Scotland

Now the SNP must prove it can govern

In the history of devolution, no Westminster government has ever given Scotland as large a block grant settlement as the one announced by Labour on Wednesday. In her fiscal statement, the chancellor declared that politicians north of the border will receive £1.5 billion this year and a record £3.4 billion next year via the Barnett formula. It’s a move that caught the SNP by surprise, and one that has thrown the nationalist’s political strategy into doubt. Long before the July election, the SNP government began an anti-Labour austerity campaign – claiming Keir Starmer’s ‘tough decisions’ rhetoric was code for public service spending cuts while using policy positions like Keir Starmer’s

The gross hypocrisy of the SNP

If there’s one thing the SNP truly excels at, it’s maintaining double standards. The extraordinary case of the Scottish government and the missing legal advice makes clear just how hypocritical the SNP is when it comes to conduct in public life. Scottish nationalists are swift to condemn opponents at the slightest whiff of impropriety but, as this matter demonstrates, when it comes to their own morality, they’re more easy-going. Back in 2021, then first minister Nicola Sturgeon was cleared of breaching the Scottish parliament’s ministerial code over her involvement in the case of complaints made by female civil servants against her predecessor, the late Alex Salmond. Inevitably, opposition parties demanded

What’s John Swinney got against two-spirit Scots?

You may have thought that the Scottish government had abandoned gender metaphysics after the collapse of the ‘Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill’ last year. Think again. The SNP government appears to be heading back down the non-binary rabbit hole. This week it issued official guidance to public bodies suggesting that they should record public identities under no fewer than 24 gender categories. These include, in no particular order, genderqueer, genderfluid, bigender, androgynous, non-conforming, pangender, and neutral. Do they never learn? The LGBTQIA+ community will no doubt be worried about the absence of several gender that have featured prominently in the literature on non-binary identity, such as ‘two-spirit’. The cancellation of the two-spirit people

Steerpike

New SNP chief under scrutiny over controversial comments

The SNP has fired through multiple leaders in recent months, and it now looks to be doing the same with CEOs. After former Daily Record editor Murray Foote announced his resignation last week, the Nats have appointed a new interim chief executive – who has already managed to cause quite a stir… Carol Beattie was formerly the CEO of Stirling Council until she stepped down earlier this year, releasing a rather scathing resignation letter in the process. As reported by the Scottish Daily Mail, Beattie blasted party decisions after lamenting the council authority had suffered ‘more than a decade of cuts to its budget’, which is decided by the, er,

Alex Salmond’s curious relationship with the media

This afternoon, Alex Salmond’s coffin, draped in a saltire, arrived in Scotland from North Macedonia. The chartered flight was paid for by Sir Tom Hunter, a billionaire philanthropist. ‘He deserved the dignity and privacy of a private return to the home of his birth,’ Sir Tom wrote in a brief statement, praising the former first minister for devoting his life to Scotland. Salmond was, as many have rightly observed, one of the greatest political strategists of modern times. But his ability to think one step ahead of his opponents wasn’t only obvious in the political arena: he was also a master at setting the media agenda. When arriving at a

Stephen Daisley

Murray Foote’s departure is yet another blow to the SNP

The SNP just can’t catch a break. The party is still reeling from a catastrophic general election result, a backlash over its decision to mimic Rachel Reeves’ cuts to winter fuel payments, and the ongoing police investigation into its finances. Now chief executive Murray Foote has cleared his desk just 14 months after taking up the position. In a statement, Foote, the former editor of the Daily Record tabloid, said he was stepping down to let someone else oversee party reorganisation and other preparations for the 2026 Holyrood elections. The Nationalists retained only nine seats on 4 July, a plummet from the 48 secured at the previous election, and are

Steerpike

SNP chief executive resigns

The Scottish National party has had a high turnover of leaders lately – and it appears to be facing the same problem with its chief executives. Now Murray Foote has resigned from the post after just 14 months in the role, taking to Twitter/X today to announce his departure. The former Daily Record editor who published the ‘Vow’ front-page – where political leaders from different unionist parties came together to promise more devolution for Scotland if the country voted No – wrote this morning that: I have today confirmed my intention to step down as chief executive of the SNP. The party has recently embarked on a substantial process of

Scottish visas are a terrible idea

The last thing Labour needs right now, after the last hundred days of scandal and mishap, is a row over immigration. So the party will not have been pleased this morning to see reports in the Scottish press suggesting that the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, is considering introducing a separate Scottish immigration visa, which would help Scotland counter its falling birth rate. This is not the first time the idea of a Scottish visa has surfaced. It has long been campaigned for by the SNP, with the nationalist MP Stephen Gethins tabling an amendment this week to allow Scotland to set up its own visa regime. The UK government certainly seems

Stephen Daisley

The SNP will regret expelling John Mason

You might have missed the news that the SNP has expelled one of its MSPs, announced as it was following the death of Alex Salmond. John Mason has represented the SNP almost continuously for a quarter-century, first as a Glasgow councillor, then as the MP who wrested away Labour heartland seat Glasgow East in a seismic 2008 by-election, and for the past 13 years as an MSP for the equivalent Holyrood constituency, Glasgow Shettleston. Shettleston is a place with many social and economic problems and even Mason’s opponents acknowledge that he is a hard-working representative. Mason’s expulsion has nothing to do with principles or rules and everything to do with

Alex Salmond irreversibly changed Scottish politics

Just hours before he passed away, Alex Salmond tweeted that ‘Scotland is a country, not a county’. It was a response to First Minister John Swinney’s participation in the Prime Minister’s Edinburgh summit at the weekend – and Salmond smelled a rat. A phalanx of English regional mayors being given equal prominence to his country’s FM didn’t work for him. He likely would have refused to attend had he still been in post, or at least created such a stink beforehand that his role in proceedings would have been enhanced. Somehow or other, he would have sent a message to the people of Scotland that he was on their side

Steerpike

Watch: ‘Apparatus of state turned on Alex Salmond’

Heartfelt tributes were paid to the late Alex Salmond in the Commons today. A number of politicians from across the house shared memories of the former first minister of Scotland in a series of points of order, with the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn first to speak on the ‘most talented, formidable and consequential politician of his generation’. Scotland Secretary Ian Murray joked that the Scotland Office had brought Salmond and his wife Moira together, while Conservative John Lamont insisted that the pro-indy politician was ‘undoubtedly a giant’ in politics. Next it was the turn of close friend and confidante of Salmond, Sir David Davis MP. ‘Very, very few people

The complex legacy of Alex Salmond

In reflecting on the life of Alex Salmond, I should begin by paraphrasing his successor as First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. I cannot pretend that the last few years of the breakdown in his relationship with the mainstream of the party he once led did not happen, but we cannot help but reflect on a remarkable political life. Salmond was central to the birth of the modern SNP. As former political editor of the Herald Murray Ritchie put it, he took an ‘ill-disciplined, fractious and impecunious fringe party and established it as the dominant force in Scottish political life’, noting: ‘This in a country where Labour had been in control for

We will never see the likes of Alex Salmond again

Of all the thousands of tributes paid to Alex Salmond since his untimely and premature death the one that best sums up Alex is that from Adam Boulton, the former Sky News political editor. Adam wrote: ‘He was a world class politician, whether you liked him or not.’ There aren’t many objective observers of the Scottish and UK political scene who would disagree with that astute observation. Alex Salmond was the first and only politician in over 300 years since the 1707 Act of Union who came anywhere near to taking Scotland to the brink of regaining its status as an independent country. Between February and September 2014, support for

Stephen Daisley

Salmond’s critics can’t ignore his lasting legacy

When he lost his Gordon seat in the 2017 general election, Alex Salmond told his count and those watching – friend and foe – that ‘you’ve not seen the last o’ my bonnet and me’. The line comes from Sir Walter Scott’s Bonnie Dundee, an ode to John Graham, the 1st Viscount Dundee, who led the 1689 Jacobite uprising to restore James VII and the House of Stuart. Quoting the lyric was pure Salmond. Not only was he fond of weaving poetry into his public statements – an art sadly lost to most political rhetoricians – it reflected his self-mythologising as a modern-day Scottish rebel against the British establishment. Salmond

Alex Salmond was an unstoppable force of nature

It is hard to believe that I will no longer wake up on Monday mornings to the sound of Alex Salmond on the phone, either berating me for my latest offence against journalism or telling me what I should be saying about the most recent political scandal. The former SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland was of the old school: combative and relentless, always on the phone, never stopping, never at rest, a 24/7 politician. We always said he would never cease promoting the cause of Scottish independence while he still had breath in his body. He didn’t. Alex Salmond died in North Macedonia, shortly after giving a speech.

Scotland’s doctors ‘half way’ to full pay restoration

Junior doctors in Scotland – now called ‘resident’ doctors following a recent name change agreed by the British Medical Association and the UK government – have received more good news this morning. Humza Yousaf pushed by the prospect of strike action last year by offering medics a 12.4 per cent pay rise and Scotland’s doctor have today been offered another increase of 11 per cent over 2024/25. The doctors’ union is recommending that staff vote for the rise, and now it’s up to medics to accept the latest pay uplift presented to them. The cumulative rise would see an uplift of 8.5 per cent backdated to April this year, with

Steerpike

Pro-life buffer zone residents could face £10,000 fines

Welcome to the land of the unfree – otherwise known as Scotland. John Swinney’s SNP government have laid out its rules for anti-abortionists north of the border, and the measures are even worse than many campaigners first imagined. Buffer zones – in which pro-life activists cannot protest – were introduced at the end of September after MSPs passed the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) bill earlier in the year. And it now turns out that if residents living within these exclusion areas, within 200 metres of abortion clinics, hang protestations in their windows, they could be fined up to £10,000. Golly. In a letter sent to residents by the

Stephen Daisley

The SNP is in a donations row of its own

The thing about being holier than thou is that you actually have to be holier. Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, has made much of Sir Keir Starmer’s freebie woes. The SNP called for an investigation into Lord Alli’s donations to the Prime Minister and Flynn used a newspaper column to observe: ‘Of course, it’s important to say that such clothing gifts come with no attachments. No, none at all. They are all just from the kindness of a filthy-rich donor’s heart. I mean, who doesn’t have friends like that?’ Fortunately – and unfortunately – for him, Labour donors aren’t the only generous contributors in politics. Questions are mounting

Politics needs more Tom Tugendhats

‘I’ve got you a Tom TugendHAT,’ a friend texted from this year’s Conservative party conference. I haven’t received it yet, but I’ll save it for Tom’s next campaign. I’m no Tory – though I’ve had plenty people try and dispute that – but if we’re to have a Conservative party then it should have sensible people like my good friend Tom at the top. And while, on this occasion, he won’t be in the leader’s chair, I have no doubt that he will play a significant part in his party’s revival. You don’t have to be a Conservative to understand that we all have skin in the game when it

The SNP fraud probe has gone on far too long

So here’s a thing. Last week a prominent defence lawyer broke ranks and declared that the police investigation into alleged misuse of SNP party funds – Operation Branchform – had been going on too long and should be wound up pronto. Scottish criminal defence lawyer Thomas Leonard Ross KC told Sky News the probe ‘cannot go on indefinitely’. ‘Once somebody is charged then they have the right to a trial within a reasonable time,’ he said. Many Scottish politicians have been saying this privately too – not all of them nationalists. Then, by a remarkable coincidence, the Sunday Mail revealed exclusively this weekend that ‘prosecutors investigating SNP fraud allegations are examining evidence