NOTHING prepares you for your first taste of live, close-up speedway in the raw. You’d watched it as a child on Saturday afternoons on BBC’s Grandstand, or was it ITV’s World of Sport? And you’d been thrilled by some of the crashes, then awestruck when these shilpit, young lads with a bantam-weight’s build had walked away unaided.
Kevin McKenna takes to the streets of Glasgow, breathes in the clean air and hears from local people on the opening day of Scotland's first Low Emission Zone.
I FIRST read TS Eliot’s The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock when I was 18 and immediately felt terrorised by it.
I WAS pleased the other week to be invited to join the panel of Debate Night, BBC Scotland’s weekly political discussion programme. I’ve participated in a couple of these shows, which are always expertly and judiciously chaired by
'In Scotland, there is a knowledge of politics and current affairs that goes well beyond the political bubble'
THE old man desired only to step aboard the ship that had brought him so much comfort in his life. Wheelchair-bound now and breathing with the aid of an oxygen bottle he needed to make one last journey on the PS Waverley, the last seagoing paddle-steamer in the world.
THE wider Yes movement should be celebrating Joanna Cherry’s victory over The Stand Comedy Club in her fight to be heard. This goes beyond issues around free speech and the cancel culture which has begun to settle – like a blight – upon civic Scotland. Quite simply, the Scottish public need to be reminded that there still exist within the SNP eloquent and grown-up politicians who aren’t in thrall to a mob of misogynists.
“Ask him about AC/DC,” my friend had said when I told him I was about to interview the actor, James Cosmo.
TO the basement of Blackfriars tavern in Glasgow’s Merchant City where a group of women have gathered after last Saturday’s big independence march. Among them are women who have spent most of their adult lives campaigning for an independent Scotland.
IN the austere chapel of HM Prison Barlinnie the most inspiring musical experience of my life is also touching the hearts of 80 inmates. Three of their own are belting through a six-song set and boisterous bravado is soon replaced by something softer.
