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Iain Macwhirter

Iain Macwhirter

Herald Scotland

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The problem with Kemi Badenoch’s transgender reforms

It is five years since Labour’s then equalities spokeswoman, Dawn Butler, told a BBC interviewer that babies aren’t born with a sex. It was...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The Edinburgh Book Festival has bowed to the eco mob

This week, the Edinburgh Book Festival has joined the Hay Literary Festival in abandoning its sponsorship deal with the investment group Baillie...

31.05.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

John Swinney’s wounds are self-inflicted

John Swinney has said that he will make sure the public sees enough of him over the election campaign. But do they want to? In the latest Survation...

29.05.2024 40

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP has finally given up on Greta Thunberg

It is less than three years since Nicola Sturgeon was taking selfies with Greta Thunberg at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow. Now in this election...

28.05.2024 20

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Can Scottish Labour really vanquish the SNP?

There is a distinct air of unreality about the position of the Scottish Labour party as it enters this election campaign. Frankly, many in the party...

24.05.2024 30

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

This election couldn’t come at a worse time for the SNP

The last time John Swinney was leader of the SNP, 20 years ago, the party went on to return only six MPs in the next general election. Labour returned...

23.05.2024 30

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP vows to make poverty history – again

There is a weary inevitability about Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, promising to eradicate child poverty in his first mission statement to...

22.05.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Everything is an emergency after SNP rule

15.05.2024 20

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Has the SNP really turned its back on identity politics?

The term ‘progressive’ has been much abused in the past decade. Originally a term denoting enlightenment and social universalism, it became...

11.05.2024 40

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

John Swinney will lead the SNP into oblivion

The expected coronation of John Swinney, a 60-year-old yesterday’s man, as SNP leader is bleak news for the independence movement. When Swinney –...

02.05.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The war on Kate Forbes

Kate Forbes has yet to throw her hat into the ring for the SNP leadership race, but already the campaign is underway to block her. As in last year’s...

01.05.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Whoever wins the SNP leadership race, the party loses

None of the candidates for the SNP leadership has declared yet, but it is shaping up to be a classic two horse race between the former leader, and...

30.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Did Nicola Sturgeon kill Humza Yousaf’s Alba deal?

After the tears, the recriminations. Just who scuppered the putative deal between Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan MSP that could have saved Yousaf’s...

29.04.2024 30

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The final tragedy of ‘Humza the Brief’

If, as expected, Humza Yousaf resigns today as First Minister of Scotland, it will be the beginning of the end not just for him, not just for the...

29.04.2024 40

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

How Humza Yousaf could survive

Did Humza Yousaf think it through? When he decided, late on Wednesday night, to pull the plug on the Green-SNP coalition arrangement, did he game-out...

26.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

SNP / Is this the beginning of the end for Humza Yousaf?

When Nicola Sturgeon signed the Bute House power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Green Party in the summer of 2021, she said it would ensure...

25.04.2024 30

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Free the Greens from the SNP’s clutches!

I have not been entirely flattering about the performance in government of the Scottish Green party ministers, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater. I have...

24.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Scotland / Peter Murrell’s re-arrest has plunged the SNP into crisis

There is what can only be described as a mood of despair in SNP circles following the news that the former party chief executive Peter Murrell,...

19.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf could never realise Sturgeon’s fantasy climate plans

It was Cop26 in Glasgow and Nicola Sturgeon was in her element, posing for selfies with Greta Thunberg, David Attenborough and assorted world leaders....

18.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The Greens are embarrassing the SNP

For an image of the ‘progressive nationalism’ that has disfigured Scottish public life over the past decade, look no further than the Scottish...

12.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Is Scotland’s Hate Crime Act really a good thing?

The Hate Crime Scotland Act has, by common agreement, been an unmitigated disaster. Less than a week old, there are already calls for it to be...

05.04.2024 30

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Who would trust Holyrood with legalising euthanasia?

Would you trust this lot with assisted dying? The Scottish parliament’s record on issues of personal liberty has been pretty dire. Yet MSPs...

28.03.2024 30

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Scotland’s pound shop Stasi

The Scottish government’s illiberal Hate Crime and Public Order Act isn’t even being enforced yet and already Police Scotland are being accused of...

26.03.2024 30

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Why is the police’s SNP probe taking so long?

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf has plenty to worry about right now with the imminent implementation of his much-criticised Hate Crime...

22.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The scandal of Scotland’s illiberal hate crime law

From next month in Scotland you’ll be able to drop into a sex shop, make an anonymous accusation of hate crime against someone you dislike and...

14.03.2024 20

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf’s UN row is entirely of his own making

Humza Yousaf has a gift for landing himself at the centre of crises of his own making. One recalls his advice during Covid for people to ‘think...

12.03.2024 5

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

George Galloway will be a nuisance for Keir Starmer

The return of ‘Gorgeous’ George Galloway to the House of Commons may not be Keir Starmer’s worst nightmare, but it is certainly the recurrence...

01.03.2024 20

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

How Nicola Sturgeon saved the Union

It may seem perverse to claim that the former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon saved the Union between Scotland and England. She is after...

15.02.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Edinburgh University’s new rector must save it from gender ideology

Simon Fanshawe has been installed as the rector of Edinburgh University. The arrival of the comedian and Stonewall dissident to the post will...

14.02.2024 2

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

It’s no surprise that politicians politicised the pandemic

Nicola Sturgeon ‘could cry from one eye if she wanted to,’ Alister Jack told the UK Covid Inquiry this morning. It was an interesting medical...

01.02.2024 6

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s Covid reckoning

We now know from evidence to the Covid Inquiry that Scottish government ministers were as prone to offensive language as Dominic Cummings. Nicola...

26.01.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s juryless trial plan is falling apart

The SNP government has rarely demonstrated great respect for legal precedent or the rights of the individual. When Humza Yousaf was justice secretary...

24.01.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Humza’s humiliating XL Bully U-turn

Humza Yousaf has just executed an embarrassing U-turn and effectively banned XL Bully dogs in line with England and Wales. This has inevitably...

12.01.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

It’s no surprise Humza Yousaf is courting Brian Souter

It seems that Humza Yousaf is taking diversity seriously – though not as we know it. He has apparently welcomed the Christian fundamentalist former...

04.01.2024 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Annus horribilis / Nicola Sturgeon’s remarkable downfall

As she faced her final press conference of 2022 last Christmas, the first minister of Scotland seemed unassailable. Nicola Sturgeon had negotiated the...

31.12.2023 7

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s tax and spend delusion

What do you think when you think about teachers? Two things, if you are anything like me: low pay and time off work with stress. It’s a hard job,...

21.12.2023 50

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Will the Scottish government finally abandon its concerning gender reforms?

Perhaps the Scottish government thinks it’s a good time to put out the rubbish. With the news agenda dominated by the Scottish Budget and with the...

19.12.2023 20

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

Is Kate Forbes Scotland’s answer to Giorgia Meloni?

Scottish nationalists have always looked to Scandinavian countries as models of what a caring, social democratic Scotland would look like if only it...

17.12.2023 5

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

It’s time for Humza Yousaf to end this gender bill farce

The first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, has a painful choice following his latest defeat in the Court of Session today over the Gender...

08.12.2023 10

The Spectator

Iain Macwhirter

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