

Eight months to go until the Scottish electorate (all things being safe), give their verdict on the SNP in government and the desire for a second independence referendum. Thursday 6 May 2021 should be ringed on your calendar if it hasn’t been already. We know for certain that at least a fifth of the current MSPs are not standing again and they should be rightly praised for the hard work they have done for Scottish democracy over the Scottish Parliament’s current 21-year history. Without the sterling efforts of this band of veteran parliamentarians, the Scottish Parliament would not be the primary trusted legislative body thatRead More →

Boris is back and don’t we know it. The blunderpuss of British politics just couldn’t help himself last week when he rushed to make a point to Keir Starmer at PMQs that he would be announcing the next stage of the lockdown management in a televised address to the nation. The civil service were not ready to publish plans and messaging strategy in four days, but that didn’t stop Boris. Message-testing was through a select focus group of right-leaning journalists; just an average representative sample population! The televised address was lifted straight from a Yes Prime Minister scene. Full of contradictory rhetoric: manna from heavenRead More →

For the first time in the 94 years of publishing the Scots Independent, there is no printed edition. Issue 1094 was only published online due to our printers being in lockdown. However frustrating this appears for us, especially with the beautiful cover illustration by Andrew Barr, we played our part in stopping non-essential work. The mainstream press has continued to print encouraging readers to risk travel to newsagents and supermarkets. The freedom of the press is important but when our global community has responded to novel Covid 19 by digitising our communication as much as possible, perhaps those papers need to reflect on their profit-seeking.Read More →

A recent event for public relations professionals heard from three political journalists covering a tabloid, a quality broadsheet and the BBC. Their personal details are unimportant: we focus too much on personality and forget to listen to what others are actually saying, whether their argument is grounded or contestable. After 90 minutes of question and analysis, a realisation struck on how Holyrood-centric the discussion was focused. A London metropolitan-centric viewpoint has become easy to identify, label and rail against; but are we in danger of being caught in a bubble of tartan proportions? Scant mention of the asymmetric devolution mess that the UK created underRead More →

There is endless commentary which questions ‘where are we going next?’ in the independence campaign. Invariably it involves second-guessing the First Minister’s strategy or pre-empting the UK Government’s response to further demands for an independence referendum, especially in light of the Prime Minister’s firm refusal to the First Minister’s request for a Section 30 Order. For some, that refusal was a litmus test for more one-sided actions such as a consultative referendum, civil disobedience, unilateral declaration of independence or even more extreme measures. Whilst all of these suggestions strike a chord with the majority of independence supporters, they are the sort of measures which willRead More →

Amid much bravado and authority, Nigel Farage dictated terms for his Brexit Party’s engagement in the General Election on 12 December. Boris’s Deal was in effect May’s Deal and was unacceptable. Support No Deal or we’ll stand against you in all 632 GB seats, Farage telt Boris. Fast forward two weeks and Boris has effectively called Farage’s bluff; and the Essex stockbroker capitulated. Now the Brexit Party will only fight non-Tories in the most blatant electoral pact since… the Lib Dems, Greens and Plaid Cymru agreed a deal last week! In Scotland, the removal of Brexit Party candidates is likely to give the Tories aRead More →

Forty years after the initial Claim of Right for Scotland was signed and triggered the Scottish Constitutional Convention which in turn led to the re-establishment of a Scottish Parliament with devolved powers, 50 cultural heavyweights have united to publish a “manifesto for independence” –a prospectus of “guiding principles” on independence for Scotland.  The manifesto concludes: “It is our belief that the best option now open to the Scottish people is for Scotland to become an independent country. The alternative is to accept that Scotland’s fate would remain in the hands of others and that the Scottish people would relinquish their right to decide their own destiny.”   Read More →