Scotland

Further to that last post, Leveson released more than 100 pages of News Corp correspondence this afternoon. Alex Salmond features in four emails sent by Fred Michel, the Murdochs' chief lobbyist and PR guy: 1. 1/11/10 - Libdem MP, former Sky employee, with major Sky customer centres in his constituency and around will contact Vince Cable to ask himm to bear in mind the economic/investment point of view rather than getting influenced by political games, especially in times of austerity and very difficult economic environment for those areas. He will also emphasise the opportunity for Cable to show the maturity of the Libdems as coalition partners, working for the long-term, and will draw from the Coaliton government experience lib-dems have had in Scotland.

I've written a column for Scotland on Sunday today looking at the SNP's transformation into a proper national party: [T]wo SNP approaches have helped the party attain its present supremacy. They can be labelled the Hampden and Murrayfield strategies. They are different but complementary, designed to appeal to different branches of the electorate. The Hampden strategy appeals to working-class and lower-to-middle-class voters. It is populist, Saltire-wrapped and keenly, proudly Scottish. The Murrayfield tranche of the electorate is older, wealthier and more likely to consider itself Scottish and British. Though outnumbered by the Hampden vote, its influence – especially in business and the media – is disproportionately powerful.

David Starkey's declne from competent historian to reactionary nitwit has been a sad business. I'm afraid it shows no sign of abating either. The Huffington Post has this: Historian Dr David Starkey has compared Scottish first minister Alex Salmond to Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler. "If you think about it, Alex Salmond is a democratic Caledonian Hitler, although some would say Hitler was more democratically elected," he said. "[For him] the English, like the Jews, are everywhere" he added to gasps from the audience. Starkey was speaking at a debate, hosted by the Bow Group think tank, on the teaching of British history in UK schools. Oh dear.

Sure, the Economist's cover story has received heaps of attention these past few days but it's not the most interesting or even the most important cover story published by a British political magazine last week. Though I would say this, Neil O'Brien's "Planet London" article for the Spectator is the piece the Scottish National Party should be more interested in. O'Brien makes a compelling case that London is now, more than ever, a place apart. Its triumph is both magnificent and dangerous. Magnificent because London is, in ways scarcely conceivable forty years ago, a global behemoth; dangerous because of the distorting effect this must have on British politics. In significant ways, O'Brien suggests, London has left the rest of the United Kingdom behind.

On the Daily Politics today Andrew Neil asked David Mundell Why are the Scottish Tories so useless? It will not surprise veteran Mundell-watchers that the member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale did not have a great answer to this blunt question. Nevertheless, Mr Neil's question was, in effect, the theme or premise of the Prime Minister's speech to the Scottish Tory Conference this morning. Much of Mr Cameron's speech was the usual conference boilerplate. All very well and good but not especially meaningful. There was one important passage, however: I say it's time we stood up even more strongly for what we believe in. Because when you make a strong argument, you know what? People listen. Not everyone will agree - but those who do will follow your lead.

The question to be asked of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communication (Scotland) Act 2012 is whether it is iniquitous, merely pointless or, perhaps paradoxically, both. I vote for both. Here's why: Two Hibernian fans caught chanting offensive songs on the train back from a cup quarter-final have become the first people convicted under controversial new anti-bigotry laws. [...] The pair were travelling home after watching Hibs beat Ayr United on Saturday, to progress to the Scottish Cup semi-finals*, when the incident happened. They had boarded the 6:13pm train from Ayr to Glasgow Central when they were seen by British Transport Police officers chanting and singing songs that were “of a racially derogative nature” and were arrested.

There are few sights more pitiful, more vexing or more predictable than the sight of teaching unions on the whinge. This time it is the EIS and the other unions representing teachers in Scotland. They are unhappy that the new Curriculum for Excellence - of which, for what little it may be worth I have, albeit anecdotally, heard some encouraging things - is being rushed into service too quickly. It has only been in development since 2004. Just as bad, apparently, the new National exams designed to replace the unfit Standard Grade are coming along too soon. Teachers are confused and unhappy and overworked and all the rest of it. The new exam, incidentally, won't be sat until 2014.

It is often said that the case for the United Kingdom needs to be made in a positive fashion. This is reasonable. Less remarked upon is the SNP's cheerful use of negative arguments for independence. Today, for example, there is the sillyness of Joan McAlpine's suggestion Scotland is somehow analagous to some ill-treated wife and, rather more importantly, Nicola Sturgeon's assertion that the Union is a threat to the welfare state. So here's another Scotch Irony: the advocates of change are the fiercest defenders of the status quo. Speaking last night, the Deputy First Minister promised there would be none of that reforming-the-NHS nonsense in Scotland and, no, there'll be no tinkering with welfare either. Not at all.

Considering the audience to which it was aimed, I suppose one could say that Johann Lamont's first leaders' speech to the Scottish Labour party conference was a success. Expectations for Ms Lamont were not quite at Obama-levels. I suspect Labour types will have been pleased by it. Which means, naturally, it should terrify everyone else. It was, naturally, a Unionist speech largely because it reminded one that Scottish Labour would be a powerful force in an independent Scotland and, by god, that's enough to make one wary of the entire enterprise. England and Wales and Northern Ireland offer some protection, minimising the amount of damage Labour can do in Scotland.