Kenny Farquharson
@KennyFarq
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Columnist with @thetimes in Scotland. Editor of The Jaggy Thistle substack. Orwell Fellow. I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king.
Edinburgh
Joined February 2009
If you enjoy my work on Twitter you might like a project I have called The Jaggy Thistle. It's a deep dive into Scottish politics and Scottish culture. There's a link in my Twitter bio. I explain more in this short video.
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Narrator: “The Scottish Government can borrow up to £3 billion for capital spending and up to £1.75 billion in resource spending.”
"Scotland does not control its capital budget, nor is it able to borrow".
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Interesting distinction in an NYT podcast I was listening to today on the future of the left: predistribution is more effective in countering right-wing populism than redistribution. Better generalised and anonymous than meanstested and targeted.
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Yes, it’s true that tactical voting can beat Farage in FPTP contests. This may be reassuring when considering the next UK general election. But it doesn’t really work in elections to PR parliaments like those being contested next May.
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The recent trend to label something as “coded” to a particular age group or political stance is callow and intellectually lazy. It rests wholly on generalisations and stereotypes. It is the equivalent of a dismissive wave of the hand.
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Some story, this.
A former Conservative council leader has been told he faces prison after being convicted of a £188,000 romance fraud against a former partner
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I see some people are saying Reform UK has already peaked in Scotland. I fear this may be wishful thinking.
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But what currency would my work pension be paid in?
Independence would allow us to improve the pensions system, by focusing on: 🔵reducing pensioner poverty 🔵ensuring our commitment to the triple-lock 🔵protecting public sector and private pensions 🔵helping people save into a workplace pension More: https://t.co/xaYNP2MvLq
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A taste of what the SNP can expect from Reform UK in the Holyrood elections. How the SNP’s habitual supporters respond will be interesting. The party has seldom been challenged on these terms before. How much of SNP support is instinctively liberal and how much isn’t?
Plaid Cymru call themselves a nationalist party, they’re not. They’re open-borders globalists who don’t have the Welsh people’s interests at heart. They see Wales as a dumping ground for the third world. They don’t even believe illegal immigration exists. Reform wants a
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NEW: Here's a clip from my latest Jaggy Thistle Podcast on Scotland's lame-duck cabinet. Link to full podcast in next tweet, or in bio.
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NEW: Here's a clip from my latest Jaggy Thistle Podcast on Scotland's lame-duck cabinet. Link to full podcast in next tweet, or in bio.
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Thirty years after the Quebec independence referendum, the appetite for breaking up Canada has faded. What lessons are there for Scotland?
NEW: Quebec learnt to heal its independence divisions. Scotland should take note. My latest column in @thetimes. https://t.co/43KM5Euyqr
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In my latest column for the Times I mention a term coined by a Quebec academic: "melancholy nationalists". I think we all know a few of these?
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NEW: Quebec learnt to heal its independence divisions. Scotland should take note. My latest column in @thetimes. https://t.co/43KM5Euyqr
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In my latest column for the Times I mention a term coined by a Quebec academic: "melancholy nationalists". I think we all know a few of these?
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Your regular reminder that in both Scotland and Wales, Labour and the nationalist parties can work together to freeze out Reform from power or from being kingmakers.
🏴 Wales | Senedd polling via Beaufort Research — Sep/Oct 2025 ➡️ RFM: 30% (+5) 🟥 LAB: 23% (-4) 🔲 PLC: 22% (+1) 🟦 CON: 11% (-2) 🟩 GRN: 9% (+3) 🟧 LDM: 4% (-1) +/- vs. June/July
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