On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

It seems to be a week for all three. I had to laugh yesterday at the clip I saw of the Scottish leaders address to the Liberal Democrats conference. Not only was the speech pitifully poorly attended, those that were there seemed to be napping, on mobile gadgets or reading agendas. When he said that the SNP were not going to win the next Holyrood election because of the hard work of Lib Dem activists and their supporters, a very feeble trickle of applause was heard. Now I am not saying that there is no way the SNP can lose, of course that is alwaysRead More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

For all that has been written and said about Jeremy Corbyn bringing a new type of socialism to the ranks of the Labour Party one thing became abundantly clear on his recent tour of Scotland. Jeremy Corbyn is just as much a tory fan as Tony Blair or Gordon Brown. For the Tories to be defeated at the next election, they must lose seats, that’s just a simple fact! So where does the blessed Jezza target? Labour reckon they need to take 18 seats in Scotland to win the next election and each and every one of them is held by the SNP! Now justRead More →

On:
In: Grant Thoms

Angus Robertson famously declared after the NATO motion victory, “he who dares, wins”. That phrase has always stuck with me. Following the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government (PfG) release, even Kenny Farquharson (Sunday Times Scotland columnist) declared it the kind of bold strategy that was expected and needed by Nicola and the SNP. However, within hours of the PfG’s release, Labour in Scotland tweeted that the PfG was based on 10 policy ideas of their own. A bold and deliberate attempt to say, ‘the SNP isn’t radical, we thought of it first’. First of all, politicians of whatever shade of party are rarely the typeRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

  This week is a fairly momentous one for Scotland. I saw this morning the videos and pictures on social media of the light show on the Queensferry Crossing to mark the hand over in ownership of the bridge. I give not a toss for the ‘official’ opening by Her Majesty. This was the true celebration of the completion of the bridge. The men and women, in their work gear, handing over what had been their baby for 6 years. The people who braved all the elements of weather the Forth estuary has to offer to produce a unique design in engineering. What brought aRead More →

On:
In: Jim Lynch

I started off this Flag with the purpose of covering the very first issue of the Scots Independent in November 1926, but the current political situation decreed I should do more, so here is a miscellany of recent events.   Brian Cox  was a surprise guest at Alex Salmond Unleashed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; he sees the arrival of Brexit  as making the second independence referendum inevitable. I met him briefly at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on the 2014 referendum night – good memories of Brian Cox, bad memories of the referendum.   His comment that the Yes campaign has to get its act togetherRead More →

On:
In: Maureen Forbes

My two elder children received their first mobile phones last week in preparation for starting high school and although a means to an end for my son, it’s been hard to separate my daughter from hers whilst the novelty is fresh; I apologise to the few family members whose numbers she has for the bombardment of text messages they have been receiving! As well as the expected texting, phoning and selfies that have ensued, I have also been surprised by the amount of interest that she has been taking in the news when on the internet and I’ve frequently had breaking news headlines relayed toRead More →

On:
In: Guest Blogger

by Michael Rennie Our democracy is lost at sea. As the political landscape changes at a rapid pace, Britain’s voting system needs to reflect the ever changing views of the British electorate. In modern political times, voting is like supermarkets, voters shop around to find the best deal rather than vote for one party all their lives. The two horse race days are well and truly over. For too long now, the views of a large chunk of the British electorate has been brushed aside and thrown into the political wilderness, as if they are completely meaningless because of a voting system stuck in VictorianRead More →

On:
In: Kay Ullrich

I saw someone on Facebook the other day saying “how hard” it was to be a Nationalist since the General Election result!  Some people don’t know what “hard” is!  The “hard stuff” has all been done over many, many years.  We are now in the situation, where over half the Scottish population thinks that Independence is inevitable.  Compare that to when I first joined the SNP. My first General Election was in 1966 – unfortunately we did not have a candidate running in Ayr (I had to spoil my paper!) and our National share of the vote was 5%.  The following year, of course ,weRead More →