Thinkculture

Stuart Crawford

Some corner of a foreign field: a battlefield tour worth making

FOR SOMEONE who spent twenty years in the British Army I have done very few battlefield tours. Waterloo, as part of the Army Staff College course was one, and the Arras Counterattack of 1940 with ...

Emma Hargan

The Mummy Diaries: Two babies – Week 15

THANKFULLY this week we were back to normal after Jamie’s sick episode. Screaming matches, running around the house butt-naked, hiding the car keys, climbing on everything, slamming doors and generally wrecking the house. Yes - ...

Emma Hargan

The Mummy Diaries: Two babies – Week 14

I THOUGHT THAT sending Jamie to creche was the hardest thing I’ve had to do. I was wrong. The hardest thing is seeing your baby sick and there’s nothing you can do about it. That, ...

Emma Hargan

The Mummy Diaries: Two babies – Week 13

WELL, IT’S OFFICIAL! I’ve been outsmarted by a two-year-old. My mistake? Treating my toddler like he has the intelligence of a baby. He’s not a baby – he’s a toddler! Boss baby doesn’t even have ...

Charles Harris

The sad truth about Pablo Picasso and the need for true standards

DEAR READERS, It has been some time since I have last written. My apologies. The delay, and an inability to the find the time, were caused directly by my work outside in the challenging Scottish weather last Winter. We did not experience a ...

Emma Hargan

The Mummy Diaries: Two babies - Week 12

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, tears and strops. No, I’m not talking about my kids – that’s me! D-Day for Jamie and I finally arrived on Friday. The day I had to leave him for a couple of ...

Stuart Crawford

The greatest pop song – ever?

MY 12-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER came in to the kitchen the other night and said “Do you mind if I play something on the iPod?” She then proceeded to play “Hey Jude”, a song written and recorded by ...

Emma Hargan

The Mummy Diaries: Two babies – Week 11

THE TIME HAS COME for me and Jamie to part ways. As dramatic as that sounds, it's for two mornings a week at a local creche. The idea came to me on a whim – ...

Emma Hargan

The Mummy Diaries:Two babies – Week 10

NOTHING quite presses buttons like a toddler on a mission. This week we’ve been pushing boundaries in more ways than one. My patience has been tested to the limit and I’ve never seen determination in ...

ThinkScotland

A letter from Jacob Rees Mogg MP – why we should “Chuck Chequers”

Jacob Rees Mogg MP, Chairman of the backbench European Research Group, has written to Conservative Association Chairmen in response to the Prime Minister's letter to all Conservative members – we thought it deserved a wider readership...

Emma Hargan

The Mummy Diaries: Two babies – Week 9

WE’VE REACHED the time that every new mummy dreads. The first jags. Now, I know it’s a process of being cruel to be kind and it has to be done, and I should know what ...

Emma Hargan

The Mummy Diaries: Two babies – Week 8

HOW TO DEAL with a 2-month-old and the terrible twos? Anyone? We have well and truly entered the dreaded terrible two phase this week. To be honest, I had read about this and been told ...