Chris Deerin

United Kingdom

Writer and Editor at Freelance

@reformscotland @newstatesman @manutd

Articles

Why the Scottish trans movement lost

1 week ago | newstatesman.com | Chris Deerin

It was impossible to miss the explosion of joy and relief from campaigners that greeted the UK Supreme Court’s verdict that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas,” tweeted For Women Scotland, the group that had challenged the Scottish government on the issue. There were tears, hugs and champagne.
Scotland’s public spending timebomb

1 week ago | newstatesman.com | Chris Deerin

The names of Graeme Roy and Stephen Boyle won’t ring many, if any, bells with the average Scottish voter. They are, however, two of the most significant and consequential figures in public life. Roy and Boyle are the people’s brain and voice when it comes to keeping watch over the devolved state’s performance, the former as head of the Scottish Fiscal Commission, the latter as Auditor General.
The Scottish Greens are lost in the new world

2 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Chris Deerin

It’s a long time since the Scottish left found its home amid the clangs, sparks and shouts of the nation’s ship and steelyards. In today’s economy of professions and services, of university graduates and the technological juggernaut, leftism has become a middle-class pursuit. It is, largely, a hobby of the urban sophisticate, more likely to inhabit a spacious Glasgow tenement than a modest council house, whose hands remain wholly uncalloused. Eye strain is the greatest risk posed by their day job.
Scotland must sell itself to the world

3 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Chris Deerin

Should Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course host the Open in the next few years? The US President is golf-daft, and yet the top-level Scottish course hasn’t been home to a major since he bought it in 2014. The politics of such a decision manage to be both simple and complex. First Minister John Swinney has, sensibly, said he wants to work with the Trump administration to enhance Scotland’s interests.
Scottish Labour needs to be braver

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Chris Deerin

Through one lens, Labour’s tough welfare reforms are a gift to the SNP. The Nats can, will and indeed already have claimed that this is yet another example of how Westminster lacks compassion and is willing to balance its books on the backs of the poor. “No different to the Tories,” the cry rings out. There is certainly an audience for that school of thought. Squint through a second lens, though, and Labour has presented the SNP with a horrible problem.
The SNP has entered a new, more serious era

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Chris Deerin

An era is ending for the SNP. Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement that she will stand down at next year’s Holyrood election is the most visible indication of this. Departing, too, is her unfortunate, short-lived successor Humza Yousaf. Sturgeon’s best friend and loyal acolyte Shona Robison, currently the Finance Secretary, is leaving, as is the Transport Secretary, Fiona Hyslop.
Nicola Sturgeon leaves behind a disappointingly thin legacy - she could have done better but chose not to

1 month ago | thescottishsun.co.uk | Chris Deerin

IT was once said of Rod Stewart, when in the 1970s he transformed from spiky frontman of the Faces to spiky-haired, leopard skin-clad purveyor of bland pop ballads, that “rarely has anyone betrayed their talent so completely”. There will be those today who will apply that epithet to Nicola Sturgeon. The former First Minister announced yesterday that she will stand down at the Holyrood election in May 2026. The response has been mixed, to put it kindly.
The SNP must answer the nuclear question

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Chris Deerin

“When the facts change, careful consideration of our response is appropriate.” With those ostensibly gentle words, Ian Blackford, the former Westminster leader of the SNP, launched, if not a nuke, then a well-timed grenade into the heart of his party. It has long been an article of faith among Nats that they are committed to unilateral nuclear disarmament. An independent Scotland would have no nukes – Trident would be banished from the Clyde. The UK should give them up anyway.
The SNP’s defence headache

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Chris Deerin

In politics, you can tell how well you’re doing by the level of panic in your opponents’ response. By that measurement, Reform UK is flying in Scotland. First Minister John Swinney this week announced a cross-party summit to tackle the rise of Nigel Farage’s party. Mainstream politicians are alarmed by Reform’s surge in the polls, which suggest it will win as many as 15 seats at the next Holyrood election in May 2026, potentially putting it in the position of kingmaker.
Can Labour rally in Scotland?

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Chris Deerin

Scottish Labour’s conference in Glasgow at the weekend was a happier place than one might have expected – perhaps even more than it had a right to be. Whatever the polls are saying – and they’re not saying anything good, with Labour now below 20 per cent in some polls – those in attendance were having an excellent time. And, I suppose, why not? Despite the troubles Keir Starmer and his ministers are experiencing, the party is in government at Westminster with a thumping majority.