Weir’s Week: Olympic-standard diving and trouble with the F-word
By Stewart Weir Saturday It was the first opportunity Rangers fans had to both show and voice their support for their club, now perilously close to being their former club. The game against Kilmarnock...
View ArticleFriday song: F*** you Sun on Sunday
The latest topical song from the Sensational Alex Salmond Band is F*** you Sun on Sunday. Warning: Both the song and video contain language some people might find offensive. The band's Best Of 2011...
View ArticleAfter Streep, Sacha and Seacrest, ten ways to improve the Oscars
Dullsville, Ohio. That was the phrase used by Dean Martin, who knew a thing or two about parties, to describe bashes which just weren’t happening. The Oscars 2012 was not exactly red hot, either. It...
View ArticleOpinion: Will Africa’s Charter on Democracy bring real prosperity?
By John Knox The wildfire of popular uprising that has swept across North Africa may be putting the heat on the despots that have been ruling – and ruining – the rest of the continent for the last 30...
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Unionists may complain at the referendum date, but it’s no surprise
So now we know. Saturday 18 October 2014 will be Scotland’s date with destiny: the day when Scots go to the polls to decide whether the United Kingdom should survive or not – and possibly to vote on...
View ArticleScotland 17 France 23: plenty to cheer … and yet
A packed house at Murrayfield, Scotland scoring tries through swift hands and pace in the backs, a cracking game of rugby – fast, fluid and unpredictable; and yet, and yet… Yesterday’s match against...
View ArticleIt’s leap year day – a critical moment in the world of calendar rounds
Today might not be one in a million, but it is one in 1,461. This is 29 February, leap year day, the cosmic-adjustment bit of the calendar that only comes round once every four years. For the vast...
View ArticleThe £2.8bn problem with Devo Plus
I would welcome the presence on the Scottish independence referendum ballot of a Devo Something option - be it Max or Plus or Plus Plus. But there’s a £2.8bn problem with all those middle roads. That...
View ArticleVideo: Microsoft’s vision of the cloud
The Power Lunch Club managed to pull off something of a coup this month when a senior executive from Microsoft came to speak at one of its meetings in Edinburgh. Jacob Jaffe is currently head of...
View ArticleExcluded from the Indian dream by poverty and polio
By Danielle Batist As Nagma Sultana opens the curtain to the room where she lives, the stench of an open sewer nearby is overwhelming and the filthy room she calls home is empty apart from a thin rug...
View ArticleFriday song: Devo Macs
You can keep your Engelbert and your Humperdinck: here is the Scottish Eurovision entry from the Sensational Alex Salmond Band, Devo Macs. The band's Best Of 2011 album is also available, and The...
View ArticleWeir’s Week: goal-line befuddlement and undiplomatic language
By Stewart Weir Saturday It was England against Wales in the Six Nations championship, while in Serie A it was first against second when Juventus met AC Milan. Two sporting occasions, in distance...
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Eurovision: Why the BBC is right to go for Operation Humperdinck
It sounds initially like the perfect storm of artistic awfulness. Engelbert Humperdinck singing a composition from the blokes who wrote James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful at the Eurovision Song contest....
View ArticleOpinion: Business as usual as Russia re-elects its latter-day tsar
By John Knox Stability. That seems to be why 63 per cent of the Russian people – give or take a few million fraudulent votes – have re-elected Vladimir Putin as their latter-day tsar. The crowds in the...
View ArticleSpring Fling provides an artistic showcase for south-west Scotland
By Matthew Shelley Joan McAlpine has her eye on a big fish – a metre-long willow-woven John Dory. The spiny predator is the work of the renowned artist Trevor Leat. It features in a "taster" exhibition...
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Quaint relic or current scourge? Room for improvement on smoking
In the 1951 girls' career novel Front Page Ann Thorne by Rosamond Bertram, our eponymous heroine is in a bit of a scrape. Caught up in an international stamp-theft scam, she has been kidnapped and is...
View ArticleFrom deep fat to gluten-free: the joy of the high-quality fish supper
By Elizabeth McQuillan Scotland has its fair share of quality fish and chip shops. Atlantic Fast Food in Coatbridge fought off all other UK competitors in 2009–10, and the Anstruther Fish Bar triumphed...
View ArticleGreen Investment Bank comes to Edinburgh
The UK's first Green Investment Bank will be shared between Edinburgh and London. The main headquarters will be in Edinburgh after the city beat off competition from another 31 bids. The news was...
View ArticleUseful Scots word: kale/kail
By Betty Kirkpatrick I have just returned from a short trip to London where I happened to eat in various so-called gastropubs – I have some very upmarket friends. When browsing through the menus, I was...
View ArticleScotland failing to protect precious wildlife, warns government agency
By Rob Edwards Scottish ministers are facing “reputational damage” for failing to keep their promise to protect the nation's precious countryside, animals and plants, the government’s nature...
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