Jack Schofield

MY heart was beating as if it were trying to escape my body. My mind was racing and hands shaking. All from what would usually be the comfort of the sofa. Was I ready? Ready as I’ll ever be, I told myself. I was standing at the greatest watershed moment of my life and was acutely aware of it. I was about to come out publicly as gay to more or less everyone I knew, all at once, through a post on Facebook.

It was that time of year again, when in the depths of (an unseasonably mild) winter, we remembered the nation’s bard on his birthday. As an Englishman now in my last week before moving south of the Border again, it was a golden opportunity for immersion into the culture and history of my beloved adoptive home.

I would like to make a plea to older voters: consider lending your vote – not to this party or that party – but to young people.

I would like to make a plea to older voters: consider lending your vote – not to this party or that party – but to young people. There is a generational divide and it has worsened in recent years. The old are being pitted against the young when we talk about Brexit and election outcomes. And we can see why: the polls show voting patterns vary significantly between the generations. It is a divide we need to heal but that simply is not going to happen if Brexit comes to pass, particularly this

Last year, November began with World Vegan Day.

A scar of bitterness runs through Europe’s heart as Germany’s east continues to lag behind its west. But the wall that caused it is gone and for all who bore witness in Berlin and the world over, the unbridled joy of that turning-point knows no equal.

ENGLISH voters in Scotland are assumed to oppose independence. This may well be true of a majority, but I suspect many English-raised Brits who have chosen to make Scotland their home – or who like me have made their way here by some lucky accident – sympathise decidedly with the Yes camp.