It's not been a great few weeks for those of us who support Britain staying in the EU.

Ukip has secured its strongest ever vote at the local elections and the list of those calling for withdrawal has expanded to include such luminaries as Nigel Lawson, Michael Portillo and...

It's only been a few weeks since Alex Salmond announced the date of next year's Scottish independence referendum, and yet the campaign has already seen its first threatened legal action.

The controversy followed the publication of the Better Together's campaign's finances. National Collective, a radical pro independence group published...

"We are witnessing the start of a new business model for the internet. The argument that information wants to be free is only said by those who want it for free."
Rupert Murdoch, 2010

The idea that the media is in a state of transition has been given more...

"A NO vote would relegate Scotland to the bottom of the Westminster agenda - the idea that Holyrood would gain new powers in these circumstances is fanciful."
Nicola Sturgeon, deputy first minister of Scotland, 27th January 2013

As the debate in Scotland rumbles on the SNP and the wider...

"I don't think anybody sensible really believes that Britain will still be a nuclear power after 2016. In Tony Blair's book he made clear that it's not even an independent nuclear deterrent, and we don't need it anyway." These were the words of a bright young Labour MP as they...

As Britain's credit rating has been downgraded so has its role on the world stage. As well as presenting an immediate challenge to living conditions and trade across the UK it also amplifies questions about the long term health and vitality of 'brand Britain' and the responsiveness of our political...

2012 has been a great year for Ukip; they've secured their best ever local election results, best ever by-election results and caused a whole new headache for the political establishment. Nigel Farage has been a regular guest and panellist on almost every mainstream political programme and has cemented his status...

This blog post is a follow-up to this one, entitled 'Building a Majority for Scottish Independence'. In this post, I am focusing on the tactics of the pro-union side. I support Scottish independence, so I don't want to see the NO campaign winning in 2014. However, it's important...

It's hard to write an up to date article about the Jimmy Savile case as there are new twists every single day. As I type this Freddie Starr and Gary Glitter have been arrested, the Savile estate has been frozen, Jonathan Dimbleby has attacked what he sees as a 'witch...

In this article I discuss how the YES campaign can win the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence. In a later article I will look at what strategy the NO campaign may consider.

Now that the ink on the 'Edinburgh Agreement' has dried and the real debate about Scottish independence...

Spending a night in a north London church watching a local theatre group perform a one man about the historical reputation of Richard III probably isn't everyone's cup of tea. I certainly didn't think that it would be mine. If there are two words that I've always thought should never...

"It's not that I disagree with what they say, I'm fine with most of it. What annoys me isn't what they stand for; it's how they smell."

My friend Mike has never been a hippy, yet he is far from an ideological enemy of the people who...

I often feel like I write about Scotland too much. However, I spent the first 24 years of my life in Scotland, and I assume that I'll move back at some point, so it's hard for me to ignore the debate that's raging north of the border. This past week...

I remember when I was 14 a friend of mine said that he had downloaded 'backstage footage' of Britney Spears kissing Mariah Carey. "Do you think it's real?" I asked naively. "Possibly" he said, "after all they are friends." "It can't be" I said, "they would never let themselves get...

During the hazy, early hours of the morning in a west end pub, a friend of mine told me that he had learned to 'never trust nationalism.' On the face of it he had a point; there are few ideological strands that have unleashed as much needless suffering on the...

"Not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion. Some people believe that when you go to bed with somebody, take off your clothes, and have sex with them and then fall asleep, you're already in the sex game with them."

These are the words that may come to...

Hot on the heels of the Olympic we have been given yet another firmly entrenched tradition which will unite the nation. This time it's not a good one, in fact it a horrible and universally unpopular one. I am of course referring to the great annual railway robbery.

British fares...

I can't possibly emphasise enough how terrible I expected Fifty Shades of Grey to be. The only reason that I was even reading it was simply because everyone else is, and having recently enjoyed The Hunger Games, One Day and the Millennium trilogy I wanted to give this latest literary...

As the Queen sailed up the Thames this year she unwittingly summed up exactly what it means to be British today. The flotilla itself was the perfect symbolism of where we find ourselves as a nation right now; it began with all kinds of pomp, pageantry and manufactured festivity, and...

The news of Morrissey's possible retirement was always unlikely to knock the Eurozone crisis off the front page. Why should we care? After all, he hasn't had any notable hits since Irish Blood English Heart in 2004 and his recent output has ranged from uninspiring to mediocre. Most...