Category Archives: News

Alba and the Local Election – Scottish Left Review – December 2021

  

The local elections will be challenging for Alba but are equally a great opportunity for a still fledgling party. The mainstream media blackout imposed in May, will likely continue but the party’s growing in membership and its activist base will be campaigning hard around the country. Organisation and structure missing for the Scottish Parliament elections is now being established and… Read more »

Silo Democracy – Scotsman Article – 6 January 2022

  

Coronavirus with all the restrictions and even lockdowns imposed have changed our way of life, and some of the changes will be irrevocable. Many pubs will stay shut never to open again and even working life and travel patterns will be permanently altered for many. But it’ll also impact upon our democracy and that’s where I’ve concerns. 2022’s the centenary… Read more »

Where Now for Drug Policy – Scotsman Article – 6 January 2022

  

The resignations of Catriona Matheson and Neil Richardson from the Scottish Governments Drug Death Task Force must have been a bitter blow to the current Minister Angela Constance. The individuals who’ve departed have a wealth of experience. They’re in with the bricks in the sector and their actions whilst personal, no doubt reflecting a wider view. To be fair to… Read more »

Ferries and Fuel – Scotsman Article – 30 December 2021

  

We’ve started so we’ll finish seems to be the maxim for the SNP Government with regard to the ships languishing in the Ferguson Yard on the Clyde, yet badly required in island communities. And while a rush for an announcement to herald what was viewed as a political triumph in 2015 lies at the root of what went wrong, there… Read more »

Opinion Polls – Scotsman Article – 30 December 2021

  

With Parliaments in recess, political interest has turned to opinion polls where there’s been much rejoicing by Labour and triumphalism by the SNP. However, as past elections disclose, the former are celebrating too soon and the latter resting on their laurels. I’ve been in politics long enough to see leads prove chimeral and failure to act prove costly.  In 1992… Read more »

MACASKILL CHALLENGES SCOTTISH POLICE AUTHORITY OVER SELF IDENTIFICATION IN THE RECORDING OF SEX CRIMES BY MEN – 30 December 2021

  

ALBA Depute Leader Kenny MacAskill MP has written to the Chair of the Scottish Police Authority Martyn Evans following receipt of a reply from the Assistant Chief Constable of Police Scotland Gary Ritchie which confirms that Police Scotland are recording sex crimes against women as having been committed by a female where the male perpetrator of rape or other sexual assault chooses to “present (or self… Read more »

“TIME FOR LEADERSHIP, ACTION AND UNITY” – MACASKILL – 30 December 2021

  

ALBA Depute Leader Kenny MacAskill MP has called for an Independence Convention to break the logjam between the Westminster and Holyrood Governments over Scotland’s right to choose her constitutional future in an Independence Referendum.  In a statement Kenny MacAskill MP for East Lothian said: “The right of Scotland’s people to determine their constitutional future is theirs and theirs alone. 2022 must be the year when… Read more »

MACASKILL TO QUIZ UK GOVERNMENT OVER BBC SPENDING IN SCOTLAND AS HE CALLS ON THE BBC TO STOP “SHORT CHANGING” SCOTTISH LICENCE PAYERS – 23 December 2021

  

ALBA Depute Leader Kenny MacAskill is tabling written parliamentary questions to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on the funding of BBC Scotland compared to other nations and regions in the UK.  Previous figures published by the BBC have shown a clear discrepancy between the amount which the BBC raises from TV licence payers in Scotland and… Read more »

East Lothian Courier – 23 December 2021

  

A damper has come down upon the Festive Season as another coronavirus variant strikes. Yet the Omicron variant has hardly come as a bolt from the blue. With so many billions in the undeveloped world unvaccinated and where the UK and US have been complicit in restricting the ability of poorer countries to acquire them, it was always a threat…. Read more »