by tim_bell | Dec 26, 2017 | Latest News
Greetings from Leith at the turn of the year. For several years now I have been saying that publication of my book should happen in the year ahead; although it has become slightly embarrassing to be wrong so often, I don’t mind the delay so much because the...
by tim_bell | Nov 30, 2017 | Latest News
Another opportunity to celebrate all things Scottish. This year there’s a serious attempt to reclaim the flag – the Saltire – from the separatists and the SNP. St Andrew was crucified on a diagonal cross, poor chap, and was buried. Later, when the...
by tim_bell | Sep 30, 2017 | Latest News
It’s been an interesting month. Oh yes. Maybe you can’t imagine how much fun it has been going through every page of my copy, looking for the absolutely correct way to give a page reference. It has to be exactly this: (p.67) Indentation of paragraphs, too....
by tim_bell | Aug 28, 2017 | Latest News
The SNP doesn’t shut up when we don’t need to hear from them (“SNP warns disastrous ‘no deal’ on Brexit must be ruled out” screams today’s Herald headline: REALLY? the rest of us yawn) but we don’t hear anything from...
by tim_bell | Aug 14, 2017 | Latest News
A jolly good time was had by all as Irvine Welsh and Ewen Bremner came to Leith Theatre to supplement a showing of Trainspotting last week. Read all about it in the Edinburgh Evening News. £20 a pop, no shy they c***s, till you realise it was a fundraiser for the...
by tim_bell | Jul 24, 2017 | Latest News
I’m still at it, plugging away at one of the great sticking-points in Scottish political discourse: is a referendum a valid or sensible means of coming to a decision on constitutional matters? Only opportunists and gamblers with nothing to lose seem to think it...
by tim_bell | Jun 23, 2017 | Latest News
I was slightly surprised when The Herald got back to me yesterday within an hour or so of me speculatively submitting a piece for their Agenda column. They published it today (click here) having changed it a little bit. They omitted my title, leaving it to suggest...
by tim_bell | Jun 22, 2017 | Latest News
I shouldn’t have been so dismissive of the changes afoot at no 58 Constitution Street. I understood it was to made into some sort of cafe, the like of which there is no shortage in the area. But no, dear reader, it has been restored as a pub, under new...
by tim_bell | May 29, 2017 | Latest News
What a month it’s been! Nothing much has happened except the Port o’ Leith pub is no more. Known in it’s early years as the Dockers’ Bank – they deposited their money there on Friday nights – and the Sailors’ Bank – any...
by tim_bell | Apr 28, 2017 | Latest News
I went to see Ben MacPherson, my SNP MSP, and a very dispiriting experience it was. Here is my follow-up letter to him, updated since it was sent and slightly altered. There has been no reply. Dear Ben, Thank you for seeing me yesterday afternoon. I’m sorry I was a...
