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Ever wondered why films are so bland now? Here's why

Humanity is in danger of being taken over by technology, particularly in the arts sector, warns Writer at Large Neil Mackay, and we've only got...

previous day 2

Neil Mackay

People like Peter Mandelson are the reason why conspiracy theories exist

The Epstein scandal reveals a world not just of sexual crimes against children, but of his gilded friends living lives of luxury and privilege none of...

saturday 9

Neil Mackay

Mob rule shows the divide between Scottish and English politics

It is worrying how stories of vigilante groups and mob riots in England have become almost normalised because of the Ulsterisation of British...

12.09.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Farewell, Melvyn Bragg, our greatest broadcaster and my working-class hero

The departure of Melvyn Bragg from Radio 4's In Our Time sadly brings to an end an era of intellectual broadcasting, says our Writer at Large, Neil...

10.09.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Farage got the daylights kicked out of him in America… not that you’d know

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. Is there anyone left in Britain who still cannot see the kid-glove...

06.09.2025 40

Neil Mackay

From 'taking the knee' to waving an England flag, the strange journey of Keir Starmer

Prime minister Keir Starmer says his Downing Street flat is bedecked with St George’s flags. “I always sit in front of the Union Jack,” he...

05.09.2025 9

Neil Mackay

The mad dog of racism is loose on the streets and empathy has fled

Writer at Large Neil Mackay argues that a wave of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, including in Scotland, demonstrate that...

03.09.2025 20

Neil Mackay

The SNP must tool up for a dirty fight to the death with the far right

John Swinney and the SNP are at a fork in the road when dealing with Nigel Farage and Reform's rise, the ascendency of the far and hard right, and the...

30.08.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Do you like playing music on public transport without headphones? Then I despise you

The world is divided. The country is divided. Communities are divided. Even families are divided. But there’s one thing which unites us all...

29.08.2025 20

Neil Mackay

A nation which makes a martyr out of Lucy Connolly has lost its moral bearings

BURN them in their hotels, she said. And try to burn them in their hotels they did. On July 29 last year, Lucy Connolly wrote on the social media...

27.08.2025 8

Neil Mackay

All hail the death of Crocs, but wait til you see what’s set to replace them

My daughter once had a boyfriend who I liked a lot, but couldn’t look at from the knees down. Unlike most of her failed suitors, this rather...

26.08.2025 4

Neil Mackay

Prosecutors are diverging on Palestine Action… is another devolution fight brewing?

Look closely and it’s possible to discern the outline of a new battle brewing between the Scottish and UK governments. The contention is how to...

23.08.2025 7

Neil Mackay

Neo-Nazis now brazenly stalk Scotland’s streets … blame malevolent politicians

The claim that protestors outside asylum hotels are all just ‘concerned citizens’ is a lie. Concerned citizens don’t perform Nazi salutes, as...

22.08.2025 6

Neil Mackay

Can't we see the danger? Mobile phones must be banned from schools

Do we need more warnings? Can we still, as a society, not see what is staring us in the face? Giant tech companies are colluding in the corruption of...

20.08.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Watching Sturgeon live rent free in her enemies’ minds is joyous political theatre

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. Keep up to date with our coverage on Nicola Sturgeon's memoir It was...

16.08.2025 5

Neil Mackay

The absurdity and horror of everyday life in a time of genocide

There are moments which send a shudder of moral disjunction through the soul. They come faster and more frequent as the tide of blood rises. We all...

15.08.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Ed Sheeran feels ‘culturally Irish’. So can you be ‘culturally Scottish’?

In 2021, my wife and I held a private celebration. It wasn’t a special wedding anniversary, but it did mark a significant moment in our lives. ...

13.08.2025 10

Neil Mackay

I hate podcasts with a passion - but I’ll make an exception for these two

I’m not a violent man. In fact, I consider myself a pacifist. However, these days, if someone says the words ‘I’m starting my own podcast’ to...

10.08.2025 4

Neil Mackay

I’m a shock-seeker, so I watched Masterchef and chucked my morality away

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. I’ve always been drawn to the forbidden. When tabloids scream ‘ban...

09.08.2025 3

Neil Mackay

Us vs them: why the rich are destroying our world

Inequality in America is today equivalent to that of Ancient Rome during slavery. That statistic came roaring off the page at me yesterday. You’ll...

08.08.2025 9

Neil Mackay

We don’t need to be tied to the prejudices of our upbringing: Sandie Peggie take note Sandie Peggie admitted using racial slurs but said she was “brought up like that", But people can rise above the prejudices of their upbringing

"They f**k you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for...

06.08.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Corbyn’s new party doesn’t just threaten Labour, it’ll badly wound the SNP too

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. The leak is about to become a flood. All across the west, political...

26.07.2025 7

Neil Mackay

Make indy great again? Why Swinney should hijack Trump’s visit to Scotland

John Swinney needs a Hail Mary shot. It’s not that he’s doomed to lose the next Scottish election and see the curtain fall forever on his...

25.07.2025 8

Neil Mackay

Your life ruined for an affair… what kind of puritanical world is this now?

Love is meant to be difficult. The human heart is hard terrain to navigate. Nobody who has ever truly loved did so without some suffering. Any love...

23.07.2025 7

Neil Mackay

John Swinney’s chat about independence is just getting embarrassing now It’s all becoming a wee bit sad lately. John Swinney starts talking about independence and nobody cares.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. It’s all becoming a wee bit sad lately. John Swinney starts talking...

19.07.2025 4

Neil Mackay

Children are now dying of measles. Anti-vaxx conspiracists have blood on their hands

When the history of this absurd era is eventually written, one major theme will surely be the ease with which those unfit and unqualified rose not...

18.07.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Anti-woke stormtroopers are gunning for Superman. Has the world gone mad?

There's a peerless meme on social media which sticks a stiletto up the idiot nostril of the anti-woke league. It spoofs the old Ladybird books. On...

15.07.2025 5

Neil Mackay

When it comes to violent rhetoric, the right says what it wants but left is silenced “Now let’s bomb Glastonbury,” reads the headline to a recent Spectator article. Promoting the piece by the writer Rod Liddle, whoever runs the magazine’s social media feed tweeted on Elon Musk’s X platform: “One on Glasto, one on Brighton, and the UK would soon begin its recovery.”

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. “Now let’s bomb Glastonbury,” reads the headline to a recent...

12.07.2025 10

Neil Mackay

The Epstein Files and Donald Trump: when conspiracy theories come back to bite

The saga of Donald Trump and the Jeffrey Epstein files is a parable for the 21st century. It stands as a warning to those who would dare use...

11.07.2025 10

Neil Mackay

So this is what it's come to: arresting pensioners and priests for protesting Should I have thought twice before writing this? Do my opinions put me in the crosshairs of a government that’s drawn up a list of those to be silenced?

Should I have thought twice before writing this? Do my opinions put me in the crosshairs of a government that’s drawn up a list of those to be...

09.07.2025 50

Neil Mackay

Starmer is a charlatan without principles – Labour should dump him for Angela Rayner You may not have liked Margaret Thatcher – I certainly didn’t – but you knew exactly what she stood for as a leader. Even with Boris Johnson you knew what he stood for: himself. But what does Keir Starmer stand for?

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. Even with the u-turn, he’s created a two-tier system where those who...

28.06.2025 6

Neil Mackay

Trump said ‘f**k’ and I started to agree with him. What the hell is happening to me? On Tuesday evening, I found myself in the frankly remarkable position of nodding along with Trump. Momentarily, I thought I was going mad.

In The Art of War, the ancient Chinese military textbook, Sun Tzu wrote: "If you wait by the riverbank long enough, eventually the bodies of your...

27.06.2025 5

Neil Mackay

Remember the blood and lies of Iraq? We can’t go through that again with Iran I WAS in the midst of a family party when news of America bombing Iran sucked the life from the room.

I was in the midst of a family party when news of America bombing Iran sucked the life from the room. The night was ending. The youngest there,...

25.06.2025 8

Neil Mackay

SNP treats indy like Monster of Glamis: a shameful secret to be locked in the attic It’s clear that the surest route to another independence referendum is through creating a sustained Yes majority in opinion polls – something like 55% for at least six months. And the only way to achieve that is by showing that the SNP is fit for government.

I must have blinked and missed it. This was the week John Swinney was supposed to set out his ‘vision’ for independence. The irony...

21.06.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Strange: our government can’t even remember which torture sessions it took part in

Memory is rather unfashionable these days. Nobody seems able to remember a simple fact anymore, unless prompted by the phone in their pocket. ...

18.06.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Loyalist supremacy, hatred, racism and poverty: I know elements of Ulster riots well When I saw images of the homes of immigrant families in Ballymena with loyalist flags placed in their windows to ward off racist mobs, and fearful handmade posters reading ‘I work in a care home’, I felt as if I was back there. It was all so horribly, desperately, familiar.

Back then, the towns of County Antrim were dominated by loyalist paramilitaries. Other areas had Republican gunmen and the IRA. Police Scotland send...

14.06.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Finally, we have proof the BBC is helping Reform. It’s become a danger to democracy

It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s an air-conditioned corporate suite in Broadcasting House artistically sprinkled with BBC executives right now,...

13.06.2025 30

Neil Mackay

The Scottish Tory who has perfected the art of 'vice-signalling'

Murdo Fraser, the Tory MSP, has given Scotland a perfect performance of "vice-signalling". Think of virtue-signalling in reverse, whilst wearing...

11.06.2025 20

Neil Mackay

It’s not a shot that’s been fired across the SNP’s bows, it’s a cruise missile The Ancient Greeks had the Oracle at Delphi. Modern Scots have the voters of Hamilton. If you want to learn hard truths about the mood in this country, run a by-election in the South Lanarkshire town.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. The Ancient Greeks had the Oracle at Delphi. Modern Scots have the...

07.06.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Do we hate our children? Why else would we do them this much damage?

Historians of the future may look on this era and speculate that the people of the early 21st century hated their own children. Hate might be too...

06.06.2025 20

Neil Mackay

When AI kills off the ScotRail lady, you know we’re all in trouble

I found myself having a conversation with AI last month. I’ve resisted engaging with this monster technology until now, but my voyeuristic...

04.06.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Yes to Flamingoland, no to National Parks: what is the SNP playing at?

As an Irishman there’s a risk that what I’m about to say will result in an exclusion order placed on me the next time I try to return to the land...

31.05.2025 20

Neil Mackay

The rubbish the wine bar fakes like Farage talk about the working class makes me sick

A working-class hero is indeed something to be, something worth celebrating, especially these days, in the nepo-baby era when family connections and...

30.05.2025 20

Neil Mackay

SNP will be the winner as Reform outflanks Labour from the left

When I was nine, my father took me to the most remarkable magic show I’ve ever seen. In a tent, on a windy hill along the north Antrim coast, a...

28.05.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Labour’s taste for biological extremism is both creepy and dangerous Labour intends to use chemical castration on sexual offenders. Keir Starmer’s government has already said it wants to use ‘fat jabs’ to get unemployed people into work. This biological extremism is deeply troubling.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. Only a fool has an all-consuming belief in the future and a need to...

24.05.2025 20

Neil Mackay

He knows diddly squat: Why Clarkson’s cracks about Scotland make him a bloody idiot

An interesting new phrase has emerged: "disordered discourse". It attempts to explain the collapse of political debate in the West. The term...

23.05.2025 60

Neil Mackay

The super-rich are lying to us. It’s time we turned the tables

With travel so expensive now, you can easily substitute a trip to the Palace of Versailles with some hours reading the Rich List. The effect is...

21.05.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: LGBT community feels fearful and demonised – this shames our country

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. More than 30 years ago, when my wife and I decided to move to Scotland,...

17.05.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: We're not an island of strangers. But I’m now a stranger in my own land

My neighbours are Romanian. A family of three. They are not strangers to me. My other neighbours are Pakistani. A family of five. They are not...

15.05.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Serial murder by our special forces… how much did our politicians know?

“They handcuffed a young boy and shot him. He was clearly a child, not even close to fighting age.” The testimony emerging about alleged war...

13.05.2025 10

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Popular

Ever wondered why films are so bland now? Here's why

Neil Mackay

People like Peter Mandelson are the reason why conspiracy theories exist

Neil Mackay

Mob rule shows the divide between Scottish and English politics

Neil Mackay

Farewell, Melvyn Bragg, our greatest broadcaster and my working-class hero

Neil Mackay

Farage got the daylights kicked out of him in America… not that you’d know

Neil Mackay

From 'taking the knee' to waving an England flag, the strange journey of Keir Starmer

Neil Mackay

The mad dog of racism is loose on the streets and empathy has fled

Neil Mackay

The SNP must tool up for a dirty fight to the death with the far right

Neil Mackay

Do you like playing music on public transport without headphones? Then I despise you

Neil Mackay

A nation which makes a martyr out of Lucy Connolly has lost its moral bearings

Neil Mackay

All hail the death of Crocs, but wait til you see what’s set to replace them

Neil Mackay

Prosecutors are diverging on Palestine Action… is another devolution fight brewing?

Neil Mackay

Neo-Nazis now brazenly stalk Scotland’s streets … blame malevolent politicians

Neil Mackay

Can't we see the danger? Mobile phones must be banned from schools

Neil Mackay

Watching Sturgeon live rent free in her enemies’ minds is joyous political theatre

Neil Mackay

The absurdity and horror of everyday life in a time of genocide

Neil Mackay

Ed Sheeran feels ‘culturally Irish’. So can you be ‘culturally Scottish’?

Neil Mackay

I hate podcasts with a passion - but I’ll make an exception for these two

Neil Mackay

I’m a shock-seeker, so I watched Masterchef and chucked my morality away

Neil Mackay

Us vs them: why the rich are destroying our world

Neil Mackay

We don’t need to be tied to the prejudices of our upbringing: Sandie Peggie take note Sandie Peggie admitted using racial slurs but said she was “brought up like that", But people can rise above the prejudices of their upbringing

Neil Mackay

Corbyn’s new party doesn’t just threaten Labour, it’ll badly wound the SNP too

Neil Mackay

Make indy great again? Why Swinney should hijack Trump’s visit to Scotland

Neil Mackay

Your life ruined for an affair… what kind of puritanical world is this now?

Neil Mackay

John Swinney’s chat about independence is just getting embarrassing now It’s all becoming a wee bit sad lately. John Swinney starts talking about independence and nobody cares.

Neil Mackay

Children are now dying of measles. Anti-vaxx conspiracists have blood on their hands

Neil Mackay

Anti-woke stormtroopers are gunning for Superman. Has the world gone mad?

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay

The Epstein Files and Donald Trump: when conspiracy theories come back to bite

Neil Mackay

So this is what it's come to: arresting pensioners and priests for protesting Should I have thought twice before writing this? Do my opinions put me in the crosshairs of a government that’s drawn up a list of those to be silenced?

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay

Trump said ‘f**k’ and I started to agree with him. What the hell is happening to me? On Tuesday evening, I found myself in the frankly remarkable position of nodding along with Trump. Momentarily, I thought I was going mad.

Neil Mackay

Remember the blood and lies of Iraq? We can’t go through that again with Iran I WAS in the midst of a family party when news of America bombing Iran sucked the life from the room.

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay

Strange: our government can’t even remember which torture sessions it took part in

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay

Finally, we have proof the BBC is helping Reform. It’s become a danger to democracy

Neil Mackay

The Scottish Tory who has perfected the art of 'vice-signalling'

Neil Mackay

It’s not a shot that’s been fired across the SNP’s bows, it’s a cruise missile The Ancient Greeks had the Oracle at Delphi. Modern Scots have the voters of Hamilton. If you want to learn hard truths about the mood in this country, run a by-election in the South Lanarkshire town.

Neil Mackay

Do we hate our children? Why else would we do them this much damage?

Neil Mackay

When AI kills off the ScotRail lady, you know we’re all in trouble