Nelson Mandela – Holyrood pays tribute
On Tuesday the Scottish Parliament paid tribute to Nelson Mandela, in a motion supported by all parties. Alex Salmond, Johann Lamont, Ruth Davidson, Willie Rennie and I all said a few words. Here’s my...
View ArticleEnergy prices need long term solutions
After sustained anger and resentment about energy prices, and the Labour Party’s offer of a price freeze if they are elected in 2015, the UK Government has been making the headlines recently with a...
View ArticleComing year will change landscape
Presents have been opened, sprouts have been eaten (or perhaps not) and a few green needles are on the carpet already. As we all start counting the cost to our waistlines and our wallets, another...
View ArticleWe need to find lessons of peace in memory of the First World War
THE end of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this year will see a curious key-change, as the enjoyment and celebration of sport are followed by the start of the programme of commemoration of the First...
View ArticleThis week’s debates
Holyrood returned from the winter recess this week, and the two main debates were on Scotland’s Future and Scotland’s Economy. In reality, they naturally covered quite a bit of the same ground; since...
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We need to stay in Europe… and we need change
As I write this, I’m already worried about how to hold your interest for a few hundred words on the subject of the European Parliament. It’s not a subject most people lose sleep over; we’ll be...
View ArticleDon’t give UKIP a voice in Scotland
DEMOCRACY is meant to offer meaningful choice, but it still leaves many people feeling the need for the occasional protest vote. Protest can be a deadly serious business of course, as with New Labour...
View ArticlePride House at Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games means warm welcome for LGBT...
This week saw the very welcome announcement that Glasgow will be host to a ‘Pride House’ venue during this summer’s Commonwealth Games, creating a safe space and welcoming venue for lesbian, gay,...
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Column from Glasgow Now – data, privacy and the surveillance state
A person under surveillance is no longer free; a society under surveillance is no longer a democracy. So wrote a group of five hundred leading authors including names such as Ian McEwan, Jeanette...
View ArticleEvening Times column: We can build a greener, stronger Scotland
I have taken part in many public debates about independence and, as the referendum campaign enters its final six months, I am sure there will be many more.This week I’m doing one which, as a Green MSP,...
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Evening Times column: Referendum or no referendum, it’s perfectly obvious the...
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI)has been having a rough couple of weeks. The organisation, which claims to represent employers of all sizes throughout the UK, initially joined the...
View ArticleMy Evening Times column on next week’s European elections
Nearly five years ago Scotland’s voters had the chance to decide who should represent our interests in the European Parliament, an opportunity which barely more than a quarter of us took up. It was a...
View ArticleEvening Times column on Margo’s Assisted Suicide Bill
One of the privileges of an MSP is the right to introduce a Member’s Bill. Most legislation begins with the Government, and has teams of civil servants and lawyers working on it. For an individual...
View ArticleEvening Times column on the Housing Bill
A Housing Bill has been going through Holyrood recently, and we’ll shortly have one final chance to improve it. My focus has been its impact on private rented housing, and I’ve been using my website...
View ArticleBlog for the Daily Record on the constitution
If Scotland votes Yes in September, it will leave behind many of the peculiarities of Westminster politics. From the un-elected House of Lords, to the little pink ribbons that MPs are given from which...
View ArticleEvening Times column on the constitution
The referendum’s still a dozen weeks away but the Scottish Government has taken the step of proposing an “interim constitution” – the document which would come into force from independence day in 2016...
View ArticleGlasgow Now blog on cycling in Glasgow
I held out against cycling in Glasgow for a long time. I was put off by potholed roads, dangerous traffic levels, and bike lanes looking like a fragmented mess in the few parts of the city where they...
View ArticleEvening Times column: It’s no exaggeration to say that poor air quality is a...
Before any major event, there are always controversies. But with two weeks until the Commonwealth Games commence we’ll soon be past the point of grumbling about the planning, and onto enjoying the...
View ArticleDaily Record blog: Assisted Suicide Bill
The submissions to the consultation on the Assisted Suicide Bill were published on Monday, marking the latest in the long and rightly thorough process of scrutiny that the proposals will be subject to....
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Scotland’s Future *
In the final weeks before the independence referendum, it was inevitable that the media would zero-in on the one person most people associate with the cause of independence. To some, Alex Salmond is...
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