Trump would be vindicated if he chooses one term only

I NEVER BASED my evaluation of Donald Trump as America’s 45th President solely on the basis of his jarring personality. I was comfortable with his readiness to overturn convention and go hard against his 2016 ...

The SNP don’t get to pick and choose the causes we believe in

HOW CONFIDENT would you be to go against the grain in Sturgeon’s Scotland? What if you said something mildly controversial? Or flippantly shared a meme on social media? You’d be lying if you said ...

The two Brians: Scotland Matters interviews Brian Wilson & Brian Monteith

Brian Wilson & Brian Monteith - What Next For Scotland? - Scotland Matters

With Nationalists set to win the 2020 Scottish Elections how do we stop five more years of incompetent government ...

Now is the time for bold initiatives to back social care

AS WE BEGIN to unlock the lockdown the government needs to be bold and take some genuinely radical initiatives. I would like to suggest two.

The Prime Minister recently announced that the ...

Emergency laws are no time for political hobby-horses

SINCE THE START of lockdown, over three months ago, the Scottish Parliament passed two “emergency” Coronavirus Bills. The first Bill passed all three stages in one day. The second in a week. 

Housing policy? Build them and they will come

A LONG TERM consequence of the Covid-19 crisis will be increasing numbers of people working from home. On wee wet and windy isles like ours, where is home? Where should it be?

Musings of a Real Tank Commander – Part 12 Parading, partying and some training

ALL GOOD THINGS come to an end, and so it was for my all too brief period as troop leader of 13 Troop, D Squadron, 4th Royal Tank Regiment. It was time for me to ...

Freeman and Sturgeon should ‘fess up, be honest with us and move on

AT LAST, we are now seeing some signs of hope in the battle against Coronavirus.

At Renaissance Care, since our first resident tested positive for the disease on 3rd April, we ...

Is there a journalist who could write Flashman today?

THE HERALD NEWSPAPER in Glasgow is reticent about the fact that its deputy editor in the 1960s later went on to be a master story-teller whose novels sold millions, many remaining in print today. 

Scottish, Trinidadian and British – not proud but grateful

THE TRAGIC DEATH at the hands of police of George Floyd and others in the USA and before that of Sheku Bayoh in Scotland, have understandably triggered protests and examination of race relations and attitudes ...

ThinkMovies: Sixty Years of Psycho – would it be made today?

THIS ARTICLE contains significant spoilers for a sixty-year-old film that you should have seen already. 

When I was young, I had a very good relationship with my maternal Grandfather. He was a ...

A new fishing agreement with Norway that works for us

THE PREVIOUS three articles in this series looked at the EU’s fisheries agreement with Norway. The first two of these totted up who caught how much of what and where, whilst the third argued, on ...