Scotland

Another day, another bad poll for Labour. YouGov research has revealed that a whopping 75 per cent of Scots disapprove of the UK government, with just half of those who backed Labour in 2024 saying they would consider voting for the reds again. But this doesn’t necessarily spell good news for the nationalists: while 37 per cent of Scots would consider backing the SNP in a future election, more than half of the country is fed up with John Swinney’s government. Oh dear… Polling carried out between 31 October and 5 November shows that, with just six months to go until the 2026 Holyrood election, the SNP is in the

Few would argue that Scotland’s present pattern of land tenure is ideal. Around half of private land is owned by fewer than 500 individuals, corporates or pension funds. The vast estates date from two centuries ago when landlords, often clan chiefs, expelled the Scottish peasantry from their villages in the interests of ‘improvement’ – mainly to create sheep walks, deer-hunting estates or, latterly, forestry. Had we had a French Revolution, landed estates might have been broken up. But we didn’t, and they weren’t. The idea that a group of pen-pushers in Edinburgh is going to create a new generation of small private landholdings is fanciful As a result, the Scottish

To Ayrshire, where a former Tory councillor who quit the party in July has defected to Reform UK. North Ayrshire councillor Todd Ferguson has made the leap to Nigel Farage’s party, following in the footsteps of multiple independent and former Conservative councillors across Scotland. The blow is even more painful for Scottish Tory party leader Russell Findlay as he is a regional MSP for the area. Another one bites the dust… Ferguson, who has been a councillor since 2017, quit the Conservative party in summer and has sat as independent – until now. He has become the third Reform councillor on North Ayrshire council, alongside Matthew McLean and Stewart Ferguson.

Oh dear. NHS Fife has come under fire yet again after it emerged that the health board shared details of nurse Sandie Peggie with the Scottish government. Peggie was suspended in January 2024 after complaining about sharing a changing room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton. The nurse then lodged a harassment complaint under the 2010 Equality Act – prompting a trans tribunal against NHS Fife – before earlier this year Dr Upton accused her of bullying and harassment. In July, Peggie was cleared of all gross misconduct allegations – and it has now emerged that NHS Fife briefings sent to SNP ministers contained unredacted details about the A&E nurse.

If you’d like to know whether the Labour MP Joani Reid is any good, canvass the opinions of some of her colleagues in the Commons. You’ll hear that the 39-year-old is, variously, too big for her boots, an attention seeker, and, of course, a right-wing Zionist stooge. More than one comrade will tell you she’s only an MP because of who her grandfather was. It doesn’t matter that the much-admired trade unionist Jimmy Reid died in 2010 or that he was a member of the SNP at the time. He just fixed it for her, right? That’s how it works. But Reid, the MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven (a seat

There was a feeling of relief in the air at the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen when, for the first time in years, organisers could accurately describe the main hall as full. The choice of the P&J Live was a risky one (and one, I was told, that is unlikely to be made again) given its expansive size makes everything else, including the crowd, seem pretty small. But a sense of cautious optimism persisted: First Minister and party leader John Swinney had stabilised the party after a torrid few years of infighting and police probes and, in part thanks to Nigel Farage’s effectiveness and Keir Starmer’s lack thereof, the party was

Well, well, well. SNP conference has gotten off to a rather, er, interesting start. As one might expect, the subject of independence has dominated the first day of the big meet-up in Aberdeen. The party’s strategy as laid out by First Minister John Swinney says that an SNP majority at next year’s Holyrood election would be a mandate for a second independence referendum. But party activists aren’t happyabout the state of the SNP: both its independence stance and the way the party has conducted itself more generally over the last few years. Mr S can hardly blame them… The crowd sat up when veteran Graeme McCormack – of ‘flatulence in

After two years of war, both Hamas and the Israeli government have agreed to a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump. The pact will see the remaining hostages released by Hamas and the bombing of Gaza to stop. British politicians of all stripes have lauded the deal, while Trump has been praised for his part in the negotiations. But one former first minister has been more than a little begrudging in his praise for the President’s coup. Ex-SNP first minister Humza Yousaf, whose wife had family living in Gaza, was quizzed today on BBC Radio Scotland about whether he accepted that Trump was helping bring about peace. In

The Conservative party conference may be drawing to a close, but the fighting spirit of the Tories isn’t going anywhere. At the Spectator’s well-attended Scotland event this afternoon – ‘Can the Tories turn back the teal tide?’ – MPs Andrew Bowie and Harriet Cross were packing the punches. The story of the Scottish Tories isn’t a negative one, they insisted, despite polling suggesting the next Scottish Parliament election could see them become the fourth party in Holyrood. Oh dear… But it wasn’t just Reform that was under attack from this punchy panel: shadow Scotland secretary Bowie had some stern words for the Kemi Badenoch detractors in his party. ‘Can I

To the Scottish Tory reception at Conservative Party conference, where leader Kemi Badenoch gave a rather punchy address before popping over to the Welsh Conservative event – her ‘second favourite devolved nation’, quipped Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay.  Lauding Findlay, Badenoch expressed her admiration for how he has coped with the journalist crowd north of the border. Turning on the Scottish lobby, Badenoch was not quite as gushing: I’m so thrilled at Russell’s tenaciousness how he charms the journalists whenever we go up there. Scottish journalists are a special, special group of people. Whenever, whenever I come down, they act like an alien has turned up from the moon or

Scottish Labour may be down but they’re not out. The polls have not been moving in their favour over the last few months and on the eve of Labour’s conference in Liverpool a Norstat survey for the Sunday Times brought more bad news: never mind losing out on first place at the 2026 Holyrood election, Scottish Labour could crash into third next year thanks to a surge in support for Nigel Farage’s leaderless tartan outfit. It would be a pretty humiliating state of affairs.  Yet despite all this, the mood in Scottish Labour is oddly buoyant, even upbeat. At the conference’s Scots Night, the Prime Minister made a quick cameo