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Neil Mackay

Neil Mackay

Herald Scotland

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Claims that Israeli firm targeted Scottish elections require urgent investigation

Claims that Israeli firm targeted Scottish elections require urgent investigation

The allegations only emerged on Thursday evening, so calm and logic are required. This isn’t an issue which should be subject to the distortions of...

yesterday 9

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Britain on the brink as Belfast and Glasgow erupt - so what happens next?

Britain on the brink as Belfast and Glasgow erupt - so what happens next?

We're descending into ever tightening, ever more rapid, cycles of savagery. In Belfast, unspeakable violence is met with pogroms. We see this...

wednesday 10

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Why Alan Cumming's Tip Toe is the TV show we need right now

Why Alan Cumming's Tip Toe is the TV show we need right now

In the most troubling way, the timing of Tip Toe couldn’t have been more horribly perfect.  On the day the final gruelling episode aired on Channel...

wednesday 10

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

How dare the middle classes sneer at families who are going hungry?

How dare the middle classes sneer at families who are going hungry?

I spent a chunk of last week talking to the folk behind the UK Right to Food Commission. There are 14 million people going hungry in Britain today,...

09.06.2026 10

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

If Westminster can investigate Holyrood, then Holyrood should investigate Westminster

If Westminster can investigate Holyrood, then Holyrood should investigate Westminster

Most people, even many SNP stalwarts, agree that there should be an inquiry into the Peter Murrell embezzlement case. I accord with Noel Dolan, once...

05.06.2026 10

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Farage whistles and the dogs run to riot … and desecrate the memory of Henry Nowak

Farage whistles and the dogs run to riot … and desecrate the memory of Henry Nowak

Desecration piles upon desecration. The reputation of Henry Nowak: desecrated with lies that he was racist. His life: desecrated by the bestial...

04.06.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Let's talk: here’s one sure way to fix Scotland’s broken schools, kids and society

Let's talk: here’s one sure way to fix Scotland’s broken schools, kids and society

One of my most important formative experiences happened in April 1982 during the Falklands War. I was 12 and in first year at my Northern Ireland...

02.06.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Sturgeon has questions to answer - but only as a politician, not as a wife

Like many, I initially responded to news that Nicola Sturgeon’s former husband was guilty of embezzling £400,000 from the SNP with the thought:...

29.05.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Blair isn’t the saviour of Labour, but he will be its undertaker

I hope my grandad forgives me, but he was the first person who came to mind when I saw Tony Blair had crept out of his crypt to pontificate about the...

28.05.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Unionism is done in Scotland. It no longer has a story to tell the people

It's quite a mouthful for a book’s title, but I recommend A Psychiatric Study of Myths and Fairytales: Their Origin, Meaning and Usefulness by...

26.05.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

The widespread failure to tell the truth about immigration is profoundly dangerous

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. You may have missed it, as the news has been very poorly reported in the...

22.05.2026 10

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Why must stable Scotland put up with all this English chaos and nonsense?

If we don our surgical gloves, reach for the handsaw, and pop the Scottish and UK governments onto the anatomy table for a spot of dissection, it...

21.05.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Mindless hooligans won't change their ways so the football clubs need to suffer

A Scottish referee is given police protection because of a penalty. A trans MSP is escorted through Holyrood by security guards due to fears for their...

18.05.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Memo to Labour: Andy Burnham is not the Messiah, he’s just a very average boy

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. If you’ve been watching a lot of TV news these last few days, you may have...

15.05.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Why the next wave of tech will turn ordinary people into voyeurs and spies

I confess my bias from the get-go: I hate technology. Not all technology, I hasten to add. I don’t hate heart machines and radios, or satnavs and...

14.05.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

The end for the UK is nigh: Celtic nationalists will ally to kill off the Union

The Labour/Tory duopoly is collapsing and with it the political system. The future is a battle of nationalisms between Reform, SNP, Sinn Fein and...

12.05.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

The people have spoken – there will be a pro-indy majority but it will be ignored

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. There’s something deeply absurd and offensive about the way democracy in...

08.05.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

So, how the hell did I end up with a 30-year old-daughter?

I almost burned down my mother-in-law’s house when I learned I was about to become a dad for the first time. And she was a brand new mother-in-law,...

07.05.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Bookmark this: what the adverts we see today say about the state of Scotland

Where once there were adverts for real physical books, today there’s only adverts for celebrity audiobooks. This reveals something very troubling,...

05.05.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Why Scotland's top policy expert says no party offers Scotland what it needs

Stephen Boyd heads the influential think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland. As the election looms, writer-at-large Neil Mackay...

03.05.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Is the SNP prepared for what happens if it wins next week? Short answer: No

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. You'd be hard pushed to claim this Scottish election has been anything...

01.05.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Us v Them: How capitalism became a living hell for ordinary people

I saw an advert for the grandly-named ‘prediction market platform’ Kalshi recently which summed up where we are as a civilisation in 2026. ...

30.04.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Get ready for the ultimate nightmare: Trump backing Scottish independence

The King may have been dispatched to heal the UK-US relationship, but as the Falklands shows, Donald Trump will use anything to wound Britain if he...

28.04.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Grow up, for pity’s sake, of course the SNP will work with Sinn Fein

Unionists have reacted with outrage to John Swinney saying he’ll cooperate with Sinn Fein to boost Scottish independence. Why is anyone surprised,...

24.04.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Oh dear, Gleneagles, I've never heard such unionist drivel about Robert the Bruce

I had the pleasure of spending time again with Professor Mary Beard last week, enjoying one of those slow, intelligent conversations which seem so...

22.04.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Want the secret to a happy life? Here it is, and it’s easy and costs you nothing

Our Writer at Large Neil Mackay explains how after a life chasing extreme experiences and emotions, he has learned that it is the simplest things that...

21.04.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Feed the poor or fatten the rich: why John Swinney’s food price cap is morally right

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. We have already entered a new era of ‘Guns or Butter’. Scotland’s own...

17.04.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

When politicians sneer at the ‘lanyard class’, they sneer at our public servants

The words politicians use matters. Today, they’re incapable of speaking without employing the cliched, impenetrable and divisive jargon of the...

16.04.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Thank you, Wes Streeting: every sneer you utter is another vote for the SNP

Labour’s Health Secretary says there will be no independence referendum regardless of what the Scottish people say. Wes Streeting is doing the work...

14.04.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

So now America even controls when we laugh and what we laugh at

The US comedy franchise is just the latest staging post in American cultural and political domination of Britain. We need to get off our knees right...

24.03.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Welcome to Scotland - where the suffering of greyhounds counts more than human beings

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. It's a long-standing staple in first year university philosophy class:...

20.03.2026 40

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Louis Theroux’s Manosphere made me realise raising a son has never been harder

Boys and young men are being radicalised en masse by a pandemic of brutal online misogyny. Raising a son in such a world has never been harder, our...

19.03.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

The entire Scottish media should back the Greens targeting Elon Musk’s X. Here's why

The Greens want to make social media platforms subject to laws of defamation and libel just like publishers, newspapers and broadcasters. About time,...

17.03.2026 40

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

'It took a smart English police chief to do what Scotsmen fear: call out Old Firm'

The Chief Constable of Police Scotland did the country a service when she pointed the finger of blame clearly at Rangers and Celtic over disorder,...

13.03.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Timothée Chalamet’s attack on ballet and opera shows the collapse of modern culture

Timothée Chalamet has attacked ballet and opera. How can anyone in the arts behave like this, Neil Mackay asks. He’s a symbol of the collapse of...

12.03.2026 40

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

At least he's got one thing right: Starmer’s best move is staying out of Trump’s war

The Iran attack has no clear motive or end game, and atrocities are happening. Our Writer at Large asks: how can anyone who says they are a British...

10.03.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Alba is now at the ‘two bald men fighting over a comb’ stage of absurdity

This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter. For those who like their news weird, unpleasant and with a twist of...

06.03.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

It’s couthy, it’s cringey, embarrassing and twee: that’s Bonnie Scotland on the BBC

With the broadcaster under attack on all sides and accusations flying of falling standards, our Writer at Large Neil Mackay looks at what’s gone...

05.03.2026 80

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Alan Carr’s castle buy in the Borders is a Gilded Age tale for a broken Scotland

Alan Carr has paid £3.5million for a baronial pile in the borders. Neil Mackay says it smacks of the Gilded Age when the rich played and the poor...

05.03.2026 50

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Keir Starmer refuses to even negotiate on indy. That makes me happy

The UK Government says it will not hold talks with the SNP on the issue of what triggers another referendum. Our Writer at Large believes that plays...

03.03.2026 50

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

The Greens proved them all wrong: Starmer, Farage, and the media - the left is back

Our Writer at Large, Neil Mackay, looks at the astonishing success of the Green Party in Manchester and what it means for both UK and Scottish...

27.02.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Our reaction to Nadiya Hussain proves we’ve forgotten what matters

The chef has lost her BBC gig and is now working as a classroom assistant. Why are people laughing at her choice instead of praising her, asks Neil...

26.02.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

What does a colleague calling Anas Sarwar a ‘f**kwit’ say about Scottish Labour?

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has been on the receiving end of a brutal and insulting briefing from within his own power base. Here our Writer at...

24.02.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Murrell memo: Why should Swinney know more about this case than the Scottish people?

The Lord Advocate is accused of giving the First Minister advance information on the case involving the SNP’s former chief executive. Our Writer at...

20.02.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Why the row over arming police proves we’ve forgotten how to debate

Last weekend, Neil Mackay reported on calls by the head of the Police Federation for greater access to firearms for officers. The response has been...

19.02.2026 90

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Oh no, save me from an Irishman's nightmare: yet another Irish bar

Glasgow is set to get another chain of Irish bars. As an Irishman, our Writer at Large is not impressed with yet more "cartoonisation" of...

17.02.2026 100

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Is the SNP still actually interested in delivering Scottish independence?

Westminster is imploding, yet there is near radio silence from nationalists when it comes indy, our Writer at Large, Neil Mackay, argues. This article...

13.02.2026 30

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Epstein scandal forces a reckoning between the people and power

With outrage in the air, the Epstein scandal offers us the chance to rebalance the rotten relationship between the people and power, Neil Mackay...

13.02.2026 90

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

They want £40 billion to rebuild Parliament? Let the damn place rot instead

The Mandelson scandal has revealed a democracy so broken and a politics so toxic that it isn’t worth saving, argues our Writer at Large What could...

10.02.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay

Whoever is lying about political pressure over QEUH scandal needs to be punished

The truth isn’t being told about political pressure used to speed up the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital's opening. That hurts victim’s...

31.01.2026 20

Herald Scotland

Neil Mackay