Politics

Meanwhile, away from the budget ballyhoo comes a reminder of one of the problems afflicting Scotland: the teaching unions. Today sees the publication of an eminently sensible report from the think tank Reform Scotland that advocates, essentially, a voucher system that draws on Swedish and Dutch educational reforms and would, if ever implemented, dramatically increase the range of educational choices available to the poor. This is not controversial in other countries, so why is it so frightening here? Well, look at what we’re dealing with: The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association dismissed the report’s findings. Jim Docherty, acting general secretary, added: “The concept of good and bad schools is false. There

Well, that didn’t last long. The entertainment (see yesterday’s post) at Holyrood seems to be coming to an end. As predicted by Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting, there seems every chance that the revised Scottish government budget will, far from precipitating the excitement of an issue-free* election, result in the budget being passed unanimously. Everyone will have extracted their ounce of flesh from the SNP (but no more than that).  The Scotsman’s headline claims all this amounts to a series of “shock” u-turns but I don’t see what’s so surprising about parties backing away from the prospect of an election few people really wanted. So Labour look like they’ll get

In 2001, soon after George W. Bush’s inauguration, a bit of gossip surfaced from the White House: outgoing Clinton staffers had crept around the place taking the Ws off keyboards, phone wires had been snipped, furniture broken, glue placed on desk drawers and satirical signs hung up directing people to the ‘Office of Strategery’. Not bad as pranks go, but the country was not in the mood for laughing. The Bush presidency was already on the back foot after a botched election and protracted court battle. There was anger and resentment all around even though everyone’s official stance was grace, optimism and moving forward. The plundered Ws struck Republicans as

Fraser Nelson says that the ‘cash for amendments’ scandal dramatises the accelerating decay of the Brown regime — economic, political, constitutional. A saga that began in 1997 with grand promises of reform is entering its last bleak phase Even at the ripe old age of 79, Lord Taylor of Blackburn knows how to strike a bargain. ‘Some companies that I work with will pay me £100,000 a year,’ he told the undercover reporter posing as a lobbyist. ‘That’s cheap for what I do for them.’ What he claimed to do for them was help mould the law of the land for a fee — all, he later insisted, following the

Now that I think about it, Simon Heffer’s broadside against Caledonia-dire-and-rotten, missed one obvious target. Sure, Alastair Darling is a much-ridiculed, much-villified Chancellor of the Exchequer but so too was the last-but-one Scottish Chancellor. Remember Norman Lamont? He may have represented an English constituency but that only emphasised how far he’d travelled from his Shetland roots. Just as Darling is presiding – if that’s the applicable term – over the current financial apocalypse, so “Peerie Norrie” was the bluffer in charge during the last economic debacle: Black Wednesday. I think it unfair, however, to blame Scotland writ large for this sorry duo. Not when there’s a smaller, handier target. Both

Under the headline “Scots have brought Britain to its knees” Simon “John Wilkes” Heffer began his Telegraph column on Saturday like this: As Scots the world over prepare to celebrate tomorrow their third best poet (after Henrysoun and Dunbar, of course) by eating sheep’s intestines filled with what always seems to be gravel, it is appropriate that there should be stunning new evidence of the vast contribution their little nation continues to make to Britain. As recession is declared official, the pound sinks, the stock market totters, banks wobble and misery abounds, let’s salute the Scotsmen who did it. That, mind you, was just the warm-up for a blast of

Daniel Yates provides a British soldier’s view of Operation Cast Lead. Fraser Nelson says Harman’s cunning plan could hit her own side, and wonders whether the green brigade will enjoy this recession.  James Forsyth claims that nationalising the banks would just create new problems, and asks: how bad will this get? Peter Hoskin thinks that “cash for amendments” threatens to damage Parliament’s reputation further, and wonders whether someone will devise an early warning system that won’t be ignored. Alex Massie submits a defence of lobbyists. Melanie Phillips reviews Barack Obama’s first week in office. And Clive Davis gives his thoughts on the BBC, Gaza and the LSE.