Alex Massie

Alex Massie is Scotland Editor of The Spectator. He also writes a column for The Times and is a regular contributor to the Scottish Daily Mail, The Scotsman and other publications.

Salmond's comeback is a pitiful sight

27 March 2021 4:13 am

When Alex Salmond lost his seat at the 2017 general election, he finished his concession speech with a quotation from…

Sturgeon's future now hangs in the balance

19 March 2021 7:19 am

At First Minister’s Questions this afternoon Nicola Sturgeon accused Ruth Davidson of peddling baseless conspiracy theories, dredged up from ‘the bottom…

The Salmond case has left the House of Sturgeon teetering

27 February 2021 9:00 am

Sturgeon is fighting for her political future

There is something rotten in Scottish politics

18 February 2021 9:55 pm

It is now two years since Nicola Sturgeon accepted the need for a parliamentary inquiry into how, and why, her…

The Sturgeon paradox: the worse she does, the more popular she becomes

5 December 2020 9:00 am

Despite her record, nothing can stop Nicola Sturgeon

islamophobic

Macron isn’t Islamophobic

28 October 2020 3:17 am

Sometimes a story does not receive the attention you think it should. Sometimes the news is too familiar or too…

Keir Starmer and the Scottish independence conundrum

24 September 2020 11:44 pm

In January, Sir Keir Starmer told Border Television’s Peter MacMahon that, look, of course an SNP victory in next year’s…

Sport, for the English, has always been a defiant assertion of liberty

22 August 2020 9:00 am

The history of English sport reflects a defiant people determined to protect their ancient prerogatives, says Alex Massie

Here’s Nicola: can Boris Johnson stop Scottish independence?

15 August 2020 9:00 am

How can Boris deal with the looming question of IndyRef2?

Can the new Scottish Tory leader thwart Nicola Sturgeon?

8 August 2020 9:00 am

The new Scottish Tory leader – and his familiar sidekick

Is it a 'transphobic lie' to say 'only females get cervical cancer'?

15 July 2020 10:58 pm

A long, long time ago – by which I mean last month – I was firmly under the impression that…

What the cancelling of JK Rowling is really about

13 June 2020 3:29 am

Shall we start with an easy question? As a general rule, would it be appropriate for a 15-year-old boy to…

Why Dominic Cummings must go

24 May 2020 1:32 am

Most aspects of this present emergency are complex and resist easy solutions. Only a handful are elementary but one of…

Is a summer without cricket truly summer at all?

16 May 2020 12:35 am

Isuppose most of us have a hole or two in our lives right now. This is a time of absence;…

A note to fellow lockdown lethargics

8 April 2020 1:50 am

Strange times, these. Dull and unsettling in equal measure. Much of life feels as though it is stuck in some…

Our politicians are only trying to do their best

18 March 2020 11:41 pm

This is a time for generosity and kindness; a moment for the cutting of slack and the making of allowances.…

The row over Suzanne Moore is a test for the Guardian's liberal credentials

7 March 2020 8:50 pm

The Guardian is a great newspaper and it remains so even if, puzzlingly, more than a fifth of its workforce…

Why there won’t be a Scottish independence poll this year

15 January 2020 12:50 am

There will be no second referendum on Scottish independence this year. This is certain. And it is not because Boris…

Hong Kong faces a growing crisis in 2020

1 January 2020 1:19 am

Last week Carrie Lam, the embattled chief executive of Hong Kong’s increasingly beleaguered and unpopular government, deplored the latest round…

Boris’s big strength could soon become a Tory weakness

14 December 2019 7:00 pm

First, a clarification. I may previously have suggested that Boris Johnson is an unprincipled egomaniac wholly lacking in both moral…

Bob Willis’s contribution to English cricket will never be forgotten

5 December 2019 7:35 am

Certain days in the long and sometimes glorious history of English cricket are so brightly coloured they can never fade.…

The pestilence of Brexit and the failure of the political class

25 October 2019 10:20 pm

The latest confirmation of the sickness evident in British politics these days comes courtesy of political scientists at the universities…

What happened to the Conservative Party?

5 September 2019 9:06 pm

So now we know. There is no point in denying it and no advantage in wishing away plainly observable reality.…

The magic and mystery of English cricket

18 August 2019 7:42 am

Nothing in cricket is quite as visceral, even quite as primeval, as the confrontation between a batsmen of the highest…

The Brexiteers have blown it

13 March 2019 10:41 pm

If, as Rod Liddle says, Brexit has been killed there is no shortage of suspects. 75 of them, in fact.…