Scotland

The Scottish government has today confirmed that it will follow Westminster’s decision to end the universal payment of winter fuel payments to pensioners. Instead, a Holyrood-run alternative will ensure that those elderly Scots most in need are still supported through means-testing. Social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville insists she is unhappy about the decision, stating today that she had ‘no alternative but to replicate the decision’ after Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced cuts in England. Somerville claims that the Chancellor’s decision to end universal entitlement for winter fuel payments means a cut of almost 90 per cent of the funding for the Scottish benefit. This sounds bleak, doesn’t it? But the social justice secretary

Back to Scotland, where there appears to be trouble in Holyrood’s progressive paradise. The Scottish government’s Culture Secretary Angus Robertson has received strong backlash after appearing in a photo with Daniela Grudsky, the deputy ambassador of Israel to the UK. It transpires that the Scottish government minister met with Grudsky to discuss ‘culture, renewable energy and engaging with the country’s respective diasporas’. A Scottish government spokesperson added that the discussion ’emphasised the Scottish Government’s continued work with Police Scotland to protect Scotland’s faith communities and tackle all hate crimes, including antisemitism’. But Robertson’s meeting has ruffled feathers – particularly with the SNP’s former coalition partners. First slamming the party of

Ding, ding, ding! It’s another round in the endless online wars involving the erratic owner of Twitter/X. Fresh from his spat with Keir Starmer, Elon Musk has now turned his guns on Humza Yousaf – the flailing former First Minister of Scotland. Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Thursday, Yousaf described Musk as ‘one of the most dangerous men on the planet’ because of his ‘amplification’ of disinformation. Musk then responded the following day, claiming on Friday that Yousaf, the Scottish-born son of first generation Pakistani immigrants, ‘loathes white people’. ‘He is super, super racist’, he said in reply to a speech Yousaf made in 2020 about structural racism in Scotland.

Scottish independence has always been economic lunacy, but rarely has that reality been exposed as well as by Alistair Darling. Ten years ago this week, the Better Together chief faced off against the then SNP leader Alex Salmond, quizzing the former first minister about what he would do if the UK government refused to let Scotland use the pound post-secession. A decade on, it is striking how the SNP has failed to learn from that ruthless exchange – and still has no ‘Plan B’ for Scotland’s economy. Extraordinarily, the SNP’s position on currency has not evolved in any meaningful way since Darling challenged Salmond over it ten years prior. Taking

With just 24 hours until nominations open in the Scottish Conservative leadership contest, Murdo Fraser has stuck his hand up. That makes six contenders so far to replace outgoing leader Douglas Ross. Fraser has stood for the post before, in 2011, but lost out to Ruth Davidson. Perhaps the pivotal reason for Fraser’s defeat was his radical proposal to scrap the Scottish Tories and set up a new centre-right party separate from the UK Tories but sitting alongside them in government and opposition. The sort of long-running coalition seen between the CSU and the CDU in Germany or the National Party and the Liberals in Australia.   There is no rule

Scotland’s exam results day has been something of a disaster this year. An already stressful time for anxious pupils has been made worse after hundreds of students across the country received blank email templates instead of their grades – a gaffe which the Scottish Qualifications Authority is scrambling to fix – while a flailing Scottish government struggles to explain why the poverty-related attainment looks worse, and wider, than ever. The bad news for Scottish students doesn’t end there. 2024’s national exam results don’t just demonstrate that the gap has widened; today’s figures have almost all eclipsed pre-pandemic levels. The overall pass rate for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exam

To Scotland, where the Nats are facing accusations of not dealing with sex offender complaints properly. Cameron Downing, former SNP equalities officer, was last month jailed for six years after being convicted of sexually assaulting six young adults and physically assaulting two women. Between 2016 and 2021, the ex-equalities officer was found to have attacked seven people and has been convicted of 10 charges – including sexual assault and domestic abuse. He resigned from the equalities post after his tweets from 2022 about how he wanted to ‘beat the f*** out of some terfs and transphobes’ emerged – but only had his SNP membership formally removed in January 2023. And

To Scotland, where another Tory leadership race is starting to take shape. Now a second candidate has thrown their hat into the ring as Brian Whittle MSP has today announced his bid to join the Scottish Conservative leadership race – confirming there will indeed be a contest. Game on… The former athlete told the Scotsman that he will help the party ‘prepare for the next race’, promising his campaign will emphasise education, enterprise, and empowerment whilst stressing the importance of ‘telling hard truths’. Pointing to his party’s recent election result, the South Scotland MSP insisted: Losing hurts, every single time. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in politics, in business, in

Another day, another drama – and this time it’s the SNP in the spotlight. Ex-Edinburgh MP Joanna Cherry has taken to the august pages of Scotland’s only pro-indy newspaper, the National, to urge her party to take a long hard look at itself after its electoral wipe-out this month. Though she has insisted she ‘intends to remain a member of the SNP’, Cherry has pulled no punches in her criticism of her colleagues. It’s quite the read… Blasting the ‘culture of hate’ that the party has ‘allowed to flourish…against those who dare to disagree’, Cherry has lamented the ‘”no debate” mantra’ coursing through the current iteration of the party. Going

As Conservative MPs start to declare their candidacy for the Tory leadership race, north of the border conversations are heating up about who the next Scottish group leader will be. As Mr S wrote on Monday, so far the first official contender is justice spokesperson Russell Findlay – who announced his bid by penning a lengthy op-ed for the Scottish Daily Mail. But as other potential rivals consider their positions, now former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has waded into the matter. As debate about the future of the party continues, Baroness Davidson of London Links has warned that splitting the Scottish group from the UK party would be ‘electoral

To Scotland, where First Minister John Swinney appears to be trying to make a career for himself as a spin doctor. The leader of the Nats has a new tactic to win back support for his beleaguered party – convince voters that, contrary to their daily experiences, his party has actually been, er, ‘formidable’ over the 17 years it has clung onto power in Holyrood. During a trip to Aberdeenshire, the FM also suggested that the SNP’s bad press is down to a lack of ‘appreciation’ of all it has achieved. Pull the other one… The Nats saw dozens of Westminster MPs ousted at the election – and lost their

To Scotland, where the SNP infighting continues. After dozens of nationalist MPs were ditched this month by the electorate, some are already channelling their disappointment at MSP colleagues. It transpires that ex-MP Mhairi Black – who herself announced she was stepping down at this election due to Westminster’s ‘toxic’ culture – has taken aim at Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes and her religious beliefs, describing them as ‘archaic’ and ‘extreme’. Charming… In an interview with Scotland’s Sunday Post newspaper ahead of her Edinburgh Fringe show ‘Politics Isn’t For Me’, Black – who was former deputy leader of the Westminster group – claimed that Free Church member Forbes’ views on equal

It appears Scotland’s troubled Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow shipyard will be kept afloat. A further £14 million of public money has been injected into it, according to announcements this week. At the same time, the Scottish government also took the opportunity to confirm the nationalised yard will not be directly awarded a contract to replace state-owned ferry operator CalMac’s ageing fleet of small vessels. Instead, the contract will be put out to tender. This is the latest in what has become known as Scotland’s ferries fiasco. It started with an SNP government wanting to be seen to be rescuing commercial ship building on the Clyde just before the 2014 independence referendum. Then there

To Scotland, where the Scottish Conservatives are facing problems of their own. North of the border, a leadership contest is looming after outgoing leader Douglas Ross announced his resignation mid-campaign. Since then there have been animated discussions about who his successor will be. And while contenders for the UK party are already making their mark, their Scottish counterparts look set for a fiery leadership race too. Current justice spokesperson Russell Findlay MSP is seen by many as the obvious choice, and his colleague Rachael Hamilton has warmly endorsed him – but others in the party have expressed support for potential rival candidate Murdo Fraser. The MSP for the region of