Alan Simpson

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

MV Alfred will cost an extra £3m (Image: NQ) IT is generally accepted that renting a home in the long-term does not make much financial sense. Years of expensive monthly payments and there is no bonus at the end of owning the home which can be sold on at a hefty profit. It can be viewed as just throwing good money after bad and is one reason why folk in the UK are seemingly obsessed with getting on the property ladder.

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

Ardrossan harbour with Arran ferry (Image: Save Ardrossan Harbour) TO run a successful ferry service, four key elements are required - a big ship, a port at both ends and a crew to steer the boat and serve the passengers. It is the same the world over and seems to work well with mercifully few major mishaps. But not, it appears, in Scotland despite the entire network being fully publicly owned.

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

NC500 at Glen Docherty in quieter times (Image: NC500) FOR many it is a road paved with gold, while for others is the ultimate highway to Hell. It is fair to say that the NC500 coastal road divides opinion almost as much as that well known vitamin-rich spread Marmite. You either love it or loathe it and that really depends on where you live. There is no doubt that it is the most spectacular road in the UK and one of the best in the world.

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

The site of the proposed windfarm (Image: Oros) IT is often said, although by whom it isn’t clear, that the best way to create electricity is simply plugging the National Grid into parliament chambers and using all the hot air. I wouldn’t dream of suggesting such a thing of course as many of our politicians at both Holyrood and Westminster do a very good job indeed. What that job actually is I’m not sure, but very good at it they all are.

2 months ago | heraldscotland.com | Alan Simpson

PARENTING isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, which is sadly something you don’t realise until you have children of your own. The endless round of nappy changing and feeds, followed by years of being a chauffeur and being on the receiving end of back chat that would make a shipyard welder blush. We’ve all spent time lying awake at 4am waiting for your child to come home from a night-out and then being greeted by snots and tears on the doorstep after they lose their keys - again.