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	<title>David Torrance</title>
	<link>http://davidtorrance.com</link>
	<description>Author, Journalist and Political Anorak</description>
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		<title>Christopher Hitchens on the SNP (New Statesman 6 June 1975)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Chameleon on a Tartan Rug Christopher Hitchens The referendum produced some fairly extraordinary campaign slogans, from the egregious ‘Leave the Market and Join the World’ to the Young Tories’ tasteful evocation of Belsen victims. But the most unusual so far, and surely the hardest to chant at a rally, is: ‘No to the EEC. On [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/christopher-hitchens-on-the-snp-new-statesman-6-june-1975/</link>
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		<title>Great Scottish Speeches</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#160; Adam Smith (?) Sir Alec Douglas-Home (speech urging a &#8216;no&#8217; vote in the 1979 devolution referendum) Alex Salmond (speech during 1992 Usher Hall debate on Scotland&#8217;s future) Alex Salmond (speech on winning 2007 election) Alick Buchanan-Smith (speech supporting devolution in 1976) Andrew Carnegie (on wealth) Arthur James Balfour (1910 speech on British foreign policy) [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/great-scottish-speeches/</link>
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		<title>Salmond: Against the Odds review (from the Scots Independent Nov 2010)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Reviewed by Paul Henderson Scott Although at least two other writers are said to have been working on a biography of Alex, this is the first to appear. It is a very thorough and conscientious study, with the list of sources alone amounting to 36 pages. Since David Torrance&#39;s previous biographies have been of George [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/salmond-against-the-odds-review-from-the-scots-independent-nov-2010/</link>
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		<title>Scottish Tories</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There has been much speculation of late as to the Prime Minister&#39;s view of the Scottish Conservative Party. There&#39;s an interesting take on this in a new book on the Conservatives, &#39;Back From The Brink&#39;, by the historian and journalist Peter Snowdon. He quotes (p247) from a conversation with George Bridges, now (I think) a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/scottish-tories-2/</link>
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		<title>Cybernats &#8211; a Scottish political phenomenon</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It was, I think, the noble Lord Foulkes who coined the memorable term &#8216;cybernats&#8217;. The Scotsman&#8217;s David Maddox likened them to an army who &#8216;launch daily, sustained attacks on journalists, politicians and anybody else perceived to stand in the way of their cherished aim of independence, or who raises even the mildest criticism of Alex [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/cybernats-a-scottish-political-phenomenon/</link>
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		<title>Letters reveal SNP crisi over &#8216;bigoted&#8217; president&#8217;s anti-Catholic diatribes (From The Times 11-9-2010)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It was February 1982 and Pope John Paul II&#8217;s pastoral visit to Scotland was just months away. The Vatican&#8217;s diplomatic representative to the United Kingdom had recently been upgraded to ambassadorial rank and Billy Wolfe, leader of the SNP from 1969-79 and a Kirk elder, wrote to Life and Work &#8211; the &#8220;pre-eminent voice of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/letters-reveal-snp-crisi-over-bigoted-presidents-anti-catholic-diatribes-from-the-times-11-9-2010/</link>
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		<title>A lesson from Tory history calls for &#8216;fair play between all classes&#8217; (The Times 17-7-2010)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[POLITICAL parties often lose sight of their own histories. The beleaguered Scottish Tory Party, for example, would do well to revisit the writings of a largely forgotten Conservative thinker. &#8220;Until our educated and politically minded democracy has become predominantly a property-owning democracy,&#8221; declared Noel Skelton in 1923, &#8220;neither the national equilibrium nor the balance of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/noel-skelton-in-the-times-17-7-2010/</link>
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		<title>Where Heath failed, now boldness is all (from The Times 19/6/2010)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Exactly forty years ago today Edward Heath became Prime Minister, against the electoral tide but equipped with considerable expectations. “Heath is the hero of the hour,” wrote Cecil King in his diary, “but how long will he remain so?” The answer, of course, was not for long. His troubled legacy is now a leitmotif for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/where-heath-failed-now-boldness-is-all-from-the-times-1962010/</link>
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		<title>Scottish Tories</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I WAS chatting to a Tory MSP recently whose comments bleakly encapsulated the fundamental problem with the Scottish Conservative Party. After giving me a lengthy, and often quite perceptive, analysis of the party’s failings in terms of leadership, organisation, policies and guiding philosophy, I asked what he was going to do about it. I was [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/scottish-tories/</link>
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		<title>Thoughts from the Rose Garden</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In a way it doesn’t bode well for the security of the new Coalition Government. Yesterday I found myself in Downing Street filming a piece-to-camera for the STV programme “Politics Now”. Hearing that the first joint David Cameron/Nick Clegg press conference was about to begin in the Rose Garden to the rear of Number 10, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://davidtorrance.com/thoughts-from-the-rose-garden/</link>
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