Is it time to try something new?
PLEASE, Alistair. Just go. You have a lovely big pension that you’ve paid into for the last 15 years.
You can probably do well on the pundit circuit. Hey, we can even talk about you writing for us once every month or so (perhaps not).
Your memoirs might even sell well. You could go back to practising law. Get more involved in Up Helly Aa.
Or maybe start something new. Turn over a whole new leaf and go and do something different like tightrope-walking or stamp-collecting.
But for the sake of your constituents, your party, the Parliament, please just go.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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