Scotland
Why are Scottish nationalists so thin-skinned?
Scottish nationalists are not happy. What’s new, I hear you ask. Did they lose another leader? Has Sainsbury’s been selling…
Europe has no answer to its immigration problem
Pulling off the rhetorical trick that Brexit would undermine the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement, Michel Barnier, the EU negotiator,…
Humza Yousaf quits – sparking SNP leadership contest
Humza Yousaf is stepping down as first minister of Scotland. After feverish speculation over the weekend, Yousaf has announced this…
Who uses Grindr?
Meet market Who uses the gay dating app Grindr? – The site claims 27m users worldwide, 80.5% of whom identify…
We must never lose the treasured Orkneys
Fertile fields and spectacular sea stacks are matched by an extraordinarily rich, dramatic history. No wonder the islands have been so celebrated for centuries
The London Library should leave us in peace
Reading only slightly between the lines of US foreign policy on Israel/Gaza, I detect that its most urgent aim is…
Portrait of the Week: hate crimes, surprise knighthoods and flaming rickshaws
Home The Hate Crime and Public Order Act came into effect in Scotland, making it a crime to communicate or…
Scotland’s Hate Crime Act may have done us all a favour
Scotland’s Hate Crime Act (HCA) has, by common agreement, been an unmitigated disaster. Less than a week old, there are…
An unenviable mission: Clear, by Carys Davies, reviewed
It is 1843, the year of the Great Disruption in the Scottish Church, and an impoverished minister is being paid to clear a lonely North Sea island of any remaining inhabitants
Northern lights
Claudia Massie on the spectacular new galleries that showcase the best of Scottish art for the first time
‘I am a strange owl’
Jenni Fagan dug up all the files and archives on herself as a baby in care to write this stunning and poignant memoir
Can Labour win back Scotland?
When the political cabinet met on Tuesday, by-elections were on the agenda. The Prime Minister is facing four of them.…
Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest was inevitable
There was an air of inevitability about the arrest today of Nicola Sturgeon. The SNP had been braced for it.…
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon arrested in SNP finance investigation
Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the probe into SNP finances. A spokesperson for Nicola Sturgeon confirmed: ‘Nicola…
In defence of the Free Church of Scotland
Recent days have shown an upsurge of interest in a small Presbyterian church (the Free Church of Scotland, colloquially referred…
The SNP leadership race has turned into the mother of all culture wars
Bring back Nicola Sturgeon. The race to replace her as SNP leader and first minister has turned into the mother…
Is it time to replace Scotland’s sporting anthem?
‘Flower of Scotland’ is the unofficial national anthem north of the border but soon enough we may never hear its…
Time to think about holidays
Having returned from a fortnight’s break, I wonder if we get holidays all wrong. In northern Europe, the custom is…
Her act of Union
In death, as in life, Elizabeth II has been a unifying force for her country. For all the political rancour…
Money won’t keep the Union together
Despite its name, Gers Day is not an annual celebration of the Ibrox side that makes up one half of…
The gender debate is getting nastier
Elaine Miller is one of the grown-ups. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, with a specialism…
Sturgeon isn’t an ‘attention seeker’
There is a lot of pearl-clutching over Liz Truss’s dismissive remarks about Nicola Sturgeon. Much of it involves conflating a…
