SNP
The myth of the ‘London effect’
I suppose we should be thankful that Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged there’s a problem with Scotland’s public education system, even…
How Labour lost Scotland (and could lose the Union)
Just four months ago Scotland was the scene of great cross-party co-operation — unprecedented in peace-time politics. Gordon Brown was…
Unwanted consequences: will cheap oil lead to a Labour election victory?
BP’s profits are down, and the oil giant is slashing up to $6 billion out of its investment plan for…
The age of indecision
A recent email from Samantha Cameron started an intriguing debate in the Prime Minister’s social circle. It was an invitation…
Scotland’s unwon cause
The successful launch of a nationalist newspaper shows just how much trouble the Union is still in
Sturgeon the unstoppable
‘She sold out the Hydro arena faster than Kylie Minogue,’ said one awestruck unionist of Nicola Sturgeon this week. Scotland’s…
Miliband needs a plan – and soon
Ed Miliband’s internal critics used to complain that he had a 35 per cent strategy. They claimed that his unambitious…
Ukip is a party for people who hate London. That’s why Labour should be scared
It is interesting that neither Scotland nor Wales have been much bitten by the Ukip bug. The supposedly sensible view…
Why are Labour’s Scots so reluctant to take the high road?
There should, by rights, have been a stampede of candidates to replace Johann Lamont as the leader of the Scottish…
Botín’s not-so-dark secret of banking success: simple rules, smart technology and team spirit
Four years ago, I wrote that I knew no dark rumours about Santander, the rising force in UK high street…
Caught in Alex Salmond’s tractor beam
It was just after the Tory party conference last year that I met Alex Salmond. Not alone, obviously, but as…
How to save a country
Next week, the most important vote in recent British history will be held. Indeed, it may well turn out to…
Letters
Advice for Cameron Sir: David Cameron once saved my life from a school of Portuguese man o’ war jellyfish, so…
A vote for real politics
Whatever the outcome of the referendum, Scotland will be better for having had the debate
How to lose a country
For centuries, the possibility of Scottish independence seemed so remote as to be laughable. Until recently the nationalists seemed quixotic,…
The British clan
The Scots and the English have far more in common than the SNP likes to admit
Time for posh Scotland to break its silence
I took part in a documentary about Scottishness a few weeks ago, and it wasn’t bad at all. I mused,…
Sochi’s spotlight reveals the rottenness at the heart of the Russian body politic
Imagine if the BBC’s excitable commentators had been asked to cover the building of Sochi’s facilities, rather than the Winter…
Portrait of the week
Home Floods grew worse in the West Country. The village of Moorland, Somerset, was abandoned. Then the Thames flooded, from…
Warning: ‘no’ won’t be Scotland’s final answer
From a kind of torpor about this year’s Scottish referendum, Lord Lang of Monkton has roused me. You may remember…
The Spectator’s Notes
Who owns Scotland? The people who most commonly ask this question believe that the land has been wrested from ordinary…
If no one makes the case for the Union, how can we win?
Next year will decide the fate of the United Kingdom. The Scottish independence referendum on the 18th of September could…
Alex Salmond’s economic policies would drive an independent Scotland into the ground
Within the white paper on economic policy in an independent Scotland that was published by Alex Salmond’s government this week…
Born-again campaigners
Daniel Jackson 30 August 2014 9:00 am
The push for Scottish independence is driven forward by converts’ zeal