Andrew Dunlop

WITHIN the next three months the UK and Scottish governments will decide the location of Scotland’s two Green Freeports. Increasingly, energy experts are making the case for the Cromarty Firth. It has more natural assets than any other site, it would attract tremendous inward investment, develop highly skilled sustainable jobs and would transform the economic prospects of the Highland region.

THE Ukraine war isn’t turning out as expected – certainly not as President Vladimir Putin expected. Heads are rolling in Russian High Command. The quick fire blitzkrieg to occupy Kyiv and topple the Zelenskyy government has been bogged down – literally – in the ‘rasputitsa’, the same muddy road conditions Napoleon and Hitler encountered during ill-fated Russian campaigns.

IT was shocking to wake up to the news last Thursday that Russia had invaded Ukraine, an independent, sovereign and democratic European country. We’d been warned a full-scale invasion was possible, likely even. Reality when it came was still chilling. Is it hyperbole to suggest that Western liberal democracies are facing their most dangerous moment since the Second World War? Six months ago the notion would have seemed laughable. Now, not so much. Suddenly our own political disagreements seem

THE co-leader of the Greens, Lorna Slater, told this newspaper on Saturday that the SNP/Green government intended to produce a new independence prospectus in advance of another referendum next year.

‘PARTYGATE’ damages the Prime Minister. It also risks tarnishing the civil service’s reputation as a Rolls-Royce machine, which purrs along smoothly no matter how bumpy the road or wayward the driver. Smoke is billowing worryingly from the bonnet. Is some fresh oil needed or a reconditioned engine?

ONLY a week into a new year and already old chestnuts are being tossed in the air – a unionist pact to defeat the SNP, a new centre-right party to replace the Scottish Conservatives, devo max to sate the appetite of the ‘indy curious’ and, inevitably, the continuous loop of another independence referendum.

DID you watch the Queen’s Christmas poignant and personal broadcast this year? Or maybe, like Jeremy Corbyn, you’re a bit hazy about whether you did or didn’t.

THE first job of Prime Minister is surely to look Prime Ministerial. To convey to the public a sense of command and authority. To give confidence, when storm clouds gather, that there’s someone at the helm who knows what they’re doing. To represent the UK on the world stage in a way that makes everyone feel proud of their country.

A deep Atlantic depression has settled over Scotland. Beneath it the nation’s commentariat is gripped by despair. Newspapers and maga-zines are full of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Scotland’s politics is mired in treacle. Paralysed by constitutional stalemate. Progress on any front is impossible. For the next decade at least you’ll just have to hunker down. Pull the bedcovers more tightly over your head. And just thole it.

BORIS Johnson’s an energetic promoter of ‘cakeism’. Partial to a bit of cake and enthusiastic about scoffing it. Yet Johnson is a slouch compared to the SNP. To royally mix the culinary metaphors, they really do take the biscuit. This thought sprung to mind whilst reading recent comments by Kevin Pringle, the SNP’s former communications chief.