Ash Regan on the rise of Reform in Scotland, what is a woman and why ‘no-one resigns anymore'
On the podcast, she talks to Lucy about the difference between Alba and the SNP, the threat of Reform in Scotland, the 'performative' nature of Scottish politics, the Supreme Court ruling over what is a woman, and why she was right to resign over the Gender Recognition Bill.
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The Herald Scotland
4 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Kevin McKenna: 'A warm welcome by Sturgeon confessions leave me cold'
For the record, the former First Minister is looking relaxed in a rather fetching two-piece of brown pinstriped trousers and waistcoat. She's just stepped off the stage where she'd had a chat with Jim Monaghan to launch the Govanhill Book Festival. Mr Monaghan is a much-loved poet and social activist around the south side of Glasgow and Ms Sturgeon has represented this area in one form or another for almost a quarter of a century. The contrast between this event and Thursday's official launch of Ms Sturgeon's memoirs at the Edinburgh Book Festival, is stark. Tonight, I'm with 100 or so souls paying not much more than a fiver a pop at the Queen's Park Govanhill Church of Scotland. On Thursday, more than 2,000 people will have paid through the nose at a sold out event at the mighty McEwan Hall. The conversation was interesting and even, at times, heartfelt. Ms Sturgeon discussed her lifelong love of books and how this had been a light to her in some very dark corners. Acknowledging that there be journos afoot in the audience, she dutifully threw us some scratchings about Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer. Nicola Sturgeon at the Govanhill Book Festival (Image: NQ) 'There's a sense of despair that all the wrong people are in power — not here in Scotland — but there is a sense that the wrong people are taking the world in the wrong direction. 'You've got people like Donald Trump trying to persuade people that the real challenge is not climate change, but the policies that are being pursued to try to tackle climate change.' She then turned on Sir Keir for 'trying to outdo Nigel Farage on immigration' and for not having 'the guts to stand up and say why the country needs immigration, why it's good for the country to be diverse.' This may very well be true, but she can't actually believe that right now in Scotland, the right people are in control, given that that they've failed dismally in every important area of public life and by every significant metric. And that because of this, Scotland is a bitterly divided nation where the censor's pen and the redacted document are the chief means of civic governance. There are traces of this in a pocket of silent protestors who have gathered outside the venue, including some Alex Salmond supporters. Two former SNP members tell me that they consider Ms Sturgeon to be 'worse than Trump'. And as the audience inside began to leave, one chap shouted something about men in women's toilets. However, this is a community event and a very good one at that. The Q&A session that follows the conversation isn't really for journalists to do grandstanding. The book festival is part of the wider Govanhill Festival which is now in its ninth year. It's a triumph of optimism and creativity in a neighbourhood that's had to meet and overcome some chronic adversity. For a while, Govanhill was the favoured destination of right-wing newspaper snoopers channelling racism directed at the Roma Community who have settled here and blaming Nicola Sturgeon for the perceived decrepitude of the hedges in this area. READ MORE: Ms Sturgeon has played an active part in bringing about the re-birth of Govanhill and has been tireless in her advocacy for the restoration of the Govanhill Baths. She was also a champion for the astonishing transformation in the Gorbals just down the road. She is both well-kent and much admired in this constituency. Once, around ten years ago I'd taken her into Heraghty's Bar for a couple of drinks following an interview in her constituency office which sat across the road from the best pub in the south side of Glasgow. It was an establishment mainly favoured by the Irish community and she was very much at home sipping white wine spritzers at the bar amongst the regulars. Everything Ms Sturgeon said about the US President and Keir Starmer was rendered somewhat redundant though, when Boothman of the Times sidled up to me afterwards to show me his paper's breathless on-line exclusive. The Times have paid serious money to get access to Ms Sturgeon's recollections. And this evening the first fruits of it were revealed. They told us that Ms Sturgeon considers her sexuality to be non-binary and about the heartache of suffering a miscarriage. The day she was lifted by the cops in 2023 was 'the worst day of my life'. For the sake of the publishers who paid £300k for the book, I hope there is a lot more meat than this. Coming out as non-binary in Scotland these days is as risqué as getting a tattoo without telling your parents. And Ms Sturgeon has already discussed the tragedy of her miscarriage. Getting your collar felt by the cops when you think you've done nothing wrong would be the worst day in anyone's life. She would, of course have no case to answer. Meanwhile, you might ask why a fierce advocate for Scottish independence chose a London firm to publish her memoir. Pan Macmillan are amongst the world's mightiest and richest publishers and would easily have outbid the single Scottish firm which competed for them. What a message it would have conveyed to Scotland's ailing publishing sector though, if Ms Sturgeon had chosen to be published here. I ask Ms Sturgeon if she has plans to write more books. 'You'd be well-placed to write a decent political thriller,' I tell her. 'Do you think I'd need to portray you in it,' she says with only a hint of menace. 'Well, if you feel you've been too nice in your memoirs, you could settle a few scores under the cover of dramatic fiction,' I reply.
STV News
6 hours ago
- STV News
Netanyahu ‘not a partner in peace', says Scottish Labour leader Sarwar
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 'not a partner in peace' who will eventually have to answer to international courts over the crisis in Gaza, the leader of Scottish Labour has said. Anas Sarwar hit out at the Israeli premier as he announced plans to take over Gaza City in a new offensive. While Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the plans were 'wrong', Sarwar was much more strident, describing Netanyahu as a 'war criminal'. Following news of the offensive, the Scottish Greens urged the Prime Minister to expel the Israeli ambassador from the UK. But Sarwar said he did not want to 'get into stunts'. 'The problem here is Benjamin Netanyahu, his Israel government, his illegal occupation, his lack of interest in peace and the fact that he clearly has no respect for international law, and gives no value to the sanctity of human life,' he told the PA news agency. 'He is a danger to his own population in Israel, but he's also a danger to the Palestinian population and a danger to the wider region in the Middle East.' He added: 'We all have to be resolute in saying that Netanyahu is a war criminal, he's not acting in the interests of peace. 'He's not a partner for peace, Hamas is a terrorist organisation that committed horrific acts on October 7 2023 – they aren't partners for peace.' Diplomacy, the Scottish Labour leader said, had not yet worked in ending the conflict, but shutting off communications would not help matters. 'Diplomacy hasn't worked in terms of the war ending, because the war is still ongoing,' he said. 'There is a plausible case for genocide that the Israeli government has to answer and one day I believe will have to answer to the ICC and the ICJ. 'But we have to urgently end the war – if we think just stopping talking to the Israeli government means that we end the war, I think that's a pretty naive view of the situation right now.' The only person who the Israel Government would listen to, he said, would be US President Donald Trump, as he urged the international community to exert as much pressure as possible on the administration. Asked if he felt the UK Government had done enough to solve the issue, the Scottish Labour leader said it had done 'a lot', but added: 'I think there's still more we have to look at.' Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater said the UK Government has been an 'active participant' in what she described as a 'genocide' in Gaza. 'Urging restraint is not enough, the hypocrisy must end. The arms sales must stop and so must the military collaboration and political support that has gone with them. 'That must mean backing sanctions against Israeli forces and expelling the Israeli ambassador who has served as a mouthpiece for genocide. 'This has been a disgraceful chapter in UK foreign policy and has made the Prime Minister and his colleagues complicit in some of the worst war crimes of this century.' The UK Government has been contacted for comment. Meanwhile, Scottish First Minister John Swinney hit out at the announcement of the new offensive. 'The decision of the Israeli Government to seize control of Gaza City is completely and utterly unacceptable,' he said in a post on X. 'It will create even more human suffering for the Palestinian people and further escalate the conflict. 'The international community must stop Israel and secure a ceasefire.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
The Herald Scotland
7 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
The realists have left the building – now the SNP really is in trouble
By my reckoning ,there are only three competent SNP MSPs at the moment: Forbes, Michelle Thompson and Fergus Ewing. The latter is not even an SNP MSP anymore and will be standing as an independent next time - good for him. The other two will both be gone. Competence matters, experience outside Parliament matters, understanding that wealth generation must come before more spending matters. Alex Salmond had a grasp of economics and knew he had to draw from across the traditional political spectrum in order to succeed, and he nearly did. Sturgeon in contrast was a political pygmy. She thought wealth creators' sole purpose was to provide more money for her to spend. Instead of governing well for us all, hugely divisive social policies were endlessly pursed and now look rather daft. She quickly fades in the rear-view mirror. Yousaf is a chapter best skipped over and now we have Swinney. He has hit upon a brilliant new strategy: do as little as possible then you are less likely to annoy people or muck things up. What it is not is a strategy to inspire or really take things forward. Forbes understood that in order to make a success of independence - and that's the point, just getting it is no achievement at all - there would have to be a decisive majority of Scots in favour. Forget 51/49, more like 2 to 1 and in order to achieve that the Scottish Parliament would need to show over perhaps over 20 or 30 years it was clearly governing Scotland well and demonstrably better than the rest of the UK. Over the last nearly 20 years, successive SNP governments have failed to hit that target. Read more More economic trouble is coming. And there's only one escape route | The Herald It's time to cast aside prejudice and go for the cash Can anyone truly say the Scottish Parliament been a great success? I can't Without Forbes they won't even try. The SNP look to Stephen Flynn, a man of no achievement or experience outside politics, as a beacon of hope when actually they would lead the SNP and unfortunately the rest of us, onto the rocks. People often go into politics with good motives - to change things for the better. Unfortunately, within the ranks of SNP MSPs this essentially means only one thing: spend more money. Despite the Scottish Government's wailing that Scotland is hard done by, the truth is that we have a generous financial settlement as part of the UK. There is no Westminster-imposed austerity as the SNP would have us believe. Added to this, we pay higher taxes than the rest of the UK which the SNP thinks provides more money but in reality provides none as higher earners switch their residence and economic activity elsewhere. We like the fact that we have a lot of public servants when in truth we should try to manage with as few as possible. We pay them more than they would get in the rest of the UK and pretend this extra spending is "investment". We agree with the unions that civil servants can work from home and should move towards a four-day week with no loss of pay. Humza Yousaf (Image: Newsquest) We pay more in benefits. We don't require those who receive benefits to have regular face-to-face meetings to make sure they are still entitled to those benefits and help them improve their position - we just hand out the money - because we are nicer. The job of government is not to be nice but to be effective. How well a government is doing depends not on its inputs in terms of people and cash but on its outputs in terms of what is achieves for its citizens at a sensible cost to taxpayers. Effective government is not about failing to take on the unions and so building farcically large ferries. Nor is it preening about the number of wind turbines we have but being dead against new nuclear power which as well as creating thousands of jobs will keep the lights on during a cold still winter's night. Insisting that students won't have to pay for higher education but at the same time not providing the funds to our universities to enable them to compete in the longer term against those in England and elsewhere. That's not smart either. The fiscal position in the UK is bad and it's worse in Scotland. More challenging demographics, less economic growth, spending rising faster. The Scottish Government is not the proprietor of a sweetie shop, it needs to make hard choices in order to restrain spending and promote growth. So far it has shown no will to do either. With the departure of its few economic realists, it would be dangerous to hold your breath for improvement.
