Torcuil crichton biography of william hill

Saturday, 27 July Dear Priti Patel - an open letter. From my Daily Record column. Friday 26th July. Dear Priti Patel. Forgive the informality and my open approach. We haven't had many journalistic dealings with each other, not since your parliamentary aides stole four bottles of whisky from a Scotland Office reception a few years ago and you had to issue an apology, which you did with great grace and humour.

Your staff were reprimanded, not sent to the gallows er, ha ha. You changed your mind on capital punishment, I hope I can change your mind on something else. You inherit a bulging in-tray from Sajid Javid; Brexit, citizenship and immigration will be priorities.

Torcuil crichton biography of william hill: To match an exact

Hopefully you will not have been bequeathed Javid's closed-mind attitude to drugs consumption rooms and the dire health crisis which leaves Scotland facing more than drugs deaths this year. Health officials in Glasgow, the Scottish Government, local MPs, and this newspaper are campaigning for consumption rooms where addicts can administer their own drugs in a safe and sterile environment.

This is controversial, I accept, but these facilities have been proven to save lives elsewhere. The Commons Scottish affairs committee investigation into the issue, which the Home Office boycotted under Javid, should be in your red box soon. On health grounds, there are few arguments left against these facilities. As a political issue it is rather more tangled.

Torcuil crichton biography of william hill: I've left this a bit late,

Whitehall sees this as conceding more power without purpose. It need not be so. As Home Secretary you could change the relevant clauses of the Act by statutory instrument, without a vote in Parliament. At the stroke of a pen you could approve a UK pilot scheme in Glasgow, save lives in Scotland, confound opponents and show your Government has compassion for some very vulnerable people.

It's a big ask, but it would be a great start for you and is easier than Brexit. Good luck with that by the way. Yours, TC. Posted by Whitehall at Saturday, July 27, No comments:. Friday, 26 July Beware of making Boris the bogey. That's been the experience of observers who are veterans of both the and referenda and their aftermath.

Every aspect of nationalism we see writ large across the UK today, we saw in Scotland first. With Boris Johnson, pictured right - a populist to match Alex Salmond in his pomp - installed as Prime Minister, we are about to see the next phase of British nationalism. In this stage, patriotism is harnessed to the no-turning-back certainty of a divisive referendum and moulded into an unbeatable political force.

People who took the step and voted Yes in the independence referendum were easy to gather behind the SNP in a first-past-the-post election the following year, creating a 50 per cent share of the vote for one party and nearly wiping out the opposition in Scotland. Watch what will unfold. The cabinet Boris Johnson assembled on Wednesday is not one for government, it is for political warfare.

The horseguard of the Leave campaign have been recalled to duty. Three of the great offices of state, Chancellor, Home Office and Foreign Secretary are filled by the talented children of immigrants, Javid, Patel and Raab. This cause for liberal celebration also provides cynical cover for a Prime Minister who is about to run a nativist British campaign appealing to white, working-class patriots to get a breakout Brexit over the line.

Johnson, charismatic, funny and optimistic, will have no problem coalescing Leave voters behind this Big Brexit party in an early general election. He will be the peoples' champion, opponents the unpatriotic roadblock to Brexit. That is the plan, it's simple, and Scotland, that laboratory of nationalism which populists the world over now study, has shown it works.

One veteran Leave campaigner was quoted earlier this year saying that "if Vote Leave was a party, we'd smash everyone at an election". In Scotland that's not a political revelation, it's a plain fact. In the run-up tothe Leave UK campaign studied and learned from the successes and mistakes of the SNP's venture. They didn't produce a detailed manifesto.

Alex Salmond's White Paper, and when you read it now, it is still stunning to think it was produced by an impartial civil service, became an albatross around his neck. They didn't propose any detail on the Irish backstop or anything else to tether their fantasy to the ground, which is why so much remainer energy since has been spent on complaining the electorate were sold a pig in poke.

The voters weren't fooled, they didn't vote on detail, they voted on how they felt. The Leave campaign, like the Yes campaign was an exercise in psychology as much as politics. The change campaigners reached into the emotional hearts of voters to turn doubts on identity into opportunities. Tributes paid to 'most genuine' Scots teen after tree fell on car during Storm Eowyn.

Bad Weather. West Calder mum 'wouldn't have let daughter stay with dad if she thought she was in danger'.

Torcuil crichton biography of william hill: AS Tony Blair took a short

West Lothian. Cameron House staff 'stranded after being told to come into work' in Storm Eowyn. Young police dog put down as Scots force refuse to pay for 'expensive' surgery. Sunday Mail. Weather Storm Eowyn to cause further disruption on railways on Monday as incidents tackled Crews have been dealing with an unprecedented incidents over the weekend brought on by ferocious mph wind that swept across the country in a rare "danger to life" red weather alert.

Strictly Come Dancing. West Lothian may see huge new circus base years after previous plans scrapped. West Lothian Council. Local News. Housebuilder's funding boost for West Lothian charity that tackles food insecurity. West Lothian News. Most Read Most Recent YouTube Bonnie Blue shows off horrific injuries after sleeping with 1, men in a day The year-old has faced significant criticism.

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Family [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. BBC News. A former Daily Record journalist is on course to become a Labour candidate in the general election. Torcuil Crichton is likely to contest the Na h-Eileanan an Iar seat after his selection opponent dropped out. Crichton, who is from Lewis, was expected to go head-to-head with another candidate in the Labour selection, but it is understood he is the only person to go forward for the nomination.

A vote of local Labour members will take place later in the week. It is the smallest constituency in the UK. A Labour source said the seat is ranked as one of twelve Westminster constituencies Labour could retake on current polling. Crichton has been contacted. To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here. Scottish politics.

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