#alecross — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #alecross, aggregated by home.social.
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My take home from this World Cup is that that we didn’t really believe
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I suspect Sarwar knows this. Successive opposition leaders in Holyrood, from Ruth Davidson to Douglas Ross and now Sarwar – have always come up against this glass ceiling. ...
"Are we on the radar ?" Labour's Branch Office in Scotland. https://theorkneynews.scot/2026/02/11/are-we-on-the-radar-labours-branch-office-in-scotland/ #AlecRoss, #AnasSarwar, #Epstein, #KeirStarmer, #Labour, #LordMandelson -
The speaker was famous for his rich and sonorous Midwestern drawl, but the accent tonight was unmistakably Ayrshire. It’s not clear whether the assembled dignitaries had wanted Burns with their Brandy. Then again, when the performer is Abraham Lincoln, who the hell is going to object?
Abraham Lincoln & Robert Burns https://theorkneynews.scot/2026/01/24/abraham-lincoln-robert-burns-4/ #AbrahamLincoln, #AlecRoss, #Culture, #News, #Opinion, #OrkneyNews, #Poems, #Poetry, #RobertBurns -
It’s been many years since I watched the once unmissable Sports Personality of the Year programme on the BBC, largely because it has long been a deeply unserious piece of broadcasting.
“Nobody ever celebrated devolution day” (Alex Salmond) https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/12/24/nobody-ever-celebrated-devolution-day-alex-salmond/ #AlecRoss, #Football, #Independence, #Scotland, #WorldCup -
Since the Ryder Cup, a number of friends who are not golfers or golf fans like me have asked me why the ugly scenes at Bethpage happened. No doubt they’re surprised because they are more used to the genteel atmosphere of Augusta or St Andrews...
When did we stop being nice? https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/10/04/when-did-we-stop-being-nice/ #AlecRoss, #Golf, #Politics, #RyderCup, #Sport -
At the Kirkcudbright Fringe Festival last week, I chaired a discussion on Scotland’s constitutional status and possible direction, twenty-six years since devolution, with the writer and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch and the former First Minister Henry McLeish (Home Truths for Home Rule).
"Scotland needs to show the world what it is, because we won't get a second chance." https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/09/17/scotland-needs-to-show-the-world-what-it-is-because-we-wont-get-a-second-chance/ #AlecRoss, #Devolution, #HenryMcLeish, #LesleyRiddoch -
"I suggested to him that while the former First Minister’s personal thoughts and fears came across as entirely human and genuine – and they are – perhaps it was far too early for her to try to defend a legacy that will take years to determine. "
The End of the Affair https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/08/14/the-end-of-the-affair/ #AlecRoss, #Books, #NicolaSturgeon -
With First Minister John Swinney about to embark on a tour of Scotland (including my own area of Dumfries and Galloway) to roll out yet another relaunch of an independence strategy, it feels like an important moment to reflect on Scotland’s constitutional journey.
Field of Dreams https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/08/05/field-of-dreams-2/ #AlecRoss, #ScottishIndependence -
A niche one maybe, but I’ve been watching the golf from America – goodness me, it’s brilliant – and reflecting on the latest Rory controversy.
In Praise of Rory https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/06/14/in-praise-of-rory/ #AlecRoss, #Golf, #RoryMcIlroy -
There’s a story told about a speech at the Conservative Party conference in the early 2000s, at a time when the party was at a low ebb. New Labour was still a while away from its Iraq nemesis and had just been returned by a sizeable majority. The mood in the hall could hardly have been bleaker....
Moving the Needle https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/05/07/moving-the-needle/ #AlecRoss, #Elections, #Reform, #ScottishIndependence, #SNP -
Who in truth has heard of Alexander Watson Hutton? And yet Argentina – the football mad country of Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi – recently played an entire top division season with footballs emblazoned with saltires, in homage to the Scotsman who effectively brought the beautiful game to their homeland.
Field of Dreams https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/04/26/field-of-dreams/ #AlecRoss, #Football, #ScottishIndependence, #Sport -
That was the question addressed by the writer Gerry Hassan in his Bella Caledonia article earlier this week (After Sturgeon & “Sturgeonism”: facing up to the undemocracy of Scotland). Tackling the legacy of the long Nicola Sturgeon administration, he characterised the SNP’s time in government as the “…politics of caution, management and administration”
Stands Scotland where it did? https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/03/26/stands-scotland-where-it-did-3/ #AlecRoss, #Devolution, #NicolaSturgeon, #Politics, #ScottishIndependence, #UKGovernment -
He made Scotland believe that it was already in the early days of a better nation. I believe he would have given Starmer’s “nations and regions” nonsense the shortest of shrifts, and instead we have the current lot taking selfies and looking far too happy to be there...
The End of an Auld Song https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/10/24/the-end-of-an-auld-song/ #AlecRoss, #AlexSalmond, #Scotland, #ScottishIndependence, #SNP -
I’ve been following the trials and tribulations of a new government that seems, through renewed austerity and scandals over free clothes and Taylor Swift tickets from donors, to have concluded the shortest political honeymoon in history. I was watching a clip of (I think it was Iain Dale) – speaking with the Chancellor Rachel Reeves....
The Shortest Political Honeymoon in History https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/09/26/the-shortest-political-honeymoon-in-history/ #AlecRoss, #LabourGovernment, #Politics, #ScottishIndependence, #WinterFuelAllowance -
UK is statistically more fractured than at any time since 1922. Only 58% voted for the two main parties. Starmer / Labour are the most unpopular group ever to be elected (and on a landslide). It’s going to be a short honeymoon. It may already be over. See fuel allowance...
Ten years on. Some random thoughts. https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/09/10/ten-years-on-some-random-thoughts/ #AlecRoss, #Politics, #Referendum, #ScottishIndependence -
I’ll be interested to see how the media covers this month’s anniversary. In contrast to the brilliant writing of guys like Ian Bell, AA Gill and William McIlvanney, I suspect that it’ll all be very low key. There’s plenty of folk I know for whom September 18th 2024 won’t register one iota. And I don’t blame them – they’ve much to think about...
Stands Scotland Where It Did? https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/09/03/stands-scotland-where-it-did-2/ #2014, #AlecRoss, #Scotland, #ScottishIndependence, #September18, #SNP, #Yes -
As today is GERS day and the papers are telling us how shit we are, and as we’re close to significant ten year anniversary – I thought I might try – once again – to counter a tiresome and defeatist (and untrue) narrative....
Stands Scotland where it did ? https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/08/14/stands-scotland-where-it-did/ #AlecRoss, #Economy, #GERS, #Politics, #ScottishIndependence -
The word Menschenfänger, in German, roughly translates into English as ‘people-catcher’, a figure who by the strength of their personality attracts others to a shared journey and fills them with the belief that anything can be achieved....
It's Coming Home https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/06/23/its-coming-home-2/ #AlecRoss, #Brexit, #Europe, #Euros, #Football, #Scotland, #ScottishIndependence -
In ‘Born in Kyle’ Kay goes back to his own linguistic and cultural roots and celebrates a sense of place and belonging in his native Galston in Ayrshire’s Irvine Valley....
Book Review: 'Born in Kyle' https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/05/06/book-review-born-in-kyle/ #AlecRoss, #BillyKay, #Books, #BoswellBookFestival, #Scots -
"When I started writing this column seven years ago, an early (and continuing) contention of mine was that, as a useful prism through which to see Scotland’s constitution position, and its weaknesses therein, Scotland’s farming industry is unrivalled.....
Front and Centre https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/04/15/front-and-centre/ #AlecRoss, #Brexit, #Farming, #NationalFarmersUnion, #NFU, #Politics, #ScottishIndependence, #UKGovernment -
“You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose”.
I forget the name of the New York Mayor who said this, but the line came to mind yesterday during the minor stooshie that developed after First Minister Humza Yousaf used the phrase “Tory Free Scotland” at the weekend in a speech ahead of the General Election....
Governing in Prose https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/03/19/governing-in-prose/ #AlecRoss, #GeneralElection, #Politics, #ScottishIndependent -
"An ancestor of mine called John Milroy – from the family of Scotland rugby captain and war hero Eric Milroy who I’ve written about in this column before – was once the minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in my home town of Stranraer....read on
Adore the Rising Sun https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/03/01/adore-the-rising-sun-3/ #AlecRoss, #Politics, #ScottishIndependence, #TreatyOfUnion -
"I’m not comfortable with the idea that all conversations held by public officials, even on business, are public access. I’d even go so far as to say that elected representatives need a safe space to talk honestly.....
Sound and Fury https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/02/06/sound-and-fury-2/ #AlecRoss, #COVID, #Inquiry, #NicolaSturgeon, #Politics, #ScottishIndependence -
As the Burns supper season approaches, it seems apt that this report on Scotland’s national drink has just been published....
“Freedom and whisky gang the gither” - Burns https://theorkneynews.scot/2024/01/16/freedom-and-whisky-gang-the-gither-burns/ #AlecRoss, #Economy, #RobertBurns, #ScottishIndependence, #Whisky -
Power Retained
"Foreign affairs are reserved. Scotland is not, as yet, independent. Until we are, this is the kind of high-handed disrespectful guff we chose not to escape from when we had the chance to do so a decade ago, and will be stuck with until we finally have the cojones to be a normal, self-governing country. ...."https://theorkneynews.scot/2023/12/11/power-retained-3/ #AlecRoss, #Devolution, #Politics, #Rwanda, #ScottishIndependence
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The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. #Remembrance https://theorkneynews.scot/2023/11/11/the-past-isnt-dead-it-isnt-even-past-remembrance/ #AlecRoss, #Armistice, #EricMilroy, #Peace, #Remembrance, #War, #WorldWar1