Are petitions ever worth the (ahem) paper they are written on? The rise of online petition companies like Change.org and 38Degrees.org.uk make it easy for us to add our voices to causes we believe in, and to stand up and be counted. A petition is a hammer in our toolbox of democratic options – if… Read more »
Posts Categorized: HNM Column
Time to call time on boxing
Let’s get straight to it. I am no armchair sports fan. Apart from downhill skiing and speed skating in the Winter Olympics, watching sport on the telly just doesn’t interest me. I might occasionally join friends in the pub on Six Nations match days, but that’s more for the chat than the rugby. It would… Read more »
Celebrating our first Vanniversary.
While the world and their partners were getting loved up and soppy last weekend, Mr Marr and I had celebrations of our own to get busy with. We didn’t ditch St Valentine completely – cards were, after all, exchanged – but far more exciting was that last weekend was our first ‘Vanniversary’ – a whole… Read more »
Ten years on Facebook? Ouch!
I reached a milestone this week and I’m conflicted about it. It’s not a birthday – that’s not till later in the year, but an anniversary. Ladies and gentlemen (pause for drumroll) it is ten years since I joined Facebook. Roll back a decade and a few weeks, and it just didn’t seem like something… Read more »
Delia lied – one is not fun
A quote on a friend’s Instagram account caught my eye last week. It raised a wry smile, so I liked it and shared it with my Facebook friends. You might have seen it doing the rounds… it reads: “Who knew that the hardest part of being an adult is figuring out what to cook for… Read more »
This week in – and out – of Europe
This week, the last of January 2020, has been book-ended by two emotional dates. On Monday we saw incredibly moving scenes as survivors of the Holocaust gathered in Auschwitz to mark the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. And on Friday at 11pm the UK formally left the EU. We can never know what they… Read more »
Harry is a spare royal – leave them be
I can’t say my life will be any different now that Harry and Meghan have renounced their HRH titles and withdrawn from royal life, pledging to repay the £2.4million of taxpayers’ money for the renovations of Frogmore Cottage. I’m no Royalist – I had to turn to Google to check what they had called their… Read more »
Saturday jobs pay in more than just money.
School gives pupils lots of things, but it can’t give them every life experience. Encourage your teenagers to get a job. It will pay them in so many more ways than one.
Holy Spokes, I’m a (trike) pilot!
. WThe very first thing I did on my very first day back to work this year was gain a qualification. After a couple of hours’ training in the rain I am now proudly a qualified pilot for Inverness based cycle charity Spokes for Folks. My first outing with real, live passengers is on Friday… Read more »
Water. It’s part of Scotland’s DNA
As we slide inevitably into a new decade (how did that happen?) we can be forgiven for wishing that things would get better. The past ten years haven’t been great one in terms of news headlines. We’ve seen a devastating rise in the demand for food banks, and public services are in crisis; we’re witnessing… Read more »