End of the peer show: why it’s time the House of Lords was properly reformed (or better still abolished)
AMIDST all the sound and fury of the recent Brexit debates at Westminster, a surreal event has been taking place there virtually unnoticed.
Immune to reason? How can we stop ill-informed anti-jab parents putting all our children in grave danger
I’m eight and hiding under a chair in our doctor’s surgery, refusing to come out.
Hospitality is hard work: are millennials too lazy to plug the workforce gaps?
I once held a door open for a man rushing out of an off-licence store and apologised to him for getting in his way.
Please no-one sack Gavin Williamson: the Secretary of State for Slapstick is the perfect tonic for these dark days
The rotten state of Westminster gives us so very many reasons to be fed up: the slow public suicide of the Labour Party, the holding to ransom of the Tories by hard-right pro-Brexiteers and their frowny chums in the DUP, the invisibility and inertia of the Lib Dems at a time when any decent third party should be gobbling up votes, the interminable squabbling over Brexit, the absence of discussion about practically anything else, Ian Blackford’s awful suits…
Power to the people – but what about the money? Why we should be angry about energy
Electricity from renewable energy is essential for modern living and mitigating climate change but here in the north our people are getting a very poor deal.
Ariel attacks: why I’m ignoring calls to ditch “sexist” Disney classics
“I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue, and it's hey to the starboard, heave-ho.
Bags of trouble: why are the biggest firms so bad at getting the small things right?
You know that sinking feeling when you are well into a long journey and think you've left something important back at home.
You can put your mind at ease: the “Bish” is a friend of our armed forces
You need to read this column whilst making room in your head for a quick burst of the Village People singing “In the Navy”.
Full STEAM ahead: the fourth industrial revolution will be fuelled by creativity
Culture and creative activity play a leading role in animating a city, its spaces and its people.
The birth of new hope? Why Tory MPs’ paternity leave plans may signal the start of a brighter party future
Douglas Ross, the MP for Moray, is already the first MP to mention haggis ice-cream in the House of Commons.
Identifying problems: working out what matters in our broken politics
Last week ended in a celebratory flypast marking the 75th anniversary of the death of 10 US servicemen, and the work of a single man over many decades.
Blowing hot and cold: it is time we had a clearer policy in favour of ‘majestic’ wind farms
“Who has seen the wind?” asks 19th-century author Christina Rossetti in her poem of the same name.
The devil in the detail: why the Pope must show his abuse summit is more than a PR exercise
Entering St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, a priest once told me, is like entering heaven.
Forgotten local hero: the scientist spy who bamboozled the Nazis to help win the war
I wish I had worked harder at physics, but even I knew the difference between velocity and speed and that combined they were propelling me to a cliff edge known as abject failure.
Shamima Begum is a British teenager – she is our problem and we need to solve it
IT is said that you never really grow up until you become a parent.
BBC Scotland: is it being launched 10 years too late?
This weekend BBC Scotland launches its new digital channel.
Bishop: scrapping free TV licences would cut a vital lifeline for the over 75s
I love TV, although I don’t get to watch as much as I would like.
Unexpected items in ‘bagging’ areas: a century on is Sir Hugh Munro’s legacy good or bad?
THE 100th anniversary of the death of Sir Hugh Munro next month makes me wonder if he could have known the impact he would have on the great Scottish outdoors so many years later.
When teachers are getting punched, kicked, spat on and sworn at I know who I blame – rubbish parents
Picture the scene - an everyday domestic event as a family group enjoyed themselves at a play park somewhere in the north-east.
The nation looked after the Baby Boomers – it’s time they started giving something back
In country after country, schoolchildren have been staging protest marches.
Volunteering at Childline has opened my eyes wider to the problems facing young people today
Over my life time I have met many volunteers, without whom our city, and indeed our country would grind to a halt.
We love it when a plan comes together – but even the A-Team would struggle with this one
The A-Team was everything for me and those of my vintage. In the playground we would squabble over who got to play Hannibal, Face, Murdock or BA Baracus.
University chief: why my roots give me a special reason to make higher education more accessible
One of the most enjoyable aspects of my return to Aberdeen has been to start a programme of visits to schools across the north-east.
Fee, fi, no fun: why my daughter needs the blood of an Englishman to keep her sane
“What’s she been in?”
A fresh coat of pain: the unhealthy consequences of our ‘must-have’ shopping culture
I trust you have been wrapping up warm in the freezing weather - you can't beat a good coat.
We are beginning to near the end of Brexit – or at least the end of the beginning
The next time my Monday Muse meanders onto these pages, we will be in the final fortnight of Brexit.
Going out in style: there is something unhealthily modern about fast-track funerals
There is nothing on earth that more sharply focuses your mind on the absolute reality of death, than being involved in the funeral business.
The real McCoy: the north’s pioneering role in making science fiction into medical fact
Imagine a technology that could monitor your health and deliver lifesaving medicine whenever you needed it, wherever you were and whatever you were doing.
Toddlers with tablets: how young is too young to be exposed to modern technology?
“Whose phone is this?” the support worker asks.
Wasted potential: the urgent need to get more from our historic monuments
Culloden: over 1,000 Jacobites were killed in that disastrous battle but twice that number were butchered on the field or later starved to death in prison.
This is not about cute kittens- but maybe we would save the planet sooner if it were…
We're doomed. Yes, doomed I tell you, all because no one told us that climate change harms cute little fluffy kittens.
Knocking on the wrong door: how red tape has become the enemy of GP home visits
I arrive at a home visit, doctor’s bag in one hand, computer summary printout in the other, and knock.