Category Archives: Press Release

Ferrygate – 19 May 2022

  

“It’s not the crime it’s the cover up that gets you” and that applies as much to the Scottish ferry fiasco as in other scandals. The illegality here, or rather threat of legal challenge, is largely a red herring but it’s what it led to that matters.  For there was nothing really new in the supposed lost document produced in… Read more »

Civil Servant Abuse – 19 May 2022

  

The civil service isn’t just absurd in its timing but a denigration of hard-working staff. My office, like every other MPs office, has been inundated over recent years, not just months with requests for assistance from constituents. From the Foreign Office when covid first afflicted through DVLA and now to Passport Office there’s been real worry and concern. It’s not… Read more »

Cabled Up – 19 May 2022

  

Scotland’s seen its oil and gas revenues go south and its maritime boundaries changed in England’s favour. Now as the renewable revolution kicks in she’s being ripped off yet again and this time cabled up. For cables are being laid that will take the newfound bounty south and with neither revenue nor work benefitting either the country or communities. Anyone… Read more »

An ACE Book – Scotsman Article – 12 May 2022

  

Being “ACE aware” has been a mantra in Scottish criminal justice for quite some time and rightly so. For those who don’t know what the acronym means its adverse childhood experiences. It’s many years now since I first heard the then Chief Medical Officer Sir Harry Burns narrate the importance or rather damage that adverse childhood experiences could cause. It’s… Read more »

Groundhog Day Election – Scotsman Article – 12 May 2022

  

Groundhog Day! The local elections have been and gone but what’s changed. South of the border the Tories took a pasting, but Johnson clings on, tottering but more from internal Tory discontent than an external political threat. Events from Covid to Ukraine have protected him from a reckoning so far but they wont always be there and a day of… Read more »

AS FUEL PRICES SKYROCKET AND FUEL POVERTY SOARS – 13 April 2022

  

UK GOVERNMENT MUST ACT OVER UNREGULATED FUELS – MACASKILL   ALBA Depute Leader Kenny MacAskill MP has today (Wednesday) unveiled a paper on the impact of the rising cost of unregulated fuel such as fuel oil in driving up levels of fuel poverty in the north east and rural Scotland.  Together with ALBA’s Cllr Leigh Wilson he is calling on the UK Government to… Read more »

HGV Speeds – Scotsman Article -5 May 2022

  

Do all road traffic regulations require to be the same across the UK? No, of course not. The nature of the road network in more densely populated England with its major motorway network makes it so. That said, there’s good reason why harmonisation in many aspects was and still is coming in across Europe, whatever Brexiteers may say. Certainly, in… Read more »

Peace in the Ukraine – Scotsman Article – 5 May 2022

  

“Peace will come. And let it begin with me” sang Tom Paxton. Writing at the time of Vietnam his words certainly don’t seem to apply to the war in the Ukraine, where Liz Truss and the SNP Westminster Hawks seem to revel in war, demanding even more of it. Thankfully, The UN Secretary General has been visiting Kiev and Moscow… Read more »

East Lothian Courier – 5 May 2022

  

I’m a book person more than a TV fan but my wife enjoys the soaps and accordingly I occasionally watch them. I was therefore intrigued when I received an e mail saying that there was to be product placement of Heineken 0% alcohol in the Woolpack and Rovers Return. Now I don’t want to spoil anyone’s viewing but I think… Read more »

MACASKILL CALLS ON STURGEON TO “COME CLEAN” OVER FERRIES CONTRACT

  

“SCOTTISH PUBLIC DESERVE ANSWERS TO KEY QUESTIONS” The former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill MP has on Monday written to the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP demanding that she “come clean” and  provide “straight answers” to the questions about the contract signed by Scottish Ministers in relation to the yet to be completed Glen Sannox (801) and vessel 802 which are now over… Read more »