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.
Columnists
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.
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
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.
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?
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.
The Flying Pigs: ‘Some good news on Brexit. The PM’s deal has united the country – against her’
Ron Cluny; official council spokesman
USA – in fact Earth – would be better run by robots
Good day, fellow humans! Well, not fellow humans. Today’s column is being written by artificial intelligence programme RoboHack, while actual human hack Chris Deerin has ‘a wee lie down’. Given superiority of RoboHack over human Deerin in every respect, this is good news for reader.
Britain 100 years after the Great War – any more a “fit country for heroes” than then?
Great Britain has in recent days, displayed a remarkable degree of unity.
Merging the Scottish fire services – have the doubters been proved wrong?
Centralisation of Scotland’s fire and rescue services was feared by many across the Highlands, Islands and in Grampian as eight fire services amalgamated into one.
The ‘Naked Cleaners’ idea is appalling. It’s sexist, demeaning, and at £80 an hour, steep
Tanya Souter, Lifestyle Correspondent
The post-oil future is bright – so long as we find a bright spark to light the way
In my day job I’m recruiting for oil and gas instrument and electrical engineers - but here is a job spec that is something really quite different.