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It is sometimes pointless to delve back into “who did what” but Richard Leonard was right this week to recall the promises made on student loans by the SNP leadership a decade ago, in the run-up to Holyrood elections.

As a result of the Budget, the Scottish Government will have an additional £950 million to spend, which, to a significant extent, it did not expect.

In order to strike a Brexit deal over the Irish border, Theresa May needs to be flexible and creative – qualities that are anathema to the DUP, writes Brian Wilson.

In Leipzig, Brian Wilson finds evidence of the greatness of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who took an extraordinary decision that helped make the reunification of Germany a success.

The piquant revelation that Scotland’s erstwhile Quango Queen was paid to work more days in a year than actually exist highlights why the whole system is so tarnished.

Serious attention should be paid to research by Dr John McLaren into NHS funding by the Scottish Government, since it raises the possibility that huge problems are being built-in for the future.

The concept of “otherness” applies, more or less, when a social group which regards its own norms as superior looks down its nose at those who represent difference.

Nicola Sturgeon has admitted what has long been clear – there is no appetite for a second Scottish independence referendum, writes Brian Wilson

Boris Johnson dismisses the Northern Ireland border issue, but the return of nightly atrocities cannot be contemplated, says Brian Wilson

I have been puzzled about why the question ever arose of the Labour Party paying Kezia Dugdale’s legal fees in a case arising from her column in the Daily Record. Why on Earth should it?

Boris Johnson dismisses the Northern Ireland border issue, but the return of the nightly atrocities of The Troubles cannot be contemplated, says Brian Wilson.

In the mad-dog days of the 1980s, I would apply a simple test to proceedings at Labour Party conferences. Emerging on to the streets of Blackpool or Brighton, would you want normal citizens enjoying the sunshine to witness what was going on in there? If the answer was “certainly not”, then Labour had a problem – which it ultimately addressed and resolved.

The Western Isles has suffered proportionately more from the SNP Government’s council cuts than any other authority in Scotland. That strikes me as shameful.

Dundee has long been a city of rich character, great wealth and extreme poverty. If the new V&A can give it a transformational boost, it will be worth every penny.

Asked this week about his ambivalence towards a second Brexit referendum, John Swinney gave a noteworthy reply: “There are some democratic principles at stake here. People have voted in a referendum.”

The debate about testing Primary One children covers a narrow area of policy. Everyone agrees there should be means of identifying the needs of individual children and nobody (except a minority of MSPs) agrees with the way it is being done.

Theresa May marked World Suicide Prevention Day with a tweet which said: “Seventeen per cent of people will experience suicidal thoughts in their lifetime – and if you are worried about someone, step in and ask if you can help.”

Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts is a much-loved venue and a beacon of continuing creativity in the middle of the sadly diminished Sauchiehall Street.

The Scottish Parliament was born from a desire to prevent Thatcherism and the kind of cuts to services that are being imposed by the SNP today, writes Brian Wilson.