Scotland Office
March 31, 2007 by David Torrance · Leave a Comment
It seems the creation of a new Ministry of Justice, from May 9, means yet another administrative change for the old Scottish Office. The current Department for Constitutional Affairs, which includes the Scotland Office, will be subsumed into the new ministry.
Pete Wishart, the SNP’s constitutional affairs spokesman, said: “It looks like the Scotland Office has become a sub-branch of a sub-branch. What was once a great department of state appears to have been forgotten in a forced shake-up of the Home Office.”
Michael Foot
March 7, 2007 by David Torrance · Leave a Comment
I’m currently reading (Lord) Kenneth O. Morgan’s fascinating authorised biography of Michael Foot, the former Labour minister, writer and leader from 1980-83. Foot: A Life reveals that one of Foot’s early influences was, oddly enough, the Liberal historian and politician Sir George Otto Trevelyan. Sir George served as Secretary for Scotland for a few months in 1886 and again from 1892-95. Foot, of course, started life as a Liberal supporter; his father Isaac and brother Dingle were both Liberal MPs, the latter representing Dundee. At one point, inspired by Trevelyan’s life of Charles James Fox, Foot considered his own attempt at a biography of the great Liberal leader.
Stirling Observer
March 1, 2007 by David Torrance · Leave a Comment
Another late review of my book, The Scottish Secretaries, from last Friday’s Stirling Observer. You can read the full review by clicking here, but the crucial quote is: ‘Generally light and pleasingly straightforward, this is an easily digestible account…The author makes his points simply and quietly, sometimes pithily and always entertainingly.’
Aw, shucks.