“If this rattles the confidence of the public in Scotland then I can hardly blame them, and I can’t see what the option is other than (finally) honesty, full disclosure and reform.”
2021 election
“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
Education Secretary John Swinney’s U-turn was about as complete as could be, to the extent that it was more an O than a U. All those SQA moderators may as well not bothered – Swinney has rubbed out their markings. The questions about what this means for the future of Scottish education are profound (David […]
Grading U-turn is the starting pistol on 2021 election
“Much as I love the independence movement, more far-fetched schemes hatched on social media but with no chance of implementation may make you feel better, but will be as pointless over the five years to come as they were in the five that we just lived through.”
Robin McAlpine: Unite? Behind what exactly?
“Will these polling results resemble the eventual makeup of Holyrood in 2021? Mibbes aye, mibbes naw. Will continuous and verifiable majority support for independence lead to a second referendum on the national question? Could be – but nobody’s quite sure how.”
Sean Bell: Polls, pundits and the perils of heeding the loudest voices
New polls on the Scottish elections in 2021 and on support for independence have raised the question of a referendum again. The polls show the SNP on course to win 72 seats in the Holyrood election scheduled for next May, an outright majority, while support for independence is at 52 per cent. A slender lead, […]
One more heave will not deliver indyref2
“Is the independence cause one for an era of crisis, or is it one for an era of stability, such as the time of Sturgeon’s political apprenticeship in the 1990s, which seems a remote world today?”