What unites Thatcher’s man in Scotland Sir Malcolm Rifkind and left-wing, anti-Tory firebrand Labour MSP Neil Findlay? They’re both agreed – it’s time for a federal solution to the Scottish question. In an interview yesterday, Rifkind, who was Scottish Secretary from 1986 to 1990 and was in charge of the notorious introduction of the Poll […]
UK
Bob Gillespie, Global Justice Now activist in Glasgow, finds that the UK is looking increasingly isolated in the world, which makes a bad trade deal with the United States even more likely. The increasing likelihood of a “No Deal” Brexit will mean that the UK has only a deal with Japan to show off in […]
Bob Gillespie: There’s many reasons to worry about a UK-US trade deal
Where are we on the UK-EU trade deal, the latest saga in a long line of Brexit sagas stretching back to 24 June 2016, the day after the Leave vote (which feels like ancient history by now)? EU leaders met in Brussels yesterday for a two-day summit, and apparently got the Brexit business out the […]
Deal or No Deal?
“We’re taking one step forward, five steps back,” Devi Sridhar, professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh and on the Scottish Government’s covid-19 advisory group, wrote yesterday, in summing up her exasperation about the covid-19 situation in the UK. She’s not wrong. Lockdown was a big social sacrifice, one where the vulnerable suffered […]
‘One step forward, five steps back’
Another year, another banking scandal. They’re like clock-work these days. This time, it’s the FinCEN files: a leak of 2,657 documents from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the US Treasury that deals with money laundering. The files total $2 trillion worth of transactions, and contain 2,121 ‘SARs’, Suspicious Activity Reports which […]
The FinCEN files: What you need to know
‘A fish rots from its head’ is an old Chinese proverb that I like. When any system begins to fail, look to the top to figure out why. The international system is not headed by Boris Johnson, he is merely an opportunist looking to take advantage of new trends to protect his interests. No, if […]
Rule-breaking is the new normal in the era of US unilateralism
How do you unite US politicians in the Trump era? Act against China. The US Senate passed legislation on Thursday to sanction Chinese officials who implement the new Security Law in Hong Kong, a day after the House of Representatives did the same. It will be signed by US President Donald Trump today, all without […]
Britain can do little to prevent China’s Hong Kong power-grab
“I am sick to the back teeth of independence, a cause very dear to my heart, being kicked around the gutter in a game of image management.”
Robin McAlpine: The impact of the virus on the independence movement
There will be no criticisms today (many of you will be relieved to read…). The situation is so urgent we just need to understand what is ahead of us and organise ourselves to deal with it as effectively as possible. To explain what’s ahead, look at the case of Italy. The country had its first COVID-19 death […]