Compare the turbulence of the past five years to the Scottish election results. No change – or change so piddling as to make mentioning it seem pedantic. Holyrood’s elite was effectively reproduced intact.

Source Direct: Plus ça Change…


Boris Johnson won back precious credibility with Britain’s vaccination programme. But it couldn’t last, and the Tories are mired in scandals to an extent we haven’t seen since John Major’s years of sleaze.

Source Direct: Sleaze Sleaze Me


Ruth Davidson capitalised on the anti-2014 backlash, but those fires are almost extinguished, and the new leader sounds so shrill that the Party seems tempted to relegate him from frontline campaigning. One party source said of Ross, “he needs to smile more”. So far, he’s had nothing to smile about.

Source Direct Election Profile: The Scottish Conservatives



“The disappearance of the gradualists is also their final triumph. Aided by a frenzied media and political opposition, they have come to symbolise independence without the need to manifest any concrete support for the cause, or demonstrate any viable strategy.”

David Jamieson: The twilight and triumph of the SNP gradualists



What would you do if you were Prime Minister for a day? It’s not a bad question to get a sense of someone’s character and creativity. Douglas Ross, hotly tipped to be the next Scottish Tory leader after Jackson’s Carlaw’s shock departure yesterday, was once asked this in an interview, and, quick as flash, without […]

The calibre of political opposition in Scotland is woeful