Ben Borland
Ben Borland is the editor of the Scottish Daily Express with a long-running focus on politics in Scotland, constitutional debates and the way decisions made by parties and governments land with voters and taxpayers. His coverage combines close attention to party dynamics, public money and campaign strategy with an instinct for stories that show how power is exercised and contested. Alongside his editorial role, he remains an active political commentator across print and audio, helping shape the agenda on Scottish politics for a mass audience.
Scottish politics and party battles
Borland’s core terrain is the fight for power in Scotland’s political institutions and the personalities who drive it. He regularly analyses leadership contests, party fortunes and internal rows, bringing together polling, policy moves and backroom manoeuvring into clear, accessible narratives. As a recurring voice on a weekly politics show dedicated to events at Holyrood and Westminster, he dissects issues such as the Gers fiscal report, Scottish Labour leadership races and the implications of high-profile resignations and appointments for the wider political landscape.
His contributions in that format echo the tone of his newspaper work: direct, sceptical and framed around what changes for ordinary people when political careers rise or fall.
Scandals and questions of probity feature strongly in his political coverage. He has focused on the fallout from allegations and admissions around party finances, including embezzlement cases and claims of missing campaign funds in the independence movement, treating these stories as tests of trust in political leadership rather than purely procedural disputes. Across his work he tends to draw a straight line from the behaviour of senior figures to the credibility of the parties they lead, making integrity and accountability recurring themes in his reporting and commentary.
Constitutional questions and independence debates
Borland has written directly about the constitutional future of Scotland, taking referendum campaigns and independence arguments as subjects for detailed, story-led coverage.
His earlier work on the independence referendum framed the choice in terms of practical consequences and emotional attachments, listing the everyday elements of life that would be affected by a constitutional break. More recently, he has returned to independence politics through the lens of money and governance, examining claims of missing funds within pro-independence organisations and exploring how financial controversies shape public confidence in the wider movement.
Across this strand of his work, he treats constitutional questions as living issues rather than settled history. Referendum-era arguments reappear in his coverage when they intersect with present-day disputes over fiscal policy, public services or party positioning on the union.
The result is a continuous thread that links past campaign promises to current performance, with independence, devolution and the balance of powers remaining central reference points in his political stories.
Monarchy, royals and their political edge
Alongside party politics, Borland pays sustained attention to the monarchy and senior royals, treating them as both cultural figures and political actors. His coverage includes stories that follow how decisions by the King and other members of the royal family are received, challenged or ignored by high-profile figures such as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, highlighting tensions between institutional authority and personal brands. In these pieces he often sets royal developments against broader debates about duty, modernisation and public expectation, rather than treating them purely as celebrity news.
Royal stories in his portfolio sit close to constitutional and political themes. Changes in royal roles, public appearances and statements are framed in terms of what they mean for the stability and perception of the monarchy within the wider political climate. By linking royal concessions, controversies and silences to questions of respect, loyalty and public opinion, he gives communications around the palace a clear political edge.
Public money, councils and accountability
Scrutiny of how public bodies handle money and authority is another recurring strand in Borland’s work and in the coverage he champions. He highlights stories about council cash reserves, tax rises and the gap between official claims of financial pressure and the figures held on balance sheets, presenting them as accountability questions rather than technical budget disputes.
Headlines about councils sitting on substantial reserves while increasing council tax show his appetite for stories that pit official decisions against the lived experience of residents paying the bills.
He also gives space to security and public-order stories where politics and identity collide, such as controversy over organisations using publicly owned school buildings and the role of local authorities in permitting or challenging such use. These pieces treat council leaders and civic institutions as political actors whose choices feed into wider arguments about community standards and the influence of parties over local governance.
Taken together with his national political coverage, this focus on public money and local decision-making underlines a consistent interest in how power is exercised close to the ground.
Broader Scottish news and culture
Although politics is the spine of his work, Borland’s writing and editorial oversight extend to culture, travel, crime and general news across Scotland.
He brings the same straightforward, tabloid-inflected style to stories on public policy and infrastructure as he does to softer features, keeping the language direct and the stakes clear. His bylines and contributions appear across multiple national and regional titles, but the common thread is a focus on events in Scotland that carry political or social weight, whether through legislation, spending decisions or shifts in public behaviour.
That breadth of subject matter gives his political coverage additional context: cultural tensions, crime trends and travel or infrastructure disputes often sit alongside party manoeuvres and policy changes, offering readers a fuller picture of how politics intersects with everyday life. For campaigns and organisations looking to engage with his work, the defining feature is this intersection of hard politics with stories that show its real-world impact on communities, institutions and public mood.
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