There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
The SNP leadership hopefuls say a lot about the state of Scottish politics
Introducing the contenders, PAULINE BRYAN argues that if the SNP was delivering on its promises and independence was around the corner, we would not see such a poor collection of nonentities jockeying for its helm
SLIM PICKINGS: (Left to right), Potential successors to Nicola Sturgeon, Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
AFTER 16 years of SNP government in Scotland, we have become used to seeing just a few high-profile figures. I feel reasonably confident that few members of the public could name no more than a handful of SNP Scottish ministers.
Nicola Sturgeon has been so dominant as First Minister that others were hardly visible. Polling this week has shown that when the wider electorate was asked how well the two frontrunners to replace Sturgeon — Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes — had done in their ministerial roles, 40 per cent and 51 per cent respectively said “don’t know.” Thirty-eight per cent thought Yousaf had been “bad” or “very bad” — hardly a ringing endorsement.
Yousaf is described as the continuity candidate. This must mean continuity in lack of vision and poor delivery. His constant exposure to press and TV coverage was not of the positive sort.
More from this author
From the ‘marketisation’ of care services to the closure of cultural venues and criminalisation of youth, a new Red Paper reveals how austerity has weakened communities and disproportionately harmed the most vulnerable, write PAULINE BRYAN and VINCE MILLS
There is little benefit coming to Scotland or the wider UK from projects like Rosebank or Jackdaw – or indeed renewables – as profits are siphoned out of the country by foreign companies, writes PAULINE BRYAN
Unwanted, imposed Tory interventions on Scotland fuelled demands for devolution, and today Labour risks repeating past mistakes if Ian Murray seeks to bypass Holyrood on spending, warns PAULINE BRYAN
With a lack of radical thinking from the Starmer-led UK government, support for Scottish independence is unlikely to evaporate any time soon – spelling trouble ahead for Anas Sarwar, argues PAULINE BRYAN
