The SNP attack on Starmer's EU deal makes no sense
To mutilate the words of PG Wodehouse, it is never difficult to distinguish between a Scottish nationalist with a grievance and a ray of sunshine. Fury is the fuel that drives the SNP, which has been in power at the Scottish parliament for 18 years. So it is hardly a surprise that First Minister John Swinney has reacted angrily to the new deal struck between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
The agreement reached between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will increase freedom of movement, create closer relationships between businesses, and increase cooperation on food standards. These are things that the SNP has been demanding ever since the UK voted, in 2016, to leave the EU. But the decision to maintain the status quo of EU fishing boats having access to UK waters until 2038 undermines all of that so far as the First Minister and his colleagues are concerned.
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Benjamin Netanyahu, facing three charges of corruption at home, has achieved his long-held ambition of bringing the United States into a war with Iran. Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine. He hasn't. He promised to bring peace to the Middle East. He hasn't. Instead he has continued with his country's history of bombing countries and killing thousands. Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Vietnam. Cambodia. Laos. Iraq. Somalia. Libya. Syria. Yemen. Iran. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. William Loneskie, Lauder. Donald Trump (Image: PA)Give us back our licence fee BBC Scotland boasts that Scotland gets 90% of its licence fee for funding. Given the heavy Anglo-centric bias of the BBC platforms funded by the UK-wide licence fee (BBC News 24, Radios 4 and 5 etc), why don't we have 100% of our licence fee back, and use it in Scotland to make programmes relevant to us, our history and culture? Scots traversed Europe for 500 years, then the globe for the next 300, so it need not be parochial. 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