Susan Dalgety is an author, Scotsman columnist and was press secretary to former Scottish First Minister, Lord McConnell.
The new Scottish Parliament has never looked more female. The number of women MSPs has jumped from 47 to 58 (45 per cent) making it the highest since Holyrood was established. There are veterans of the 1999 parliament, like Labour’s legendary Jackie Baillie, whose stunning victory in Dumbarton may well have helped save the UK. And
Political geeks of a certain vintage are still nostalgic for that Portillo moment when, at 3.10 a.m. on 2 May 1997, Tory cabinet minister Michael Portillo lost his safe Enfield Southgate seat to a shocked Stephen Twigg. A ripple of applause ran through Britain as the result was read out, turning to screams of delight
When Scottish Green Party co-leader Lorna Slater urges people to vote as if ‘their future depends on it’, she’s not warning the electorate about the planet’s climate crisis. Independence is what Ms Slater, a Canadian-born engineer and trapeze artist, really craves. Scotland’s Greens may brand themselves as guardians of the environment, but observers could be
While the UK readies itself to emerge, blinking, from lockdown, spare a thought for those of us trapped north of Hadrian’s Wall. Scotland is in the grip of a personality cult that has elevated a mediocre solicitor from a modest background into a cross between Joan of Arc and Hillary Clinton. A Boadicea in beige
