I worked as a literacy tutor in the BSU, 1980-82. Very strong agreement

A lesson in compassion and innovation from 1973

Apologies for being late to this news, but it seems we have found ourselves a Muslim gentleman that no one can find a reason to hate on. Doesn’t that feel grand! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Treating prisoners with human dignity - insights from the Barlinnie Special Unit and reducing the need to have prisons. My Thought for the Day today on BBC Radio Scotland. Can also be heard about 1:24 in (0723) at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

"The Bog Shaman: Manchán on Moriarty" an Irish RTE broadcast where the recently late Manchán Magan rifles through the audio recordings of the poet and writer John Moriarty. I met Manchán at St Ethelburgas in London in June. We deeply hit it off. A sad, early passing. www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Pope Leo on the “martyrs for dialogue, who stood against violence and hatred… Dialogue is not a tactic or a tool, but it's a way of life – a journey of the heart that transforms everyone involved, the one who listens and the one who speaks.” www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

Claim: “In the broad sweep of land reform history, this Bill marks a watershed moment” says minister Mairi Gougeon. More like a platitudinous trickle: see andywightman.scot/2025/10/stag... Timid and disappointing stuff from @snp.org and @scottishgreens.org www.heraldscotland.com/politics/hol...

Pope Leo to Jubilee of Education: “Today, we have become experts in the smallest details of reality, yet we have lost the capability of an overarching vision that integrates things through a deeper and greater meaning.” www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

The problem with Scottish Greens nailed by Hassan: “The party’s trajectory in recent times has seen it over-identify with the most enthusiastic part of the electorate which is pro-Green – the student vote.” Won’t regain my vote ‘til folk they’ve ejected can come back. gerryhassan.com/blog/can-the...

"I have never once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit" - John Knox. Now we know why.

Prof Henry Maitles: “As a Scottish, Glaswegian Jew who has been on many of these marches, sometimes as part of a bloc under a loose heading of “Scottish Jews stand with Palestine”, I’ve found no hostility whatsoever towards me or indeed any Jewish people.” www.thenational.scot/politics/255...

Liberation theology: “Pope Leo XIV said popular movements grow out of the peripheries of society, so as to seek justice and find solutions for people dominated by unjust systems.” In the “poor Church for the poor … Jesus has hidden His face in that of the poor.” www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

Literally, “whistle blowing” in the face of Trump’s America. www.reuters.com/world/us/how...

This free event on prison reform, based on insights from the Barlinne Special Unit, is TODAY (Wed) at 3.30 in Glasgow, by Ibrox subway.

If right to roam legislation is not enforced, there is a risk that people out walking in the countryside might start carrying the means to ensure that it is. Who needs big game trophy hunting, when you’ve got “No Entry” signs?

Last call for this tomorrow (Wednesday 22nd) on the Barlinnie Special Unit (prison reform) at the GalGael Trust, 15 Fairlie St, near Ibrox subway station Glasgow. 3.30 prompt with speakers Mike Nellis (criminologist), Karyn McCluskey (Community Justice), Sara Trevelyan (therapist) & Livi of GalGael.

“While Taft-Hartley’s restrictions make it all but impossible for labor unions to orchestrate anything akin to a national general strike, it does not dictate how grassroots activists and coalitions could organize, as long as those efforts do not include the help of legally-recognized labor unions.”

And that was ... "a good thing". (because betting shops exploit the hopes of poor people) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’m glad that someone somewhere in the world is still talking like this. @johnswinney.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

AOC: And they are able to radicalize a generation of young boys in particular, away from healthy masculinity and into an insecure masculinity that requires the domination of others who are poorer, browner, darker, or a different gender than them.

Neil Mackay on the SNP from a progressive position: “They’re the only party which seems to care about the poor — and that’s my driving motivation: to see the lives of the poor improve. The Scottish Child Payment remains an admirable piece of legislation.” www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...

“Scotland’s land is owned by the few—and the Government is letting it happen…. “And why? Because land is power.” www.heraldscotland.com/politics/hol...

My thoughts on the seasons of life broadcast this morning @alastairmci.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Pope Leo’s first ‘exhortation’ is on poverty: “The document’s apparent commendation of aspects of liberation theology … may cause conflict with some conservative Roman Catholics, as well as with governments committed to vigorous free-market economies.” www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

"We're definitely going to build a bunker before we release Artificial General Intelligence," he's widely reported to have said, though it's unclear who he meant by "we".” Hiding in their bunkers, they cannot see what a human being is, never mind the fullness that constitutes “intelligence”.

#StormAmy boomerang loop of #Meteosat12 #MTG water vapour 6.2micron channel imagery over 36h (3-4 Oct 2025) shows extent & expansion of deep dry air intrusion, before being spun majestically around the record-breaking deep cyclone centre #VorticityInAction

I would go if I could, this last minute availability on Iona may suit someone

There is "limited availabity" for the Festival of Writing and Storytelling with the @ionacommunity at Iona Abbey for the week 11 - 17 Oct (due to a late group cancellation). £846 full board, and £423 concessions. I'll be present, alongside 4 women authors: iona.org.uk/event/festiv...

1/2 Unsurprising: “In a new study, led by the James Hutton Institute (JHI) scientists found after 25 years, the carbon stored in trees … did not outweigh the carbon lost from the disturbed soil in the growing process, leading to no net carbon capture.” app.scotsman.com/story/534298...

My solidarity with Jewish friends both known & unknown on this terrifying day for their community. The atrocity in Manchester can only reactivate fears that have inhuman historical roots. Let us end all spirals of violence: “neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4) ✡️🙏🏼

Many of the men and women in the first generations of the Religious Society of Friends spent time imprisoned for challenging the intertwined religious and political power structures of England. When you take on the world’s ruling powers, persecution comes with the job. quaker.org/2025/09/29/s...

Quakers have a well-loved phrase "Think it possible that you may be mistaken" A great phrase to have as Thought for the Day. How many of the certainties of my young self have I since rejected and how many now will I change in the future? Surely that is healthy in that I can learn and change my mind?

What fun on today's Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Scotland to have gently subverted World Quaker Week with a tale of fish and the legendary Scrappy Mick of the @GalGael Trust. Text below and a photo of Mick from 2017, or listen to an MP3 recording at: tinyurl.com/b2hhc99f

I’ll be on Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Scotland tomorrow (Tuesday) at about 0720 on the mackerel fishing season, a terrible tangle, and for World Quaker Week, how Scrappy Mick taught me to “think it possible that you might be mistaken”. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

This is Full Force Facism. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On the #BritCard, First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neil tweets: "The British Prime Minister’s proposal for a mandatory digital ID card is ludicrous and ill-thought out. This proposal is an attack on the Good Friday Agreement and on the rights of Irish citizens in the North of Ireland"

Centre for Human Ecology alumnus Adam Weymouth: “Ten years ago I walked across Scotland, beginning on an estate attempting to reintroduce wolves, & finishing where Scotland's last wolf is reputed to have been shot, in 1680. Along the way I spoke with gamekeepers, hikers, conservationists & farmers…”

Ocean acidification, caused by carbon emissions from fossil fuels, has exceeded safe levels, hindering the ability of shellfish and corals to develop, impacting fisheries and the ocean's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, thereby exacerbating global warming. www.cbc.ca/news/climate...

I'm giving a keynote lecture at 2 pm (UK) on Fri 3 Oct to the annual gathering of Quakers Uniting in Publications on "Depth and Discernment in Spiritual Writing". Focussed mainly on my titles with @BirlinnBooks. Other speakers too - full programme and Zoom registration at www.quakerquip.com

Grateful to publisher Hugh Andrew @birlinn.bsky.social for drawing my attention to Cavafy's poem "Waiting for the Barbarians" (1904): www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51294/.... Who are we going to blame when the barbarians don't turn up, and we have to withdraw our projections, and look at ourselves?

patthomson.net/2025/09/12/w... #academicsky #academicchatter #educationsky #academicresearch #research #highereducation

ScotRail’s train service, *renationalised* in 2022 by the Scottish Government, has the lowest cancellation level in the UK - just 2% compared with a UK average of 3.3%. That means a train elsewhere in the UK is +65% more likely to be cancelled. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Back in the noughties, when climate change denial became a thing with influencers averse to social regulation denying that it was happening, who would have thought that 20 years later we'd be seeing them having to look at re-framing the Olympics to adapt? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athlet...

Such a fine, moving & humanising homily from Fr Adrian Porter SJ—on ‘unrighteous wealth’ in today’s Gospel of Luke. BBCRadio4 Sunday Worship. Against the liturgical backdrop provided by St Aloysius, Glasgow, Schola Cantorum www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Ilan Volkov, the Israeli-born conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has been arrested by the Israeli police near the Gaza border for protesting the genocide against the Palestinians. www.thenational.scot/news/2548227...

As well as her association with the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC) which promoted sustainable development, Eleanor was a regular visitor to us at the Centre for Human Ecology in Edinburgh Uni where she’d bound in with gallons of cheery can-do energy. www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/...

Schmidt, on rising sea levels: “Here we go again. An obscure, methodologically poor, paper … gets … elevated into supposedly ‘blockbusting’ science by the merchants of bullshit, sorry, doubt. Actual scientists drop everything to respond, but not before the (convenient) nonsense has spread widely.”

Arrogant and Inept, Sir Keir Starmer's Hubris is Blowing Up in his Face: #UKPolitics #LateStarmerism

William Blake as a case study, in my post for @The Culturist. What made his genius? His “spiritual friends”, he said: supernatural inspiration - the only kind of inspiration there is. www.theculturist.io/p/what-makes...