Craig Ross

The Guardian's Martin Kettle rightly describes government division, and wrongly characterises Brexit and concerns over immigration.

The former Greek finance minister and professor of Economics attacks new UK prime minister Liz Truss's plans, seeing them as a continuation of forty years of error.

Jenkins argues for reforms to make the housing market less dysfunctional, and so advance the levelling up agenda. I suggest that the real solution is far more radical, and far less politically acceptable, than he thinks.

On a personal note; law, politics and the citizen. Welfare, and the universal basic income. Tattoos.

The Gray Report on Downing Street parties. Challenges to Johnson. The Ukraine situation. Neil Young, Joe Rogan and Spotify. Gender, the Scottish Government and the EHRC.

The Covid crisis and the NHS. The acquittal of the "Colston Four". Glasgow's un-gritted roads. Poor health in the second city of the empire.

Is Kier Starmer a socialist? Prince Andrew and Giuffre. Scotland's defence lawyers have had enough. Scotland's ferries, and public provision generally.

Rather than look at one Guardian article I've taken a look at the stories making the headlines today.

Behr suggests that Johnson's EU "cakeism" - having two mutually incompatible things - has infected other policy areas, and the attitudes of the wider party.

Liberty's director - a human rights lawyer - condemns the government's proposed changes to the powers of the courts, and to the uses that may be made of the Human Rights Act.

Toynbee thinks Sunak has an eye on the Tory leadership, and will pander to the party's key supporters to win the crown. The price of this is an ongoing crisis in public services, and a possible defeat at the next election.

John Lennon was nearly right, it seems.

John Harris explores the possible differences that might exist between the Johnson and Sunak views of net zero, levelling up and the like.

Are we heading into a Winter of Discontent 2.0, and will it help Labour?

The film director attacks Starmer and all his works, looking to rescue Labour from the Blairites and hand it back to those who know how best to lose elections.

The equalities minister Kemi Badenoch has a problem that Malik needs to tell her about.

Nicola Sturgeon's economic adviser moans about the global economy. I - the man least likely to become Sturgeon's adviser - respond.

Toynbee suggests that Labour's position is less dire than some might think, and that the way to win is to be a plausible alternative provider. I think she's right, but that the reason why she's right is quite depressing. (At the end of the first section I sound as though I'm eating my feet, but the moment passes).

Brown's "Our Scottish Future" think tank has done some polling on the values of folk in the UK. I talk about this, Brown's responsibility for our present crisis, and the very considerable difference that exists between supporting independence and supporting the SNP.

The environmentalist Monbiot suggests that more needs to be done to allow communities to control local planning. I suggest that there's a far bigger problem regarding land usage which he's ignoring.

Tony Blair's former chief of staff argues that we have to engage with the Taliban, just as we have to engage with terrorists and insurgents around the world.

The Guardian doesn't like GB News, and doesn't understand why the public does.

Rather than take one article to pieces I've used a few as an expectorant; getting something off my chest.

Gaby Hinsliff considers the Tories' higher and further education reforms, and suggests they're part of a wider programme.

This was a piece in the Guardian on the 20th May 2021. A sociologist/political economist argues that Johnson is successful because he's no longer bound by the dictates of a Treasury view (and system) created by Gordon Brown.

The Guardian's Rafael Behr condemns the Home Office's administration of the scheme for EU migrants who wish to claim settled status. He makes use of a number of claims which I don't think withstand scrutiny.

In the aftermath of the 2021 Holyrood election the former prime minister published pieces in the Guardian and Herald, arguing that we need to reconfigure the British constitution. Primarily this is a response to the threat posed to the UK by Scottish separatism. But his argument is that the problem is wider than that.

Bunting has written a book on the crisis in care, identifying what she thinks are the causes of the crisis in the system. This is a response to her Guardian article on the topic.

This is an interesting Guardian piece by George Monbiot. He condemns the Conservative Party for centralising power in the hands of both government ministers and the wealthy. The latter have also been allowed to enrich themselves through the scandalously inept provision of public goods and services. He argues in favour of a more participatory democracy.

This is my response to Zephaniah's article in the Guardian, 13th October 2020.

This is a discussion of the specific issue of foodbanks and hunger, and also of the welfare state more generally. If you're on the left you won't like it, which is exactly why you should listen to it.

The Observer thinks that the UK government needs to establish the degree of Russian interference in our politics, and take action to prevent such behaviour. I suggest that given the nature of their behaviour, and what we're prepared to do, it might prove very difficult to dissuade them.

Jonathan Freedland is pleased that Labour's new leader Keir Starmer has sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey from his shadow Cabinet, for retweeting an anti-Semitic article. I try to place the issue in the broader context of Labour politics, and political theory more generally.

Hanif Kureishi argues that the riots and disorder we've seen are symptoms of a world that's changing, and which needs to change.

This is mainly about the Scottish education system, and the journey we've taken from "unusually good" to "quite remarkably bad", while spending a huge amount of money. The argument applies more generally. On both sides of the Atlantic we've forgotten what education is.

This is my first attempt to wrestle to some kind of conclusion the issue of Scottish Independence. I appreciate it's too long. Best consumed in two or three bites.

I think there's been a great deal of nonsense spoken about immigration. Once we've accepted the obvious facts we can agree on how to proceed. Our media, and too many of our politicians, have suited themselves, or feared the label "racist". The net result of this has been Brexit, and a country ill at peace with itself.