Scotland

What are the three words likely to turn any SNP press officer’s blood cold? James Dornan MSP. The gaffe-prone Glaswegian has found himself in more scandals than the Salmond Inquiry in recent months, culminating in last week’s social media rant at Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg after the latter tweeted his support of the Borders Bill. Dornan told the well-known Roman Catholic: Hope you remember this the next time you go to confession. You and your cronies are already responsible for the deaths of thousands and you’re now happy to see the most desperate people in the world suffer and drown. If your god exists you will undoubtedly rot in hell. None of

My name is Stephen and I am a Bad Scot. At least that’s how I feel. For the past week Italian flags have been popping up all over Scotland ahead of tonight’s Euro 2020 final. Music station Pure Radio Scotland rebranded itself ‘Pure Radio Italy’ for the weekend. A shopper in Glasgow complained that Tesco was failing to ‘help boost national pride’ after their local branch played the England fan anthem ‘Vindaloo’. A pub in the city centre had the moment Gareth Southgate missed the decisive penalty against Germany in Euro 1996 blown up into a giant poster and is displaying it next to the bar’s entrance. The National newspaper

It’s difficult to keep up with James Dornan these days. Whether it’s accusing Lothian Buses of discriminating against Catholics or failing to release information that exonerated Rangers football club, the gaffe-prone Glasweigan has earned himself earned the reputation of being a one man wrecking ball to harmonious community relations.  Not for nothing has Steerpike christened him the ‘Hate-Finder General.’ But now it seems Dornan has been spreading his own brand of hate, judging by a tweet he sent yesterday to Jacob Rees-Mogg who tweeted his support of the Borders Bill to tackle small boat Channel crossings. Unsurprisingly the SNP MSP has now chosen to lock his Twitter account after screenshots circulated of the

It was Opposition Day in the Commons yesterday, with the SNP plumping for a debate on Covid contracts – a bold choice given the £500 million approved by Holyrood without scrutiny. For leader Ian Blackford however it was a golden opportunity to rail against Westminster’s ‘endemic cronyism during a global pandemic, the misuse of funds, and covid profiteers.’ At least he had the good sense to make his claims about ministers ‘funnelling covid cash from the frontline into the pockets of their rich friends’ under parliamentary privilege, unlike Labour’s Grand Poobah Angela Rayner, collector of titles and dispenser of insults. Blackford might have thought the Covid ‘chumocracy’ would provide him with rich

It’s not been a great week for James Dornan. On Saturday the SNP MSP was forced to apologise (again) for suggesting Lothian Buses’ decision to cancel travel services over anti-social behaviour was linked to St Patrick’s Day, with the implication that the company blamed Catholics for the problem.  Then on Wednesday Mr S showed the lengths the Hate-Finder General had gone to investigate the now debunked Tik Tok video of Rangers players allegedly singing a sectarian song, requesting information for his constituents which he then appears to have not subsequently disclosed. Now one of Steerpike’s readers has got in touch to point out Dornan’s comments made during the Holyrood election back in May. The

Much ink has been spilled over the shenanigans of the James Dornan, SNP MSP and amateur Hate-Finder General. Just last week the gaffe-prone Glaswegian was forced to apologise for suggesting that an Edinburgh bus company had stopped services on St Patrick’s Day because of ‘anti-Irish racism,’ an unsubstantiated claim for which Dornan had no evidence.  Now fresh evidence has come to light of Dornan’s efforts to whip up another sectarian drama. Last month a video of Rangers football players celebrating their league triumph went viral on Tik Tok, with the players allegedly chanting bigoted slurs in an add on to the song ‘Sweet Caroline.’ Dornan, who has had several previous run ins with the Glasgow

The announcement reeked of desperation. Nicola Sturgeon is ‘delighted’ that the SNP National Executive Committee has approved her nomination of retired MSP and party grandee Mike Russell as ‘political director of the HQ independence unit’. The statement, put out on Twitter last week, aimed to give a sense of momentum and industrious activity: Russell at the head of an elite squad of Nationalist campaigners who will deliver on promises of another referendum.  The appointment of Russell is not so much a sign of progress for the Nationalists as confirmation that their project to break up the UK has stalled. It follows the resignation, after just a few months in post,

Regular readers may recall the tale of James Dornan, SNP MSP and amateur Hate-Finder General. Earlier this month, he gave a speech in the Scottish Parliament taking aim at Lothian Buses, one of Edinburgh’s main commuter services and a target of long-running antisocial behaviour. The company’s drivers recorded more than 500 such incidents in the first four months of 2021 and on March 17 and a number of other dates it was forced to cancel evening services. March 17, however, is St Patrick’s Day and Dornan theorised to Holyrood: I can only assume that Lothian Buses concluded one of two things: that I would be out celebrating my birthday or

No doubt Michael Gove is satisfied with how his latest comments on Scottish independence have gone down. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, de facto minister for the Union (even though that’s meant to be someone else’s job), told the Telegraph he couldn’t see any circumstances under which the PM would allow Nicola Sturgeon a second referendum on breaking up Britain. This is exactly what Scotland’s embattled unionists want to hear and seem not to tire of hearing, even though they hear it a lot. Sturgeon has obliged by accusing Gove of ‘sneering, arrogant condescension’, ‘completely refusing to accept Scottish democracy’ and helping ‘build support for independence’. And so

Look back through the archive photos of England’s victory over Germany at the 1966 world cup and you’ll notice something rather strange. The cheering supporters aren’t waving the flag of St George. Instead the jubilant crowds are draped Union Jacks — reflecting the more fluid blend of loyalties of an age when Britain was much more at ease with itself. Now tune into the delayed Euro 2020 matches: you’re unlikely to catch the red white and blue standard of the United Kingdom. During the last England match, there was a lone pair of Rangers fans defiantly waving their Union Jack. These are my people. I’ll watch for them during tonight’s

It has been almost 45 years since Tam Dalyell first asked the West Lothian Question. It is a damning indictment of devolutionary unionists that they are still flailing for an answer. Dalyell, a Scottish Labour MP with the uncommon foresight and courage to oppose his party’s embrace of devolution, first posed it during the parliamentary debates that teed up the first referendums in 1979: ‘For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate … at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland,