Month: July 2015
Foodbank Scotland


“Will you be needing toiletries with this one dear?” asks a kindly volunteer at a Leith Walk foodbank, as she begins to empty out the contents of a big plastic box into bags.
Embarrassed, I mumble something about not being a client but that I’m interested in volunteering, and then feel …read more
Franco’s Face


Nuno Silva, a Portuguese-born footballer who has played in Angola and Portugal, and who has just started playing for Spanish football team Real Jaén in Andalusia, this week wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the face of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco (who died in 1975) to his inaugural press conference. Twitter …read more
You may also enjoy
We couldn’t help but smile at the related tunes. But really, any excuse to watch this masterpiece again: …read more
Hopeman councillor stands down
ONE of Moray’s longest-serving councillors is standing down with immediate effect. …read more
World championships kick off in Forres
THE world of international orienteering is heading to Forres this evening (Friday). …read more
Thousands of visitors head to Moray
THOUSANDS of visitors will navigate their way to Moray this weekend for a bonanza of sporting, musical and traditional events. …read more
We need some time off from that emotion
Having failed over the course of several years to dub the SNP “Nazis” and “fascists” (or, depending on which sort of newspaper you were reading, “Tartan Stalinists”), the party’s political and media opponents have a new(ish) meme to punt: that the SNP is a religious cult made up of credulous, …read more
SNP must resist temptation and stick to House of Lords’ boycott


Commentary by Derek Bateman
Iain Macwhirter has been up to his old tricks – applying logic to politics. This will never do. What where might that lead – to honest politicians, public funding of parties, fair taxation and even people admitting mistakes? It doesn’t bear thinking about. There would hardly be …read more
Cat Boyd – Why Politicians Should Take A Workers Wage
Cecil the Lion and Walter the Dentist


Ivor Cutler used to distribute stickers saying ‘Save the Amoeba’. His point was that smaller, less photogenic creatures deserved protection as well as Whales and Tigers and Elephants. Our confusion about nature and the environmental crisis is everywhere to be seen. The response to Walter Palmer killing a lion has …read more
National Yes Registry


First let me once again thank Bella Caledonia, Independence Live and all those other individuals who have been donating to and spreading the word about the National YES Registry project and its goals. All your help has been wonderful and very much appreciated.
Throughout the last 3 weeks of our launch …read more
Scottish Business Buzz (30.07.15)
Great news for manufacturing in Scotland with the news that Rolls Royce is to invest £60 million in its engine plant in Inchinnan. According to Mike Mosley, Rolls-Royce, supply chain chief operating officer: “Rolls-Royce is focused on transforming our global industrial base to develop our world-class, competitive supply chain, concentrating …read more
Stay classy, Scottish Labour
You can kind of see why they don’t think Ian Smart is a problem. Previous record-holder: Still, those vile cybernats, eh? …read more
Europe’s Greater Springfield


Yellow, four-fingered, but getting somewhere: Europe’s Greater Springfield’ can learn from the Simpsons.
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It is good to see Jim McColl banging heads together to revive Scottish marine enterprise after three decades of steady shrinkage. It also reminds us that we had such a scheme, forty years back, from Sir William Lithgow, …read more
Dangerous Radicalisation


The problem of the radicalisation of young people is getting more desperate, as 1000s of people make the journey to ‘Corbyn’.
One proud New Labour parent, said “These kids don’t know what they’re doing. It’s all done over the internet. One minute they were good unthinking Blairites, the next thing …read more