HeraldScotland

Profile: Mark Smith

HeraldScotland:

Feature Writer

I write features, reviews, and comment.

Latest articles from Mark Smith

Shirley Williams, photographed by Martin Shields at the Aye Write festival, Glasgow, in 2011

Obituary: Baroness Williams of Crosby, one of the ‘Gang of Four’ that launched the SDP

Born: July 27, 1930;
FNicola Sturgeon visits Whitelee Wind Farm during campaigning

Mark Smith: I totally understand why people are voting for the SNP

I THINK it was Thumper the rabbit who once said that “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say nothing at all”, but perhaps Patrick Harvie hasn’t seen Bambi. The co-leader of the Scottish Greens, apparently feeling the pressure to comment on Prince Philip, said: “we recognise that the passing will be felt deeply by some across the country and express our sympathies with his family, who join many others who have lost loved ones in this last year.” How reluctant. How mean. He should

79 Comment
Scottish Transport Minister Humza Yousaf makes an emergency statement at Holyrood wednesday.Pic Gordon Terris/The Herald.20/11/16.

THE BIG READ: Is there still a case for Scotland's controversial Not Proven verdict?

Imagine you are accused of a serious crime. It goes to court. You’re tried in front of a jury of your peers. The verdict is in. Not Proven. What happens next? Is it the same as Not Guilty? And if not, in what way is it different? Did the jury believe you? Or do they still have their doubts? And how will the verdict be seen by your friends and family, your employer, the wider world: what will they think of it all? What does the Not Proven verdict actually mean?

12 Comment
Stone of Destiny at Royal Mile

The Stone of Destiny and a prophecy that may yet come true again

The alarm was raised early on Boxing Day. Police patrol cars were ordered to be on the look-out for a Ford Anglia saloon, which was last seen at 5.15am; the car’s occupants were thought to be a man and a woman “said to have Scottish accents”.

24 Comment
Rosemount Viaduct in Aberdeen

Mark Smith: Cheap, bleak, and empty: Who on earth will save my home town now?

Every time I return to my home town, I return to somewhere different. Sometimes it’s the bulldozers and cranes that have done it. Sometimes it’s the dreaded council with one of their “plans”. Sometimes it’s progress, and sometimes – worst of all – it’s decay. Can I stop it? No. Can someone do better? I hope so.

2 Comment
A Union flag, a Saltire flag and an European Union flag fly outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh

Mark Smith: What an icon of Scottish nationalism told me about the election. But can he be right?

I WAS talking the other day to Ian Hamilton, the Scottish nationalist who helped take the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey in the 1950s and someone who I think you could fairly call an icon, a high-celebrity of nationalism, so, naturally, I took the opportunity to ask him how he would be voting in May: SNP or Alba? He hadn’t decided yet, he said. But it was something else he told me that was really interesting: how he votes doesn’t matter.

58 Comment
When will theatres return to normal?

Mark Smith: Let theatres open, but only when they can be normal

I WISH it could be 2019 again. I got the last ticket. The place was packed. People to the right of me, people to the left. Noisy. Raucous. Nine hundred souls, all in the same room. The curtain goes up. Gillian Anderson. Red hair, red dress, red shoes. “Fasten your seatbelts,” she says to us. “It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

1 Comment
Nicola Sturgeon Picture: Gordon Terris

Mark Smith: What on earth does the last few days mean for the unionist cause?

This last week in Scottish politics has been a bit like a binge on Netflix: lots of cliff-hangers one after the other. First, an inquiry said Nicola Sturgeon was not guilty. Then another inquiry said she was guilty after all. Then the First Minister faced a vote of no-confidence. Then a former first minister launched a new party, and two MPs defected to it. Who’s writing this stuff? Jed Mercurio?

12 Comment
Clap for carers

Mark Smith: Covid Memorial Day is not a good idea – and here's why

I KNOW you might think ‘dear God, not another opinion poll’, but let me tell you what YouGov did this week. They asked more than 5,000 British adults whether there should be an annual Covid Memorial Day and 38% said there should be and 45% said there shouldn’t. That’s 45% of the British population I can agree with. Covid Memorial Day is not a good idea.

Ian Greig

Obituary: Ian Greig, Royal Navy telegraphist who was badly injured in D-Day landing

Born: November 12, 1923;