Wee Ginger Dug
- The right wing takeover of the Labour party is now complete 12/05/2025The unpalatable truth for Labour supporters, that is those who adhere to the traditional values and beliefs of the Labour party as they were understood throughout the entire twentieth century, is that the Labour party they believed in is dead. It’s deader than the parrot in the famous Monty Python sketch and it’s every bit […]
- How polls turn a lead for Yes into a lead for No 08/05/2025You may have seen that a poll on support for Scottish independence was published this week. The headline figures on the poll, carried out by Survation, put No ahead on 44%, with Yes on 43% and undecided on 12%. When the undecideds were stripped out, this gave a result of 50.57% (rounded up to 51%) […]
- Iain MacWhirter gets it wrong again 05/05/2025Former Herald columnist Iain MacWhirter has completed his journey from semi-detached sympathiser with Scottish independence – although he never fully abandoned his delusional hopes of a federal UK – to fully fledged cheerleader for the British establishment. MacWhirter always used to position himself as one of those “critical friends” that the Scottish independence movement seems […]
- Starmer is fuelling the rise of the far right 03/05/2025Britain is broken, and sadly things are going to get much worse. Indeed there is currently no clear route to a UK which is more just, more humane, and more equitable. Even the drubbing that the Labour party received at the local elections in England on 1 May do not seem to be forcing Starmer […]
- The far right is now calling from inside the building 02/05/2025I got my review pack for Adult Disability Payment. It was very quick and easy to fill in. I checked the box confirming no changes to my condition and sent back the form with a copy of a letter written by my occupational therapist when I was discharged which confirms that my needs will be […]
- Social Security Scotland, first impressions as a service user 30/04/2025I had planned to write a blog article on Wednesday despite the fact I am struggling with a bad cold and hayfever simultaneously. It’s a joy. However instead I had to sort out what is going on with my review for Scottish Adult Disability Payment, which was supposed to have started on Friday. It’s now […]
- The unlamented death of the Tories, and their replacement with something worse 25/04/2025Just over one hundred years ago, the two major political parties in the UK were the Tories and the Liberals. Then the Labour party rose on the left – Labour really was a left wing party back then, and in the years following the First World War, Labour entirely displaced the Liberals as the main […]
- Shining a linguistic light on pronouns 23/04/2025In recent years the previously innocuous, even arcane, matter of pronouns has become intensely politicised in the often toxic debate around trans issues. I’ve tended to steer clear of this topic, partly because as a newly disabled person who was coming to terms with the life-altering effects of a massive stroke my over-riding imperative was […]
- Starmer’s failure is Scotland’s opportunity 22/04/2025What exactly is the point of Starmer’s supposedly Labour government? Just a few days after we learned that Starmer and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves are considering tax cuts for billionaire tech oligarchs, we discover that Labour ministers are ruling out the abolition of the two child benefit cap on the grounds of cost, even though […]
- The UK as currently constituted is dying off, Scotland is on a path to independence 20/04/2025For quite some time a definite pattern has emerged from opinion polling on Scottish independence, younger generations are more likely to support Scottish independence than older folk, the oldest generation consistently shows a substantial majority against independence whereas amongst younger people there is majority support for it. So for example, according to a recent study […]