On:
In: Grant Thoms

It may be messy. It may be frustrating. It may even be dangerous but the Catalan government continues to progress their case for independence with guile and right on their side. From silly mistakes like allowing the King of Spain to harangue Catalans on prime telly to the very sinister and offensive actions of the Civil Guardia, the Spanish establishment led by Mariano Rajoy have become Europe’s democratic clowns, forcing other EU member states into embarrassing associations with violence against peaceful electors. Boris Johnson’s FCO and personal tweets supporting the ‘rule of law’ as justification for the use of brute force by Spanish national policeRead More →

On:
In: Maureen Forbes

In September 2013 I travelled to Barcelona for a long weekend. Staying in the Hotel Continental on Las Ramblas, the very place that Orwell penned Homage to Catalonia, I hardly slept instead sitting on the balcony for most of the night watching everything that went on below me. The speed at which the street traders switched from selling sunglasses to umbrellas was fascinating as was where they stashed their wares and the “International Street Dancers” quickly drew large crowds yet sidled away unnoticed when the first look out spotted a policeman. The weekend before Independence Day, Placa de Catalunya had stalls similar to our ownRead More →

On:
In: Store

GET YOUR COPY NOW. PRE-RELEASE ORDER It is officially launched at the SNP Conference in the SECC, Glasgow on 10 October 2017 Secure your copy by purchasing now at https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product/hamilton-1967/Read More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

One of my big failings in life is that I’m a big fan of American political satire and comedy. I love Saturday Night Live and even more Real Time with Bill Mather. I also confess to admiring the way American political shows use video clips of statements before challenging politicians to justify their views. The “Oh, that’s not what I said” line is destroyed even before it can be reached for, because we just watched you say it! Now justify! At the start of this administration I particularly liked the way Mellissa McCarthy destroyed the hapless Sean Spicer in his role of White House PressRead More →

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 →