by tim_bell | May 28, 2015 | Latest News
Well, whoever would have thought it? A near wipe-out of Labour’s Scottish stronghold. Looking back, we can see the seeds were sown a long time ago. Labour lost contact with the people, we lost the vision thing, and we lost the plot. Now what’s needed is a...
by tim_bell | Apr 13, 2015 | Latest News
Listening to Irvine Welsh on BBC Radio 4 this morning, my first thought was that he regards the idea of Scottish ‘independence’ as some sort of literary construct or theatrical Brigadoon. Meanwhile, here in Scotland, we have to pay the bills, and the...
by tim_bell | Mar 31, 2015 | Latest News
My, there’s the clocks forward already! Wonderful, isn’t it, how the year’s markers keep coming. And what a terrific culture we have in Edinburgh and Scotland for new writing. This month I went to a seminar in Glasgow run by the Scottish Book Trust...
by tim_bell | Feb 28, 2015 | Latest News
Is that the end of February already? My, how the winter weeks have flown by. Not that I have been cosy indoors, mind, oh no. I boldly said to a friend at Christmas ‘Oh yes, I have a bike.’ You know what she said? ‘I’ve known you for five years...
by tim_bell | Dec 31, 2014 | Latest News
Sorry to be late here. Please go to The Walks page for the turn-up-and-go tours. In Edinburgh High Street they call out for the Underground Tours – I sometimes make the (somewhat weak) rejoinder that the real underground tours are here in Leith. They don’t...
by tim_bell | Dec 31, 2014 | Latest News
Well, I hope 2014 has been good for you. Much has happened in Scotland which has made it better, with everything in place for it to get better still in 2015. The United Kingdom is re-arranging the furniture, and not before time, but we still all live on the same small...
by tim_bell | Nov 30, 2014 | Latest News
On the political front, the Smith Commission, in which the SNP participated, has proposed far-reaching new powers for Holyrood, delivered on time as promised. They’re not perfect, but a major consideration is to have a good measure of devolution within a stable...
by tim_bell | Oct 10, 2014 | Latest News
Tory Chancellor George Osborne told his party conference a week ago to ‘Choose jobs; choose enterprise; choose security; choose prosperity; choose investment; choose fairness; choose freedom; choose David Cameron; choose the Conservatives; choose the future.’ Good...
by tim_bell | Oct 8, 2014 | Latest News
A few days before the referendum I took an Austrian journo who was in town looking for a fresh angle. He asked me how the Trainspotting characters would vote. Here’s his piece, translated. He didn’t get everything right, but that’s journos for you. SICK BOY VOTES YES...
by tim_bell | Sep 22, 2014 | Latest News
Well, that was a week! Some say that fear and negativity won the Indy Ref. That’s not why I voted NO. How about inverting that: ‘a reckless, uncosted, unprepared-for project was rejected.’ Is it fearful or negative to come to a calculated judgement along those lines?...
