On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

As I continue to fill in for Jim Lynch (who is mending well) I noticed that on Monday of this week he had a rather long letter in the Herald. Told you he was mending. As it was about oil and given that today (Tuesday) the oil workers are striking, I thought I would share JIm’s letter for those who haven’t seen it. Margaret.     I have to confess that, unlike John- Paul Marney, I am not an oil production expert (Letters 19 Jul 16) so would not regard the Wood Mackenzie report on shale extraction as bedtime reading.  However I am well awareRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

What is Trident. I mean, apart from the obvious weapon of mass destruction. Everything I have read leads me to the conclusion that it is merely a way of the big boys measuring their worth. The ‘would be important’ peoples’ version of ‘mine is bigger than yours’ Why would you want to have weapons of mass destruction? Bear in mind we invaded another country our UK government felt had no right to have them. What makes us so special we should have them? Although Trident was designed as a strategic deterrent, the end of the Cold War led the British government to conclude that a sub-strategic –Read More →

On:
In: Kay Ullrich

As I watched David Cameron announce his resignation on the morning of the 24th of June, the words of an old childhood game came to mind. Do you remember playing Hide and Seek? When you were about to be caught, you quickly crossed your fingers and said “keys no het”. That is exactly what Cameron was doing after the EU Referendum result. To put it another way, in words I often heard as the social worker at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court – it wisnae me, I wisnae there, a big boy did it and run away” That “big boy” was of course Boris, and run awayRead More →

On:
In: Maureen Forbes

During the General Election campaign in 2015, I was stopped by a woman who identified herself as a natural SNP supporter but said that if a party would stand up for women her age, then it would get her vote. She went on to explain that she had now seen her anticipated retiral age be raised twice; already in ill health, she had a very real fear that she would never get to see her pension and she pleaded for somebody, somewhere to stand up for her generation. Caithness Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) was launched last week in a a effort to raiseRead More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

Well, that’s another referendum out of the road, and yet another on the horizon. As a movement we now have some serious thinking to do before the starting gun s fired for #indyref2 and we will need to come up with pretty good answers to win. One question which we did not convince the electorate about last time round was currency and it will be much harder this time to argue for a shared currency. A rUK which comprises, or at least faces being only England & Wales, will be much harder to convince on the merits of a shared currency. It may well alsoRead More →

On:
In: Guest Blogger

Given the Brexit vote many unionists, both elected members and ordinary members, are re-considering their previous loyalty to their political party and are recognising that as Nicola has said the Union that they had previously supported no longer exists and that it now looks like only full Independence for Scotland can protect Scotland’s place in the EU. The former Presiding Officer last week urged me to write an article outlining what I had gone through when I left the Conservative Party in 1985 to join the SNP. I was quite chuffed that she wanted me to do so, until she went on to explain thatRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton, Uncategorized

I sit here some 38 hours before polls open for the referendum. You will be reading it near close of poll or after. I am singularly uninspired. Just as well I voted by post before the depths of this campaign became apparent. Things came to a crashing halt last Thursday with the despicable killing of someone who had only ever sought to make conditions better for everyone. Whether it was charity work abroad in third world or war torn countries or at home in her beloved Yorkshire. I had been preparing myself for some sort of violence erupting as we got closer to polling day.Read More →

On:
In: Grant Thoms

With less than a week to go, it certainly looks as if the UK – Scotland is on more of a knife-edge – is edging closer to leaving the European Union.   If the jittery markets are anything to go by then it may become time to batten down the hatches as the uncertainty over what happens next impacts on all of us whether we voted to stay or go.   Firstly, the debate over the past few weeks has been less inspiring than required but perhaps was no more than could be expected. The ‘short campaign’ should always be about getting down to reinforcingRead More →