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2 months ago | 
thinkscotland.org | Owen Polley |Brian Monteith |Stuart Crawford |Christine Padgham
ONE YEAR AGO this week, the Stormont Assembly was restored, after the DUP struck its Safeguarding the Union deal with Rishi Sunak’s government. The unionist party had boycotted power-sharing for two years, due to its opposition to the Irish Sea border. And during that period, its critics argued it prevented all sorts of progress by the executive and made Northern Ireland’s problems worse.
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2 months ago | 
thinkscotland.org | Stuart Crawford |Brian Monteith |Owen Polley |Christine Padgham
I HAPPENED to be travelling along Edinburgh’s City Bypass last Saturday on my way to Glasgow at the same time as the farmer’s protest against Starmer’s inheritance tax (IHT) had taken to the busy route. Since 1984, agricultural property relief has allowed land used for crops or rearing animals – as well as farm buildings, cottages and houses – to be exempt from inheritance tax. But the UK government has now announced that a 20% rate, will apply ver a £1m threshold from April 2026.
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2 months ago | 
thinkscotland.org | Brian Monteith |then Scotland |Southern Asia |Stuart Crawford
ARE THE WAVES of collective hysteria that wash across social media from smart phones and tablets making us lose our marbles? Does the heightened sense of immediacy and intimidating volume of comment undermine our sense of proportion and ability to reflect before we are tempted to react?
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
thinkscotland.org | Hamish Gobson |Stuart Crawford |Christine Padgham |Regina Erich
AS THE POWER of the nationalist wreckers in Holyrood declines, so the prospects for a comparable programme of socialist wrecking in Westminster rise. Many’s the Todday teacup whose soggy leaves have compared Keir Starmer’s greed with that of the seagulls outside the Snorvaig chip shop. My own fronds have been even more outspoken, giving “gannet” whenever the words Reeves and Rayner are spoken in the presence of a stew of kelp and bladder-wrack.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
thinkscotland.org | Stuart Crawford |Hamish Gobson |Christine Padgham |Regina Erich
I HAVE JUST managed to purchase, by a staggering combination of serendipity and good luck, a painting by renowned Glasgow Boys artist William Kennedy at auction in Edinburgh. To say I am delighted would be a gross understatement. In footballer terminology I am Over the Moon. Yes, that pleased. You may not have heard of Kennedy or indeed of the Glasgow Boys themselves.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
thinkscotland.org | Gail Braccidiferro MacDonald |Gail B. Macdonald |Brian Monteith |Stuart Crawford |Christine Padgham
THERE IS a great line in Breaking Bad where streetwise Jesse explains to Walter White that sometimes you don’t need a criminal lawyer, you need a criminal lawyer, and adds ‘you know what I’m saying’. I thought of the distinction when I read that Prince Harry was on a mental health panel, if you know what I’m saying. Mental fitness is perfect for Harry, because it’s about feelings and feelings are invisible, and so it’s easy to be an expert and you won’t kill anyone.
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Sep 24, 2024 | 
thinkscotland.org | Stuart Crawford |Brian Monteith |Gail Braccidiferro MacDonald |Gail B. Macdonald |Christine Padgham
AS FAR BACK as I can remember I have always wanted to go to St Kilda. I have difficulty in explaining exactly why. Something caught my imagination when I was a young lad about the voluntary evacuation of its remaining population in 1930 after thousands of years of the archipelago being the home to human beings.
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May 13, 2024 | 
thinkscotland.org | Brian Monteith |then Scotland |Southern Asia |Stuart Crawford
ICE CREAM is a joy that ought not to be spoiled by poor ingredients and low sentiments. It should be velvety and smooth, not coarse and gritty. It is best fresh from the chilled churner not allowed to melt and rechilled so it has freezer burnAnd, be it sinful dark chocolate laced with liquor or innocent but reliable satisfying Vanilla, it is decidedly best if it is honest rather than corrupted.
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May 9, 2024 | 
thinkscotland.org | Stuart Crawford |Christine Padgham |Regina Erich |Jill Stephenson
THE UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has made a bit of a fanfare over Britain’s new main battle tank (MBT), the Challenger 3, and its first public appearance in prototype form. Britain’s current MBT, the Challenger 2, is getting a bit long in the tooth and is basically obsolescent. First introduced into British army service in 1998, some 447 were built, including 38 for export to Oman.
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Mar 19, 2024 | 
thinkscotland.org | Stuart Crawford |Hamish Gobson |Christine Padgham |Regina Erich
Hamish Gobson’s diary: the view from across the Uisge Tuesday 19 March 2024THE PIECE PLANNED for today had to be postponed after I made an extraordinary discovery which all literate people in Scotland (or anywhere else for that matter) ought to be warned about urgently. I bought a book from Amazon which turns out to have been written using “Artificial Intelligence technology”. Here is what happened.
