Finally on vinyl: an incurable introvert’s unlikely stumble towards musical stardom
I suppose you would call it a boyhood dream, if one fulfilled gaspingly late: me, on vinyl (and CD and iTunes and Spotify) with my band.
Opinion
The Scottish Budget in the shadow of Brexit
Brexit cast a long shadow over Derek Mackay’s budget when he stood up at Holyrood to announce his tax and spend plans for 2019/20.
Scrap tax breaks for the oil industry or wave goodbye to the planet – why we cannot wait to become zero-carbon
We have only twelve short years to avoid a catastrophe across our planet - less than the time taken for a child to complete school.
Solving the rural health crisis: do the answers lie in a 106-year-old report?
In many ways, 2018 has not been the best year.
Mountain dues: why we should give thanks for the giants in our midst
It is perhaps no surprise that the BBC will broadcast next year’s Winterwatch, Springwatch and Autumnwatch series all from the Cairngorms National Park.
Better food for prisoners while victims suffer leaves a nasty taste in the mouth
How about this for a menu of the day?
Ross can’t be expected to know what goes on in the real world, just Aberdeen South
Ron Cluny, Official Council Spokesman
Boris Johnson: Deal merely licence for the EU to bully and blackmail us
There are many exquisite humiliations in the so-called “deal” with the EU that parliament is being asked to endorse on Tuesday – but the essential problem can be boiled down to this: Theresa May’s deal hands the EU the indefinite power to bully and blackmail this country to get whatever it wants in the future negotiations.
Believing in Christmas: why the lure of the festive ‘fancy’ will never die
Such a bittersweet month, December: the delicate scent of clementine oranges and the silvery flash of tinsel and the dance of fairy lights in the winter dark, all of it threaded together with the cheer of a Christmas yet to come and the aching, aching nostalgia of all the Christmases gone by.
A better solution to homelessness is possible – together we can make it inevitable
In 1943 the US psychologist Abraham Maslow set out his Hierarchy of Needs.
Scotland’s cricket triumph over England was a golden moment – despite BBC list
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year has always been a curious beast whose relevance has declined in recent times.
Pranked MP: I was a fool – but a fool with a serious point to make about the scourge of drugs
I have to hold my hands up and say that I was duped, 100%, by the team behind a ‘prank’ TV show about drug misuse on Channel 4.
Brexit has put the UK Government in an invidious position of its own making
Long before Brexit was even a word (let alone the epoch-making political event that lies round the corner), David Lidington was holding forth in a smart restaurant in Belfast.
Recall the midwife: why the nativity’s missing character is key to the true meaning of Christmas
In my travels around Scotland, I found myself sitting down with a recently retired community midwife who had worked in one of the most deprived parts of Scotland in the heart of the Press and Journal’s wide circulation area.
All that pill-popping when a brisk walk might do the trick
I don’t for a minute think that half of the good folk of Nairn are popping anti-depressants - after all, with its bracing sea air and lovely beaches there is so much to be happy about.
Denial: why Brexit is delivering the very worst sort of political leadership
Leadership means different things to different people, but it is something that we 'bestow’ on an individual to make the difference.
Crash barriers, closed roads and peeping Toms on the helter-skelter: It’s Christ-mas!
Ron Cluny, Aberdeen Council Spokesman
Brexit like a real-life Fortnite Battle Royale
By the time this is printed, I may well have been proved wrong, such is the lot of a columnist. But so far, this year’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, is the perfect antidote to the madness that surrounds us.
This is definitely the finest walk in Scotland (apart from all the others)
“So……what’s your favourite walk in all of Scotland?”
Christmas in November? Why re-learning patience is the gift we really need this year
If you have ever heard an elderly person describe how Christmas used to be then you will know two things.
Northern Scots slow to land top jobs at Holyrood
Charles Kennedy would no doubt have had a few choice words to say about those in power today, be it on Theresa May’s bungling of Brexit or Donald Trump’s daily diatribes.
Why am I even watching this? A newly-minted pensioner enjoys some guilt-free grumping
It's official. I am now a pensioner, which means that should I be stupid enough to commit a crime or unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident, newspapers will refer to me as "elderly".
A dose of respect – just what the doctor ordered
I had not heard of Aberdeen University Medical Society until a few days ago, but I would have assumed they were a fairly austere and studious bunch with heads buried in a mountain of medical works and earnest discussions.
Dinner money for doughnuts: why letting pupils out for lunch break is a recipe for disaster
There are many momentous political events in the news at the moment and yet I find myself, once again, drawn back to domestic matters.
Never mind Brexit, global warming or Trump – rubbits is fit we’re a’ feart o’
View from the midden – rural affairs with MTV (Meikle Wartle Television) presenter Jock Alexander
Farmed salmon: why we cannot afford it to become ‘the one that got away’
There's an old, probably apocryphal, story, which tells that in medieval Glasgow, workers downed tools if they were fed salmon more than three times a week, so plentiful were the fish in the River Clyde.
Women in politics: why must success still only come despite their gender?
On my first day back after maternity leave, my greatest achievement was probably buying a suffragette bath duck from the Commons shop as a gift for my daughter.
No ifs, no butts: the only answer to smoking is a total ban
On 26th March 2006, Scotland, under the leadership of Labour First minister Jack McConnell, showed it was one of the most enlightened countries in Europe when the Scottish Government introduced a ban on cigarette smoking in public enclosed places.
The biggest problem with Britain today? We do not pay enough tax
If there were a national to-do list, a piece of paper itemising tasks that need attending to if Britain’s to be made a better place, what might that list contain?
Who owns the seabed? Navigating the legal minefield of North Sea decommissioning
The mature phase of oil and gas operations on the UK continental shelf is proving to be more complex than we could have imagined even a few short years ago.
Up, up and away – is this the new “wow” factor?
As we ponder life's big questions, the answers are right in front of our faces most of the time.
Ramsay Jones: We need to talk about what follows Brexit
I am sitting in the autumn sun outside a hostelry in Whitehall.