Craig Meighan

Prime Minister Theresa May eating a cone of chips Identity over policy. Where you come from over what you believe. Your image over your ideas. These are battles all parties must face – and the Tories are no different. They’ve claimed again and again they are the real party of the working-class but spoken from the voices of privately educated aristocrats this claim fell flat with most. But Scotland is different: they have Ruth Davidson. She’s the young, working-class woman leading the Scottish Tories. Something never seen in England. So, maybe when she says the Tories are the party of the working-class, people will believe her. That’s the hope anyway. In 2017 The Telegraph ran the headline: “Ruth Davidson: A gay, working class, bull riding, outspoken Scot...and the Tories' secret weapon”. She certainly is popular. But does this mean the Tories are the party of the working-class? Annie Wells thinks so. Like Davidson, Wells is from a working-class background, working in M...

The Tories are back in Scotland. Craig Meighan  explores why In 2016 the Scottish Conservatives bloomed like a flower, winning 32 seats in the Scottish Parliament, shoving Labour aside to become Scotland’s second largest party. To many, this was less a flower, but more of a weed or a thorn; an unprecedented locust spreading pervasively throughout a garden rarely seen so blue. In 2017 they continued to grow, returning 13 Scottish MPs in the UK general election in their best performance since 1983. The party previously had only one Scottish MP since 1997. But with the Scottish political tides turning the Tories in Scotland are in the best shape  they’ve been in for decades. In the 2016 Scottish Parliament election the Tories accepted that the SNP would be the next party of government, so they ran on being a strong opposition and being the party that would prevent the SNP’s goal of a 2 nd independence referendum – what the Tories described as unwanted and unnecessar...

If another person says something that offends me I do one of two things: ignore it or engage in a conversation. This, however, is not part and parcel of the laws surrounding free speech in Scotland. In Scotland, hate speech laws mean saying certain things could land someone a criminal record – if considered too offensive. But therein lies the issue: who deems what offensive? To me the idea that there are people who drink plain black coffee, without sugar and enjoy it is deeply offensive. Yet I do not wish for these people to be imprisoned, nor do I feel it necessary that the law takes my side in condemning these people. Recently a YouTuber was convicted  over an “offensive” video he posted on the sight which shows his dog watching a Hitler video and doing a Nazi-esque salute. Mark Meechan, who goes by his YouTube name “Count Dankula” says he wanted to turn the dog into "the least cute thing that I could think of" to annoy his girlfriend. The judge considered his act...

Shettleston Councillor, Thomas Kerr Thomas Kerr is not your stereotypical Tory: no private education, no nanny growing up, no connections to Eton and no silver spoon wedged firmly wedged between his teeth. In fact, he is the exact opposite. He grew up in a high rise in Cranhill and attended Eastbank Academy, a school in Shettleston. From a young age he’s had to deal with parents addicted to drugs. Kerr was disadvantaged from the start but didn’t let that stop him from achieving the impossible (or at least implausible): a seat in the East-End of Glasgow’s Shettleston ward. A ward that only a few years ago was reported to have a life expectancy lower than that of war-torn Iraq. Kerr explains he is a Tory, not despite growing up poor, but because he grew up poor. “To me the only party that offered somebody from a working-class background, like myself, opportunity was the Conservatives. “To me, the SNP and Labour’s ideology is to try to keep people in their b...

Just a few months after Labour lost control of Glasgow City Council I interviewed former Glasgow City Council Leader Frank McAveety on issues ranging from labour’s decline in Scotland, the party’s leadership to the real issues facing Glasgow today. This interview is from 19/09/17 Frank McAveety interview  - Youtube link

Councillor Thomas Kerr Labour has no one ‘cutting through’ in Scottish politics and no one knows what they stand for, according to a Tory councillor. Thomas Kerr, 21, a Tory councillor in the Glasgow Shettleston region said: “I would rather trust an SNP politician because I know what they stand for… The problem with Labour, and why they're in such a bad state right now in Scotland, is no one quite knows what they stand for. “Are they pro-union? Are they anti-union? Are they going to let yes campaigners become councillors? How many people have I met before in my life that say: ‘I don’t like your politics, but I know what you stand for.’ People like that as a principle.” Kerr accredited the reason for his party’s success to Labour, saying: “The reason why we are doing so well in Glasgow -and, in particular, Shettleston- is because of Frank McAveety and because of Labour, because they’ve been in charge for 40-odd years and people just fell out of love with them....

Dogs Trust has must increase its presence in Scotland to help widen its appeal says employee at Glasgow branch.  Lloyd Rodman, assistant manager, speaking about his own shop in Tollcross Road said: ‘One thing that has to improve is more shops to share stock. We get about 50 bags a day and the shop is tiny.’  Rodman said: ‘The fact of the matter is if there were more dogs Trust shops in Scotland we could share stock. Sometimes we have stock here that we can’t sell…it has to go all the way down south which costs money. If there were more shops around here it would be easier to share, which means more proceeds to the company.’ Rodman said the charity, founded in 1891, should try market itself more to young people.  He said: ‘Charity shops have a pretty bad stigma for being junk shops for older consumers. I would have more young people in.’ Speaking about the practical steps the charity takes, he said: ‘Dogs Trust last year made £2.4M from charity s...