Maurice Smith

No biography available.

No biography available.

Latest articles from Maurice Smith

Maurice Smith: No-one to blame but ourselves for the sorry state that we are in

SO how has Brexit been for you? Less than five days into the long-delayed start to negotiations, British politics seems more deeply mired in a quicksand of indecision and fluster. Rudderless, shapeless, HMS Westminster risks mockery on the stage of world opinion, a year after a vote that some believed would make the country stronger.

Maurice Smith: The SNP has a lot of hard thinking ahead

WHERE does Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP go from here? A party that swept the board in Westminster two years ago has contrived to make the return of a strong majority of MPs feel like defeat. A leader who is normally so sure-footed talks now of “taking time to reflect” on the prospect of a second independence referendum.

Could the past point the way to a new future for Paisley?

They stand as witnesses to a bygone age, when Paisley was a great economic success story, and home to a global industry, red sandstone monuments to wealth and patronage in a town that has witnessed the best of times and the worst of them.

Maurice Smith: Our parties are not serving the voters

THE great news from the weekend BBC TV debate is that everybody won. It comes as a relief to know this, thanks to the headlines and analysis emanating from the onscreen “spin room” that accompanied the main event. The man from The National said that Nicola Sturgeon had won, while the man from the Daily Record thought otherwise. The man from The Spectator was sure independence is a jolly bad thing, although he had a few criticisms of the “Unionist” parties too. A couple of women did sneak in their asides, but in the “spin room” it seemed clear that chaps know best.

Maurice Smith: Take start-up claims with a pinch of salt

HOW do we define the controversy over Hebridean Sea Salt and its abrupt exit from supermarket shelves and five-star restaurant kitchens? Heavy handed bureaucracy or a simple case of tackling consumer deception about the origins of a product sold as a premium brand?