Just in time for the weekend, here’s a look at the top 10 political must-reads from the last seven days:
1. Humza Yousaf’s wife Nadia claims there is ‘an underbelly of racism in Scotland’ and says family have suffered ‘victim blaming at the highest level’
Nadia El-Nakla, wife of Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, has described the abuse she and her family received this week as “sickening”. Ms El-Nakla also told reporter Rachel Amery the episode shows an “underbelly of racism” in Scotland. On Monday, the couple revealed they had lodged a complaint with the Care Inspectorate over allegations their two-year-old daughter Amal was discriminated against when she was refused a place at Broughty Ferry’s Little Scholars Day Nursery, who deny the claims. But they have received a barrage of abuse on social media since going public and you can read the full story here.
2. Boris Johnson praises Maggie Thatcher’s coal mine closures as example of environmentalism
Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a rare visit to Scotland this week, and caused consternation when he joked that Margaret Thatcher’s closing of the coal mines gave the UK an “early start” on fossil fuel transition. The Courier’s Political Editor Paul Malik was on the PM’s trail as he went from Glasgow to Fife and up to Aberdeenshire, as Mr Johnson was later urged to apologise to Scots mining communities for his remarks. Read more here.
3. Oil industry needs ‘hard edged’ timetable to stop extraction, claims Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer was also visiting Scotland this week. As Andy Philip reports, the UK Labour leader wants to set a date for the end of North Sea oil and gas extraction – but admitted he still has to convince the public to “buy in” to the plan. Mr Starmer insisted there would have to be a strategy in place to replace jobs, and he outlined plans to spend billions on an alternative economic future. Read Andy’s full story here.
4. ‘Freaked out’: Alba Party Fife MP Neale Hanvey in ‘spying’ allegation
A Fife MP has accused another political party of “spying” on him, but doesn’t offer any evidence yet of which party it might be, or what activities he thinks they’re getting up to. Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath Alba representative Neale Hanvey has claimed a private investigator has been “engaged” by “another political party” to snoop on him. Read more of this bizarre story here.
5. Dundee Holocaust survivor can stay in her home after Brexit limbo nightmare
A Holocaust survivor subjected to reliving her worst memories as a result of Brexit bureaucracy has been granted the right to remain in the UK following intervention from her MP and The Courier. Irena Jendrycha was four when she moved to Scotland, having been saved by US troops just minutes before Nazis planned on murdering her and her mother in an Austrian concentration camp when she was just months old. Ms Jendrycha has never owned a passport and said the process of applying for settled status in the wake of the UK’s exit from the European Union had left her feeling “drained” and like “all the goodness had been sucked from the world”. Read the whole remarkable story here.
6. Endometriosis: ‘Thousands’ could be helped by women’s health plan
Endometriosis sufferers say they hope the Scottish Government’s women’s health plan will help those “suffering in silence” access support. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has committed to deliver the plan within her administration’s first 100 days in power. The Scottish Government has confirmed the plan, which has been in development for the last 18 months, will be published by August 25. Read more here.
7. Meet Scotland’s newest MP: Anum Qaisar-Javed on racism, immigration and independence
It’s been a whirlwind year for Anum Qaisar-Javed who went from from teaching modern studies to taking up her seat in the House of Commons almost overnight. The Airdrie and Shotts MP, who was elected in a by-election in May, says the transition between careers was “pretty abrupt” and that she was faced with racism during her campaign, particularly from anonymous social media trolls. “Yes I may be young, I may be a woman of colour, I may be a practicing Muslim but actually I’m very proud of all that and if people want to complain they can complain.” Read more online here, or listen to the full interview in the latest episode of The Stooshie podcast.
8. Tories say SNP-Green deal would be ‘terrifying’ for oil and gas workers
The Scottish Conservatives have issued a warning over oil and gas jobs as the SNP and Greens edge closer to reaching a co-operation agreement. The two parties have been locked in negotiations since May, after the SNP fell just one seat short of an overall majority at the Holyrood election. We revealed last month that a proposed power-sharing deal between the two sides had ”progressed” and was close to completion. However members from both parties have expressed reservations about any formal pact, and the Scottish Conservatives have already branded it a “coalition of chaos.” Read more here.
9. Scotland’s drugs crisis: How the country compares with England and Wales
New figures this week showed the scale of Scotland’s drug-death scandal is nearly five times worse than the rest of the UK. The details for England and Wales were published days after separate records confirmed Scotland’s shocking position as the worst in Europe. As Andy Philip reports, the numbers build a picture of how last year’s records compare across other parts of Britain, and show that Scotland’s overall drugs death rate far outstripped the rates in England and Wales. Read the full story here.
10. SNP ministers accused of being ‘disrespectful’ to international slave trade expert
SNP ministers face claims they were “disrespectful” to an internationally renowned academic while snubbing calls to discuss repatriating slave trade profits. As Calum Ross reports, respected author, academic and activist Verene Shepherd, director of the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies, wrote to the Scottish health minister, and also sent the letter to Nicola Sturgeon, following the revelation that a north-east teacher training fund, called the Dick Bequest, had been founded using profits from slavery. Professor Shepherd, who has previously served as chairwoman of the United Nations working group of experts on people of African descent, said this £1.7 million fund was “not the total obligation of Scotland to Jamaica”, as she urged the SNP government to enter into a discussion about ways to “right the wrongs of the past”. Read Calum’s full story here.
