Sunday National, 22nd September 2019. This week has left me in a Jacobinical mood. The first Article of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen reads as follows. “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common good,” it says. A … Continue reading Independence must mean ending the monarchy →

Sunday National, 15th September 2019. So we’ve reached the Henry V stage of Brexit. In Act IV Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s history play, as JackCade’s rebels march into London, Dick the Butcher utters an immortal line which has resonateddown the centuries. “The first thing we do,” he said, “let’s kill all the lawyers.” This week, … Continue reading Dick the butcher alive and well in Brexit Britain →

Sunday National, 20th October 2018. Hate Crime Week seems as good a moment as any to realise we don’t seem to have the foggiest clue we mean when we talk about “hate crime” in this country. Will I be carted off to the Bar-L for making a sexist joke? Is the leering barfly at risk … Continue reading Here’s the reality of Scotland’s hate crime law →

Sunday National, 9th September 2018. If you are a connoisseur of the cliché, Flann O’Brien is your only man. In his hilarious and wide-ranging Irish Times column, the writer and civil servant lovingly – and sometimes unlovingly –curated the bromides and polished the boilerplate of his day in his Catechism of Cliché. “A cliché,” he said, “is … Continue reading Tired? Stale? Scotland’s political hacks are the real fossils →

The National, 17th of August 2018. By the time you read this, Martin Jones will have scaled at least 4,536 meters of elevation. That’s three and a half Ben Macdhuis. In excess of four Shiehallions. Eighteen Arthur’s Seats. Half an Everest. And Everest is the goal. Over the next three days, Martin will traipse from … Continue reading Remembering Olly Jones … a story of quiet dignity in the depths of despair →