Edinburgh
Scabrous lyricism
Irvine Welsh, I think it’s safe to say, is not a writer who’s mellowing with age. His latest book sees…
Escaping the Fringe
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival: the city is full of glassy-eyed narcissists eating haggis pizza off flyers that say Michael Gove:…
The pessimism of youth can save Scotland from the penury of independence
It’s a constant theme of this column that today’s young need to stop whingeing about their prospects and get on…
The British clan
The Scots and the English have far more in common than the SNP likes to admit
Time for posh Scotland to break its silence
I took part in a documentary about Scottishness a few weeks ago, and it wasn’t bad at all. I mused,…
How being assaulted nearly put me on trial
Way back in the late 1990s, I spent a lot of time in court. What happened, see, was that in…
Fast train to friendship
I had five decades of delight with the Everly Brothers – and it all began on the Flying Scotsman
Thirty years on
Cig 1 Auld Reekie . . . Edinburgh . . . brewers’ town, stinking of beer, whisky, tweeness, gentility, hypocrisy,…
High Speed 2’s no-fly zone
From Edinburgh airport there are more than 45 flights a day to London. And, I imagine, the same number back.…
Diary
It’s been a strange summer. After a stroke, holidays are not what they used to be. We went to Juan-les-Pins…
Back off, nimbyists, or fracking will benefit Beijing more than Balcombe
The fracking debate has been brought to a new heat by David Cameron’s message to Home Counties nimbyists and eco-crusties…
