Category Archives: Scottish Politics

Broadcasting Should Be The Nationalists’ Holy Grail

By Stuart MacLennan | Published: January 4, 2012

A recent Scottish social attitudes survey found that 65% of Scots would back independence if they were £500 better off. The slogan “It’s Scotland’s Oil” has been the cornerstone of the nationalists’ case for independence for the past four decades, while the unionist case invariably relies upon Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) reports which [...]

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Will Scottish Labour EVER Gain a Seat from the SNP?

By Stuart MacLennan | Published: December 1, 2011

Labour has never won a Scottish Parliament Constituency from the SNP. In fact, Labour has never gained a Scottish Parliament Constituency from any of the other parties. These facts, I’ve found, tend to startle my comrades in the Scottish Labour Party when they learn them. And quite rightly too when one considers that the SNP [...]

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Independence: Time for a Substantive Debate

By Stuart MacLennan | Published: October 26, 2011

There will be a referendum on Scottish independence. This fact, I fear, so many in my party have yet to grasp. It’s understandable given that the SNP have already been in power for over four years, and were presented with an offer (the sincerity of which I would doubt) of Parliamentary support for a referendum [...]

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How the Scottish Labour Leadership contest should look (but won’t)

By Stuart MacLennan | Published: August 25, 2011

Perhaps the greatest service Tom Harris has ever done for the Scottish Labour Party is to try to flush out contenders for the Scottish Labour Party’s leadership, by declaring that if no one good stands – he will. While Deputy Leader Johann Lamont is widely expected to run others potential contenders like Ken MacIntosh, Jackie [...]

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Will the National Transitional Council hand Megrahi over to the USA?

By Stuart MacLennan | Published: August 24, 2011

Scotland may well find itself facing another diplomatic row with the United States of America. New Jersey Senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg have called on the Libyan National Transitional Council to hand Lockerbie-bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi over to the United States. Until yesterday it was easy to dismiss this call as just another [...]

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Is the Scottish Parliament Short With Short Money?

By Stuart MacLennan | Published: August 18, 2011

The Scottish Parliament, like its mother in Westminster, operates a system of financial support for opposition parties. “Short Money” is intended to level the playing field between the government, who have the resources of the civil service to aid them in formulating policy, and the opposition. It pays the salaries of researchers and press officers [...]

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  • I’m a 25-year-old PhD candidate at Trinity College, Dublin, specializing in International Trade & Taxation Law. In a previous life I was an adviser in the Scottish Parliament and a Parliamentary Candidate, but the less said about that the better.