Scotland

Crisis, what crisis? Beset by domestic problems of their own making, the SNP government at Holyrood now has to face a difficult international climate too, amid rising tensions abroad and economic troubles around the globe. So, what better time for the country’s embattled First Minister to duck questions on ferries and sleaze by jetting off to Washington to rub shoulders with some of America’s more pliable politicians. Unfortunately it seems that a change of scenery still hasn’t cured Nicola Sturgeon’s habit of tampering with the truth. Delivering a grandly-titled speech on ‘Scotland’s place in the world’, the Glasgow MSP told the Brookings Institute that ‘renewable energy currently accounts for almost 100 per cent of Scotland’s gross

Oh dear. It seems that the sainted Sturgeon has slipped up again. Much as Jesus was betrayed by his disciple, so too has the Blessed Nicola been let down by one of her own. In this case, it’s Fergus Ewing – scion of the First Family of Scottish nationalism. The former rural economy secretary stands accused of bullying civil servants: allegations which Sturgeon government’s has now been forced to investigate. That probe is believed to have concluded but (quelle surprise) the First Minister is refusing to disclose the outcome of the inquiry, citing ‘data protection laws’ as the reason why she is unable to discuss the case. What a convenient excuse for Sturgeon. It

Hurrah! A Scottish Government press release announces, with no small modicum of pride, that it has at last located the mysterious missing documents in the ferries saga. Audit Scotland, the public body which runs the rule over Holyrood’s spending of taxpayers’ money, recently conceded defeat over this matter. It had spent considerable time and effort trying get to the bottom of the SNP’s 2015 decision to buy two ferries from a shipyard owned by a Scottish Government economic advisor — against the advice of its own ferry agency. Seven years on, the initial cost of £97m has ballooned to £250m and neither of the ferries has been completed. The outstanding

It was Enoch Powell who remarked that ‘the House of Commons without whips is like a city without sewers.’ And it seems that the piping has sprung a leak, given the amount of excrement that’s been flying around Westminster in recent months. In January it was the Tory whips and their chief Mark Spencer, who faced allegations of intimidation and Islamophobia from disgruntled wards. And now it’s the turn of the SNP, those custodians of probity and standards in public life. For Patrick Grady – the party’s former chief enforcer at Westminster – is one of two nationalist MPs facing claims of sexual harassment. An SNP staffer says the Glasgow North MP

In the final weeks before the 2014 Scottish referendum, the last independent Clydeside shipbuilder went bust. The SNP was boasting about ‘one of the world’s wealthiest nations’ going it alone, so when it went pop something had to be done. A millionaire adviser to Alex Salmond was lined up to buy it on the understanding that he’d bid for government contracts. A year later, a £100 million deal was struck to build two ferries. That deal quickly ran aground. There was no sign of the ferries by 2018 and the bill had doubled to £200 million. It later emerged that the businessman, Jim McColl, had put in the most expensive out of

Last night, Mr Steerpike was on his way back to Glasgow Central station from a game between Ayr United and Partick Thistle, sipping a hot water and lemon. He would have liked something stronger, only the Scottish government — which took control of Scotland’s railway services on April 1 — has extended the Covid-era ban on the consumption of booze on trains. Some rebellious passengers were flouting the government’s rules, however. Among them, Mr Steerpike observed, appeared to be Mhairi Black — the SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (and subject of Tracey Ullman parody). Just weeks before, Transport Scotland announced that the ‘potential reintroduction of alcohol on Scotland’s

Throughout the past three years, both Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have never been shy about taking a swing at Boris Johnson. Whether it be pandemic restrictions or Brexit negotiations, the SNP and Labour first ministers are among the first to stick the boot into their London counterpart in their haste to distance themselves from those dreadfully corrupt Tories. So Mr S was amused to see that for all their proclamations about the superiority of the squeaky-clean systems at Holyrood and Cardiff Bay, both administrations have now been dragged into the unfolding scandal around Liberty Steel. The firm, which is run by the controversial tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, yesterday had its premises raised

The finest QCs in all of Twitterdom have made much out of the Johnson government, firing off law suits at the drop of the hat. But while token victories at London’s High Court are trumpeted as earth-shattering defeats for the wicked Tories, the shenanigans of Nicola Sturgeon’s government in Scotland get far less publicity in the Fleet Street press. For this week the SNP regime was (again) found guilty of breaching laws regarding freedom of information. For the Scotsman newspaper has won a decisive victory this week, forcing ministers to publish legal advice they received about a second independence referendum after a thirteen-month battle between the paper and the Scottish Government. It will be the first

Around 700,000 Scottish households – a quarter of the country – are facing £1,000 fines for failing to complete the census. Eleven years ago, the last time the census was run, it took 10 days to reach the current response rate of 74 per cent. This time it’s taken over a month. There’s not much hope in getting the rate up either. Studies from the US show census return rates don’t improve after the first few weeks.  If 700,000 households are to be fined this would be the largest prosecution in Scottish legal history, probably British too. In 2011 – where the final response rate was 94 per cent and over 90

Dogs bark, cows moo and the SNP duck their failings. It seems as though every day brings fresh revelations about Nicola Sturgeon’s regime in Scotland as more and more questions are asked about her party’s record in office. The only novelty is the sheer range of scandals which can outrage, shock and rile: last week it was the terf war and her plans to rig the electorate. Today it’s ferries and the news that, once again, proper records were not kept of the Scottish Government’s mismanaged takeover of the Ferguson shipyard. For Audit Scotland has now demanded a fresh review about how an initial £97 million deal for two vessels spiralled into a quarter of

It seems that the spirit of COP26 is still alive and well in Edinburgh. For the SNP’s parliamentarians have begun recycling their speeches at Holyrood, regardless of the occasion. Amid claims that the Scottish nationalists are nothing but a bunch of unthinking, zombie–like drones, blindly following the latest directive from Bute House, backbencher Willie Coffey MSP has decided to, er, conform exactly to type.  For the Kilmarnock MSP caused laughter in the Scottish parliament yesterday by delivering a concluding speech when standing up to introduce a debate. Coffey opened his closing remarks by saying:  Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thought that I was closing the debate, so this is a closing speech, as

The blessed Nicola has been out on the campaign trail in recent days, spreading the good news and decrying that wicked Boris Johnson’s non-believing band of heretic Tories. The bad king’s woes down in London have proved a godsend to Saint Nicola the nationalist, ever eager to lead her people to that land of milk and honey otherwise known as an independent Scotland. Naturally the sinless Sturgeon was among the first to call for Johnson to quit over partygate, preaching how ‘basic decency’ meant he should go for breaking lockdown rules. ‘But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!’ For just four days after demanding the heathen Johnson go, it seems the good

It is said in Westminster that Boris Johnson likes to surround his 5ft 6in Chancellor with tall ministers to make him feel small. And up at Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon has clearly taken a leaf from the Prime Minister’s book, judging by the ministers with whom she surrounds herself. After suffering a reversal at last year’s elections, Sturgeon was forced to take the Scottish Greens into government: a marriage of political convenience but one that no doubt reaffirms Humza Yousaf’s faith in his own intellectual prowess. For the Greens are led by a duumvirate of Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie, a man diminutive both in size and in stature. The devolutionary double act serve as the

If Boris Johnson has a superpower, it is the ability to make others pay the price for his wrongdoing. Today the whipping boy is Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, though it must be said Ross walked clear-eyed into the path of the scourge. That’s another of the Prime Minister’s skills: he can convince people that it would be in everyone’s interest if they maximised their exposure to political risk so that he may minimise his. In the run-up to the Iraq War, a bunch of peace-mongering oddballs flew to Baghdad to offer themselves as human shields and Tories who volunteer to take flak for Boris give off much the same

A minister in the Scottish government has likened people who share my opinions to racists or anti-Semites. Apparently my views on how best to support and include transgender people in society place me on the same footing as those who condemn and exclude others based on their race. This latest outrage comes from Lorna Slater, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens – Nicola Sturgeon’s junior partners in government. While complaining that the BBC should not give ‘anti-trans’ people a platform, Slater has claimed that: ‘We wouldn’t put balance on the question of racism or anti-Semitism, but we allow this fictional notion of balance when it comes to anti-trans [views]. The