Scotland

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

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

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

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

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

To Holyrood, where Scotland’s politicians have overwhelmingly voted to oppose the Labour government’s winter fuel payment cuts. 99 MSPs voted in favour of the motion tabled by SNP First Minister John Swinney, which called on the UK government to ‘reverse the introduction of means testing for the winter fuel payment’ – and in a sign of cracks emerging in the party, it transpires that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has faced a mini-rebellion over the matter. Oh dear. Of Scottish Labour’s 22 MSPs, only 16 voted on today’s motion. Earlier today, rumours began to circulate that several of Sarwar’s MSPs were expected to break the whip and back the SNP

Back to Scotland, where the police probe into the SNP’s funds and finances continues to rumble on. Now it transpires that prosecutors are looking into findings that suggests a non-existent company was paid for refurbishment work carried out at SNP HQ. More than £100,000 was coughed up for work on a ‘media suite’ in the party’s Edinburgh office – yet officers are probing evidence that suggests the company paid wasn’t, um, real. The SNP’s 2020 accounts detail the party paid £615,000 to refurb the party’s offices, with the money going on upgraded furniture and tech. One source told the Sunday Mail that: One of the biggest items being looked at

Back to the Tory leadership contest which is gathering pace post-conference season. In a matter of days, MPs will cast their votes to leave just two contenders in the race, before the membership gets its say. But there is consternation about the final two among the Holyrood group – which only appointed a new leader itself last week – after growing frustration about some of the frontrunners having snubbed Scotland. How very interesting. Half of the Scottish Tory crowd – which only appointed a new leader itself last week – have publicly thrown their weight behind Tom Tugendhat, who has the backing of 16 of the party’s 31 MSPs. The

Hard-working Scots could be forgiven for resorting to a stiff drink tonight as they contemplate an extraordinary triple attack on their living standards. The minimum unit price of alcohol has risen by 30 per cent, peak-time rail tickets have nearly doubled, and the energy price cap has just gone up by 10 per cent or £149. Oh, and many pensioners have also lost their winter fuel payments thanks to Rachel Reeves, ‘the pensioner freezer’, as the Labour chancellor is being called, even by some in the Scottish Labour party. But that hike in the minimum unit price of alcohol, which adds insult to injury, is entirely down to the Scottish

While one Tory leadership contest rumbles on, another has come to a close. Russell Findlay was made the new leader of the Scottish Conservative party on Friday – and he’s enjoying his victory lap at Tory conference this weekend. At a fringe event today, the former crime journalist was keen to hammer home that his premiership will be about change – doesn’t that sound familiar – and told his audience he wants to ‘get down to the hard work of earning back the trust of the voters we’ve lost’. And with the recent leadership race shining a light on party infighting, he’s certainly got his work cut out… But the

Of all the self-inflicted harm to have felled politicians and undermined governments, was there ever a more curious case than that of self-ID and the SNP? In so bullishly battling the cause of Gender Recognition Reform (GRR), that would have allowed for trans-identifying people to self-declare their new gender, the SNP suffered the largest backbench rebellion of the Scottish parliament’s 25-year tenure, saw a minister defect to Alex Salmond’s Alba party, and lost two first ministers in rapid succession.       And after all such calamity, the SNP’s GRR Act was merely blocked by Westminster using a Section 35 order, a dead man’s switch designed to prevent Holyrood’s lawmakers

The first of two Conservative leadership contests has concluded and today it has been announced that the new leader of the Scottish party is Russell Findlay. The former crime journalist was widely seen as the party establishment favourite after former leader Douglas Ross announced he would be resigning from the post in June. Now Findlay faces the rather daunting prospect of reuniting his group after months of bad briefings mired the race in scandal. Best of luck… Ross stepped down after losing the support of his colleagues when he ousted ill colleague David Duguid in the Westminster parliamentary selection process. Not long after the ex-party leader had announced he would