HeraldScotland

Profile: Brian Taylor

HeraldScotland:

Columnist

You may have seen me on the telly. Or perhaps heard me on the wireless. Maybe you followed my political punditry and random musings online. For many years I was the Political Editor of BBC Scotland, covering and analysing Scottish, UK and global events. During that prolonged period, I also lost no opportunity to display my fanatical support for the mighty Dundee United.

Latest articles from Brian Taylor

Floral tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh

Brian Taylor: Why Nicola Sturgeon offers her supporters Paradise Deferred

COULD this plague-beset election get any more surreal? At the SNP manifesto launch, Nicola Sturgeon felt it germane to disavow the prospect of an arm-wrestling contest with a fellow advocate of independence.

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Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor: Loathing the election? Don’t blame the politicians – it’s our fault

It is, partly, our fault. To some extent, we get the election we deserve, while permitting the candidates to pay little heed to the huge, stomping, snorting mammoth in the corner of the room.

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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during First Minister's Questions at the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh. Picture date: Thursday March 18, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story HEALTH Coronavirus Scotland. Photo credit should read: Fraser

Brian Taylor: Independence and the SNP — The dream that hesitates to speak its name

HISTORY matters and so, as we begin another election campaign, my mind drifts back inexorably to an earlier contest, to the UK election of 1997 which brought Tony Blair to UK power and led to the creation of Scotland’s devolved parliament.

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Then First Minister Alex Salmond and then Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during First Minister's Questions at the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh in 2010.

Brian Taylor: Sturgeon versus Salmond. Here are the game plans for the socially distanced election

TO govern is to choose. To elect is, literally, to choose. And now Scotland’s voters are to have one more choice placed before them with Alex Salmond’s decision to launch a new party, seeking support on the list.

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Celtic and Rangers fans during an Old Firm clash. Photo by Jamie Simpson

Brian Taylor: Are we condemned to see more disgraceful scenes at next Old Firm game?

LET us reflect. Let us look back in anxiety, frustration and fear at the past 12 months. Let us recall that it is a year to the day since covid first ended a life in Scotland. Let us mourn the lives lost then and since.

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File photo dated 18/4/2015 of Nicola Sturgeon with Alex Salmond whilst on the General Election campaign trail in Inverurie. Picture: Andrew Milligan

Brian Taylor: This is not a civil war in the SNP. This is more vicious and more visceral

SOME conversations stand out. It may be a significant disclosure – or a remark which subsequently acquires importance. It may be a single, startling phrase, recollected in tranquillity.

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