Latest news with #HolyroodElection
Scotsman
05-08-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Readers' Letters: Time for Jews to intervene in Gaza
Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped by parachutes into Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) A reader congratulates one of our columnists for is Gaza views. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Your columnist Joe Goldblatt is to be commended to utter the unequivocal truth that it is time for Jews to intervene to end the unfathomable grief, wholesale destruction and human agony in Gaza. Not long ago, Jews were systematically slaughtered, starved, tormented and sent to crematoria in gas chambers and death camps to perish silently. Their emaciated images are still engraved in our human consciousness. They rekindled our collective remembrance and mourning and offered us not only stories about inhumane barbarism but also stories of unswerving strength, resilience, hope and intrepidity to triumph over adversity and be an impetus for us to work for justice, equality, inclusivity, diversity, respect for human rights and dignities. Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob, London Bye bye Kate Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Kate Forbes has announced – to all intensive purposes – that if she is to spend her waking hours dealing with children, she would much sooner deal with her own, thank you very much. The hordes of (largely male) creeps and snollygosters that have grown like fungus through much of Scottish society will celebrate the news, doubtless with fictitious references to her supposed religion inspired 'bigotry' without being able to quote one instance of a contentious – let alone partisan – statement she has made once. They always did feel threatened by a woman not afraid to do a proper day's work. With her passing goes our last politician of integrity or sense of duty, and the last positive role model of plurality for a feckless generation of secular Covenanters obsessed with ostracising anyone not signed up to their social media trending 'Sound Doctrine'. Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire The sinking SNP Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It would seem that we, the electorate, are witnessing the 'crew abandoning a sinking ship'. The number of MSPs from the SNP who have intimated their intention to stand down before the 2026 Holyrood Election is ever on the increase. Even Scotland's Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, has decided to call it a day. But anyway, there is little doubt that 7th May, 2026, will see the demise of the SNP/Green Administration at Holyrood. It is my view that following the next Holyrood Elections much less emphasis will be placed on matters which are so obviously not included within the powers granted under the Scotland Acts. The SNP Administration has, over its period in office, devoted too much time attempting to interfere with Reserved Matters – which remain under the jurisdiction of Westminster. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad If the Scottish Parliament is to continue to exist many changes will require to be implemented by the incoming Administration. Far too much emphasis has been placed by the SNP/Green alliance on matters not in any way relating to Holyrood's remit. Robert I G Scott, Ceres, Fife Vanishing acts The SNP has been and continues to be a vanishing species. Rather like the fairy tale of 'The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs', the SNP talked up North Sea gas and oil as the way in which an independent Scotland would become some kind of northern European Saudi Arabia. Then, under Nicola Sturgeon, the road to independence came to a branching of the path and she chose to abandon oil on the platform of wind power, and Scotland has been plagued by the horrific windmills ever since, with landscapes destroyed, no matter what the locals think. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This was accompanied by gender identity nonsense and, quite suddenly, the people saw that, like another fairy tale, the emperor had no clothes. Meanwhile, all the leading people in the SNP started to retire, or resign. If they didn't leave the SNP for the Alba party, they decided to leave politics when they saw the writing on the wall. Now, Shona Robison and Fiona Hyslop join Humza Yousaf as they decide to retire. Mhairi Black has left the SNP, as has Fergus Ewing. Rather like Kate Forbes, Fergus Ewing has occasionally sounded alarm at the antics of the Nats. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Now, they have lost one of the few amongst them who occasionally talked sense. Perhaps those leaving the SNP should have a theme tune? May I suggest 'It's All Over Now'. Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh Holyrood ref With the departure next year of Kate Forbes, perhaps the only nationalist MSP and minister with a slim grasp on reality, the rumblings about the very existence of Holyrood grow. I for one would welcome its going. Just think – at a stroke an instant saving of £billions. More cash for the NHS, Roads, Schools and much else. Women's Rights could be reinforced, not taken away. We could return Scotland to where it once sat proudly at the top table – a leader in engineering and nuclear and oil and gas technology. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad At last, no more perpetual Holyrood whining and blaming everyone else for Scotland's self-inflicted ills. And a final bonus of no more cash-devouring pretend embassies and multiple jollies for the SNP's boys and girls. Let us have a referendum, not on the breaking up of the UK, but on the continuing existence of Holyrood as it is. Alexander McKay, Edinburgh Max madness Your article by Catriona Stewart 'report for doomed to fail minimum income guarantee' illuminates the ongoing profligacy of a group of alleged politicians and indeed in some of their eyes 'statesmen and women'. £1.3 million spent on a pigs-might-fly scheme, where from the very outset it was patently obvious this would, if introduced, bankrupt the nation and further encourage the anti-work brigade (many of whom are SNP supporters, funnily enough) to do nothing to change their circumstances. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad To even think this was a 'goer' should surely prove this lot are utterly deluded fools. They complain they do not have sufficient 'levers' to carry out policies, may we thank the Lord indeed if this is the case – blatantly obvious to anyone, this is not the case in the most devolved nation in the western world. While disagreeing with Kate Forbes on the Indie issue, I wish her well, one of the few with a moral backbone, though I suspect her leaving has more to it than juggling her private life with parliament. I am sure the example above among countless others would also be a factor. In this case one could not level the sobriquet of 'rats deserting the sinking ship' to Ms Forbes. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She leaves with her dignity intact, sadly leaving the real rats still on board the doomed ship SNP. D Millar, Lauder Bird brained E Campbell's letter of 5 August quoting the death rate of birds by various methods and the likely number by the Berwick Bank wind farm, misses one crucial point, that it will be an increase on previous numbers. It is likely to be sea birds who will be the main casualties, not because cats or guns but because of machines that only work when the wind blows. Mechanical power production does not present that problem. C Lowson, Hampshire Cat protection If E Campbell's claim is correct, (letters 5 August 2025) then cats kill one quarter of all UK birds every year, which we very much doubt. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In dismissing as relatively small the number of birds that will be killed by Berwick Bank, he/she also ignores the significant cumulative impact of wind farms and the fact that many of the birds that will be killed by Berwick Bank are in serious decline and, according to the RSPB and other wildlife charities, will 'catapult some species towards extinction'. They are not the same species which will be killed by cats in our back gardens. Cats provide companionship for many, including the elderly and vulnerable in society. They provide a service in natural pest control, eliminating the need for poisons which affect the entire food chain and inflict a miserable death on many innocent creatures. Regrettably it is true that where deterrence fails to reduce the risk of birds to aircraft, birds will be shot. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad While we agree that jetting off on vacation a couple of times a year is unnecessary, there are unfortunately many other reasons that make flying a necessity. We can't do without cats or planes in our lives but there is absolutely no need for any more wind farms, on or offshore. Aileen Jackson, Scotland Against Spin Cable news Let's be careful with those new Berwick Bank Wind Turbines. While those new sea wind turbines can supply 'more than twice Scotland's needs', the power they manufacture has to be led from far out to sea to the land. Twice over recent years off Orkney, the main cable that supplies them from the mainland has been mysteriously severed. Although it is once again mended, the reason for its being broken is not yet understood. Surely there is a lesson here! Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I trust that the electricity from the new Berwick Bank power source is linked to the land by many separate cables, which hopefully arrive at widely varying points on the land. Europe has recently been considering what action can be taken to prevent some possible enemy from severing cables that already exist between the UK and Europe and we must think likewise about the power coming from the Berwick Bank. Archibald A. Lawrie, Kingskettle Write to The Scotsman
BBC News
21-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Patrick Harvie sees off Green challenge for top election spot
Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie has seen off a campaign to replace him as the party's top candidate in Glasgow at the 2026 Holyrood a ballot of party members, the outgoing co-chief secured the top place on the Glasgow regional list, which is likely to secure him re-election to Holyrood.A slate of self-described "radical" Green members - who were critical of his time leading the party - had sought to replace other regional ballots, most sitting Green MSPs secured the top place on the list. The results follow infighting about the direction of the party, which has been described as a "civil war" by some insiders. A number of party activists have questioned the period the Greens spent in government with the SNP and claimed that power within the party had been concentrated in too small a recently told BBC Scotland News that the behaviour of some figures had been "out of order". Holyrood's longest-serving party chief, Harvie announced in April that he would not seek re-election as Green co-leader. However, he will seek re-election as an MSP, having been first elected on the Glasgow regional list in 2003. Along with his co-leader Slater, he was the first Green minister in the UK after his party signed the power-sharing deal with the SNP in 2021. Under the electoral system for Holyrood, the regional list vote involves parties ranking their candidates. The higher an individual appears on the list, the better their chance is of becoming an candidates for the party's two co-leadership positions - Gillian Mackay, Ross Greer and Lorna Slater - have all secured top spot in their regions. All three are defenders of the time the Greens spent in government with the North East MSP Maggie Chapman was ranked second, making re-election more came under fire earlier this year when she criticised the judiciary over the Supreme Court's ruling on the definition of a woman. In 2023, she expressed regret for a social media post claiming the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel was an act of "decolonisation", not "terrorism". Leadership contest Green leaders serve two-year terms and under party rules one of them has to be a Green member can stand for the leadership, meaning there could yet be a leadership challenge from the grassroots of the contest is expected to be decided by the end of August. Looking at the results of the internal elections for the regional lists, it appears that members have backed those who have been prominent in the party in recent activists have been vocal about their disappointment with the party's – at least for now – the 7,000 Scottish Green members seem to have given a vote of confidence to those who have been running the that could have implications beyond the Greens. The sitting MSPs have shown they are willing to do deals with the could prove to be important after next year's Holyrood election.
BBC News
19-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Are the Scottish Greens descending into civil war?
Patrick Harvie has been a Green MSP for more than 20 years - but now a group of his own local activists want to replace just one of the latest twists in a series of internal disputes that have been rumbling away in the Scottish this is going on as the party searches for two co-leaders to take it into the next Holyrood Harvie is standing down from one of these positions. He's proud of his record, though he believes political circumstances kept him in the role for too longest-serving leader in Scottish politics still wants to go back to Holyrood at the 2026 a group of "radical" Green activists are now looking to replace him as the party's top MSP candidate in Glasgow, a position that more or less guarantees part of what some in the party are calling the "Glasgow Faction", and they're critical of how the Greens have operated in recent contest has become something of a proxy battle for the direction of the party. In a social media campaign video, three activists - Ellie Gomersall, Iris Duane and Councillor Seonad Hoy - argue that "a fresh start" is needed, and that internal power has been "consolidated into a smaller and smaller group of people".They're critical of the time the Greens spent in government with the SNP, saying there was a lack of investment in communities during that period.I contacted all three to try and speak to them for this article but couldn't secure any Harvie spoke to me for 30 minutes near his office in gave a passionate defence of the Bute House Agreement – the deal that took the party into government with the SNP between 2021 and outgoing co-leader insisted that politics requires compromise, adding that "for a long time the Greens sometimes were guilty of - and sometimes even felt satisfied about - just saying 'we're right, everyone else is wrong'."Sometimes that can make activists feel satisfied. But it doesn't achieve very much. And I think to a lot of voters it comes across as smugness."He won't name names but says some individuals "never accepted the legitimacy of the decision on the Bute House Agreement and set out to try and undermine not just the position of the party but some of the individuals [involved]. That behaviour is out of order". But one party insider, who wanted to remain anonymous, accused the Green leadership of using "a made-up tale about 'factions' to shore up their own position and drive out any minor dissent".They added that a lack of tolerating alternative views about the Bute House Agreement made the Greens look "petty".The disagreements go beyond this one selection battle in vocal critic of the party leadership, Niall Christie, was a candidate in Glasgow at the general election last complaints, he's been suspended as a member while candidate selections are under way. Some have questioned if there's a political motivation behind this party refused to comment on this disciplinary Green Party figure told me that despite a "happy clappy" reputation there's been a "civil war" going on for some time, with members leaking material to journalists and briefing against one said the culture had become "much worse" since the recent leadership contest began. And they claimed that arguments framed as policy disagreements were actually more to do with "personal beefs".The same individual was critical of the "Glasgow Faction", saying these activists believed "if we go out with our banners and flags eventually we'll win. They think we can activate the proletariat, but that's not how the world works". These divisions may well spill into the ongoing leadership co-leader Lorna Slater is seeking re-election to one of the two positions. And fellow MSPs Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer have also launched Greer is close to outgoing party leader Patrick Harvie and was involved in the drafting of the Bute House Agreement. Ms Mackay said she was "upset" when that deal came to an co-leaders don't have to be MSPs, and some are predicting a challenge from a grassroots Scottish Greens are perhaps suffering from the inevitable consequences of their own they're an important political party - with a taste for government and a cohort of engaged relevance can often intensify internal disagreements. There's more at stake for each "side" in these do these internal squabbles really matter to anyone beyond the 7,000 members the party has?When you cast an eye over at the polls looking ahead to the Holyrood election in 2026, it's looking likely that any government will need the support of at least one other Greens have the potential to be kingmakers. And whether or not they will support a government – and the terms on which they will do so – could ultimately have a much broader direction this party takes in the coming months, and how these arguments play out, may have an impact well beyond the Scottish Green membership.
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Confident Kemi says: 'We can beat the SNP in constituencies across the country... anything can happen'
Kemi Badenoch has insisted the Scottish Conservatives could beat the SNP in constituencies up and down the country at the Holyrood election next year. The UK Tory leader suggested the party would take the fight to the Nationalists at the 2026 parliamentary vote, adding: 'Anything can happen.' In an interview with The Mail, Ms Badenoch said the Scottish Conservatives - led by her colleague Russell Findlay - could make gains beyond their traditional supporter base in the North East and in the Scottish Borders. It comes as in a speech to the party's conference at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, on Saturday Mr Findlay laid bare his ambitious plans to oust First Minister John Swinney from his Perthshire North constituency - as well as SNP MSPs in Ayr and Moray. Last night, Ms Badenoch said the party's position on repealing Labour 's 'family farm tax', the energy profits levy and its strong position on the ' gender debate' offered a clear alternative to voters. The UK leader - who replaced Rishi Sunak in November - said: 'I think there's very, very clear blue water between us and the SNP between us and Conservative Party is very clear on what its offer is.' Such optimism was palpable in her Friday speech to conference delegates on Friday, during which she said the party needed to bring about the SNP's 'electoral defeat'. Asked if she truly believed the Scottish Conservatives were able to beat the SNP in the Holyrood election, she said: 'Yes, anything can happen'. She continued: 'People look at what's happening in a particular moment, and assume it's always going to be like that. 'But we're not going to beat them by joining with them. We're going to beat them by having a better offer.' Such fighting talk comes despite a Survation poll in May suggesting the Tories are likely to return fewer MSPs than Nigel Farage's Reform party at the Holyrood vote next year. According to projections from Professor Sir John Curtice the SNP would return 58 seats and the Conservatives fewer than half their current group, returning 13 MSPs compared to its current crop of 30. Reform, meanwhile, would move into second place as the main opposition party on 21 seats. A recent litmus test of Tory support, the Hamilton by-election, saw the party slip into fourth place behind Reform - and was viewed by some pundits as evidence that Mr Farage's party posed an existential threat to the Tories' electoral fortunes. Mr Findlay yesterday dismissed what he labelled as 'pointy head' pollsters, which he said had been proven wrong in the past. And while Ms Badenoch is keenly aware of the rise in popularity of Reform - even warning in her speech to conference at the end of last week that Mr Farage is a threat to the Union because he does not care about more SNP rule - she insisted that 'everybody is a competitor' ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election. She said: 'We live in a multi party era; we're going to be fighting for every single vote; we're not singling any party out.' However, unable to resist being drawn on how she might describe the First Minister John Swinney in three words, the UK Tory leader was characteristically robust. 'Not. An. Option,' she said. Both Ms Badenoch and Mr Findlay hope a display of humility and contrition to voters over mistakes made in government is key to boosting support for the party. Asked how she can prove to Scottish voters who appear to have switched to Reform that they need the Scottish Tories, Ms Badenoch said: 'By winning back their trust, and we will do that by being very honest about where we made mistakes. She said: 'The windfall tax [on oil and gas company profits] was one example. 'I often use immigration as another. We've come up with a whole new set of policies on immigration - which are much tougher - stopping people who have not contributed in our society from getting benefits, which act as a pull factor; not making British citizenship so easy to get, which is another pull factor. 'So we are changing our policy - but we're being very honest, in a way that the other parties simply are not being.' She added: 'The way we win is by rebuilding trust, winning back that trust, but showing who we are, what we stand for, whose side we're on and having an offer that's actually going to work.' On Saturday, in his first major conference speech since becoming Scottish Tory leader, Mr Findlay said he was an 'optimist' and that he was 'not prepared to accept doom and gloom'. Speaking of his party's hopes to win the First Minister's Perthshire North seat, he teased: 'Wouldn't that be some prize? Swinney paying the price for his abysmal record.'
Telegraph
12-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
SNP could use Chancellor's spending review billions as Holyrood election war chest
Ministers fear that millions of pounds of extra UK taxpayers' cash will be used by the SNP as a war chest in next May's crucial Holyrood election as part of its battle to make Scotland independent. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has announced that more than £50 billion is on its way to Scotland as its share of Treasury largesse, under the Barnett Formula, the system devised 40 years ago by the then Labour government to allocate British assets to the devolved countries. The system is also known as the 'Union Dividend' because it is designed to prove to citizens of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that they are much better off staying part of the UK. However, the irony is that the SNP always uses much of this money to pursue its only real policy – that is to break up Britain. This year's Barnett settlement is actually £9 billion more than had been expected but even at that, the SNP Government claims that it has been 'short-changed' to the tune of over £1 billion over the next three years. Ian Murray, the Scottish Secretary, has warned that this increased block grant – which amounts to record funding for Scotland – would be 'squandered' unless the SNP is defeated and ousted from power in next May's elections to the Scottish Parliament. Scottish Labour had high hopes of defeating the nationalists in that election, following last July's general election when it won 38 seats from the SNP. However, a series of unpopular policies introduced by Sir Keir Starmer's government – including the axing of the winter fuel payment and changes to benefit rules – saw John Swinney 's party reversing the situation: so much so that the SNP is ahead in opinion polls and support for independence has risen alarmingly. And Mr Murray has claimed that an extra £4.9 billion handed to the SNP Government by the Treasury after last autumn's Budget had been squandered with most Scots feeling little benefit. Especially galling for UK ministers and other Unionists has been the fact that much of the cash had been spent on pay rises with the result that SNP was able to boast that public sector pay was significantly higher in Scotland than in England. It might well be, but only because of Barnett's largesse. The current fear is that with all this cash sloshing around, SNP ministers will use it for more 'bribes' by way of pay rises to key sectors of the electorate. So what's to be done? Not, as Nigel Farage and others have suggested, the idea that Barnett should be scrapped as outdated. That is too drastic a step. Instead, what is required is a much more forensic attack on the SNP budget and its spending commitments to ensure that they are used for the benefit of ordinary Scots and not in pursuit of independence. The Commons has a role to play in this exercise but the main responsibility lies with the Scottish Parliament. Time without number this establishment proves itself to be a busted flush – an assembly where there is no fire, no genuine anger at how easily the SNP Government rules the roost. With less than a year to go before the next election, the opposition – and mostly Unionist – parties must embark on a line by line, clause by clause forensic examination of nationalist spending. And they should make a noise while they're doing it. It's all too polite among the many easy-lifers at Holyrood. 'Home for their tea by 5pm' is too often the abiding rule by which many of the 129 MSPs exist. It was thus something of a pleasure to see that the leaders of the Scottish Labour and Conservative parties are up for the fight and are determined to give the First Minister both barrels in the coming weeks and months. Always assuming the Holyrood presiding officer allows it, of course.
