Lindsay Razaq: Mind your language and the world will be a better place – I swear…
“Not a good idea mummy,” my toddler tells me.
David Ross: Time to consider scrutiny of trust ports
October 15 is the last day for any new submissions to the Scottish Parliament’s petitions committee in respect of PE1637/H.
Dr Miles Mack: I’ve got the needle about the new GP contract – because it might mean others don’t
“What did that nasty Dr Mack just do to you?”
James Millar: Hide from reality if you must – but it will only hurt all the more when it bites
Delusion rules in politics these days.
Lindsay Razaq: School should be challenging but enjoyable – my lesson from being told by teacher to do LESS homework
I arrive at my Urdu lesson early to find a group of parents furiously scribbling down tips on getting their children into the area’s best private schools.
Catherine Deveney: There will be no standing ovation from me while questions about powerful men’s behaviour remain
Opera, I always thought, was the music of the elite, as relevant to me as foie gras to a fish and chip tea.
Ben Dolphin: Fair weather walkers can get lost – I know because I’m one of them
Through the fog we could see a cairn drifting past to our right, perhaps 100m away and on slightly higher ground than where we were. Was that the summit?
Anne Dyer: It is not just that words themselves can hurt -they can make people pick up sticks and stones too
Words matter very much. They have the power to build people up, and the power to pull them down. Words must be chosen carefully.
Iain Maciver: Do not come to the Western Isles just to see unspoiled beauty, come to hear it too
When you live in a place like the Western Isles, which is such a magnet for global nosey parkers, er, I mean tourists, you have to sort of fit in with what they have read.
Campbell Gunn: Never mind politicians’ vanishing manners, where on earth are their ties?
Westminster MPs returned, some dragged screaming and kicking, to work last week.
Lindsay Razaq: On your marks, get set and go for it – why Michael Johnson remains a hero to emulate
“Look mama! Men jumping in the sandpit,” my toddler shouts.
Chris Deerin: Whatever the opposite is of being ready for the first born flitting the nest, that was us last week
We packed up the car last Saturday and headed off to Glasgow for the day. Not an uncommon family outing, but this time with a difference: we returned home that evening a child lighter, and for good.
Iain Maciver: The president, the pancakes and the politicians rightly getting panned
What happened to Donald Trump? He had such lovely parents.
Lindsay Razaq: Green beans, supermarket tantrums and why we all need to be a bit nicer to each other
One of the allotment regulars waves to me as I push my daughter’s buggy up the steep hill to our flat.
David Ross: Balancing the benefits of island tourism is without doubt a taxing task
Applications for an intriguing new job were due to be submitted last week.
David Knight: We can all be the superheroes who defeat the online bullies, for ever and ever
As a child I dreamed of being invisible.
Dr Susan Engstrand: Scotland’s digital skills dilemma needs some joined-up solutions, and fast
I find myself thinking a lot about how technology is changing our lives and what that means for our courses and our students.
James Millar: When Boris is so bad he makes Corbyn look good, the real losers are Labour
One of the nation’s foremost political scientists said to me last week: “Boris Johnson is so bad he’s made Jeremy Corbyn look like a statesman this week.”
Kathleen Robertson: Buying a dog? For your sake and theirs, make sure you’re not getting sold a pup
It is one of the more painful parts of being a vet, the upset of seeing families go through the agony of losing a pet.
Lindsay Razaq: Let sleeping monsters lie – why I for one never want to know the ‘truth’ about Nessie
“Nessie ‘relative’ spotted in Kenya”, read the headline.
Susan Brown: When respect is replaced by browbeating and bullying, we can no longer consider ourselves a democracy
Imagine. A beautiful summer's day and you and your mates decide to go for a swim in a wee lochan close by.
David Knight: No sweat – how I’ve found a gentle new way to exercise these ageing limbs
I was standing on one leg in the middle of a park swirling my hands around my head as though I was balancing imaginary plates or trays of drinks.
Catherine Deveney: I’d love to take a wee holiday from being a feminist – but there is always too much still to say
Next week, around 400 people will gather in Piccadilly for the midnight launch of The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s Booker nominated sequel to her dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale.
Ben Dolphin: I reached the top and had to stop – and that’s not a bothering me
A couple of weeks ago, on a weirdly hot day, I took a group of walkers to the top of Ben Vorlich in Perthshire.
Bishop Anne Dyer: There is no other word for it – the system for looking after our older people is in crisis
I hesitate to say it, but when it comes to the provision of social care for the elderly, unwell, and physically most vulnerable people in Scotland, we are facing something of a crisis.
Iain Maciver: Who would have thought that saying a’bhalaics to the law could get you OUT of trouble
It is not that my eyesight is worse. It is just that I need new glasses.
Lindsay Razaq: It is high time we woke up to the dangers of sleep deprivation
There’s a bang and a few seconds later the living room door inches open.
Jim Hunter: England’s north has its Angel – time to grace ours with something equally divine
Few pieces of public art have become so instantly iconic as sculptor Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North.
Clive Soley: Scotland is a very tolerant nation but still has some way to go on race relations
Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival, Jackie Kay, Scotland’s national poet, called for action to transform public attitudes to race in Scotland.
Catherine Deveney: Bravo to the female athletes who “just did it” to force action on sponsorship deals
The first time I saw the “Run Like a Girl” adverts for Always, I had a lump in my throat.
James Millar: If vegetables were the funniest thing at this year’s fringe, politicians were the most absurd
Some jokes write themselves.
Iain Maciver: You may as well just click ‘like’ on organised crime and drug dealing as fall for obvious social media scams
There are online and telephone scams being attempted everywhere all the time.