I wonder how you felt when the email from the National Secretary dropped into your inbox around the end of June? I had a mixture of emotions when I saw the three main topics were Independence, Council Elections 2022 and COP26.  All are no doubt worthy and indeed in the case of Independence a discussion which the Party needs to have on a number of levels. Strategic timeframes, improving the 2014 offering and involvement with the wider YES movement being just three examples. I also felt that familiar feeling of who has Branch or CA meetings in July and especially just after a General Election?Read More →

This week we learned that one of our bloggers, a board member and an ex editor of the newspaper, has died. Our thoughts are with the family of Jim Lynch. There will be an appreciation of Jim in due courseRead More →

New Cabinet announced today and new term of government begins. Sadly, the talent contained in the list MSPs in opposition is lacking, again. I can cope with lack of talent if they could behave civilly. It would appear from the performance so far that they have no intention of being civil. I found the behaviour of unionist parliamentarians towards the end of the last parliamentary session utterly disgraceful. What a total embarrassment as they were being broadcast live to the nation and the world. This past week we have had Douglas Ross speaking to a Westminster committee chairman in a manner that you would expectRead More →

This really is turning into the strangest election campaign I can recall in 55 years in the SNP. What was looking like a fairly routine campaign with the prospect of a possible SNP majority 12 months ago has developed more twists and turns than a Stephen King plot. First, we had the Alex Salmond trial, which so many of us feared would leave a major doubt in voters’ minds about the whole campaign for Independence. Then came the acquittal on all charges and we breathed huge sighs of relief and awaited the return of Alex to the fold and an eventual peace deal being brokered.Read More →

What a scunner the last week has been. I had been concerned about behaviour on mainstream media and social media for some time. Last week there was a surge in the use of bad language, aggressive posts and comments and a total lack of respect for other people’s point of view. I was amazed at how many people had suddenly become experts on our voting system. I am fairly sure that they cannot all be correct, but people have convinced themselves they are right. As we discovered in the council elections when we tried to ask the electorate to vote SNP 1 and 2 (ifRead More →

The psychodrama that has prevailed amongst a minority of the national movement derived from #MeToo, the Alex Salmond affair and slanging matches over a gender recognition bill, which is no longer on the parliamentary timetable, must now stop.  Alex Salmond is innocent of criminal activity but clearly has a tarnished reputation from activities that took place during his time as the inhabitant of Bute House. Behaviour which is unbecoming of the First Minister of Scotland. However, that is now in the past and a line must be drawn under it. Revenge, which now seems to be the priority, is a dish best served cold andRead More →

Last night watching CNN news was compulsive. The USA considers itself to be the leader of Nations. A shining example for us all to aim for. Well one man’s campaign of several years destroyed that yesterday. Since the election in November he has behaved like a spoilt child. In a Nation that positively encourages people to carry arms on a daily basis, their leader uses social media to wind up his supporters to the level that they feel entitled to enter a government building, threaten the staff, trash the place and shoot people. 4 people dead because someone cannot accept defeat at a democratic poll.Read More →

A new poll by Progress Scotland has created a stushie with a resounding message: the vast majority of Scots want decisions about Scotland to be made in Scotland. As SNP Depute Leader, Keith Brown says: “This poll confirms that we are winning the economic argument over Scotland’s future. More and more, people across Scotland believe that independence will not only give us a stronger voice in the world but will also benefit our economy. The threat to jobs and living standards posed by Brexit has eroded any remaining confidence voters had in Westminster having control over Scotland’s finances.” So with a stronger, more compelling caseRead More →

Yvonne Augusta Murgatroyd, DA, WRSA, nee Drew and then MacKinnon Passed away 23rd July 2020 in Kelty, Fife Born 14th June 1920 in London to Augusta and Capt. Jack Drew, RAF. During the first Word War her mother, Augusta, worked as the Chief Female Forager in Norfolk. Her father, Capt. Jack Drew, originally came from Edinburgh, where his father owned a the Coach Building Company based in Gilmour Street, Edinburgh. Capt. Jack Drew’s Father, the coach builder, was married to Nell Stevenson the sister of David Watson Stevenson, RSA, the sculptor of the Wallace statue on the Wallace monument and many other famous statues andRead More →

Well, as the constitutional debate goes on, I allowed my curiosity to get the better of me. We know, or have continually been told , that “Jerusalem” has been England’s sporting anthem – this has always struck me as bizarre, as I could not imagine gangs of shaven headed tattooists warbling away about “And was the holy lamb of God in England’s pleasant pasture seen”, so I checked the web. According to reports it is only the anthem for rugby and cricket not for the football oafs. However surely this is a part of England’s place in the World, and a mythical visit by JesusRead More →