Euan Mccolm

If meaningless platitudes are your thing, then an embarrassment of riches is currently available

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney began 2025 in the traditional manner – with a chorus of Auld Lang Syne. Speaking at Edinburgh University on Monday morning, Swinney called for unity across the political divide and urged opposition leaders to get behind his government’s budget. Failure to do so, said the FM, would ‘feed the forces

In the world of politics, friendships are often completely transactional. Alliances are forged not because of mutual respect but out of naked self-interest.

Scotland's First Minister John Swinney began 2025 in the traditional manner – with a chorus of Auld Lang Syne.

Scotland’s prisons aren’t boutique hotels. The prison estate is crumbling and, in many cases, thanks to overcrowding and under-staffing, the treatment of those behind bars is barely humane.

Quarterly reports from the office of National Records of Scotland confirm time and again the existence of an ongoing drug deaths crisis north of the border. And, time and again, the Scottish government reveals itself to be devoid of ideas for how to tackle it. Now, however, there has been a flicker of progress with

The failure of a marriage is always a matter of regret, even when the couple involved remains on good terms.

The stench of hypocrisy is as familiar as it is overwhelming. Two decades ago, the SNP began moving from the fringes of Scottish politics on the back of a pledge to do things differently.

There must be a full FAI, in public, into how Police Scotland failed Jamie Forbes so badly, writes Euan McColm.