Herald on Sunday, Sunday National, 10th September 2023. There was a teacher in my primary who insisted everyone “had to be friends” with one another – whether we got on, fought, or really had anything in common. I spent the first 12 years of my life in mid-Argyll. It was a happy childhood and one … Continue reading Being friends →

Herald on Sunday, Sunday National, 3rd September 2023. We've always had black Schnauzers. Niamh was our first dog. She was a giant. We chose her partly because we then lived in rural mid-Argyll and partly because I was a hyper-allergic kid who needed a hypo-allergenic hound to stop me from turning into a burst bagpipe … Continue reading On dog-napping →

The Herald on Sunday, Sunday National, 27th August 2023. When Bob Henderson QC died in 2012, the obituaries were glowing. The casual reader would have taken Henderson for a legal establishment type. He was painted in the papers as a talented advocate and social raconteur who moved in all the social circles you'd expect - … Continue reading Shiny Bob →

Herald on Sunday, Sunday National, 20th August 2023. Is Private Frazer your spirit animal? Scots have often traded on their reputations for a pessimism. Folk baulk at the cliché of Scots being miserly these days but we often seem more comfortable leaning into the glass-half-empty side of the character. It doesn’t celebrate despondency and depression … Continue reading “We’ll pay for it!” →

Herald on Sunday, Sunday National, 13th August 2023. Your starter for 10: How many cases did the UK lose at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) last year? In the fever dream gripping parts of this Tory government, there’s no end to Strasbourg’s meddling in British democracy – and Something Must Be Done about … Continue reading Desparate escapism →

Herald on Sunday, Sunday National, 6th August 2023. What is it about frauds we find so fascinating? All human beings have a negotiable relationship with the truth. We’re all natural-born liars. Sometimes we deceive others. Sometimes we just deceive ourselves. We’ve all told white lies, self-serving fibs or been economical with the actualité at some … Continue reading Lies and the lying liars who tell them →

Herald on Sunday, Sunday National, 30th July 2023. One of the Irish writer Brian O’Nolan’s finest creations was the “catechism of cliché”. An occasional feature of his long-running Irish Times column, O’Nolan defined cliché as “mortified language”, a “phrase that has become fossilised, its component words deprived of their intrinsic light and meaning by incessant … Continue reading “Uncosted policy commitments” →

Herald on Sunday, Sunday National, 23rd July 2023. Ask any mainstream politician if they think more young people should get more involved in politics – and they’re unlikely to give you a negative answer. It’s a brave MP who walks into a high school to explain to a modern studies class that they’d better butt … Continue reading Spare Keir →

Herald on Sunday, Sunday National, 16th July 2023. Of all the murky dimensions of last week’s big media scandal – and the gloom is luminous – one aspect must have been particularly baffling for viewers in Scotland. When pundit lawyers were pulled into newsrooms to explain why The Sun and the BBC weren’t naming the … Continue reading Reasonable expectations of privacy →

Herald on Sunday, Sunday National 9th July 2023. Can drug possession be decriminalised in Scotland? Can workarounds within devolution be found to allow overdose prevention facilities to be opened in the Scottish cities and towns most affected by the drugs death crisis? Last week, the UK Government proved ­itself characteristically incurious about these questions – … Continue reading Can drug possession be decriminalised in Scotland? →