JUST like the heavily edited Partygate report which has landed Boris Johnson in such an almighty mess this week, so the relationship between the Conservative government in Westminster and the rebellious Scottish party led by leader Douglas Ross looks destined for a kind of redacted future. Until Scotland Yard reports…

CHRISTMAS may be over, but I regret to inform you that Pantomime season has been extended. There is a new show in town. Roll up to get your ticket to the latest performance of Nicola Sturgeon’s Indyref2 Wonderland. Confirmed by the First Minister and her loyal deputy John Swinney earlier…

WHEN my children were younger, my favourite bedtime read was a story called “Fix-It-Duck” by the writer Jez Alborough. It told the story of the eponymous duck, a headstrong little bird who believes himself to be a useful handyman, but whose reckless enthusiasm and total lack of understanding of the…

AT the end of last month, Nicola Sturgeon recalled the Scottish parliament. The decision to do so implied the need for an urgent response to a national crisis. But as Miss Sturgeon took to her familiar podium to issue her usual solemn instructions to people at home and to field…

LAID low with Omicron and high on a cocktail of Ibuprofen and Lemsip, I stared dizzily at the TV on New Year’s Day morning and aimed the remote in its general direction. Through the haze of infection and painkillers emerged the timeless waltzes of Johann Strauss. Last year, the traditional…

FORTY eight years ago this coming Saturday, my father sat down and began to write. “1973 ends with my being inveigled with starting this diary for 1974. Whether I shall keep it up remains to be seen,” he began on its opening page. At the front of the Boots Scribbling…

In 2022, Scotland’s opposition leaders need to answer the “Guru-Murthy question” IT’S said about politics that almost everything doesn’t matter — apart from a few things which count for the lot. Casting a look back at 2021, what in the Scottish political battle still actually means something? What was chip paper and passing noise, and what is still relevant as we…

WHILE, for the most part, the average Brit exhibits a healthy dose of stoicism and big-heartedness, and prides ourselves on the fact, when what we perceive as an illegitimate external force tramples over our sense of fair play, a transformation can occur. Suddenly this mild-mannered and temperate mammal can turn…

PERSONALLY, I’ve gone through the rage and anger stage about the dire state of Scotland’s political culture. When it concerns – as the subject of this column does – a furious row about a form of Scottish steamed pudding, there’s the option of just laughing at the sheer absurdity of…