From a BBC Scotland interview with Prof Alan Riach (above) on the 10th November 2025, the text: Listen at: Alan Riach (b.1957) Poet and Professor of Scottish Literature, Glasgow University. BornAirdrie, Lanarkshire, studied at the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow, worked at theUniversity of Waikato, New Zealand, 1986-2000, returned to Scotland 2001. Books includepoetry: The Winter Book (2017), Homecoming (2009), Wild Blue: Selected Poems (2014),The MacDiarmid Memorandum (2023); criticism: Representing Scotland (2005), HughMacDiarmid’s Epic Poetry (1991), and co-authored with Alexander Moffat, Arts ofResistance: Poets, Portraits and Landscapes of Modern Scotland (2008), described in theTLS as ‘a landmark book’. His 734-page … Continue reading Glasgow professor and poet watches BBC Scotland News ‘to see how the enemy is working’

Thanks to Legerwood for alerting me to this. In the Telegraph yesterday: In 35 years at sea, HMS Iron Duke only ever fired her guns in anger a handful of times. She did so to hit a gun battery during the war against Colonel Gaddafi in Libya in 2011, and before that while seizing drugs in the Caribbean in 2009. For a Type 23 frigate, designed in the 1980s to take on the might of the Soviet navy, it was small-scale stuff. But at a time when the Cold War seemed long over, it was a reminder that a well-resourced … Continue reading Frigate fiasco as Royal Navy has only five (33%) functioning frigates

In the Guardian today, the above and: Last week’s Scottish parliament election promised an equally profane revelation. With Reform UK’s arrival in Scottish politics, Kenny Farquharson predicted in the Times that election day “will be remembered as the day Scottish exceptionalism died”. Sheepish voters, dumbly following the rest of Britain, would finally espouse the “rightwing populist nativism” that had hitherto been halted at Hadrian’s Wall. On the surface, the results do suggest a change in tone. Reform won 17 seats –only two more than the Scottish Greens – tying with Scottish Labour for second place. Its surge from nowhere to 16% of the vote … Continue reading Guardian writer totally misrepresents Reform UK’s unimpressive performance in Scotland as 85% reject them