The future is up there: is Aberdeen the place to test armies of house-building drones?
Waiting in for a parcel to be delivered is one of the least appealing aspects of our modern shopping habits.
Opinion
Broad street project is a diamond – but the traffic rules are crazy
It was rock band Pink Floyd’s founder and short-lived frontman “Syd” Barratt who wrote these immortal lyrics on their debut album “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”.
The tax gap: can the SNP find a way to stop themselves falling into it?
Death, taxes and a post-Budget spat between the UK and Scottish governments.
The Chancellor is no Santa, but can Derek Mackay show us he’s not The Grinch?
It's that time of year again - and I don’t mean the post-Halloween rush to Christmas.
Early testing will identify who needs help
The row about testing four and five year olds rumbles on. Education Secretary John Swinney has now announced an independent review into the controversial policy. The Scottish Parliament recently voted to scrap the assessments, as teachers’ unions raised concerns about the amount of time they take and parents claimed some children were left traumatised.
Veterans: Psychological horrors are still re-emerging and posing new challenges for us
Just before he died in his early 90s, my grandfather shot bolt upright in his hospital bed, gripped my arms and cried out repeatedly, “I can still see their faces. I can still see their faces.”
Rail bosses guilty of blowing their own horn too much as new service launched
View from the midden; rural affairs with Jock Alexander from MTV (Meikle Wartle Television)
We must tell rural kids: ‘You can be a doctor’
There is a road in Applecross in the north-west Highlands called Bealach na Bà, which twists, winds and climbs to more than 2,000ft above sea level, making it the greatest ascent of any road climb in the UK. With a gradient approaching 20% in some places, its narrow, sharp bends have seen it dubbed the UK’s toughest climb.
President who celebrates violence against journalists is the real enemy of the people
Now here’s a question: do you know what a “body-slam” is? Neither did I. It seems that to body-slam someone, you have to hurl them to the ground in the way a wrestler might deal with an aggressive opponent. It’s an explosive word with violence at its heart.
We’re hoping to lick dip in autumn for ice cream
It’s pumpkin time again, which always delights me and the girls.
Huw Owen: Highlighting the power of attention
Are you paying attention?
‘It’s been through a shredder, nailed to a wall and covered in jam – but is it art?’
View from the midden – rural affairs with MTV (Meikle Wartle Television) presenter Jock Alexander
‘Holding on to lambs in the hope of a Brexit deal’
Last week a sheep farmer rang me worried that the sheep market might collapse next spring if there was no deal on Brexit.
Promoting health by making connections
Erica was on dessert duty at Lunch Club.
Paying the environmental price of the internet
I was talking to one of my daughters and she used a phrase that to me was so profound: “environmentally respectful”. Flora followed that up with “‘environmentally-friendly’ is just an excuse to seem as though you are doing something to make a difference”.
Reconnecting in real world – face to face
Our daughter Hannah went to New Zealand on her own, booking a room in a hostel at random, from her flat in Edinburgh.
The sound of silence is music to my ears, but don’t make a song and dance about it
How is it possible to hear when so much noise is happening all around us? This is one of the biggest problems of our age.
‘Victims still get blamed for the discomfort they cause the rest of us’
The year is 2010. Donald Trump is whistling through Aberdeen like the north wind, blowing all and sundry to one side or another as he goes.
Dancing quine’s Close Encounter with Gremlin in a blender is a tour de force
J Fergus Lamont, arts correspondent and author of Highland Fling – My Lost Weekend with Molly Weir at Boat of Garten
‘The people equation’: Looming crisis of depopulation back at top of the agenda
A new phrase was coined by the head of Highlands and Islands Enterprise last week to describe the region’s most pressing problem.
Warm homes for all should be a priority
If you visit Orkney you can see the sites where ancient peoples built their homes. At the heart of these old buildings was the hearth, around which a family could gather. Here they could cook and warm themselves and the room in which they were sitting. In many places although the walls of these houses have been removed, the hearth still remains, a historic reminder that being warm is a basic need for everyone.
Scottish hands steeped in bloody crimes of history – to others and unto ourselves
I have relatives who toasted white supremacists of the US south. The moment occurred decades ago, according to a family tale, a story only recounted once, and in disgust. That it was all a long time ago is the point – we forget our sins.
New ice cream – and lick of paint for the house!
It’s hard to believe it is September already but the cooler, wetter weather of late feels decidedly autumnal with the long hot summer all but a distant memory.
Trump menace unravelled on Canada trail
It all started while watching a film, starring Robert Redford: A Walk in the Woods – the Appalachian Trail. It had an effect – trails, conversation, relationships, ageing and life. “I am going to do the trail next year,” I said to my oldest son.
GPs are the bread and butter of the NHS
“So, are you just a GP?”
The roots of Brexit run deep but what it lets loose is what will define this period
Right now, it would appear to be a historic blunder that has left Britain deeply divided and stumbling towards the abyss.
Neil Macrae could be answer as Cricket Scotland seek someone worldly-wise to replace Grant Bradburn
Grant Bradburn’s departure as Scottish national cricket coach has prompted disappointment in some quarters, given his achievements in transforming the Associate side’s fortunes.
Rt Rev Susan Brown: A painful lesson – from which we learn most
The summer holidays have come to an end and the schools are back. It is an exciting prospect for some pupils and daunting for others.
Ramsay Jones: Emotional moments show how feelings cut through – and that people know it
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
Catholic Church is counting the cost of silence
The memory I am about to recount has worn a groove in my mind, stopping and starting like a video as I examine the nuances of the stilled frame.
White House is just borrowing some of the tricks I use to help decision-making
Ron Cluny, Official Council Spokesman
It’s all pie in the sky, Nicola – now we need less good intention and more real action
American politics has given us many things. The first opinion polls, the observation that “all politics is local” and the remark “politics is showbusiness for ugly people”. It also gave a name to politics which was so pleasing it was hard to object to: motherhood and apple pie.