Leading pollster Sir John Curtice has warned that free speech is being curbed unnecessarily in Britain. Sir John, who is professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, has been examining the state of political debate and free speech.
When the First Minister resigns, I ask Sir John Curtice for his reaction and it’s pretty blunt. Mr Yousaf was, he says, a very poor politician and “bloody useless”. But the issue for the SNP now that their leader is going is whether they can actually find someone who’s any better. “The new leader will have two jobs,” says Sir John, “One is to unite the party, but also to improve relations with the Greens so you’ve got to get Patrick Harvie and Fergus Ewing on board. That’s job number one, where you might want to go for John Sweeney.
So many wounds, so many bruises, so many scalps, and yet still the SNP can’t help themselves. In the same week that Humza Yousaf announced his resignation, the party was up to its old tricks again. But we’ve been here before haven’t we? We can see the magic now. We know how it’s done.
Welcome to another week. It’s going to be a good one. The SNP is in crisis, there will be a no-confidence vote in Humza Yousaf, and the fate of the First Minister will probably be decided by the views, whims and prejudices of just two or three people. So let’s sift through the evidence, the tantrums and the tears, and look at clues to what’s going to happen to Mr Yousaf (warning: not pretty).
Patrick Harvie didn’t say anything when he left Bute House on Thursday morning, face like fizz, Edinburgh sun lighting up his rainbow lanyard. But he and Lorna Slater certainly had plenty to say later on. According to the co-leaders of the Scottish Greens, by ending the Bute House Agreement, the SNP was selling out future generations to appease reactionary forces. Quite the little tantrum it was.
I remember the first time I saw it: clambering through the heather and the ferns, climbing over the fences, wellies sinking into marsh and bog, looking for signs of life (badgers, deer, dogs, some humans) and wandering around the old Roman encampment. It was a beautiful but a rather forgotten and neglected piece of Scotland’s landscape.
Take a look because it could be the last time you see them. Schools. Police stations. Cinemas. Tenements. Buildings that tell the story of Glasgow and Glaswegians, but buildings too that are in serious danger of disappearing. They may still be standing now – damaged, decaying, and neglected examples of a great city’s history – but how much longer before we lose them?
Are there enough stations on the Glasgow to Edinburgh train line? A lot of the talk over the years has been about how efficient the service is and whether the line between Scotland’s biggest cities is fast enough. But another question is whether the service is properly linked to the communities along it. What’s the point of a train if you can’t get on it?
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer secretary of state for defence. Grant Shapps was out in Florida earlier this year for the test firing of a Trident missile. The aim was for the missile to fly several thousand miles and land in the Atlantic between Brazil and West Africa. It did not go well.
The first time apprentice Beth Atkinson tried to break the bottle of whisky against the hull, it failed to smash which is considered a very bad omen among the superstition-prone people who work at sea. But then the Glen Rosa slid into the water at Port Glasgow and it was hard not to feel inspired and a bit hopeful. Ship meets sea; man-made meets God-made; beautiful.
