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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...

yesterday 8

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...

wednesday 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

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Here’s the secret to how the SNP turned Scotland into a one-party state Is Doctor Faustus a secret member of the SNP’s inner circle? You’d be forgiven for imagining that the party forged a pact with the Devil, that Mephistopheles promised them decades in power in return for the souls of every First Minister.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. Is Doctor Faustus a secret member of the SNP’s inner circle? You’d...

10.05.2025 6

Neil Mackay

Jail for climbing Churchill’s statue? Starmer will be saluting the Union flag next

Won’t someone think of the poor statues!? In a world of horror, poverty and GB News, they’re getting an awfully hard time lately. In Dublin,...

09.05.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Trump and Farage prove there is such a thing as Scottish values

The discussion around what are or aren’t Scottish values, or whether such principles even exist, reveals much about our tortured national psyche. ...

06.05.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: English nationalism will be the death of the union It feels like 2025 needs a specific name, a label. Perhaps, the Year of Samson. For in 2025, political pillars which have stood for generations are being torn down, just as Samson tore down the pillars of the temple in the bible story.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. It feels like 2025 needs a specific name, a label. Perhaps, the Year of...

03.05.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Working-class quotas and why we need a taste of social engineering

Social mobility is dead in this country. Economists say it’s harder now than at any point in the last half-century to move up in life if you’re...

02.05.2025 6

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: We badly need a legal route to indyref2 … here’s how we do it

Last week, I spent an afternoon in the company of Roz Foyer, the general-secretary of the STUC. She’s one of the most interesting people in Scottish...

30.04.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: The politicians leading anti far-right summit are to blame for extremism You cannot discuss the rise of the far-right, hard right, extreme right, populist right – or whatever kind of right you wish to label it – unless you deal with the economic failures of our mainstream politicians.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. There's a cowardly, wilful absurdity to any discussion which fails to...

26.04.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: If you believe in free speech you must defend Maggie Chapman

The laws of free speech are immutable. They never change. They must not change. The founding principle is the hard, important ask: that we protect...

25.04.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Gangsters are terrorising Scotland, but do our politicians care?

With weary disgust another headline drops about the gangland war staining central Scotland. There was a passing moment, back in the late 1990s,...

23.04.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Why Harvie quitting could be making of Greens (if they dump Slater too) Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater should have quit as Green Party co-leaders when the Bute House deal with the SNP collapsed.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater should have quit as Green Party...

05.04.2025 7

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: The SNP may now be right on Trident, and it's all because of Trump

My position on nuclear weapons reflects that of many folk, I reckon. Like a mountain switchback road, it has altered course at times over my life. ...

03.04.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Why is the best entertainment from Scotland in years such a secret?

I knew Still Wakes the Deep was special when it blind-sided me with an insulin joke that Kevin Bridges would be proud to have written. For the...

02.04.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Putin just gave Trump the wink on force against Greenland… be afraid It makes you pine for the good old days of the Cold War. That wasn’t a typo, I meant ‘good old days’, not ‘bad old days’.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. It makes you pine for the good old days of the Cold War. That wasn’t a...

29.03.2025 40

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: The Irn-Bru company shames the very spirit of Scottish enterprise

I’m beginning to feel like Benjamin the Donkey in Animal Farm. Benjamin lived so long, the world turned him cynical. He knew that whether the pigs...

28.03.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: If Starmer keeps going, we'll be the 51st US state and Farage will be PM

All Prime Ministers have a grand vision for the nation, though they seldom express it clearly. We must intuit their megalomanic mission from the...

26.03.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: For some she’ll always be guilty simply of being Nicola Sturgeon It's a sorry indictment of this country that opponents of Nicola Sturgeon both inside and outside her own party seem incapable of expressing any empathy for what she’s been through over the last few years.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. It's a sorry indictment of this country that opponents of Nicola...

22.03.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Stupidity is now our biggest growth industry, but can we save the young?

Picture yourself in 1995 and your average day. I was 25. Every morning I got the train to work. Onboard, everyone read newspapers, magazines or...

21.03.2025 40

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Starmer has cured me of my Labour nostalgia. Now I know it's indy for me

Occasionally, we find ourselves without the necessary words to express an emotion or idea because the language hasn’t yet been invented. Over the...

19.03.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Labour is a psychopathic government that’s just as bad as the Tories Unfortunately, I’ve met far too many psychopaths throughout my life. Not more than cops, prison officers or psychiatric staff, but far in excess of the average punter’s brush with the mad and bad.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. Unfortunately, I’ve met far too many psychopaths throughout my life....

15.03.2025 10

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: In the end, Nicola Sturgeon didn't do enough that mattered

There's a speech at the end of Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus which stands as eulogy for the political careers of so many leaders from...

13.03.2025 6

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Arthur Miller revival really matters – and Glasgow is its perfect home

If humanity survives this cursed century, I imagine our future ancestors looking back and wondering if it wasn’t the way we entertained ourselves...

11.03.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: SNP teeing up for another unnecessary culture war with religious right There's a strange imbalance in Scottish society. As a nation, we’re now predominantly secular: 51.1% said in the 2022 census that they had “no religion”.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. There's a strange imbalance in Scottish society. As a nation, we’re...

08.03.2025 6

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: My one-man war against the Phantom Fly-tipper of East Ren

Since I hit 50, my life has become a bad British sitcom, featuring me as the halfwit man-child character causing chaos while his family watches in...

07.03.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Morality is on Swinney’s side. Trump should not set foot in Scotland

Hieronymous Bosch was damn good at paintings of humans in hell, yet even he’d have struggled to capture the look of eternal damnation on Marco...

05.03.2025 30

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: For Swinney, Trump’s Scotland trip will be toughest challenge yet Swinney took a principled, courageous stand – which was also politically savvy. He’s placed himself in direct opposition to the MAGA ideology sweeping the west.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. For an accurate assessment of Keir Starmer’s White House pilgrimage,...

01.03.2025 7

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Ban Twitter, rejoin the EU: a 10-point plan for surviving an enemy USA

As the song goes, "all my life, there’s trouble in America". But never trouble like this, and never trouble that’s turned the United States in...

28.02.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: SNP pops champagne as Sarwar self-destructs with Mini-Musk tribute act

We've all been there. That moment when you realise you’re out of your depth professionally and start scrambling around for something – anything...

25.02.2025 20

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Hard lessons as Vance humiliates MAGA pet Scottish historian There’s been what’s called ‘an instructive moment’ over on the burning pile of demon excrement once known as Twitter. It featured Scotland’s very own Niall Ferguson, MAGA’s pet historian, being publicly humiliated by JD Vance, the guy-linered US Vice President.

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. There’s been what’s called ‘an instructive moment’ over on the...

22.02.2025 20

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Popular

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

Neil Mackay

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

Neil Mackay

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

Neil Mackay

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

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.

Neil Mackay

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

Neil Mackay

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

Neil Mackay

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

Neil Mackay

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

Neil Mackay

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

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay

Jail for climbing Churchill’s statue? Starmer will be saluting the Union flag next

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Trump and Farage prove there is such a thing as Scottish values

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: English nationalism will be the death of the union It feels like 2025 needs a specific name, a label. Perhaps, the Year of Samson. For in 2025, political pillars which have stood for generations are being torn down, just as Samson tore down the pillars of the temple in the bible story.

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Working-class quotas and why we need a taste of social engineering

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: We badly need a legal route to indyref2 … here’s how we do it

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: If you believe in free speech you must defend Maggie Chapman

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Gangsters are terrorising Scotland, but do our politicians care?

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Why Harvie quitting could be making of Greens (if they dump Slater too) Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater should have quit as Green Party co-leaders when the Bute House deal with the SNP collapsed.

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: The SNP may now be right on Trident, and it's all because of Trump

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Why is the best entertainment from Scotland in years such a secret?

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Putin just gave Trump the wink on force against Greenland… be afraid It makes you pine for the good old days of the Cold War. That wasn’t a typo, I meant ‘good old days’, not ‘bad old days’.

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: The Irn-Bru company shames the very spirit of Scottish enterprise

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: If Starmer keeps going, we'll be the 51st US state and Farage will be PM

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: For some she’ll always be guilty simply of being Nicola Sturgeon It's a sorry indictment of this country that opponents of Nicola Sturgeon both inside and outside her own party seem incapable of expressing any empathy for what she’s been through over the last few years.

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Stupidity is now our biggest growth industry, but can we save the young?

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Starmer has cured me of my Labour nostalgia. Now I know it's indy for me

Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay: Labour is a psychopathic government that’s just as bad as the Tories Unfortunately, I’ve met far too many psychopaths throughout my life. Not more than cops, prison officers or psychiatric staff, but far in excess of the average punter’s brush with the mad and bad.

Neil Mackay