“We need to move on and get past the stagnation of thinking which has held us in its grip for years now. If we’re brave and accept these problems, we can. But if those in power cling to the stagnation in fear that recognising they got these things wrong will be a sign of weakness, then 2021 will be wasted.”
Robin McAlpine
“The year ahead will not be easy. It will be harder if we forget that feeling we felt in April when we overwhelmingly cared for each other, and that I sincerely hope you will feel again this festive season. But we can achieve so much more if we take that feeling with us.”
Robin McAlpine: Solidarity isn’t just for Christmas – it’s a cold, hard strategy for a better world
“The disconnect between how the Scottish Government has performed over the last five years and people’s perceptions of how it has performed can only be described as remarkable.”
Robin McAlpine: This was the year I realised I was living in Nosedive
No deus ex machina is coming to rescue the independence movement. We’re on our own. Thankfully, our movement represents an entire cast of actors waiting backstage for their cue. Perhaps now it may finally come.
Robin McAlpine: The divide over independence strategy is artificial – here’s how to get rid of it
“There is no fundamental reason why the SNP can’t be the party it should be. There is no fundamental reason why the party democracy can’t still save the party.”
Robin McAlpine: This weekend, please turn up and save the SNP
“We will get there – but if you think the next six months are some kind of cakewalk, or that the six months after that are going to be a doddle, you need to think again.”
Robin McAlpine: For independence supporters, the next 12 months will not be a walk in the park
“I can’t think of very many big government projects where, after the first step of deciding to do something, the second step is not to hand over the planning of how to do it to a big private company.”
Robin McAlpine: Why are Tories sweeping away the web of insider dealing in public life, but not Scotland?
“If you put a hundred random members of the public in a room for a few weekends, what they produce really does badly expose the weakness of the political classes.”
Robin McAlpine: The big idea from ordinary people that could save Scottish democracy
“The centre is broken. Its aggressive, controlling hands squeezed harder and harder until the things being controlled couldn’t take it any more and began to crack. The price is paid by others.”
Robin McAlpine: The centre is broken – control did the the breaking
“The renewables failure is purely a result of horrendously bad policy decisions and the cause of the failure is an obsession with inward investment. Inward investment is what is destroying our industrial base.”