Well done indeed to Douglas Stuart and winning the Booker Prize with Shuggie Bain. I haven't read it yet, but I will. From what I gather, the setting is very similar to the setting in Trainspotting: crap housing scheme, poverty, and the arrival of heroin. In both...

It's very noticeable that nobody - that's nobody - seriously makes the case for settling the "independence" discussion by means of a referendum. Our voting system is designed to elect named, accountable people for office for a fixed term. It is not designed to vote...

A couple of days after the third tipping point of the year - the autumn equinox - there's an unprecedented number of runner beans still on the stem and there for the picking. I've never seen the likes. Does it foretell a cold winter? Is it consolation for a summer...