In Glasgow, most folk wouldn't know who leads the city council. But in Manchester, from clusters of twenty-somethings vaping outside a bar to OAPs waiting for the tram, everyone I spoke with had something positive to say about Burnham. @marissamacwhirter.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Secret gig review: 'The Trashcan Sinatras deserve to be much bigger than they are,' says @teddyjamieson.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social @trashcansinatras.bsky.social @brianjaffa.bsky.social

Book review: 'David Goodman stays fully on top of the story, dramatically escalating the stakes and recording the security services responses to every twist' @davegoodman.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social @headlinebooks.bsky.social

Gig review: No wonder David Bowie once called her 'Little Aretha' @teddyjamieson.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social @beverleyknight.bsky.social

Original 'riot girls' Joan Jett, Lydia Lunch and Shirley Manson are back on stage in Scotland soon - so get your tickets now @teddyjamieson.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social @joanjettofficial.bsky.social @lydialunch.bsky.social

'Scottish BookTok is a world of its own. It is packed with heartfelt enthusiasm, passionate recommendations and no-holds-barred reviews - and I love it', says @susanswarbrick.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social @cjcookebooks.bsky.social

Pitlochry theatre has always been a destination for those who knew where to look but now it no longer feels like theatreland for insiders. It has become a must‑stop for everyone, says @marissamacwhirter.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social @pitlochryft.bsky.social @alancumming.bsky.social

Edinburgh College of Art students use degree show to back lecturers in their fight to save their jobs @evieglenjourno.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

“When socials are shoved down your throat, that amount of content has got to have an effect on anybody’s mental health. Just looking through what was there, it certainly made me feel oh my God, what’s the point” @becmcq.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Revisiting one of Scotland's great albums from the 2000s @heraldscotland.bsky.social

A professor says civil war is coming, and the UK will turn into “something like Belfast during the Troubles, or Baghdad" @neilmackay.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Review: Gary Lineker is back on the telly - it's up to you whether that is a good or a bad thing @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Tip Toe by Russell T Davies rises beyond mere TV. It’s state of the nation drama. The idea that our society was becoming more progressive, equal, inclusive, has rotted away. Extremism is today’s currency, says @neilmackay.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social @alancumming.bsky.social

Review: Graeme Armstrong plugs into some of the drug-fuelled energy of Trainspotting and its kinetic Edinburgh dialogue – or in this case its patter-heavy West Coast cousin with his new novel @heraldscotland.bsky.social @graemearmstrong.bsky.social @4thestatebooks.bsky.social

Review: The best works of this year’s graduating cohort of artists at Duncan and Jordanstone College of Art and Design are neither overwhelmed by global crises nor do they retreat to a level of isolating individual psychology @evieglenjourno.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

In the last three general elections the vote shares in England of Labour, the Greens and Ed Davey’s Lib Dems combined have been higher than those of the Tories and Nigel Farage’s parties put together says @becmcq.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

On Everything’s Getting Older, a superb 2011 album by two Falkirk-born musicians, Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat, there’s a deeply moving, spoken-word song called ‘The Copper Top’, which in the space of just over five minutes says so much about death and loss. @heraldscotland.bsky.social

The Damned live review: There are soft toys from the audience, bantering between band members and full-on dives into the band’s back catalogue including Neat Neat Neat and the goth theatricality of Eloise. @teddyjamieson.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social @thedamned.bsky.social

Glasgow School of Art degree show review: 159 artists, six floors, one question: what makes art impossible to ignore? @heraldscotland.bsky.social @evieglenjourno.bsky.social

We don't need a World Cup song when we already have Flower of Scotland – perhaps the best unofficial football banger of all time, says @marissamacwhirter.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

In the mid-1980s Steven Lindsay almost became a pop star with Glasgow band The Big Dish. He had the voice, the songs, the critical acclaim. But, agonisingly, not the hit single that might have transformed everything. Now he's back @teddyjamieson.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

REVIEW: 'Football fans are well catered for by BBC Radio Scotland but what about the business or arts community,' asks @teddyjamieson.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Scots-born Hazel McBride may have derived the names of her characters and the geographical features of her fantasy land Erisocia from Gaelic, but after the original Celtic inspiration has been put through the fantasy grinder there’s little here that feels very Scottish @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Other objects on show at Kelvingrove include Barbie’s cars and furniture, and various versions of the place she likes to park or place them – the Barbie Dreamhouse. @heraldscotland.bsky.social

On Monday, John Swinney was shocked; on Tuesday defiant; by Thursday, he was cranky. A dismissive tone ill becomes the first minister in his current predicament. A bit of humility would go a long way, says @becmcq.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Review: If the new Radio Scotland show sounds a lot like the old afternoon show, that’s probably because it is, says critic Alison Rowat @heraldscotland.bsky.social @alisonrowat.bsky.social

Run Glasgow? I wouldn't trust her to run a bath. @marissamacwhirter.bsky.social blasts Glasgow chief executive Susanne Millar after Beastie House scandal @heraldscotland.bsky.social

If Elon Musk is upset that a white woman isn’t playing Helen, in The Odyssey, then I’m upset that a woman without feathers is playing Helen. Where’s Daisy Duck when you need her?This entire farrago is absurd. @neilmackay.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

LIVE REVIEW: Thomas Dolby's first live appearance in Edinburgh for 42 years certainly wasn’t a straightforward gig, says reviewer @teddyjamieson.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

The days are warming, along with the planet and the barbecue, so drag the speakers outside. We have five al fresco Scottish soundtracks from which to choose, either just released or upcoming. @heraldscotland.bsky.social @arabstrap.scot

When this Tina Fey comedy drama appeared on Netflix a year ago, it caused a mini-culture war between young viewers who found it middle-aged and smug and your actual middle-aged and smug who didn’t give two hoots what Gen Y/Z thought. @heraldscotland.bsky.social @brianjaffa.bsky.social

Can Glasgow retain its crown as a cool city for artists - or has the ship sailed already? @heraldscotland.bsky.social @evieglenjourno.bsky.social

Scotland has a seat at the top table thanks to Glasgow International, founded in 2005 and, since last year, under the care of its sixth festival director, Glasgow School of Art-trained Shetlander Helen Nisbet. @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Every time an English TV personality appears on one of these trace your family history shows and discovers Glasgow relatives, it always ends in tears. Are we that bad? @heraldscotland.bsky.social @alisonrowat.bsky.social

'We've even hosted two weddings' - how Scottish bookshops are reinventing themselves @heraldscotland.bsky.social @argonautbooks.bsky.social @evieglenjourno.bsky.social

Indepth review: Electronic music’s most beguiling and iconic double act Boards of Canada is back - and the new album is mind-bending @heraldscotland.bsky.social @warprecords.bsky.social @boardsofcanada.bsky.social

I am repeatedly ashamed that For Women Scotland are so often invited to speak “for women” in Scotland. says @marissamacwhirter.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Review: Douglas Stuart’s prose has taken on a powerful new lease of life, playing out tempestuous passions to gripping effect. @heraldscotland.bsky.social @picadorbooks.bsky.social

And yes, Three Lions gets played within a few minutes of the first episode. @heraldscotland.bsky.social @teddyjamieson.bsky.social

Police officers were bottled by thugs who claim to support Celtic while helping paramedics. Is there no gutter low enough for these hoodlums, asks @neilmackay.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for politicians to do something heroic for Glasgow - rip out the motorway entirely between J16 and J17 and rebuild the surface as a street-level boulevard, says @marissamacwhirter.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Review: It’s been 30 years since Chris Brookmyre’s debut novel launched him into the public consciousness. Now he's back. @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Live review: Halfway through his first Glasgow show in a decade, Tame Impala has the lights turned up so he can take in the room. “Holy sh**, there’s more of you than I thought.” @marissamacwhirter.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social @geohovani.bsky.social @tameimpalabr.bsky.social

Book review: When a disembodied hand is found, again on a railway line, it starts to look as if this Facebook group might exist purely to lure women into remote areas of Scotland where they will be easy prey. @orendabooks.bsky.social @suzyaspleybooks.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

The warnings of icebergs ahead for Scotland have been coming in thick and fast from financial experts, says @becmcq.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Thank you @heraldscotland.bsky.social for this thoughtful and generous review 🩵

There’s something for everyone in this huge and inspiring showcase of Scottish art. @royalscottishacad.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Election day TV view: There is something very, very wrong about wearing a bra while watching the election results. @heraldscotland.bsky.social

One for the fans of musiccal theatre: What is Waitress about? Plot, songs and Scottish tour dates @heraldscotland.bsky.social

Theatre review: Produced by the Citizens Theatre with the Lyceum in Edinburgh, Sweat is an epic tragedy for our times, says @neilcooper.bsky.social @lyceumedinburgh.bsky.social @heraldscotland.bsky.social