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Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor

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Brian Taylor: Spring Statement? Emergency Budget? More like political ineptitude

Brian Taylor: Spring Statement? Emergency Budget? More like political ineptitude

In government, confidence counts. To be blunt, seldom has a Chancellor appeared so ill at ease and disquieted as Rachel Reeves delivering her Spring...

30.03.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Is John Swinney right to accuse Labour of perpetuating Tory austerity?

Brian Taylor: Is John Swinney right to accuse Labour of perpetuating Tory austerity?

Competitive discourse is the very soul of democratic politics. We now have two decidedly different debates north and south of the Border, founded...

23.03.2025 4

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: As Sturgeon goes, independence cause requires a complete rethink As I mentioned on the wireless this week, churn is inevitable and indeed welcome in politics. Either by choice or at the hands of the voters. Better to stand down when folk are asking “why” you are going rather than “for any sake when”.

Brian Taylor: As Sturgeon goes, independence cause requires a complete rethink As I mentioned on the wireless this week, churn is inevitable and indeed welcome in politics. Either by choice or at the hands of the voters. Better to stand down when folk are asking “why” you are going rather than “for any sake when”.

As I mentioned on the wireless this week, churn is inevitable and indeed welcome in politics. Either by choice or at the hands of the voters. Better...

16.03.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Forget the special relationship – is Donald Trump a reliable ally?

From the past. An unexploded World War Two bomb forces the closure of the Gare du Nord in Paris. The present. Russian missiles assail Ukraine’s...

09.03.2025 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: How should Scotland respond to Trump’s Royal visit? Cheer or jeer?

For his Washington talks, Sir Keir Starmer confronted a question which is presently puzzling global leaders – and indeed the citizenry. How to...

02.03.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Voters are angry with Starmer – will they take that out on Sarwar?

All this weekend, Anas Sarwar MSP gets to experience the thrill of Scottish Labour’s annual conference. Among friends and comrades. Mostly. What...

23.02.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Will the Munich car attack determine outcome of German elections? Germans go to the polls in federal elections next weekend. Immigration was already a predominant issue. That has only been amplified by the image of a white car driven at speed into a trade union rally in the Bavarian city. The incident in Munich follows other attacks linked to migrants. In Magdeburg, where six people died. Earlier, in Mannheim, Solingen and Aschaffenburg.

In Munich, nurses tend the injured. Police investigate the suspect, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker. Politicians speculate over the impact this...

16.02.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Donald Trump and self-delusion – should we boycott him or praise him?

Let us, for a moment, try to see the world as Donald Trump sees it. He may be driven by self-belief – or, perhaps, self-delusion – but he remains...

09.02.2025 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Brexit five years on. Common sense – or a colossal blunder?

Phrase of the week? Has to be “common sense”. The leitmotif of our anxious age: a glib attempt by political leaders to advance their emotive...

02.02.2025 4

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Can 'full-on John' sort out our health and care services? Plans for a National Care Service have been abandoned, so where does that leave Scotland, asks Herald columnist Brian Taylor

It was, in the end, a limp and whimpering retreat. Embarrassing for the Minister, Maree Todd, left to proclaim the end of the National Care Service....

26.01.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Hail to the Chief – we can only hope he thinks twice Will Donald Trump listen only to his instincts and those of his advisers? Will he live up to his self-image as the heroic defender of America? Or will external and global advice prevail? Can he, in short, be constrained?

Churn is vital in democratic politics. It is right and good that, when the people have spoken, the powerful respond. By departing office, if they are...

19.01.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Anas Sarwar is stuck in the middle between Scotland and London

According to taste, we await the pending event with apprehension, open-mouthed astonishment or dull indifference. The second Presidential inauguration...

12.01.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Starmer has handed Anas Sarwar a bumper Christmas hamper of problems As the year ends, will it be John Swinney or Anas Sarwar who is wearing the biggest smile?

Stand alongside me this Yuletide period and let us ponder. Which of our Scottish political leaders is gleefully greeting Santa? And which is...

22.12.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Starmer and Swinney – who will win the race to reform public services?

In tendering advice about the “play within a play”, Hamlet counselled “reform it altogether”. The gloomy Dane was speaking satirically. However, in...

15.12.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Smart budget. Very smart. Here’s where it could go wrong

Will it endure? That was decidedly an astute budget this week. But will it last? Will the structure sustain, both economically and politically?...

08.12.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: On this St Andrew’s Day, just how Scottish do you feel?

Let me ask you this. Do you feel an enhanced stirring of patriotic pride with the advent of this St Andrew’s Day. No? Mostly, I would imagine you...

30.11.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Politicians? They are all at it. But here's why they have my sympathy

Democracy, Churchill satirised, is “the worst form of government” – except, that is, for all the other systems that have been tried. The...

23.11.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Three big reasons why action to reverse climate change is in trouble Recently, I chanced to be, once again, in the great and noble city of Dundee, drawn primarily by a sporting engagement at Tannadice.

Recently, I chanced to be, once again, in the great and noble city of Dundee, drawn primarily by a sporting engagement at Tannadice.  I took the...

16.11.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: How to respond to Trump? Swinney gets it right – eventually If you are of a certain age, it is said that you can remember where you were when you learned that President John F. Kennedy had been shot. (Me, I believe I was boarding a bus in Dundee’s City Square. A number 22, I think.)

If you are of a certain age, it is said that you can remember where you were when you learned that President John F. Kennedy had been shot. (Me, I...

09.11.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Why John Swinney really, really hates this UK budget

There are few things worse in politics than your opponent agreeing with you. Nothing is so exasperating as the sanctimonious, insincere smile of...

02.11.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Hope and fear – the emotions on display as we stand by for the Budget As of this weekend, the pre-Budget shadow boxing continues. Between the front benches at Westminster. And between the UK and Scottish governments.

As of this weekend, the pre-Budget shadow boxing continues. Between the front benches at Westminster. And between the UK and Scottish governments....

26.10.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Is it time to scrap the Lords – or to cherish its contribution?

Perhaps it escaped your notice but this week Westminster embarked upon a project which was billed as “the largest constitutional reform to the UK...

19.10.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Keir Starmer’s first 100 days – how much worse can it get?

So how has it been for you? The first 100 days? Of the new Labour government? What’s that? You couldn’t care less? OK, so it doesn’t really matter....

12.10.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: We can, we must, find a solution to the conflict in the Middle East

Our planet progresses, if at all, through decency and dignity. We advance, if at all, through trade, shared knowledge and co-operation....

05.10.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Could the new Scottish Tory leader cut a budget deal with John Swinney? Column 173 28 September 2024 Headline: Could the new Scottish Tory leader cut a budget deal with John Swinney? Two quick questions on this quarter-centenary for the Scottish Parliament. What will Russell Findlay stand for as the new Scottish Conservative leader? And does anybody care? Yes, he is the heir to centuries of tradition. Yes, his party is still the only outfit, since universal suffrage, to win a popular majority in Scotland. (In 1955, thanks for asking.) But they have a rather variegated past. Some historians trace Scottish Tory roots back to the Jacobites. Others reflect that they gamely survived the nineteenth century, despite being routinely gubbed by the Liberals – in the “distant and Whiggish country” of Scotland.

Two quick questions on this quarter-centenary for the Scottish Parliament. What will Russell Findlay stand for as the new Scottish Conservative...

27.09.2024 2

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Think John Swinney has had a tough week? Stand by for more

It was, I presume, intended to be a Bad Cop / Good Cop routine. Shona Robison, as Finance Secretary, was detailed to alarm us with talk of spending...

07.09.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Here’s how SNP hopes to recover in time for the next election battle

Where are the songs of spring? Good question. For the SNP, at their autumn conference, the anthems are somewhat muted by bruising defeat and...

31.08.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Why we should all worry about who wins this race for the White House As is my annual custom, I have by now absorbed a few fragments of the gloriously gargantuan Edinburgh Festivals – International, Book and Fringe.

As is my annual custom, I have by now absorbed a few fragments of the gloriously gargantuan Edinburgh Festivals – International, Book and Fringe....

24.08.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Stand by for spending cuts and tax rises. Who’s to blame? It has long struck me that the games of our youth are adaptable to politics. For example, Hide and seek reminds us of the occasionally evasive behaviour of our elected tribunes.

It has long struck me that the games of our youth are adaptable to politics. For example, Hide and seek reminds us of the occasionally evasive...

17.08.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Condemn the riots – but understand their true nature and context

Put yourself in their place for a moment. Terrified refugees, lodging in an English city, a raucous, aggressive mob at the door, intent on violence...

10.08.2024 30

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Has John Swinney been handed a brimming bag of rubbish by Labour cuts?

A platitude, I know, but to govern is to choose. Frequently, political choices are influenced or determined by external factors. That is...

03.08.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Just how long are you prepared to wait for Labour’s change?

Political choice is not driven solely by individuals, however powerful. Still less by party manifestos, issued to content the electorate....

20.07.2024 2

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Explained – how Labour intend to mirror SNP strategy

Other than Burns, Scott and Carroll, my favourite comment upon the human condition comes from the French thinker, Voltaire. He had his character...

13.07.2024 2

Herald Scotland

Brian Taylor