PAShanky

BLOG: 2025.4 - Reflections on #ScotLab25 My reflections on Scottish Labour Conference 2025; the question being asked of us ahead of 2026, and whether we are offering a clear enough answer.

It’s been a week or so since 2025’s Scottish Labour Conference and I’ve been thinking about a few things from the weekend. The first conference since both the Scottish and UK Labour parties went from parliamentary irrelevance to Parties of Government is always going to be important in setting a direction; that’s even truer when the Scottish Election is just over a year away. This Conference was…

2025.3 - A New Norm-al We rely on unwritten rules every day - but our belief that we can build our legal and political systems on them should have been shaken by now. Yet, those in a position to protect them seem to be hoping things will just be OK.

We use conventions all the time – rules that you can’t legally or really enforce – but are ‘there’. Society would fall apart without them, and our lives are notably (if only slightly) poorer without them. There is no rule that says you should hold the door for the person behind you – but it is notably rude if you don’t. There is not order demanding you return your shopping trolley after you pack…

BLOG: 2025.2 - "This is not a Day for Soundbites..." In what has been a shameful week for many invoveld in UK Politics, I think can be called "Gobbet Politics".

One of my favourite plays (and films) is Alan Bennett’s “The History Boys”, possibly because I loathe one of the characters. He is a tutor brought in to coach the titular boys through their Oxbridge applications.His advice to them was to be contrarian – not necessarily because you believe it – but because it is interesting. You must find a ‘gobbet’ (a quote or phrase or thought) around which to…

BLOG: 2025.1 - Blogging Less, More I'm picking the Blog Ball back up in 2025; resolving to do less, more.

I stopped blogging for a long time – you may have noticed. Or maybe you didn’t. Or maybe you did and didn’t care. Part of the reason was because I was busier. As well as my actual job, I spend a lot of the past 18 months being an Election Agent in the biggest General Election campaign of my life. And, I have to say, I don’t regret a second of it. Running the Labour Campaign in Glasgow West – and…

I’ve been having a bit of fun this week taking the mick out of Blair McDougall‘s always excellent Notes on Nationalism blog – a must-read for anyone interested in tackling the (until recently) dominant narrative in Scotland. This week’s post looked at Survation’s recent Scottish Polling – and the frankly astounding shift in voting intention (VI) Scotland has seen in just a few short months. If…

BLOG: You need a Pain in the Arse... My name is Paul Cruikshank and I am a Rules Lawyering, question asking, "Umm Actually"ing, Pain in the Arse... ...but I think you'll find that's a good thing, actually.

I was, for one reason or another, in the Scottish Labour HQ last week for a meeting, and before the meeting started a member of party staff (who is a friend of mine and knows exactly what kind of person I am) offered me a coffee. It came in a newly branded Scottish Labour mug. The first thing I did was not thank him (sorry dad), but spin the mug around, look at him, and say “There’s no imprint1…

BLOG: Who's like her - damn few... Nicola Sturgeon resigning as First Minister was surprising for many; but also presents some real problems for the SNP going forward - but they have echos of what brought Sturgeon to power in the first place.

You start as the future; then you are the establishment; and then it’s done. I think, without dwelling too much on it, the political life of Nicola Sturgeon. Something that can be overlooked (or that we choose to overlook) in the ‘Sturgeon Story’ is that she is (or at least tried to be) a career politician. She was 21 when she first stood for the SNP in Westminster; sought election to the old…

48 hours in the life of a Tweet…

Spats in political parties are well documented and often-over blown. People who are close friends and allies in almost all things can, legitimately, have different views on particular things. These often lead to column inches and blog posts a-plenty of how one side is ‘obviously right’ while the other side ‘refuses to listen to X group of people. But there are times when the opposite happens.…

BLOG: The last 2 weeks have seen a massive shift of opinion in Scotland and across the UK; but the 2 years before the next General Election are where Labour needs to put in the real work to make sure they win!

It’s been a good 2 weeks to be a Labour Member and Supporter. Every major pollster has Labour with at least the meme-tastic 20-point-Lead (and some even a stubborn 30). Even in Scotland Labour have now firmly established themselves in 2nd place and as the challenger to the SNP…albeit still 15/16-points adrift. So this is good – but this could be a Long 2 years. In the UK, the Tories will be in…

BLOG: Normal Service may Resume Shortly After not blogging for for the best part of 2 years, I ease myself back in gently by reflecting on the past 2 weeks - and the fact that I just don't really get it.

So I haven’t written in a while – what started with the world dealing with a pandemic, strangely meaning I became busier than I was when working; and then at work, it seemed as if I was busier than I had been before. But now I have the time – and, more importantly, the inclination – to go back to writing again. And to ease back into an old habit, why not expound on the most non-controversial of…

BLOG: Ending Student Rentals under 'Rona

DISCLAIMER: I’ve written the quick-guide in an evening where, very suddenly, a lot of this may be very useful to a lot of people. I have done my best to make sure everything is accurate, but things may be changed if understanding develops, and if lots of similar questions come in I will keep adding to the bottom section.

The Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020 (‘The Act’) provides that,…

BLOG: There's been a lot of Politics, huh (Part 2) Part 2 of my consideration of Scottish Politics's long weekend. This time, the Tories and Labour face the same question - but have taken 2 different paths to find an answer.

It’s been a long weekend in Scottish Politics – so much so, I’ve had to split up my thoughts over 2 posts. Part 1 looking at the Green Party, and the SNP’s impending Civil War is available here. Here, I look at how Labour and the Tories face a similar problem in Scotland – but have taken 2 different paths to find the answer.

The Tories and Labour

Of course – there are Civil Wars that can…

BLOG: There's been a lot of Politics, huh? (Part 1) Part 1 of a Weekender Double Bill looking at a really busy 48 hours in Scottish Politics. Part 1 - The Greens and the SNP.

The Scottish Political landscape at the end of this week is, in some ways, unpredictably different from the start of it. In others – in perhaps the most predictable of ways – it is not. And, for once, it seems to have touched the 4 main parties in Scotland – while Willie Rennie has had, I’m sure, a lovely time.

The Greens

You may have missed it, because it’s been quite low-key, but Patrick…

BLOG: Scotland's Coronavirus. The UK Government's shambolic response to COVID-19 has seen their polling lead going from 24% to just 3%. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are as strong as ever, but does Scotland have Coronavirus under control?

The Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been risible in the UK. This has been viable for all to see, has been explored by the media in great detail – and in that press conference, the UK Government sold it’s last shred of self-worth down the river to protect the Prime Minister’s brain. The result of this has been a Conservative polling lead of +24 being reduced to just +3 in a…