Holyrood 554 / 22 Sept 2025

Party Games: Conference season begins

3 Editor’s note
Free speech extends to the views we find objectionable

6 Opinion:
Joan McAlpine
Chris Marshall
Kirsteen Paterson
Louise Wilson

10 Spotlight: Party Hard
With eight months to go, no party is where it wants to be

14 Opinion:
Jeremy Grant
Ruaraidh Gilmour

16 Health: Prostate Cancer
Despite an ambition to catch cancers earlier, men are still being given devastating late diagnoses

22 Health: Interview
Neil Gray: We have an improving story to tell on cancer mortality

26 The Huddle
Our panel offers ideas on how to transform the state of the NHS

28 Committee:
Health, Social Care & Sport

30 Political interview:
Zubir Ahmed: The MP on growing up in an immigrant family

38 Green Pages: Farming
With water shortages impacting Scotland’s agricultural sector, adaptation is critical

43 Green Pages: Interview
Alistair Carmichael: We need to be serious about food security

44 Committee:
Rural Affairs & Islands

46 Feature: Women’s Aid
The loss of a local service reveals a lifeline sector straining at the seams

52 Feature: Death in the digital age
The people fighting tech giants for answers about their loved ones

56 Interview: Irvine Welsh
The author says Trainspotting wouldn’t get published now

62 Getting to KNow You
Labour MP Douglas McAllister

64 Diary
The radioactive shrimp which is out of this world

65 Political Spin
Tory MSP Liz Smith

66 Last Word: Sketch
Bob Doris celebrates a rail U-turn