Jim Hunter: Is farming one of those ‘indispensable’ British industries that will never disappear – just like coal mining?
Might we about to see the emergence of a countryside where there’s little in the way of farming?
Catherine Deveney: Like poppies, the miracle of reconciliation can follow the most heartbreaking loss
I find myself wondering what the very first words were that Georges Salines and Azdyne Amimour spoke to one another when they first met in a café in the Bastille area of Paris.
Madeleine Marcella-Hood: Fashioning an ethical approach is a big task for the clothing industry
As we enter 2020, not only a new year but indeed a new decade, our minds might be focused on new beginnings.
Iain Maciver: There’s something fishy about the whole idea of part-time royals
It’s when we have really rough weather like this that I always think of the song The Road to Dundee that Calum Kennedy sang in the 1950s and many others have since - but not so well.
James Millar: Listening to the tune the public is singing is how politicians will glimpse the true face behind the mask
Since former Home Secretary Alan Johnson was revealed to be a participant in ITV’s Saturday night madhouse The Masked Singer, the Westminster set has been forced to pay attention to this utterly bizarre show.
Lindsay Razaq: When it comes to parental love, sharing does not have to mean dividing
“Hello mummy,” giggles a muffled voice behind me.
Len Ironside: Labour must learn the lessons of history or give up on regaining power
Labour faces a crucial test as it looks for a new leader after such a crushing general election defeat - the worst since 1935: will it learn the lessons of the past?
David Knight: I am nothing but a weirdo misfit – put me in charge of the country
I might apply for a job with Dominic Cummings - chief mover and shaker behind Boris Johnson - who is creating a phalanx of free thinkers within 10 Downing Street.
Kathleen Robertson: All in the mind – why new year’s resolutions are better for being a little self-centred
New Year’s resolutions - we all make them and gradually we fall off the proverbial wagon.
Chris Deerin: Fancy that, being a grown-up Artful Dodger with Hasidic leanings and a Sex Pistols fixation is rather fun after all
I have friends who leap, screeching with joy, whenever the opportunity to don fancy dress presents itself.
Iain Maciver: A rude awakening for Hollywood’s A-list starts the year as it looks like going on
Despite this awful weather, I hope you all had a good new year because I have a feeling it’s going to be a rude one.
Angus Peter Campbell: Oliver Cromwell, the dangerous streets of Inverness and the magical hold of folk memory
A friend of mine left Wick for the bright lights of London in the 1960s, but before he headed south to where the streets were paved with gold, he called in to let his granny know.
Malcolm Harvey: 20:20 vision in Politics? Aye, right
The party poppers have been popped, the drams sunk, the bells rung, and bleary eyes rubbed in an attempt to focus on what’s coming.
James Millar: The two unguarded words that unleashed a decade of duff politics
There was something satisfying about squeezing an election in before the end of 2019.
Susan Brown: Christmas has been hijacked – now new year must be our time of reflection
Christmas is over and done with for another year.
David Knight: Children on flights send you flipping mad? Spare a thought for the poor parents
It's festive season so I cannot wait to fly off on my holidays to escape it all.
Catherine Deveney: Is there any judgment quite so self-righteously vicious as religious judgment?
When you are depressed, there can be something alienating about other people’s festivities, especially at Christmas.
Ben Dolphin: If it really is the thought that counts – then think about getting out for a walk with a smile on your face
The magic of Christmas dissipated a long time ago for me, or at least the side of it that venerates the acquisition of throwaway tat that we’ve neither asked for nor need.
Bishop Anne Dyer: Living like kings this Christmas? Don’t forget those who are not so fortunate
We call today ‘Boxing Day’, but for the Church it is the ‘feast of Stephen’.
Iain Maciver: Here’s one I prepared earlier – oh for the days when Christmas meant making something from nothing
As this is the second last column of the year, nay, the decade, I shall wipe away a tear and think back to these days when I was a kid full of mince pies and expectations about the payback for being such a good wee boy all year long.
Campbell Gunn: Pause to remember this hell on earth when you sing of peace and goodwill toward men
Earlier this month, I attended the unveiling of a major new artwork in a museum of religion.
David Knight: It is time for another referendum on independence – oh no it isn’t
Oh, the delicious irony of it all: I had just taken my seat to enjoy a pantomime as general election voting was in full swing.
Eleanor Bradford: This Christmas, cherish the greatest gift that you possess – happiness
Christmas and Hogmanay is a time when many of us take stock and reassess.
Jim Hunter: There have been very few truly epoch-making general elections – but this may yet turn out to be one of them
Many elections, usually in their immediate aftermath, are described as historic or epoch-making – terms applied widely to Boris Johnson’s victory of last week.
Catherine Deveney: A turkey leg nailed to a wall with tinsel is my Christmas present to the PM
I am thinking of buying the Prime Minister a Christmas present.
Callum Whyte: Primrose has a thing or two to teach my grandmother about when it is safe to eat shellfish
As I was growing up, any time my mother suggested buying mussels or cockles for dinner, my gran would pipe up with the old adage that you should only eat shellfish when there’s an ‘R’ in the month.
Chris Deerin: Posh hotels do lack life – give me Fawlty Towers any day
There is, of course, a romantic side to hotels.
Flora Douglas: Financial health must become part of routine medical checks if we are to cure food poverty
Food banks were never intended as anything other than a quick fix.
Catherine Deveney: Colour does not matter in adoption, unless it is the pink of paper hearts
In a courtroom in Michigan, USA, last week, a row of five-year-old children, only their eyes and noses visible above the height of the front row barrier, waved pink paper hearts on sticks, like little love lollipops.
Iain Maciver: I can count on vengeful sheep to give me a painful sleepless night
Growing up in God’s Country - the island of Great Bernera to uneducated plebs - I did not particularly like sheep, our fabled caora dhubh-cheannach - the blackface sheep.
James Millar: This is supposed to be a Brexit election – but meaningful debate of the issue is awfully thin on the ground
Come to our Christmas shindig, they said. Well how could I refuse?
Calum Ross: There is only one predictable result at this general election – local councils will be the losers
From Brexit to Trump, political shocks have become routine in recent years.