20th Century
The Secret of the Loch
This is another article by my Uncle, John Alldridge. In addition to writing for the Manchester Evening News, he also wrote many articles for the BBC (back in the 50s and 60s when it was [more…]
Scotland
Culture
Rough Growing In A Pandemic (The Scottish Question)
The weather has been atrocious. In many ways it’s been a problem in the greenhouse, tomato plants are stressed, evidenced by the yellowing lower leaves and my red onions have bolted, caused, I’m sure, by [more…]
History
The mummies of Cladh Hallan
If I said to you the word ‘mummies’, archaeologically speaking what comes to mind? (As an aside, that reminds me of one of my favourite British Library catalogue subheadings describing a book – ‘Mummies. For [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 22nd April 2021 Panel: Douglas Ross (Conservative) Anas Sarwar (Labour) Keith Brown (SNP) Willie Rennie (LibDem) Lorna Slater (Green) Venue: Edinburgh If British politics is a Westminster village then Scottish politics is a [more…]
19th Century
John Scott Russell
Imagine, if you will, that you have decided to go for a horse ride along a canal towpath. You see a canal barge making its way along the canal and in front of the barge [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 11th February 2021 Panel: Michael Forsyth (Conservative) Ian Murray (Labour) Stephen Fitzpatrick (Businessman) Angela Haggerty (Journalist) Jeanne Freeman (SNP) Venue: Scotland Given the venue, your humble author, through gritted teeth, must begin this [more…]
Uncategorized
Going Postal with Question Time
Graphic EJ – Updated by Sam. Fiona Bruce presents another hour of BBC programming from Scotland. On the panel are: Oliver Dowden MP, secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Conservative; Thangam Debbonaire [more…]
Arts
A Postcard from the Scottish Borders
Having had six months of lockdown, our annual holiday cancelled and finally one or two kids heading back to Uni, I decided that it was time for a long weekend away with Mrs SD. Usually [more…]
Arts
Staycation; A Postcard From The Cairngorms (Part One)
Having held out as long as we dare we eventually, and somewhat reluctantly, cancelled our planned return to the beautiful island of Zakynthos and set about looking for somewhere to visit a little closer to [more…]