Over the past year I’ve been arguing hard for a new railway station for Winchburgh, taking the battle for badly needed transport infrastructure in the burgeoning West Lothian village to UK ministers as well as to the Scottish Government.
New Year is supposed to be a time of optimism, of thinking positively about the opportunities in the year ahead, but on Monday the First Minister delivered one of the most depressing speeches I have heard for years. And for an SNP politician that’s saying something.
On Tuesday a Currie resident contacted me about trouble in his neighbourhood. What might be a minor nuisance once becomes disturbing if persistent, and three times in the previous 24 hours his door had been banged by a gang of youths who ran off.
Looking forward to 2024, there’s no denying my party faces huge challenges, but since Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s, pictured, Autumn Statement and the SNP Scottish Government’s budget ten days ago, the difference between what’s happening north and south of the border is stark.
We know the Green Party calls the shots in the SNP Scottish Government, but finance secretary Shona Robison should have gone the whole hog and painted her face green before delivering a pre-Christmas budget The Grinch would have been proud of.
At the SNP conference in October, First Minister Humza Yousaf stunned Scotland’s local authorities by unilaterally announcing a council tax freeze he had no power to order.
Of the many chilling details emerging from the trial of two teenagers accused of murdering Brianna Ghey in Warrington, is the casual way the alleged killers used social media to exchange messages.
For anyone concerned about Scotland’s prosperity, Wednesday could not have started much worse, with the announcement that oil refining at Grangemouth would end in 2025.
There has been much publicity about human rights this week, and no-one would deny they include living in your own home without fear. Yet across Edinburgh the lack of adequate police resources means too many people are denied this basic right.
