In 2006 the Scottish Parliament passed laws to reintroduce a tram network to Edinburgh. However, in May 2007, the SNP won the Scottish parliamentary election and formed a minority government. The SNP want to scrap the tram scheme because they don’t think it gives value for money.
They may well be right that the tram [...]

Gaining independence from the English, only to see hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of people applying dual citizenship, would be a hollow victory for the SNP.

The trial of those accused, and now convicted, of the racially-motivated murder of Kriss Donald in Glasgow revealed details of such sickening brutality that I’m reluctant to discuss it in any detail.  Suffice to say that such exceptionally bestial crimes by their very nature do not reveal a ‘pattern’ of anything, no matter how much [...]

Technorati Tags: english+spelling, simon+jenkins, spelling+reform
Last Friday, in the Guardian, Simon Jenkins wrote that he welcomed the decision of the Scottish Qualifications Authority that they would accept text-message spellings in school examinations in “a direct challenge to the English at their most reactionary”. “The dark riders of archaism will protest and the backwoods will howl. [...]

Sort of; though, for what it’s worth, he does not appear to have committed any great crime over the Dome. Nor did he commit any great crime with his secretary; nor did he commit any great crime by playing croquet.

Despite not being a football fan, a nationalist or a car driver, I really rather like all those England flags festooned about the national vehicle fleet (and indeed pretty much everywhere else).
There are numerous detractors of which Janet Street-Porter seems typical. She bemoans ‘white van man’ and the pointlessness of football. Aside of the snobbery [...]

Not my phrase, but one borrowed from Brian Taylor, political editor of the BBC in Scotland and author of books such as The Road to the Scottish Parliament. He was giving a lecture on Scotland and the EU at Edinburgh Law School, and in that context identified three weak points of devolution: the soft underbelly. [...]

Following the death of toddler Andrew Morton, who earlier this year was killed by a nutter firing an airgun, the government has decided to further restrict sales of airguns:
The UK Government is to impose tighter controls on airguns following the murder of Glasgow toddler Andrew Morton, BBC Scotland has learned.
The Home Office could confirm as [...]

Constitutional issues have a curious ability to excite those with a particular interest in them to a near frenzy, while leaving the rest of the population at best bemused, at worst somnolent.
One such issue is voting reform, a subject already dealt with in some detail on this site. Another, and one with the potential to [...]