Tom Devine

THE most recent and authoritative polling on British attitudes to the monarchy was published by Focaldata in March this year. The sample of voters consulted was unusually large at 10,000, polling took place several months after the death of the highly respected Queen Elizabeth and the pollsters drilled down to estimate attitudes in UK parliamentary constituencies, excluding those in Northern Ireland. As a snapshot of current attitudes to monarchy in spring 2023 at national, regional and local le

MY recent interview with BBC’s Scotland Editor and in particular my views on the future for Scottish independence has elicited a robust number of comments from readers of The National.

OVER the last year there has been a veritable Niagara of media comment and discussion on the possibility of another referendum on Scottish independence, and on what might follow if one were held.

LAST Sunday I reflected on some aspects of the year which has just ended. Being about the past, it was within my comfort zone as a historian. This week the editor has set me a much more daunting challenge, the future, and particularly what we might expect in 2021.

In the first part of his review of the year, Professor Sir Tom Devine assesses the impact of the two great stories of 2020, Covid-19 and our exit from the European Union

EARLIER this year a development of 135 houses, most of them luxury homes, was permitted on the untouched banks of the Clyde and Forth Canal at Jellyhill, Bishopriggs by the government appointed Reporter.