Posts Categorized: HNM Column

Where are all the parents in Scottish Politics?

Where are all the parents? I’ve been looking for them, but in vain. Oh there are plenty at the school gate at the end of the day, and sitting by beds in the children’s wards in hospitals wearing worried expressions. There are plenty in the supermarkets in the evenings, both working the checkouts and trawling… Read more »

Coffeegate…and Real Mum Moments

Coffeegate. At least it’s not as bad as the #GOPDebate… It’s a struggle. I mean, where can you get a decent cup of coffee these days? Not in the committee rooms in Holyrood, that’s for sure – well at least not according to Highland MSP Mary Scanlon, who raised the matter in The Scottish Government… Read more »

When did the Oscars stop being about films?

Keep Politics out of the Oscars! I’m just wondering – when was it that The Oscars stopped being about films and became all about politics? On Monday morning it was too much like hard work trying to find out who had won what. Call me old fashioned, but I was actually interested to know what… Read more »

Tough call for Council Cuts

The first rule of economics, usually learned at the ‘pocket money’ stage of life, is that you can’t spend what you don’t have. If you don’t have the money to pay for sweeties or a toy, you have to save or earn more to make up the shortfall, and until then, you do without. The… Read more »

Who would be a farmer these days?

Who would be a farmer these days? It was a question I posed at the Drumossie Hotel, Inverness last week to a room full of invited guests – farmers, rural business owners and food producers – at the launch of a new initiative which aims to reconnect consumers with the people who grow and rear… Read more »

£50K+ to rescue Archers’ Helen Titchener.

Social media gets a bad press. I’m constantly hearing people (who are usually older than me) blaming it for ‘youngsters’ becoming increasingly isolated from real life, and unable to hold a ‘proper’ conversation, either because they’ve got their nose in their phone, or because they’re not familiar with having actual to and fro dialogue with… Read more »

Celebrity death. Is it ok to mourn?

I’m almost nervous that by writing this I’m tempting fate, but I’m hoping that February will be less cruel in terms of celebrity losses than the first month of 2016. January’s death register was star-studded indeed; David Bowie, Alan Rickman and The Eagles’ Glen Frey, and at the weekend, broadcasting legend Terry Wogan. I don’t… Read more »