Forsyth, the self-loathing Scot?

Saturday, 31 March 2012 23:02

22 Comments

By Sean Adams

It’s one thing to be an unelected appointee to a similarly unelected body of toffs, bishops and party lackeys who have a say over legislation in a modern democracy.

It’s quite another to pick up a tidy £300 per day just for turning up and another again when you, frankly, take the mickey out of the privilege.

Bradford West by-election result – Analysis

Friday, 30 March 2012 17:04

29 Comments

By Caroline Weintz

Like him or loath him, you have to respect George Galloway for pulling off a sensational win in the Bradford West by-election, knocking all three main political parties out of the water.

George Galloway’s incredible ten thousand majority sent out a clear message to Labour in particular telling its London leadership that their once traditional voters are disillusioned and dissatisfied with the Party’s ever increasing detachment from the very people that it claims to represent.

It doesn’t have to be like this

Thursday, 29 March 2012 15:30

12 Comments

By Alex Robertson

I spent too much time in front of the TV this week, watching the House of Lords debating the Scotland Bill. The debate was so depressing and negative – everyone wracking their brains to think up ways to ‘diss’ the SNP, and scheming to defeat any move to Scottish independence, not a positive thought in sight, mostly from peers whose political careers had been killed off by the SNP sometime earlier.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

A week when Michael Forsyth and Ian Paisley made sense

Thursday, 29 March 2012 07:05

20 Comments

By a Newsnet reader

I can’t decide which quote this week amazes me more. Is it the Reverend Ian Paisley’s magnanimous statement :

The Scottish people are a canny lot, I should know, my mother was Scottish! I fail to see what all the angst is concerning the question to be put in the upcoming referendum. The Scots know exactly what they want, know how to get it, and probably would greatly appreciate it if we left them alone to make their own decision.

When is an e-consultation not a consultation?

Wednesday, 28 March 2012 21:06

24 Comments

By Jamie Murray

A curious question, the answer it seems is when it is held by a Lib Dem MP. I received an email today from my MP, Jo Swinson, about the independence referendum. She is, it tells me, keen to “engage her constituents and find out what East Dunbartonshire thinks right now”. It is a very important decision for Scotland where the Scottish Government currently has devolved powers which “include autonomy over issues such as agriculture, criminal justice, education, health and police and fire services.”