“Johnson’s march on Scotland has a campaigning feel to it. It seems like a long time since a UK Prime minster could come to Scotland simply as part of normal government business. Every venture north now comes with dangers and is embarked upon for the grim necessity to ‘save the union’.”
Boris Johnson
Scottish contact tracers at the ready – England’s King of Covid is crossing the border! Boris Johnson is still Prime Minister for the whole of the United Kingdom, but on Covid-19 health matters he has largely settled for governing England; badly. As restrictions ease, Boris now wants to take back control of the whole of the […]
The “sheer might” of the UK in Scotland could look very different in six months time
The most remarkable thing about US President Donald Trump is not the amount of enemies he accrues. Nasty attacks on opponents is his way of doing politics. The remarkable thing is that he’s willing to throw all his friends under the bus at a moment’s notice; he has no loyalty to anyone. “I’m not a big […]
The US Presidential election will set the tone for post-Pandemic politics
“The increasingly dominant view within Tory unionism is that devolution has backfired, and its institutions have only provided a vehicle for the Union’s enemies. Why not engineer a conflict through which devolution might be undercut?”
Sean Bell: Power grabs and the future of devolution
“If there is a solution to the problems of arts funding, it will involve more than a handout from Boris Johnson, or the wisdom of Creative Scotland.”
Sean Bell: If we purport to care about art, we must care about artists
“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
On Monday the Scottish Government proposed that the UK needs £80 billion of investment for a Coronavirus recovery plan – equating to 4% of the UK’s GDP. Instead, Boris Johnson has revealed his ‘New Deal’ for £5 billion of investment – 0.2% of the UK’s GDP – in a speech full of rhetoric.
Boris Johnson’s Underwhelming Recovery Plan
It’s easy for the left to pick fun at Boris Johnson’s attempt to harness former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt yesterday. The Prime Minister sought to channel FDR in a speech in Dudley, but announced just £5 billion of spending plans, which – as critics were quick to point out – was equivalent to £100 […]
Johnson may be no FDR, but his public investment plans could still out-manouvere the left
“British politics is a sealed world of class privileged, containing the nexus of housing, financial and media connexions which, if we were at the other end of Europe, would be called the British oligarchy, or Apparat.”
David Jamieson: The Jenrick Affair is a window into the world of the British oligarchy
“Nobody is going to hand us this new world on a plate. We need to work hard if we are going to make it different this time. A deeper emerging rise in consciousness to realise our real power is a good start.”