Scotland

The big news, obviously, is the collapse of RBS as an independent entity, now that the government is going to pump in as much as £20bn and take 60% of the company. In the long-run this is probably a good deal for taxpayers. At least in as much as that 60% ought to bring a return once (if) healthier times return. Still, it is a stunning fall from grace for RBS. And for Scotland. The financial implications are one thing, so too the political and, just as importantly, the psychological impact. It’s not a coincidence that Alex Salmond was always quite happy to let folk know he had once been

Unionists of course. That. at any rate, is Alan Cochrane’s argument in the Telegraph today. With his acknowledged acumen in this field, Mr Salmond has tried to put himself at the very epicentre of this crisis but with every day that passed he has looked more and more like a spear carrier in a major production being directed by people altogether more powerful than he. HBOS and RBS may have their brass plates in Scotland, but the measures needed to cope with the crises afflicting them required action on a scale far outwith the capabilities of one small nation. Mr Salmond’s actions have looked increasingly puny, revealed for what they

Good grief. A TEAM of NHS nurses is patrolling Scotland’s streets to target pot-bellied members of the public and tell them how to lose weight. Armed with measuring tapes to check waists and equipment to test blood pressure, the “Street Nurses” are policing busy shopping centres, supermarkets and community centres. Any man with a paunch, or woman with an “apple-shaped” body whose waist measurement is higher than recommended limits is given diet and lifestyle advice or referred to local slimming classes. Under the scheme the nurses, wearing high-visibility waistcoats, set up portable tables and chairs in town centres to monitor passers-by. If they spot someone who looks overweight they will

There’s the theory – and history –  of cricket in Scotland. Then there’s the reality…  Scotland vs England, The Grange, Monday August 18th, 2008. Match abandoned.

There’s no need for the Scottish football league to kick-off on Saturday. Cancel it. The season can’t* get better or more more amusing than this. *OK, it can. It would be too perfect, even too much to hope for, if Celtic were also turfed out of europe in their first match. Ah, sweet, sweet schadenfreude how I love you so…

This post by my old friend Fraser Nelson is the best thing I’ve read so far about the Glasgow East by-election: It is tragic comic to see Labour taking such a philosophical attitude to the scandalous deprivation in Glasgow East during this election campaign as if they were talking about the weather. “Oh, its heartbreaking and very complex” they say and use phrases like “multiple deprivation” to make it sound so complicated that government cant do anything about it. What’s happened is that Labour’s remedy to poverty – more money – has made the problem worse. As they recommend, read the whole thing.

So, yes, there’s been a mini-hiatus around these parts. Cricket and an unexpected trip to Edinburgh for a first meeting with my godson were largely to blame. Plus, you know, idleness. Anyway, we return to consider this remarkable passage: The Salmond/Saeed axis is not merely a disturbing sign of Salmond’s own prejudices.  It has a potential strategic significance that goes beyond Scotland. The Brotherhood’s strategy for Britain is to promote separate Islamic development, declare sharia-only enclaves and infiltrate mainstream institutions as a springboard for Islamising the entire society. Since Salmond’s aim is to make Scotland independent from the rest of the United Kingdom, with one leap the Brothers could achieve

Looming crisis in the countryside requires immediate action: Efforts are being made to reverse a decline in sheep shearers in Scotland. The workforce is ageing, with fewer young people entering what is considered one of the most labour-intensive jobs in farming… “There aren’t enough young shearers doing the job. Because it is a physical job and involves travel, it is really a young person’s job. “We are also competing with other jobs, some of them less physical than ours.” He added: “There are an awful lot of us heading into our 40s and the average age of shearers must be in the 30s.” More details here, including claims that shearers

Chris Dillow has a splendid post filleting the Scottish government’s plans to raise the age at which one may purchase alcohol at an off-license from 18 to 21. As he rightly says this is the usual mixture of paternalism, petty managerialism and soul-crushing illiberalism trussed up with a justification that there’s a problem so, rather than enforce existing laws, the public needs the protection of additional measures that, regardless of their likely effectiveness, demonstrate that the government is listening and doing something. Anything. It’s too much to suppose that our parliamentarians might be impressed by any philosophical or moral objection to their creation of yet more laws prohibiting or curtailing