SNP Conference Roundup – How Long Will The ‘Independence Generation’ Have To Wait?
The SNP gathered in Aberdeen over the weekend for their first in-person conference since all the way back to October 2019. While the party had held virtual conferences during the pandemic, nothing compares to meeting with colleagues in the flesh rather than via a laptop screen. Despite this, the conference mood was muted. Attendance numbers […]
Stormy Political Weather
All eyes were on Scotland for the main political event of the day. Paisley-raised Liz Truss travelled up to a very dreich Balmoral to Her Majesty’s Aberdeenshire estate where she accepted the Queen’s invitation to form a government. Truss then returned to London, through a thunderstorm, to deliver her first speech as Prime Minister outside […]
The Politics of Cambo, Just Transition and Coalitions
A famous frog once sang, “it’s not easy being green”. With COP26 in Glasgow on the horizon, the UK and Scottish Governments must surely agree with Kermit’s lament. Boris Johnson faces pressure from his backbenchers who fear his green agenda will lose Red Wall seats. Closer to home, Nicola Sturgeon has been pressurised into taking […]
Political Déjà Vu: The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government, 2021-22
Déjà vu (noun) – the strange feeling that in some way you have already experienced what is happening now. Observers of Scottish politics will have sensed that while watching the…
Independence Before Environment in SNP/Green Deal
For observers of Scottish politics, the wait is over. We now know, more or less, what form the next Scottish Government will take. At a press conference today, the Scottish…
The 2021 Holyrood Election – Scotland Divided
You might think that due to the SNP remaining the largest party but failing short of an overall majority, and with nationalist parties retaining their pro-independence majority as happened in…
The Scottish Budget, 2021-22
Described as the most important of devolution era, the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Finance Kate Forbes today set out the Scottish Budget for 2021-22, the final budget ahead of…
Where now for Scottish Labour?
The process has begun for Scottish Labour to find yet another leader in Scotland, their fifth in a decade, a remarkable feat for a party that once dominated the Scottish…
The American President
There’s a scene in the excellent Rob Reiner film The American President where the fictional Commander-in-chief Andrew Shepherd is giving an impromptu address to assembled media in the White House Press Briefing Room and says, speaking via live TV coverage, to his challenger, Bob Rumson, that being President of the United States was, to some […]
Old Politics in the New Normal: The 2020-21 Programme for Government
The First Minister Nicola Sturgeon set out her final legislative programme ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliamentary Elections. Given the impact of Covid-19, this was not a normal Programme for…