by tim_bell | Dec 31, 2021 | Uncategorized
Scotland – the state of play on the cusp of 2022 What State? We’re in a poor state. The SNP, always wanting to say things would be better in an “independent” Scotland and in government unbroken since 2007, has no interest in making devolution work well. Beyond its...
by tim_bell | Nov 12, 2021 | Uncategorized
It was Harry Gibson (the play) and Danny Boyle (the film) who took the Trainspotting story away from Leith. Irvine Welsh’s focus was on the collapse of the community of Leith – the demolitions, the dispersals, the diaspora – into which heroin and HIV...
by tim_bell | Nov 3, 2021 | Uncategorized
It’s out, on the streets of Leith, a collection of writings marking the centenary of the amalgamation of Leith and Edinburgh in 1920. OK, we’re a year late, so it’s edition #101 and we’ll hit #200 in November 2120. Fifteen different voices, all...
by tim_bell | Oct 29, 2021 | Uncategorized
It’s not just the Hibs. It’s not just Stella Maris church and the first presbytery house in post-Reformation Scotland. The Irish built a good part of Victorian Leith streets, and they have one of the very few 19th century positive acknowledgements of their...
by tim_bell | Aug 20, 2021 | Uncategorized
See my letter in The Herald or read it here. The “War on Drugs” isn’t a war, it’s big business. Few politicians have the courage to acknowledge this, and none of them is in Scotland. I know little of Afghanistan other than general knowledge and...
