The Tories may fight the next election by proposing simplistic solutions with a brutal focus on immigration, transgender rights and net zero. And they may win.
How do we avoid countries climbing the ladder from difference, to hostility, to war, to genocide?
Of all the gambles taken by Chancellor Rachel Reeves and her Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at this week’s Budget, the most obvious one underpinning the announcements is that they expect to have at least 10 years in office.
I turned 45 yesterday. This is not a request for comments or letters to the editor to wish me many happy returns, although, reader, you are of course most welcome. Rather, its significance to me is that it marks the point in my life that I have been in and around Scottish politics for as long as I have not.
Holyrood sucked powers up from Westminster, and simultaneously sucked them down from local authorities. We can hardly complain, therefore, when Sir Keir Starmer looks around for powerful local representatives to attend his summit and cannot find any. They don’t exist.
It is time for John Swinney and Kate Forbes to divert their gaze from the Greens and look to Labour and the Liberal Democrats to help them pass a budget
There is an instinctive acceptance that in Mr Swinney the country has someone who has authority and experience; alongside, in Ms Forbes, someone who understands the need for deep and meaningful reform.
For Mr Findlay to be considered a successful leader, he must establish three Ps: power, policy and positioning.
It is awfully easy not to take the Liberal Democrats seriously. I get it. I get the Lib Dem cringe just as much as the next person. It was very difficult to watch Sir Ed Davey, at his party’s annual conference in Brighton, singing Take a Chance on Me and Sweet Caroline with his backing group of Lib Dem MPs, without searching for the nearest cushion to hide behind.
Seventy-two days ago, Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister. It was, in a sense, a classic change election, much like David Cameron’s in 2010, and like Tony Blair’s in 1997, and indeed like Margaret Thatcher’s in 1979.
