Mandy Rhodes

6 days ago | holyrood.com | Mandy Rhodes

So many years on, it can sometimes be hard to remember just how Covid upended all our worlds. But in May 2021, with most of the country still living under some form of lockdown, Scotland went to the polls and among the 129 MSPs elected, 42 were sworn in for the very first time, including Labour’s Michael Marra. And maybe it is because he entered parliament at such an emotionally charged moment in time, but the passion that Marra expressed then in his impressive maiden speech has not diminished.

1 week ago | holyrood.com | Mandy Rhodes

It seems I was wrong. It is all about toilets. At least that is what some would like it to be and of course a row about where you stand [sic] on urinals distracts from the real issues in Scotland today. And if proof is needed that the Scottish Parliament’s priorities are wrong then consider that it spent precious time in the Chamber urgently debating the use of toilets in Holyrood when it seems like the rest of the country is going down the pan.

3 weeks ago | holyrood.com | Mandy Rhodes

There’s not many of us who choose to talk about how we would want to die and yet we have probably all talked endlessly about under what conditions we would not want to live: if I could no longer feed, wash or go to the toilet myself; if I had no legs; if I was in intolerable pain; if I lost my sight; if I lost my mind; if I had a degenerative disease…and so the ‘if I…’ list goes on.

3 weeks ago | holyrood.com | Mandy Rhodes

May is a hopeful month of new beginnings when everything seems to come alive after the dormant winter months and there is a spring in one’s step. It is also a month of political anniversaries for John Swinney. He was elected to Westminster in the Labour landslide of 1 May 1997, becoming the SNP MP for Tayside North. On 6 May 1999, he was one of the Scottish Parliament’s first intake of MSPs. And on 7 May 2024, he was elected first minister of Scotland.

1 month ago | holyrood.com | Mandy Rhodes

Maggie Chapman, like other dogmatists, lacks self-awareness when it comes to how she hurts others while berating everyone else for not being kind. And my conclusion is that she just doesn’t care. Her imperious demands for her way or the highway, her assumptions about the motivations and prejudice of others, and her lack of any contrition about the damage she has inflicted on the reputation of the body politic by refusing to back down on her Trumpian attack on the Supreme Court is telling.