ROGER McKENZIE looks at how US doublespeak on the ‘war on drugs’ is used to camouflage its intended grab for of Latin America’s natural resources
Latest editorial
Flags beat facts in Holyrood again
As has been the case for the last six years the SNP are in charge, there is a pro-independence majority and Labour are in third place behind the Tories. It’s MacGroundhog Day, writes STEPHEN LOW
Nicola Sturgeon in Airdale, Lanarkshire, at the weekend after her election victory
Plans to delay access to the universal credit health element until age 22 have triggered fierce opposition from disabled people’s groups, who warn it would deepen poverty and entrench discrimination against young disabled people under the guise of ‘encouraging work.’ DYLAN MURPHY reports
(March 1928 – December 2025)
Saluting an internationalist and a courageous and uncompromising seeker of the truth
The US assault on Venezuela is brazen and unlawful – yet our PM claims uncertainty. By refusing to confront Trump’s naked imperialism, Starmer abandons international law, mortgages British policy to Washington, and clears the ground for war, argues ANDREW MURRAY
RAINER RUPP examines former CIA analyst Larry Johnson’s description of the US operation to kidnap Nicolas Maduro as a tactically successful but strategically disastrous move, with shades of Bush’s disastrous intervention in Iraq
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Western outrage was absolute. Yet today, the tone is markedly more subdued regarding US aggression against Venezuela. The manner in which the media and politicians frame this invasion exposes a profound ideological double standard, writes MARC VANDEPITTE
FROM outside Scotland, the SNP getting a fourth term in office looks impressive. All the more so given their record. The SNP have failed to deliver on education, health inequality, care homes, ferries, renewable energy and have slashed local government while boasting of tax freezes for business.
But expecting matters such as these to be of significance is to mistake the nature of contemporary Scotland. We have moved beyond issues of delivery in government, or even accountability. In today’s Scotland, flags beat facts.
To give just one example: Scotland has an appalling track record in tackling drug abuse. Deaths in Scotland are more than three times the UK level. Scotland has a fatality rate worse than any EU country. The scandal reached such a level that Nicola Sturgeon had to sack the relevant minister — Joe Fitzpatrick.
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Every Starmer boast about removing asylum-seekers probably wins Reform another seat while Labour loses more voters to Lib Dems, Greens and nationalists than to the far right — the disaster facing Labour is the leadership’s fault, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
COLL McCAIL rejects the Scottish Establishment’s attempt at an ‘elite lockout’ of Reform UK and says the unions should be wary of co-option by their class enemies in Holyrood just to keep one set of austerity-mongers in power instead of Reform UK
VINCE MILLS looks at how UK Labour’s backpedalling on policy has left Scottish Labour with nothing to offer its own electorate
