These Islands

These Islands is a forum for debate standing unabashedly for the view that more unites the people of the United Kingdom than divides them.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Read some history! The idea of an oil fund was extensively debated in the 1970s and 80s. It’s all in Hansard. Criticising the decision not to establish one is perfectly legitimate. But pretending the possibility was denied until yesterday is just idiotic.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

1/ Tim Rideout, speaking at last weekend’s @SSRG2021 conference, shakily acknowledges that a Scottish currency might well depreciate against sterling. But he then makes a purely fantastical claim: that half of Scotland’s exports go to the EU, and not to rUK.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Reminder: whatever he might claim today, this is what John Swinney said in February 2025. He welcomed the court’s decision to block Jackdaw, calling it “the only sustainable judgment you can arrive at in considering these questions”.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

1/ Nationalists often claim the No campaign in 2014 told them oil & gas would run out within 5 years, and this BBC article is always the evidence. Slight problem. The article simply describes a report produced by some environmentalists. And the UK government called it “nonsense”.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Reminder: Kate Forbes, allegedly the pro-business, pro-growth, voice of reason in the last SNP government, refused to support consenting Jackdaw when asked a straightforward question about it in February 2025.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

“it doesn’t matter”

Like a rabbit in headlights, Tim Rideout is flummoxed by basic questions on his currency plan.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

… and substantially devalue against sterling. This is because there would be no huge stampede of people rushing to convert their savings into the new currency. But there *would* be a huge stampede of borrowers rushing to convert their mortgages into the new currency.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Tim Rideout is again pushing his plan as a pain-free solution to the SNP’s currency problem. So… watch how he deals with someone pointing out the obvious flaws. He has no answers. An independent Scotland would require its own currency, but that new currency would immediately…

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Jaw-dropping stuff. So many people in key roles in Scotland have been stupefied by nationalist politics.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

If you wanted to demonstrate the SNP’s lack of thinking on currency, you could hardly do any better than this. Asked a specific question on currency, Jenny Gilruth’s response: “we won the election”

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

John Swinney’s fibbing, not for the first time, has attracted the attention of @BBCMoreOrLess. This time, his lies about pensions are dismantled.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

His first conference speech after a big election victory, but with years of difficult fiscal decisions ahead. The perfect moment for John Swinney to tell his party some uncomfortable truths. Did he seize it? No. Of course he didn’t. Nothing but platitudes and pipe dreams.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Ivan McKee is clearly not up to the job he has been given. This is just embarrassing.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Perhaps one day the SNP will find a rising star brave enough to say that independence is not inevitable. That difficult problems must be solved to make it happen. But today, the rising stars are all incredibly lazy thinkers, if you can call them thinkers at all.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

When @mmgeissler asked John Swinney yesterday about Jack Middleton blaming the SNP government for slow consenting of renewables projects, Swinney found it impossible to believe that Middleton would have said such a thing. Well he did, and here it is.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

“The leech that grows fat feeding on Scottish resources.”

Yes, of course he is talking about Westminster. Jack Middleton displaying his usual combination of stupidity and malice.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Frequent reference this morning to “currency, pensions, mortgages” at SNP conference. Some bemoan the lack of answers. Others say answers exist, but are not accessible enough. But nobody talks about the real issue: that the answers are all somewhere between unpalatable and toxic.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

“What lessons have you learned from last time around? What have you done that will persuade the people who were worried about their money last time that it is safe now?”

John Swinney has a remarkable answer to this question: the independence papers…

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

Going into a referendum campaign with the answer John Swinney gives here on the currency plan would be insanity. Which is why, despite all the bluster, the SNP leadership does not actually want a referendum.

[Sam Taylor @staylorish]

An outrageously dishonest argument here from John Swinney, who suggests that because Scot Gov always balances its budget in a devolved context, this shows why the SNP would be able to maintain the triple lock in an independent Scotland. @LouiseScottITV asking the questions.