On:
In: Stephen Bird

In recent months we have seen the scourge of football hooliganism rearing its particularly ugly face again. With a bottle and coins being thrown at players and most recently “fans” invading the playing area in both Scotland and England. This fall in behaviour comes on the back of the decision to repeal the Offensive Behaviour at Football Grounds Act. I was not a big fan of this law but I would not have called it “mince” or a “stain”. One thing it did highlight though is that we should not create new legislation just because the Police say we should, a rather more serious basisRead More →

On:
In: Maureen Forbes, Uncategorized

During the summer holidays last year, some local teachers began the hard task of clearing up an area of woodland near to one of the local schools. Located on the outskirts of the town and enclosed by buildings, it was an area that you never really noticed. Pleas for help were answered by both adults and children and by the time the schools started back in August, a huge amount of rubbish and debris had been cleared from the site and an entrance made into the trees. “Forest Friday” became a regular occurrence in the school whereby a group of children had the opportunity toRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton, Uncategorized

So. Another big Brexit vote. Another embarassing defeat. Just how much can one woman take. If this was happening in civvy street I am sure the men in white coats would be called in and act on such delusional behaviour. Heard a man on today’s (Wednesday) radio phone in who travels widely in Europe and says that the ordinary European is just laughing at us. Well, we knew that didn’t we? Thought he summed up the Brexit attitude very well though. ‘The English think they are the new Aryan race’. This is the really worrying aspect of Brexit for me. Common courtesy and decency haveRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

I was asked by former blogger, Clare Adamson, if we could get information of a celebration of an historic SNP moment to a wider audience. Motherwell & Wishaw has a special place in SNP history, as the site of the first ever Parliamentary victory in the by-election of 1945. In April of that year, Motherwell-born physician Dr Robert McIntyre secured 11,417 votes to triumph over the Labour incumbent. The man who was often known as the ‘Father of the SNP’, or more affectionately as ‘Doc Mac’, packed many speeches into his short time in Westminster despite having initially faced a problem in finding the requiredRead More →

On:
In: Jim Lynch

And having writ moves on, nor all thy piety nor wit, shall lure it back to cancel half a line nor all thy tears wash out a word of it. Fitting way to start with the opening lines from the Rubiyat of Omar Kayyam by Edward Fitzgerald, although as usual I only remembered a fragment of it and had to consult The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations – must choose something simpler next time.  Anyway the fingers of history are moving rapidly onward and we are not getting enough time to work out what is happening. Latest on Sunday of this week Mrs May isRead More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

Over the years, there have been a number of things which have symbolised Britain’s self-perception. Things like the famous capacity to pull together when things get rough, the muddle through compromises, the willingness to put the country first. Yet all of these are falling apart in the pursuit of victory in the Tory civil war over Europe. A civil war which is now engulfing the entire English political system. With the utter contempt with which most people now view their supposed “representatives“ in the Commons. Far from “taking back control” of their laws the MPs seem hell bent on refusing to accept control because ofRead More →

On:
In: Uncategorized

It is often said that people get the leadership they deserve. If so, it’s hard to imagine just what the membership of the Labour Party have done to deserve this lot. For the last year or so Labour have sought to hide their differences over Brexit behind claims that what they want is a General Election. Yet now, when the Government are floundering hopelessly does he go for the jugular? No! Instead Craven Corbyn plays socialist debating society games. Instead of leading the charge to get rid of this shambolic tory government, he and Labour’s Shadow Cabinet table a motion of No Confidence not inRead More →

On:
In: Maureen Forbes

I often comment or complain about BBC Question Time and the concerning feeling that it arises in me where I feel as if I need to throw something at the TV. As we recently bought a new one, the temptation has lessened somewhat even though it cost 1/10 of the 12 year old “media system”that came with the house when we moved in. How on earth does that even work? Technology prices continue to fall whilst standards raise yet basic essential food and household requirements get ever more expensive but decrease in size. Definitely a conundrum for Lewis Carroll. It is rare that I watchRead More →

On:
In: Grant Thoms

It’s not long ago that a Leader column in the Scots Independent talked about Theresa May as akin to Harry Houdini. No matter how much she got tied in knots and chains, she somehow wriggles out. The last few weeks are a case in point. Just as commentators and opponents (both within the Conservatives and outwith) were predicting she would be out the door of Number 10 by Christmas, so the departure point was postponed to the first vote on her Deal. Well that has come and gone. Despite the biggest Commons defeat on any topic by a post-War government, Mrs May has arisen toRead More →

On:
In: Guest Blogger

When I was 6 my wee brother was conveyed in a Cumfifolda pushchair with a big tray underneath it curiously of the most perfect shape to accommodate Scots Independent papers and SNP election leaflets. My mum, my brother and I pounded the streets whinging those missives through letterboxes of big posh houses and more modest council homes. We lived in Crieff, caravan dwellers, probably the sort of folk that others thought didn’t deserve a vote; likely we were regarded as illiterate leeches who made a living from stealing and selling scrap or telling fortunes in palms or tea leaves. I’ve explained before about the braveRead More →