Rebecca McQuillan

Edinburgh

Senior Features Writer at The Herald (Scotland)

Journalist, mainly doing politics (The Herald, Holyrood, BBC Scotland). Herald columns: https://t.co/qQAT233Ewc

Articles

How dour Scots could learn a lesson from Finland

1 week ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

Finland was named the happiest country in the world (Image: Sergei Grits/AP) Apologies to the good people of Finland, but as a young adult, I knew only one thing about them – that they drank, a lot.
The Scottish election: a choice we don't have to want to make

2 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

Magnolia. When I was growing up, there was a lot of it about (the paint, that is – I never set eyes on the flower). Folk stuck with magnolia for their interior decor year after year, decade after blessed decade. Why? Because it was inoffensive and familiar. Magnolia did not enhance your life much, but it was OK. It went with your rattan chairs and your tan sofa. I can see it now, glowing beigely in the light of a 60-watt bulb. Something else might well be better, but what? The SNP is our magnolia.
Dear net zero bashers: how will you explain yourself to the grandkids?

2 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

âIf nations do not implement current commitments then show a massive increase in ambition âŚthe Paris Agreement target of holding global warming to 1.5C will be dead within a few years and 2C will take its place in the intensive care unit.â So said Inger Andersen, the UNâs environment chief, prior to the COP29 climate conference last year. That was before Donald Trump was elected American president. Things have deteriorated by an order of magnitude since.
Politicians must introduce wealth taxes or powder-keg UK will explode

4 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

“God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth while others live in abject deadening poverty,” said Martin Luther King in November 1956. If Dr King could observe the United States in 2025, he would be in mourning for a lost dream: a billionaire president baying for the destruction of health, clean air and water regulations to better serve giant corporate interests, while the world’s richest man is put in charge of the job.
Make America great again? Actually, Trump is making it weaker

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

What will America look like in four years’ time? Will American voters feel that Donald Trump has made America great again? These are big questions that affect us all. How far the world’s greatest superpower progresses into isolation and authoritarianism has huge implications for global stability. Whether by 2028 American voters will be satisfied with Trump, or whether a backlash will occur, is already the subject of intense speculation.
Labour, breathe out – we’re seeing the limits of Farage’s power

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

It turns out politics is quite hard when you want people to take you seriously. Nigel Farage is a veteran politician but not in the usual sense. His various vehicles – Ukip, the Brexit Party and now Reform UK – only had a few MEPs and councillors until last July when Reform acquired five MPs. Farage “parties” have never run anything.
What is behind the global misogynist backlash against women?

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

Andrew Tate connects with many young men (Image: free) How can you live without hope? In Afghanistan, for women and girls, the question is not theoretical. As International Women’s Day approaches, the UN acknowledges that there has been a backlash against women’s rights around the world, but nowhere is it more serious than in Afghanistan. Women and girls have been prevented from attending secondary schools and universities.
Starmer is right, UK has to prioritise arms over aid for world's poorest countries

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

If the weirdness of Donald Trump’s first month hasn’t been enough to convince you the world has turned on its head, watching a Labour Prime Minister slash the overseas aid budget should do it. Uncharted water, terra incognita, dystopian nightmare – pick your metaphor, we’re in it. Labour promised they would reinstate spending on the overseas aid budget to 0.7 per cent of UK GDP after Boris Johnson cut it to 0.5 per cent.
Public sector pay's higher in Scotland than England - is it justified?

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

Today, 22 per cent of the Scottish workforce is employed by the public sector compared to 17 per cent in England (Image: Getty Images) Can the Scottish Government justify pay hikes that are well above inflation for public sector workers? Are higher levels of public sector pay in Scotland compared to England delivering the results they’re meant to? Lobbing a polite little grenade into this debate is the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the respected public finance think tank.
Despite what Reform says, 20mph zones save children's lives. Let's have more of them

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Rebecca McQuillan

Surely there are more important things to get uptight about than 20mph speed limits. You can’t eliminate all risk from our roads, but when a modest safety measure has such huge benefits and so little impact on drivers, why the beef? The issue has revved up again because there’s been a public backlash in Wales against a 2023 policy making 20mph the “default” speed limit on urban roads. Reform UK are bursting blood vessels over it and – silliness alert – want to scrap 20mph all over the UK.