Chris Marshall
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Deputy editor @holyrooddaily
Articles by Chris Marshall
Him up North: Andy Burnham shouldn't expect a honeymoon period in Number 10
If Andy Burnham hopes to enjoy a honeymoon period after entering Downing Street, then he would do well to avoid the mistakes of his predecessor. Keir Starmer was swept to victory just over two years ago on a vague message of ‘change’ after 14 years of Tory rule and managed to extinguish any flickering sense of optimism within two months of taking office.
It’s possible to support better security for Nigel Farage and increased scrutiny of his finances
Twenty minutes before she was killed in her own home, Ann Widdecombe gave an interview to a Christian radio station in which she discussed the ongoing scrutiny of Nigel Farage’s finances. A week which ended so horribly with the news of the former MP’s death had begun with the leader of Reform UK announcing his decision to resign his seat and force a by-election in Clacton.
Robots available for rent: But what can they do?
In hospitals across the US, patients and staff have become accustomed to seeing a one-armed, four-foot high, friendly-looking white robot going about its business. Nurses have been known to greet Moxi, as the robot is called by its maker Diligent Robotics, with a "good morning", a high five or even a hug. Moxi – which shuttles medical supplies around hospitals – might respond by displaying its heart-shaped LED eyes and a beep beep greeting of its own.
Stuart Cosgrove: Douglas Ross' Off the Ball appearance led to unprecedented levels of audience 'feedback'
For more than 30 years Stuart Cosgrove and his co-presenter Tam Cowan have been fixtures not only of the BBC Radio Scotland schedules but of football match day itself. Across three decades which have seen huge changes to the sport and the way it’s covered by the media, their Saturday lunchtime show Off the Ball has endured, proudly describing itself as the “most petty and ill-informed sports programme on radio”.
Viral infection: Foreign states are sowing fear and division on our streets via social media
During his brief time at the centre of the Trump administration, Elon Musk boasted about putting the United States’ international development agency, USAID, “into the woodchipper” as part of his drive for government “efficiencies”.
Without an inquiry, the Murrell scandal will continue to dog John Swinney
Peter Murrell, former SNP chief executive and estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, will this week be sentenced for embezzling more than £400,000 from the party he once ran. Police Scotland’s long-running Operation Branchform, first launched in 2021, culminated in Murrell’s guilty plea at the High Court in Edinburgh late last month.
As more US business owners retire many are selling up to their staff
Staff at Softstar Shoes in Oregon have discovered a newfound enthusiasm for eking out resources and growing profits. It started in January when the shoemaker became owned by its 30-strong workforce. Former sole owner and chief executive Tricia Salcido had decided to sell the business to the employees, because at age 56 she is starting to plan for her future retirement.
Is Labour's Energy Independence Bill the beginning of the end for North Sea oil and gas?
Just under a mile in length, Aberdeen’s Union Street cuts through the heart of the city centre on its way eastwards to the harbour and the vessels which support the oil and gas industry. Like other once busy retail thoroughfares, namely Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street, its fortunes have faded in recent years, with roughly a quarter of its shop units currently empty, the opening of a £275m mall just a few streets away in 2009 helping to hasten the decline.
Keir Starmer's days might be numbered but don't expect the PM to go quietly
Situated in England’s north west between Manchester and Liverpool, the constituency of Makerfield has not previously been known for political high drama. Since its formation in 1983 it has been solidly Labour, as safe a seat as you’re likely to find anywhere in the country. But times are changing. When Tony Blair was swept to power in 1997, local MP Ian McCartney, a Scot born to a Labour politician father and trade unionist mother, held the seat with a majority of more than 26,000.
Deleting gender details from its website is not a great start for the new parliament
In the days after Scotland’s new cohort of MSPs was sworn in at Holyrood, the parliament’s website removed the function that allows users to filter their number according to gender. In a country of more than 10,000 homeless children that may seem like a minor issue, but for a legislature which supposedly strives for increased female participation, deleting the very existence of women from the internet feels like a retrograde step.
Why big tech is betting on cute mascots
Some of the world's biggest and most powerful brands are attempting to be more cute and cuddly. Tech giants Microsoft and Apple are among a wave of businesses who have recently introduced new cartoon character mascots, a tactic experts say is often used to make a brand seem more human and friendly, and to build a stronger connection with customers. Apple's character, a blue and white figure with an outsized head, has become unofficially known as Little Finder Guy.
Big tech bets on new mascots in bid to seem more cuddly
2 hours ago A million-dollar Nantucket home is being offered for free, but the new owner must be prepared to move it off the property within 180 days. The 1,736-square-foot colonial at 140 Surfside Road on Nantucket, an upscale island off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is available through the island’s Demolition …
Why big tech is betting on cute mascots
4 hours ago We've never seen mobile terms and conditions like this before. It's been almost a year since the made-in-America Trump Mobile T1 smartphone for true patriots was announced. It's still not out, but this week, we got some conflicting information about whether or not it will ever come out. Today, Trump …
Scottish politics will remain stuck in a rut until the constitutional question is resolved
Sometimes you just have to sit back and admire a master at work. Launching his party’s election manifesto in Glasgow earlier this month, John Swinney told his audience: “I keep my promises. That is my record.
The loveless election: Why a win for the SNP is not a vote of confidence in the status quo
It was a televised debate that produced one of the standout moments of this Holyrood election campaign. Under attack from Anas Sarwar, Reform’s Malcolm Offord claimed the Scottish Labour leader had previously suggested the two men “work together to remove the SNP”. Standing between them was John Swinney, whose head flipped back and forth like a spectator at Centre Court, his exclamation “Oh! Oh!” already on its way to becoming a social media meme.
Hungary has pulled closer to the EU - the UK should follow suit
While not usually a follower of Hungarian politics, I admit to being one of those in the UK who took a belated interest in the election which saw the removal of Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power. A pioneer of the style of government which came to be known as “illiberal democracy” Orbán was swept aside by a former ally who promised closer ties with the European Union, despite the incumbent maintaining the support of powerful friends such as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
How bad smells affect your health Original
4 April 2026 Chris Marshall Serenity Strull/ BBC/ Getty Images (Credit: Serenity Strull/ BBC/ Getty Images) That foul odour wafting your way can do more than make you gag – it could also affect your body and mind. For Elaine Corner, stepping into her garden on a summer's day can be unbearable. She likens it to "walking behind an open bin lorry".
Sick to death: Why poverty remains at the centre of Scotland's public health divide - Institute of Health Equity
Sick to death: Why poverty remains at the centre of Scotland's public health divide The Scottish Parliamentary constituency of Glasgow Southside is routinely described as one of the country’s most diverse.
Sick to death: Why poverty remains at the centre of Scotland's public health divide
The Scottish Parliamentary constituency of Glasgow Southside is routinely described as one of the country’s most diverse. Home to speakers of dozens of different languages, it has been represented by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon since it was created in a 2011 boundary review which saw the disappearance of Glasgow Govan, a constituency which swung from Labour to SNP following the latter’s historic election win in 2007.
The SNP's failure to secure a majority should kill off talk of a second referendum
The SNP’s recent spring conference was a strangely muted affair, a one-day get-together where the keynote speech was scheduled to clash with Scotland’s biggest rugby match for a quarter of a century. No doubt aware he was competing for everyone’s attention, John Swinney went for an eye-catching drop goal, announcing a £500m package of childcare provision should his party win the election, although in the ensuing media scrum there was little detail of how it would be paid for.
Toxic X: Is it time for governments to leave the platform?
When Daisy Dixon posted a photograph of herself online after a gym workout, she could have had no idea what the response would be. Fully clothed, she flexes a bicep in the picture uploaded to the social media platform X where just a day earlier users were given a new feature allowing them to ‘edit’ images using the site’s AI chatbot Grok. Before long, men were asking Grok to put Dixon, a lecturer at Cardiff University, in a bikini or altering the shape of her body. The chatbot happily complied.
Sarwar's big gamble is likely too little, too late
In appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador in late 2024, Keir Starmer set in train a series of events which will ultimately end his premiership.
Information commissioner launches Grok investigation over explicit deepfakes
The UK’s information commissioner has opened a formal investigation into the Grok AI chatbot over its use of personal data to produce sexualised images and video. Last month the UK Government said it would bring in a new law to make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images. It followed widespread concern over the use of the AI chatbot on Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to alter images of women and children.
Appetite for change: Do we need to regulate ultra-processed foods?
By the time the term ‘ultra-processed food’ had established itself in the lexicon of nutritional science, the products which it seeks to describe had long since become a mainstay of our diets. Beginning in the late 1970s and increasing throughout the 1980s, foodstuffs containing artificial additives and preservatives began to make up an increasing proportion of the calories we consume.
Kilt trip: Why Scotland is preparing to issue bonds
It was during his one and only conference address as SNP leader that Humza Yousaf announced the Scottish Government would begin issuing bonds. Overshadowed by an unlikely council tax freeze, a rabbit in the hat seemingly inserted into the speech at the last minute, the news of this new form of government borrowing gained precious little coverage at the time other than the odd withering editorial drawing comparisons between Scotland and Venezuela.
The rise of Robert Jenrick is a sign Britain may indeed be broken
There was a point during the press conference to announce Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform where Nigel Farage’s soul seemed to leave his body. Ironically it was as his new recruit proclaimed Farage the saviour – the only hope – for “broken Britain”.
Fred MacAulay: Michelle Mone lived a stone's throw away and I was the one throwing them
It’s been an eventful year for Fred MacAulay – after a freak accident involving a motorised golf trolley which almost killed him, he then got diagnosed with prostate cancer. For someone who has spent his career making others laugh, there’s certainly been plenty of dark material to draw on. But MacAulay remains upbeat, preparing to head out on a stand-up tour in the new year.
2025: The year hatred went mainstream
In the new Netflix series Beast in Me, Claire Danes plays a writer struggling with the follow-up to her bestselling memoir. During lunch with her new neighbour, a property mogul who may or may not have murdered his wife, she sets out the premise of her sophomore effort, a chronicle of the unlikely friendship between politically opposite former Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. “No one wants hope,” sociopathic Nile Jarvis (played by Welsh actor Matthew Rhys) tells her.
A qualified welcome: Are attitudes towards immigration changing?
The Cladhan Hotel lies a short walk from Falkirk town centre, a squat construction overlooked by nearby high-rises. Since 2022 it has housed asylum seekers, young men from Syria, Iran, Eritrea and elsewhere who crossed the Channel on small boats – usually inflatables such as ribs or dinghies – in search of a better life.
We should be grateful for lovers of language - wherever they learn
Among the tributes to playwright Tom Stoppard, who died last month aged 88, was an extraordinary story told by a professor of surgery who experienced what he called a “Damascene conversion” during the opening run of Arcadia in the early 1990s. Michael Baum, a professor emeritus at University College London, went to see the play with his wife while trying to better understand the behaviour of breast cancer.
After nearly two decades in power, the SNP has embraced 'project fear'
MSPs had only just returned from recess at the end of last month when they were plunged into days of lengthy debate on land reform, with at least one sitting lasting long into the night. With a little over six months to go until the next Holyrood election, there is a lot of business for them to get through before voters go to the polls. So much so, in fact, that the February recess period has now been cancelled.
Breaking the news: Despite its obvious faults, we need to protect the BBC
“In normal times you might be forgiven for dismissing [questions about the BBC] as navel gazing by folk like me who can’t resist talking about ourselves,” said Nick Robinson on the Today programme as he monologued about the corporation’s latest existential crisis.
MPs warn of risk to jobs by slowing production of North Sea oil
Production of North Sea oil and gas should not be wound down until there are sufficient job opportunities in clean energy, according to a cross-party group of MPs. A new report by the Scottish Affairs Committee warns that the creation of jobs in renewables is not happening at the pace needed to offset the decline in fossil fuels extraction.
Iceland and China Deepen Geothermal Energy Cooperation During Presidential Visit
HE President Tomasdottir Visits Arctic Green Energy Arctic Green Energy celebrates renewed Iceland–China geothermal cooperation, advancing clean, reliable heating and cooling for millions. ICELAND, October 17, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A milestone in Iceland-China renewable energy collaboration was reached this week as H.E. President Halla Tómasdóttir of Iceland visited China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping.
John Swinney: New network of walk-in clinics will end 8am rush for GP appointment
John Swinney pledged to roll out a nationwide network of “walk-in GP services” as he vowed to end the “8am rush” for a doctor’s appointment. Giving the closing address at the SNP’s 91st annual conference in Aberdeen, Swinney admitted there were “challenges” facing Scotland’s NHS. He said his government would fund a network of community-based clinics staffed by GPs and nurses which would open between 12pm and 8pm and where patients would not require an appointment.
Kate Forbes: Scotland’s economy needs more immigration
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes accused the UK Government of “pulling up the drawbridge on migration” as she said Scotland’s economy needed more immigration. Addressing the SNP conference in Aberdeen, Forbes said her party rejected the “depressing, denigrating narrative against migration”. Accusing Labour and the Tories of drifting to the right to meet the challenge of Reform UK, she said Scotland’s political consensus on the issue had been “shattered”.
Nicola Sturgeon has broken her promise to Scotland’s young people
Fresh from publishing one of the most talked-about political memoirs of recent years, Nicola Sturgeon has announced that she’s working on a novel, a “counterfactual political thriller”. It seems an obvious next step for the former first minister – who is still a sitting MSP – given her love of books and close friendship with one of the country’s most successful crime writers, Val McDermid. And yet to her critics, Sturgeon has been operating within the realm of fiction for many years.
Review: WNO's Tosca at Mayflower Theatre
I had the opportunity to witness a wonderful contemporary production recently when the Welsh National Opera performed Puccini’s opera Tosca at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. From the flirtatious first act setting the scene and building the passion with humour and intrigue our attention was captured. The arrival of the political prisoner following his escape from prison added to the complexity of the situation and brought with it a level of danger.
'The prostate cancer support groups are filled with men who tried to get a test and couldn’t'
On a Friday evening as he prepared to sit down with his family to watch Scotland’s opening match of Euro 2024, Colin Pearse took a call that would change his life. For some time he had been concerned about a need to rush to the toilet to pee as well as niggling pain in his hip and back, all symptoms which could be put down to ageing and the relentless passing of time which leads our bodies to break down in myriad ways. But this time something felt different.
Irvine Welsh: It's the centrists who are the villains
Perhaps the biggest surprise in Irvine Welsh’s new book, Men in Love, is the author’s note which comes at the end, a sort of postscript in political correctness which reminds readers that the novel they’ve just read is set in the 1980s and therefore contains words or themes modern audiences may consider “discriminatory or offensive”.
The self-appointed defenders of free speech are only interested in elevating right-wing voices
Not known for having much in common during their time in power, Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson are now both at similar stages of their careers, touring the country to promote recently published memoirs. Increasingly it seems the public will pay to hear the reflections of those once ubiquitous in our public life, although promoters appear to have dramatically overestimated how many people were willing to pay £75 to listen to the former prime minister at the Usher Hall earlier this month.
‘Day-one’ employment rights spark business backlash
The changes to unfair dismissal rules in the Employment Rights Bill will have a negative impact, say two-thirds of firms
Have we passed peak TikTok Shop?
More than 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses now sell on the social media platform, but some founders are falling out of love with it
Scotland is stuck with a government better at politicking than governing
You wait long enough for a major John Swinney speech and then two come along at once. Following his party’s defeat in the Hamilton by-election the SNP leader sought to get on the front foot, delivering back-to-back addresses across two days earlier this month on the themes of “national renewal” and Scottish independence.
Condition critical: Scotland's NHS is struggling to recover from the pandemic
The last time the country went to the polls to vote in a Holyrood election, the NHS was dealing with the biggest challenge since its creation. The Covid pandemic, which claimed more than 200,000 lives across the UK, put untold pressure on an already struggling health service and led to the cancellation of thousands of operations. Four years on, and a year out from the next Scottish election, the effects are still being felt.
Neil Gray: I'm in this job to deliver - not to take the credit
Rarely does a week go by without another damning set of statistics on the performance of Scotland’s NHS. Last week it was figures showing an increase in the number of people waiting more than eight hours to be seen in A&E. But for health secretary Neil Gray, in post since early last year, Scotland’s NHS is about to turn a corner, finally emerging from the difficulties wrought by the pandemic. “I want to see faster progress – that’s undeniable,” he says.
Could legalising assisted dying help improve access to palliative care?
When MSPs last month gave their initial backing to a bill which would legalise assisted dying, many also acknowledged the ongoing failure to provide adequate levels of palliative care for the terminally ill. Despite often being associated with end-of-life care, palliative care – treatment to relieve pain – can sometimes last for months or even years. “To those who argue that we should be focused solely on improving palliative care, I would make the point that it is not a case of either/or.
We need to stand up for the creative industries in the face of the AI onslaught
Back in 2010, before he helped usher in a brutal period of austerity blamed for causing 200,000 excess deaths, Nick Clegg was just another harmless Lib Dem leader. In pre-Brexit Britain where the three main political parties nuzzled the same centre ground, Nick was (a bit) different, a breath of fresh air. Both Gordon Brown and David Cameron fell over themselves to associate with him in a memorable TV debate in the run-up to that year’s election.
Balancing the books: Scottish universities face an uncertain future after a decade on underinvestment
Sitting in the spring sunshine overlooking the manicured lawn of St Salvator’s quad – perhaps the most recognisable view of the University of St Andrews – it’s hard to see Scotland’s higher education sector as anything other than a global success story. Regularly named the country’s leading university, St Andrews has been hugely effective at attracting foreign students, particularly those from the United States, giving the Fife town a cosmopolitan feel.
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