Margaret Hamilton (Page 9)

The end of an era has arrived. I have never been a slavish fan of anyone or anything. I mix things up depending on my mood. But even I have to acknowledge that the band Runrig were one of a kind. At the Last Dance the story of the band was told in song and film that played on the screens. The young Macdonald brothers started in music, like so many, doing traditional dance nights in local halls. I remember there was a cringe factor to this type of event. Wasn’t helped by the BBC’s presenting of shows like the yearly Hogmanay event. I rememberRead More →

I tell the story often of the Scout trip to Norway for an international jamboree. The Group Scout leader was also the local school janitor. A lovely man but Labour was for the working class. No argument or example my father offered him that voting SNP for independence worked. The Scouts were to spend the first week in camp and then would be housed with families of the local Scout troop. The same for the leaders. During this week the Group Scout Leaders eyes were well and truly opened. This was the early 70s when things were quite different from now. The school janitor wasRead More →

Tradition is a peculiar thing. According to dictionaries it is ‘The transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.’ We are now in the year 2018. Last century it was tradition for the man to be the wage earner. The woman to keep house and bring up the children. The man washed the car and did the garden. The woman saw to the shopping while the man was at work. Although many have always questioned tradition, most people were happy to go along with it. It was easier. Life was simpler if you tookRead More →

It seemed to me that just having survived the Easter weekend there was very little for me to comment on as politics seemed to have been on holiday (well apart from Jeremy and the wrong group of Jews but I dare not go down that road!) Cup of coffee, my turn for the newspaper. Nothing to write home about in the Herald, then I get to the opinion page. Today (Tuesday) it is Chris Deerin. I was enraged at his apparent belief that the BBC fits the idea that it was supposed to live up to – a commonly owned project to “inform, educate andRead More →

Having been away from home for a few days over the weekend I am trying to catch up with social media and the newspapers as well as trying to get the house in some sort of order. An article in Saturday’s edition of The Herald caused me a little concern. I had been discussing the subject with friends we were staying with but only got the chance to read the article today (Tuesday). Dr Joseph Webster of Queen’s University, Belfast says that sectarian and abusive behaviour is about cementing “solidarity and fraternity” within groups rather than directing hatred at their rivals. Really? Does this academicRead More →

Many of you will be aware that keeping a newspaper going is a challenge. There is not a newspaper in the land that has escaped, particularly the financial challenge. Even the online digital versions have to ask for donations to keep them going. The Scots Independent has been very fortunate over many years in the support it gets. Not only from the subscribers but from the volunteers who write for, produce and circulate it. To get the Scots Independent on the news shelves is really a no go area. Not only would we suffer the same fate in many shops as the National does (beingRead More →

Tax. No one wants to pay it but everyone wants what it is able to provide. That’s life. What also seems to be life, in this modern world, is that the Nationalists seem to keep upsetting the Unionists. Last week this was extremely evident at the budget presentation. The unionists thought they had all worked out what was going to happen and had all prepared their speeches beforehand. Nasty nationalists had not leaked what their intentions were. Result…………….very embarrassing, unionist leaders were unable to think on their feet. They read out their prepared statements and as such, much of what they said was irrelevant. TheyRead More →

Europe’s oldest independently run political newspaper The other week saw us take the Scots Independent newspaper to yet another conference. Conferences are important to attend as we engage with many of our subscribers and contributors as well as meeting potential new subscribers. Conferences have become so large these days that often delegates never find their way to the exhibitors hall due to the distance between it and the auditorium. Many new delegates do not know what the exhibitors’ hall is about and those who find their way to us often say ‘never knew you existed’ or ‘never heard of you’. So this week I amRead More →

It seems to be a week for all three. I had to laugh yesterday at the clip I saw of the Scottish leaders address to the Liberal Democrats conference. Not only was the speech pitifully poorly attended, those that were there seemed to be napping, on mobile gadgets or reading agendas. When he said that the SNP were not going to win the next Holyrood election because of the hard work of Lib Dem activists and their supporters, a very feeble trickle of applause was heard. Now I am not saying that there is no way the SNP can lose, of course that is alwaysRead More →