Scottish National Party

Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government that I have the privilege to lead, is optimistic and hopeful for Scotland. We are inspired by the potential for our country to be ever more successful. That view is the foundation of this – the first Programme for Government in the seventh parliamentary session. We are here to improve the lives of the people of Scotland, creating new...

In the theatre that is post-Brexit British politics, Andy Burnham has long traded on a carefully curated persona: The heroic local champion, standing atop the battlements of Greater Manchester to tilt his lance at the cold, unfeeling towers of Westminster. For years, the mantra was simple and seductive – power to the people, power to the “regions”, power to the post codes. In...

In July 2014, as the Scottish independence debate rumbled, the official anti-independence campaign made an explicit promise to the people of Scotland. Posted proudly on their social media feeds, their message was simple: Voting ‘No’ meant lower energy bills for Scotland. It was a classic Westminster party pitch – a comforting fiction about the broad shoulders of Westminster o...

In political life, there is hypocrisy, there is breathtaking hypocrisy, and then there is the Scottish Labour party dealing with equal pay in Glasgow. For over a decade, watching Labour handle the rights of low-paid women workers in our city was like watching a clumsy juggler juggling flaming torches, only to set fire to the stage, and then charge the audience for the privile...

For generations, the unique geography and cultural richness of the Western Isles – Na h-Eileanan an Iar – have been both a source of immense pride and a set of distinctive challenges. For decades under direct Westminster rule, island communities were treated as an afterthought – subjected to generic policy frameworks crafted in London that failed to account for remote infrast...