Fourteen hundred words to tell us Douglas Ross is a fool. Which surely most of us had already noticed. We might wonder how such an obvious bungler manages to attain even the very minor prominence of being leader-like-thing of the British Conservative and Unionist Party in Scotland (BCUPS). I think I may know the answer … Continue reading Machiavelli in the mirror
There's a bit of a tussle going on following the British Conservative & Unionist Party in Scotland (BCUPS) conference as two of their 'big-hitters' vie for the award for the most interesting thing said. Neither of them is Boris Johnson, who I suspect only bothered to turn up at the event because his job requires … Continue reading A question of ownership
I detect a decidedly dismissive tone in reports of and comments on Douglas Ross's 'big speech' to the wee bit of the British Conservative & Unionist Party (BCUP) to which he was permitted access. Which is understandable. Ross would require a miraculous makeover just to make the grade as a nonentity. There are many ways … Continue reading What are you prepared to do?
I get a fair bit of abuse from SNP/Sturgeon loyalists. About the same as I get from Alba devotees. That's the price one pays for declining to participate in the inane tribalism of either camp. It is a price I am more than happy to pay. The very nature of tribalism dictates that if you … Continue reading When Nicola Sturgeon shines
If the idea of "bludgeoning" anti-democratic British Nationalists is so abhorrent to Nicola Sturgeon as to be a hindrance to Scotland's cause then she is no more suited to the task of leading that cause than Douglas Ross is to the role of Scotland's First Minister.
Douglas Ross is the leader pro tem of a fringe party in Scotland. He is the glaickit face and whiney voice of one of the British parties that have been insinuated into Scotland's democratic institutions.
Douglas Ross had been thoroughly briefed by his London bosses. He was to make himself 'one of them' among the Jocks. He was to put a bit of distance between BCUPS and Boris's regime - which they recognised wasn't as popular as it deserved to be in North Britain. A phenomenon they explained with the observation that the Scotch are a fractious tribe who really don't know what is in their best interests. They have to be guided - and from time to time slapped - by Britannia's gracious hand.
There is no plan. There are only more or less evident trends arising out of the chaos as certain imperatives coincide with concentrations of power.
The problem with Andrew Tickell's analysis is that it assumes a future in which the Scottish Parliament is functioning as before and Douglas Ross (possibly with Ruth Davidson's hand up his arse) stepping into the same role as was briefly and unsatisfactorily filled by Jackson Carlaw.
Once again, a British politician falls victim to that particular mix of prideful ignorance and vaunting arrogance which attends upon the dumb exceptionalism of British Nationalist ideology. what is remarkable here is, not the answer given by Guy Verhofstadt, but the fact that Douglas Ross asked the question in evident expectation of the response he … Continue reading They never learn
Peter A Bell 