Well, it does start at the finish, then we go back to the past!

I was delighted when Steve Clarke phoned and I can exclusively reveal I’m playing in midfield alongside 12 of my colleagues. Steve is a good guy, the Rev I M Jolly with a wicked sense of humour, and he will get the job done. I might be 65, but I’m 18 in spirit!

OMG! I just got off the plane in Asheville and RFK Jr. Was boarding and someone passed by him and said “quack”

Thank you!

As long as Labour keep arguing this way, Labour is absolutely f***ed! They could call a referendum on rejoining the EU, but Starmer doesn’t have the conviction to do it.

Taylor Swift is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t! All the celebrities who backed Kamala Harris achieved the square root of sod all!

The best solo you’ll ever hear! youtu.be/yBPRrsrj_6M

I could moan about things. But look at these rainbows - there is a double one if you take a look!

“It’s Your Party and I’ll Cry if I Want to, Cry if I Want to, Cry if I Want to…!”

George Benson and Carlos Santana jamming is sensational!

libro.fm/audiobooks/9... Absolutely cannot recommend this book, Hawthorn, A Scottish Ghost Story, by Elaine Thomson, highly enough. A perfectly weighted classic in the style of Robert Louis Stevenson, and a delight to listen to, narrated here by Lorne MacNaughton. @elainethomson123.bsky.social

J.D. Vance once demanded answers on Epstein — now his old tweets are blowing up in his face open.substack.com/pub/unpresid...

Congratulations to Grampian Hospital Radio, which has just been given the King’s Award for Voluntary Service. The station offers an eclectic 24/7 schedule for patients in NHS Grampian hospitals. I visited them earlier this year and it was a blast! www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle...

If that happens, Labour’s hopes of achieving anything, let alone being re-elected, are net zero!

The soft pedaling language being used to describe the men in the Epstein files is enraging. They didn’t “have sex with underage girls”. They raped them. Sex implies consent. The survivors deserve better than this. Use the correct language. Say what these men did.

"That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files" -- Rep. Grijalva

Because it’s being run by a PM and chancellor who are no more Labour than some of the Tories they welcomed into the fold. They have no vision, no big ideas, no coherent strategy and no left-leaning instincts. And they can’t even handle basic communication. None of this is a surprise, by the way!

I think this is the beginning of the end for Trump and not a day too soon. He and his MAGA crowd demanded the release of the Epstein files before the election last year, but now, even some of his supporters are inching away from him. He can scream like Violet Elizabeth Bott, but he’s toast!

This is full of mildly astonishing revelations about right-wing influence at the BBC, but foremost among them is the fact that he was advised that writing for the New Statesman was effectively unacceptable but doing so for the Spectator was fine - indeed, advisable. I am flabbergasted.

The BBC in Scotland has been nothing but Unionist propaganda every day for at least the past decade. Why the fuck would anybody in Scotland who wants independence from the unending shitstorm that is Westminster care about the end of its State Broadcaster? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It’s 100 years since Stonehaven-born John Reith became the first Director General of the BBC and was soon embroiled in political controversy. Churchill expected the BBC to back the Government unreservedly during the General Strike. Reith disagreed! www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aber...

There’s a lot of focus on Richard Burton today, but did you know that the actor and author Alistair MacLean were once involved in a punch-up at the Dorchester? (The Scot won). And that the two men are buried in the same graveyard in Switzerland? www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/past-time...

How ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-great-...

This is a very personal piece. I made a trip to Ypres and the Menin Gate this summer and it made me more convinced than ever that remembrance matters - otherwise all the lives lost in the trenches will have been for nothing! www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle...

He just doesn’t care. We knew that already, but this photo spells it out with such clarity it doesn’t need the caption: “Empathy is for losers!”

Looking forward to reading this. These men, in these raincoats, had no idea where they were.

Sad news that the community group hoping to purchase Arbuthnott Church - the 13th century building which helped inspire Lewis Grassic Gibbon to write “Sunset Song” - has been unsuccessful. The Church of Scotland has put it back on the market - at £45,000! www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle...

Nigel Farage's favoured Mayoral candidate for Doncaster said black people cannot be English. Reform councillor Alexander Jones claimed being English requires Anglo-Saxon ‘lineage’. The messages were deleted after questions were raised by Byline Times bylinetimes.com/2025/11/05/n...

I was out on my bike for the 1st time in ages today, just 3 miles to a hotel in the next village for lunch with a friend. It poured all the way home and I was soaked and mud-splattered and felt brilliant. So liberating to get somewhere under your own steam, to feel you've got one over on "them".*

I talked to former STV journalist Mike Edwards about his new role as a funeral celebrant. As somebody who helped his mother Margaret through a long battle with dementia, he wants to help others through the pain of loss! www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle...

This isn’t a review, it’s an assassination, an extermination, an evisceration. And very funny for anybody who wasn’t involved in making the series!

When someone pretends that something that happened four or five years ago is “ancient history,” they’re usually desperate to minimise or hide something.

I loathed “Brief Encounter” when I first saw it in the 1980s. But I watched it again recently and…nope, I still thought it was a lot of old tommyrot. It’s not the period - I love “The Third Man” and “Citizen Kane”. It’s the dialogue. As the line goes from “Some Like It Hot”: Nobody talks like that!

This is an excellent idea!!!

It’s 50 years today since the official opening of the Forties Field in the North Sea. The energy boom benefited many, but others believe the legacy has been squandered. I talked to experts, including the man who helped set up Norway’s oil fund! www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/6664...

it's time for journos to start asking Johnson meta questions "Speaker, on 5 occasions last week you said 'I haven't seen it' when asked about news events w/big implications for public policy. Do you ever read the news, and do you agree it's problematic for the Speaker to be so woefully uninformed?"

Aberdeen man Jimmy Johnson was one of the myriad unsung heroes of the Second World War. Though he won the Miltary Medal for his courage during a Commando raid, his story has never been told. I talked to Roy Burnett about his new book on his uncle! www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle...

This is my new book (26/026). It's the 1st time in years that I'll be published as 'Shona' rather than 'S.G.'and I am very happy to be reclaiming my name. It's about a reading society formed in a northern Scottish town in the 1830s. Drama ensues. (My mother-in-law crocheted the shawl 🧶)

This is very sad news. Elspeth was one of the original women who wouldn’t wheesht and was impressive and formidable in her championing of arts and culture. She was in a different league from some of the people running or ruining arts in Scotland today!

They’re all just different shades of Tory. That’s why I don’t read anything into recent opinion polls. The only way to make sense of the current situation is to lump the Tory and Reform support together because they WILL merge before the next election. And that makes very bad news for Labour!

👍

Gotta love Private Eye. Always cuts through the crap.

The US president sends out the message: “Let them eat urinal cake!”

BREAKING: 20 Jeffrey Epstein victims are urging Mike Johnson to immediately swear-in Adelita Grijalva. STOP IGNORING THE EPSTEIN VICTIMS!

‘I’ve played a lot of sneery bastards’: Roger Allam on bad singing, big paydays and Elgar’s level of ‘gitacity’

I believe the social media and publicity for Question Time is handled by the production company which makes it, Mentorn Media. There’s clearly something seriously awry. #bbcqt

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.