Iain Macwhirter Now and Then

In 1996, in a rather desperate bid to head off Scottish home rule, the then Tory Scottish Secretary, Michael Forsyth, decided to return the ...

Last week, almost the entire population of Shetland united in opposition to the compulsory deportation of Sakchai Makao, a young Thai athlet...

“There appears to be a disconnect between the public's common sense view of right and wrong and how it sees that reflected in judicial d...

11/6/06 The most extraordinary sight of the week, indeed the year, was the leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition riding into Westminster with ...

What use are the Liberal Democrats? What are they for? It’s a question which has long been asked by Labour and Conservative politicians, bu...

Some issues are so serious that it takes a comedian to tell the truth about them. Ben Elton didn’t tell the MSPs on Holyrood’s drug and al...

John Prescott has, in a very real sense, become the unacceptable face of New Labour. Those grumpy jowls, that Les Dawson mouth, the fiery e...

Football isn’t a political matter - it’s much more important than that. The First Minister, Jack McConnell, was taken severely to task last...

So are dead Scots are subsidising the increased incomes of English pensioners? Well, that’s what the SNP think. I paraphrase, of course, b...

Tony Blair said something remarkable last week, so remarkable that I still can’t quite believe he said it. At Prime Minister’s Question Ti...

Everyone’s been waiting for the tipping point. Well, last week it finally tipped as Tony Blair admitted he cannot serve a full term. Everyo...

Speaking personally, I’d cut their goolies off. It’s the only language these people understand. I mean why should they be allowed to conti...

The best thing for Jack McConnell right now would be a Conservative revival in Scotland. That’s the message of the English local elections. ...

To call it rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic is an insult to deck chairs. Tony Blair’s most radical reshuffle since he came to office w...