John Ferry is a contributing editor for the think tank These Islands and a former financial journalist
John Swinney’s strategy for retaining the office of first minister after next year’s Holyrood election was fairly straight forward. All he had to do was sit back and watch a combination of the rise of Reform and Labour’s growing unpopularity split the opposition vote and the SNP would once again emerge as the biggest party
Scotland’s troubled nationalised shipyard, Ferguson Marine, has failed in its bid to win a crucial order for seven small electric ferries that will operate on Scotland’s west coast, it was announced yesterday. Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), the state body in charge of ferries procurement, says it intends to award the contract for the new ‘loch class’
The Scottish ferry, the Glen Sannox, has completed its first passenger journey, 2,610 days after it was infamously launched with fake parts and painted on windows by then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Unlike the staged fanfare of that 2017 event, no children were bussed in to wave Saltire flags at Troon harbour this morning, nor speeches
Higher-than-expected public sector pay deals, social security reform and the SNP’s freeze on council tax have all contributed to putting pressure on the Scottish government’s budget, according to a new report from Scotland’s fiscal watchdog. In a statement accompanying its latest fiscal report, the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) seems keen to remind Scots that the Scottish government bears most of
The Scottish government has published its latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) report, the official statistics outlining how much tax is raised in Scotland versus public spending for and on behalf of the country. The numbers have been followed with interest over the past decade because they give as accurate a view as possible of the
It appears Scotland’s troubled Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow shipyard will be kept afloat. A further £14 million of public money has been injected into it, according to announcements this week. At the same time, the Scottish government also took the opportunity to confirm the nationalised yard will not be directly awarded a contract to replace state-owned ferry
Like the wider UK result, the SNP getting a hammering in yesterday’s general election was largely predicted by the polls. But this has not lessened the impact of seeing the many well-kent faces of high-profile former SNP MPs being given their marching orders by the Scottish electorate. One after another they fell, and with them
John Swinney and his colleagues continuously claim Scotland ‘rejoining’ the EU is possible, and that by voting SNP we can make it happen. In this general election the SNP manifesto commits to ‘an independent Scotland in the EU.’ This is a perfect example of the way a comforting lie becomes more popular than an unpleasant
The Scottish government under John Swinney and his deputy Kate Forbes could be on the verge of missing an opportunity to strengthen UK/Scottish shipbuilding while possibly failing islanders and the working communities of Glasgow’s Clyde area. This is according to the former head of Scotland’s nationalised shipyard, David Tydeman, who has decided to speak out.
Scotland’s SNP government would like nothing better than to be seen to have saved commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde. It likes the idea so much it has spent almost half a billion pounds of taxpayer money on the effort while trying to produce two new ferries for Scotland’s island communities. How ironic would it be
You wait eight-and-a-half years for someone to lose their job over the SNP’s ferries fiasco, then two sackings come at once. So which Scottish government minister has finally paid the price for a scandal that has left islanders without reliable ferry services, brought the Scottish government and its agencies into disrepute, and cost Scottish taxpayers hundreds of
He’s only gone and done it again. Mark Blyth, born in Dundee but now professor of international economics at the prestigious Brown University in the United States – the man who was wooed by the Scottish government to join its economic advisory council in 2021 in the obvious hope he would lend credibility (and maybe
Try to start a speech with a joke to warm up your audience. That’s always good advice. And so Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, began his speech at the London School of Economics this week by light-heartedly pointing out that the LSE might be a world-class institution but it only came fourth in a recent newspaper ranking
If you thought senior Conservatives giving evidence to the UK Covid inquiry in London was rough then you should watch the footage now emerging from Edinburgh, where the Inquiry’s lawyers have moved to take evidence. It’s a bloodbath. Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and current first minister Humza Yousaf are yet to even take the
Much of the speculation in the build-up to the Scottish budget yesterday focused on the possibility of the introduction of yet another new income tax band for the well off. And So it came to pass. Speaking at Holyrood yesterday afternoon, Deputy First Minister and Finance Secretary Shona Robison announced a new ‘advanced rate’ of
There have been extraordinary goings on at Holyrood this week – and I don’t mean more iPad-on-holiday revelations or sleazy claims two SNP politicians broke lockdown rules while having an affair. I’m referring to evidence put to the Scottish parliament’s equalities, human rights and civil justice committee on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, which aims to
The SNP Scottish government has brought out its latest fantasy paper on secession. Never mind the party’s nosediving popularity that could see the Nationalists kicked out of office in 2026. Or that your average Scot’s enthusiasm for another referendum is on a par with their eagerness for another bout of Covid. The dream shall never
Picture the scene around a year from now. We’ve just had a general election. The SNP has gone from 48 MPs in 2019 to, say, 30. Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf announces he is starting the process of taking Scotland out of the UK in line with the policy his party adopted the previous year.
‘I will lead by example in adhering to this Code and knowing it is an incredible privilege to serve the people of Scotland. I know that Ministers will do likewise,’ is how First Minister, Humza Yousaf, ends the foreword to the latest edition of the Scottish Ministerial Code, published in July. Just a couple of months later
In retrospect, the computerised boat in the movie Titanic looked more believable than the one Nicola Sturgeon stood in front of the day she ‘launched’ the Glen Sannox ferry, almost six years ago. With its famously painted on windows and oddly delicate looking bulbous bow – one of many parts subsequently replaced as it was
