Kevin Mckenna: The SNP and political class loathe the Men’s Shed movement
The Men’s Shed provides men with a space to talk and to feel valued once more
The Men’s Shed provides men with a space to talk and to feel valued once more
I’VE been expecting David Belcher’s debut novel, The Newspaper Man for a long time.
TO HOLYROOD where I’m privileged to witness John Swinney make his debut hosting First Minister’s Questions. Mr Swinney, as expected, played it tight at the back, deploying a strategy designed to contain and breaking quickly from defence when the opportunity presented itself.
The importance of today’s historic First Minister’s Questions could not be over-stated. It was barely 48 hours after our MSPs’ ordeal at the hands of Dr Hilary Cass. How many of them had recovered sufficiently?
John Swinney has only two years to rise to the biggest challenge facing the SNP: how to decouple it from the ruinous reign of Nicola Sturgeon.
Nor do I think that when some talked of Humza Yousaf having defenestrated the Scottish Greens in ditching the Bute House Agreement they actually thought he’d thrown Patrick Harvie out of a window.
The world’s kindest security search proceeds at the entrance to the Scottish Parliament. A young man greets me warmly while gently advising me that I require a second plastic tray for my laptop. It’s at this point during airport checks when you begin to feel like a fugitive from justice.
ON John Swinney’s great day of Nationalist reunification a tear in the fabric remained stubbornly visible. He’d just declared his intention to become Scotland’s seventh First Minister by talking about healing and cohesion and moving forward together and seeking ‘change’. The performative applause led by more than half the Scottish cabinet (minus Shona Robison) made this feel less a campaign launch than a coronation valedictory.
I had no problem with the Greens’ ginger bottle return scheme and their fancy boilers and turning off the North Sea gas. Let’s face it: we all knew none of it would work and I was planning to ditch them before the next Scottish election anyway. But when Harvie popped in the other week with a proposed white paper on energy efficiency I knew that the party was over.
IN a year of errors and misjudgements by the Humza Yousaf administration I suppose another little one won’t make much difference. Mr Yousaf’s latest ill-advised step occurred towards the end of his resignation speech.
Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event.
As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles.
Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services.
These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community.
It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times.