The SNP prepares to back off the EU – for now
Being seen to go cold on the European Union will annoy many in the SNP’s mainstream but Nicola Sturgeon’s personal standing and unchallenged authority should be enough to pacify critics, says Murray…
Politics
Can the North Sea’s good times roll again?
Oil operators seeking significant tax breaks to boost activity were disappointed this week when the chancellor instead bought time by setting up a committee, Murray Richie reports. Just as the UK’s offshore…
The no man’s land that is now the ‘sensible centre’
Political leaders failed dismally to recognise that radical political and economic changes were making their constituents increasingly uneasy, Geoff Kitney writes. When Donald Trump delivered his landmark, first speech to the United…
Scotland in the EU – the UK’s successor state?
The sudden glow of goodwill from Brussels suggests that when the going gets serious the European Union will be on Scotland’s side, writes Murray Ritchie. Two issues have become central to the…
French socialists select Hamon to carry the flag
John Egan reporting from Paris. Once again it seems that the status quo is a poisoned recipe in politics. Another election has seen a candidate with policies that not so long ago…
Four charts, two scenarios and a dilemma
UK Prime Minister Theresa May could find herself on the horns of a dilemma She has a problem. To quell the unrest that led to the Brexit vote she needs to address…
Europe: Britain never did get it
When Theresa May declared in her landmark Brexit speech this week that it was her fervent wish that Europe should succeed with the European Union (EU) project, it struck me how strange…
Scottish politics in Brexit Britain – it’s complicated
Labour views with horror its abysmal poll ratings. The thought of a possible early general election is too alarming to contemplate. Just think then how bad things are for Labour in Scotland…
Who will lead the world in 2017?
Short of wartime and economic depression, it is hard to imagine a New Year arriving amid as much trepidation as this New Year. The year just ending brought us the shocks of…
Migration fault lines revealed
Few issues stir up such strident opinion as migration. From the wish to control borders and protect jobs and communities, to the need to open the door wide and welcome workers with…