Tom Gallagher is Emeritus Professor of Politics at Bradford University and is researching a book on why Britain’s ability to avoid the internal conflicts which have marked continental Europe is disappearing.
Without Britain Glasgow is on the ropes
Glasgow’s status as a vigorous service-based economy is strongly bound up with the preservation of the Union. The SNP has emotive bluster. But it can't answer, and doesn't understand, the real needs of a city whose fortunes, literally, are tied to Britain
- 26 July 2014
Euro opportunism: Cameron no match for Sikorski
The Juncker/Sikorski episode shows how little Britain’s voice counts in Europe, how alone its government is and how powerless it is to resist the creation of a form of technocratic absolutism which treats national parliaments and electorates with contempt
- 26 June 2014
A Latin American Pope and Europe’s Separatists
Even the Pope seems sceptical about Scottish independence. If he ever met Alex Salmond, Pope Francis, drawing on Argentina's history, would probably just see him for the populist that he is
- 18 June 2014
Michael Gove’s honourable ambition for Britain
Michael Gove's political future is under a degree of uncertainty, but he remains ambitious: not so much for himself but for his vision of Britain
- 8 June 2014
UKIP advances in Scotland
UKIP's clarity on Europe contrasts with the SNP's confusions and contradictions. At the European elections, UKIP may well cause a major surprise north of the border not just south of it
- 11 May 2014
UK the punchbag for an EU reeling from eastern failures
The EU is both unloved and deeply fragile due to the sheer volume of policy failures it has accumulated. Attacking the UK with its transaction tax is unlikely to preserve an increasingly threadbare unity
- 1 May 2014
The English North is love bombed by Salmond
It is a simple truth that Alex Salmond has nothing to offer the English North, despite his best proclamations
- 25 April 2014
Richard Hoggart: A public intellectual for progress
It is easy to pigeon-hole Richard Hoggart as an avant-garde radical eager to tear down the fabric of conventional society. But Hoggart was deeply opposed to the levelling creed of cultural relativism and had more about him than might appear
- 14 April 2014
Scotland’s Big Brother State just got bigger
The SNP desires a politically obedient business sector that will see itself as a cog in a state-driven economy. That could only be bad for an independent Scotland
- 8 April 2014
Cameron must sack his Union-busting minister
(UPDATED: As Number 10 dithers, rumours now focus on Philip Hammond, Defence Secretary.) An anonymous minister has said Scotland would in fact keep the pound if it went independent, which is rubbish. There is already much speculation that the minister is Vince Cable. Whoever it is, Cameron must sack them or lose all credibility in Scotland
- 29 March 2014
Aristocrats not economics please, we’re Scots
The latest polling on delusions about a currency union with England et al could be an indication that the Scotland of common sense, restraint and a level of education widely distributed across society has finally entered into history
- 28 March 2014
Scottish independence brawl exposes deep divisions
The romantic Celtic rhetoric of separation from the hated Sassenach (English) cuts little ice in much of rural Scotland. Independence is far more contradictory and divisive than most people, including Scots, realise
- 19 March 2014
Scotland’s big referendum winners
The SNP remains well ahead in the polls and therefore will be in charge during the rancorous period that is sure to persist after 2014. Will ordinary Scots rein in the party as it flirts with authoritarianism?
- 6 March 2014
Scottish independence and the cult of Alex Salmond
What Salmond is increasingly presiding over is a cult. The SNP is an immature and flimsy party peddling immature and ill thought-out plans for independence
- 28 February 2014
Scots to world: So we’re irrational. Get used to it!
Nationalist group-think is advancing on all sides in Scotland which tragically may rule out a rational debate about the future between now and 18 September
- 21 February 2014
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