John Ferry

Tony Blair famously regretted his government’s introduction of freedom of information laws. ‘You idiot. You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop. There is really no description of stupidity, no matter how vivid, that is adequate. I quake at the imbecility of it,’ he wrote in his memoirs. Blair complained that FOI is not used by ‘the people’

The SNP Scottish government has rolled out its latest paper on independence, this time focused on citizenship. Like others in the series (this is the fifth paper on secession in twelve months) it offers nothing new, goes big on fantasising about a future that won’t happen, and is completely removed from the day-to-day needs of

The Nato summit in Vilnius has been an eventful one already. Even though no clear timeline for when the country can join the group was given, Ukraine’s hopes of one day becoming a Nato member were given a boost. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has hailed proposals as ‘a strong package for Ukraine, and a clear

Have you opened a letter recently from your energy supplier and gasped at how much of your monthly budget is now going on electricity and gas? Are you living in constant pain or discomfort because you need an operation, but under the Scottish NHS you’ll have to wait years for treatment? Or do you live

Kevin Pringle, Alex Salmond’s old spin doctor, is back. Pringle was a key strategic adviser on the build up to the 2014 independence referendum and is ultimately one of the handful of people responsible for successfully – from a nationalist standpoint – moving Scottish politics off the left-right spectrum and onto one rooted in identity and sovereignty. His appointment as Humza

In an extraordinary admission this week, the Scottish government has vowed to continue funding the SNP’s ferries fiasco — despite accepting it would be cheaper to scrap the second vessel and commission a new one from scratch.  Economy secretary Neil Gray said a review had found that finishing the second boat, known as Hull 802, does not

There has been more ferry chaos this week for Scotland’s beleaguered island communities, so much so that it now looks like the Scottish government is bringing in the Ministry of Defence to help with the fallout. One senior SNP MP, Ian Blackford, has urged military bosses to provide a ‘short-term solution’ to the ferry network

Humza Yousaf is the continuity candidate. Kate Forbes is the fresh start candidate and Ash Regan is the Braveheart, director’s cut, candidate. As far as character positioning goes, it’s quite clear where each potential new first minister of Scotland stands. Digging deeper, clear policy differences have emerged between the three. Yousaf wants to directly challenge

Rising NHS waiting lists, a widening attainment gap in education and falling support for independence: Scotland’s next first minister will have a bulging in-tray when he or she assumes office in coming weeks. However one issue in particular seems set to be an early thorn in the side of Scotland’s new leader: the increasingly scandalous

Watching Kate Forbes this week struggle to reconcile her social conservatism with her ambition to be First Minister of Scotland has been excruciating. But it has also deflected attention away from another important aspect of her politics: her economic conservatism. As well as sitting on the right on issues such as gay marriage, Forbes also

When Nicola Sturgeon looks back on her economic legacy, what will she feel most proud of: the big industrial plants on Scotland’s coast churning out wind turbines for export, the near monthly launch of newly built ships on the Clyde, or the thriving green venture capital community sprouting up in Edinburgh? An inability to deal

There have been strange goings on in Scotland. A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court clarified that the Scottish parliament does not have the power to unilaterally call a second independence referendum. The ruling was never going to have gone down well with the SNP, but has the Supreme Court’s slap down sent the nationalist

The next UK general election will be a referendum on independence for Scotland. This is according to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, after the ‘disappointing’ Supreme Court ruling last week found that her administration did not in fact have the power to unilaterally rewrite the UK’s constitution. Will the people of Scotland really accept that the

SNP MP Stephen Flynn was emphatic when he used a certain statistic in Parliament last month: ‘Scotland’s potential in this regard is huge – absolutely enormous… We have 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind capacity – 25 per cent!’ he told his audience. It is not the first time Flynn has used the statistic, and

‘As first minister I am ultimately accountable for every decision that the Scottish government takes,’ Nicola Sturgeon announced on Friday as she gave evidence to the Scottish parliament’s public audit committee. Scotland’s ferry procurement fiasco is being closely scrutinised, and the latest developments have put Sturgeon’s record under the microscope.  In a performance reminiscent of her evidence

The First Minister could not have been clearer. Asked about the possibility of Scotland joining the euro, she said Scotland ‘would not qualify’. ‘I don’t think it is the right option for Scotland,’ she added. The question was put to her earlier this month at a press conference where she presented her new paper on

Poor old Nicola Sturgeon. The news agenda at the start of this week was meant to be dominated by her new economic prospectus on independence. Then along comes Jeremy Hunt with his scrapping of the mini-Budget, which ensured everyone’s attention was on Downing Street rather than Bute House. If you did miss it, yesterday saw

Nicola Sturgeon and her colleagues plan to hold a referendum on Scotland leaving the UK a little over a year from now. All going to plan, they then intend to start governing a brand new state, with full control over taxes and spending, sometime in 2025. With such weighty obligations on the horizon, you would