British Bulldogs, Dusty Bluebells: playgrounds in the days before apps
By Elizabeth McQuillan The primary school playground was, as I remember it, a place with a great many games going on. Now kids appear to huddle around their mobile phones and play with the most recent...
View ArticleAn 18th-century Scottish banker starts to tweet
John Campbell wrote his diary 266 years ago, but that hasn’t stopped him becoming the latest – and probably most unlikely - beneficiary of the rise of the social network Twitter. Mr Campbell was the...
View ArticleOpinion: Only careful management of cuts can avoid lasting damage
By Colin Borland Casting a gloomy shadow over our MSPs’ in-trays as they return to Holyrood this week is the impending spending review. Even if they managed to enjoy the summer recess (and, while the...
View ArticleOpinion: recession, cuts and Plan MacB – it all comes down to jobs
By John Knox Like a tolling bell, the unemployment figures in countries across the world tell us something is wrong. It is not just that we are in a temporary recession. There is a long-term problem....
View ArticleFriday song: Absorbing the Greek
The Sensational Alex Salmond Band have provided another video to accompany their popular album. This week’s offering, written and performed by Tommy Mackay, Fife comedian of the year, examines the...
View ArticleWeir’s Week: Sooty in Madrid, a phantom Scot and the PC brigade
By Stewart Weir Saturday And it’s England’s turn to kick off their Rugby World Cup campaign against Argentina, which for a while wasn’t so much the Three Lions against the Pumas, as the Pumas against...
View ArticleOpinion: Arab Spring – a Berlin Wall moment or missed opportunity?
By Alyn Smith The Arab Spring has continued unabated over the long hot summer months, and with the end of the Holy month of Ramadan it is only likely that we will see an upsurge in continued activism....
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Review: The Engagement Manifesto, by Alan Crozier
Look inside many business magazines or the business pages of the national newspapers and there will be lots of discussion about mergers and acquisitions. For many commentators, it’s seen as a...
View ArticleChinese investment, the Cobra and buttocks – the Zambian elections
By Andrew Macdonell in South Africa Free and fair elections have been the exception rather than the rule in much of Africa, but this week’s election in Zambia offers hope that democracy may be starting...
View ArticleFrank Maguire, specialist in industrial diseases law, dies at 55
Tributes have been paid to the campaigning lawyer, Frank Maguire, who has died aged 55. The joint managing partner of Thompsons Solicitors, he died at home in Ayrshire after a long battle with cancer,...
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SNP close to extending the voting franchise to 16 and 17 year olds
Some might call it blatant electioneering, others might laud it as a long-overdue extension of democracy. Either way, the SNP’s plan to extend the vote to 16 and 17 year olds looks likely to be...
View ArticleReview: Dick Gaughan at Glasgow City Halls
By Alex Wood Dick Gaughan’s set at Glasgow City Halls set started with his now standard introductory number, Si Kahn’s What You Do With What You’ve Got, as close to individualism as Gaughan gets. The...
View ArticleSamoan centre lauded for standing up against rugby ‘apartheid’
Rugby’s global controllers just don’t get it – and, until they do, the game will never grow to become the world sport it could and should be. The issue here – and this is the one starting to overshadow...
View ArticleScottish jobs market strengthens slightly – but winter could be tricky
The latest Labour Market Barometer from the Bank of Scotland shows that the jobs market had continued to strengthen in the last month with an increase in vacancies and placements as well as in the...
View ArticleWordwatch: rogue
By Betty Kirkpatrick The world of finance is never far from the headlines these days. Mostly this makes depressing reading, emphasising just how bad our financial situation is or is likely to be. The...
View ArticleVideo: Thrive for Business
Thrive for Business is the name given to a series of sector-specific clubs in Scotland. Whether the sector is technology, energy, hospitality or property, the aim is to bring like-minded people from...
View ArticleFriday song: Born To Rust
The Sensational Alex Salmond Band have provided another video to accompany their popular album. This week’s offering, written and performed by Tommy Mackay, Fife comedian of the year, concerns the...
View ArticleFreezes and efficiencies: a plain person’s guide to the Scottish budget
By John Knox Now it is plain for all to see. Teachers, nurses, dustbin collectors, social workers, park-keepers, librarians, environmental health inspectors and the rest of the long list of public...
View ArticleDevil in the detail as real hidden damage of Swinney’s budget emerges
All those who doubt that the Scottish parliament is becoming more like Westminster every day should take a look at this week’s budget – or, rather, at the fallout from the budget. When budgets are...
View ArticleWorried about satellite debris? Better head to Braemar or Mallaig…
“Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?”, asked Billy Bragg. Hard to say, but anyone living across a broad swathe of the planet could be forgiven doing a bit of wishing – and finger-crossing – this...
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