Scotland

I was petrified of the power of the Great Monition, the most terrifying curse of them all

26 September 2015 8:00 am

   Laikipia A lion has just mauled and partially eaten a warrior who tried to throw a spear in my…

Herring girls had to wash their hair six times on a Saturday night to rinse out the smell

The current scarcity of herring may itself be a red herring

19 September 2015 8:00 am

Fish stories come in two varieties: the micro-version of a hundred riverside bars, blokeish boastings of rod-and-line tussles with individual…

Max Hastings’s diary: How sporting tourists play into Nicola Sturgeon’s hands

12 September 2015 9:00 am

During our annual odyssey around the Scottish Highlands, I read Tears of the Rajas, Ferdinand Mount’s eloquent indictment of imperial…

Tristram Hunt’s diary: The rainy glories of Devon – and a cold political climate

5 September 2015 9:00 am

‘Devon, Devon, Devon/ Where it rains six days out of seven.’ Nothing beats a British seaside holiday. And north Devon…

Where comics find their Edinburgh comfort food

5 September 2015 9:00 am

Mum’s, or to use its full title, Mum’s Great Comfort Food, is a restaurant in Edinburgh designed to soothe itinerant…

Andrew Marr’s diary: The summer of Corbyn — and other things we didn’t see coming

22 August 2015 9:00 am

This is the Corbyn summer. From the perspective of a short holiday, my overwhelming feeling is one of despair at…

Look homeward, angel: Glasgow Necropolis

The graveyard where old Glasgow lives on

1 August 2015 9:00 am

A wet walk in a Glaswegian graveyard might not be your idea of fun, but then you might not have…

Charles Moore’s Notes: people who love making new laws like to present them as human rights

30 May 2015 9:00 am

Amnesty International and others have placed a large newspaper advertisement telling Michael Gove ‘Don’t Scrap Our Human Rights’. The ad…

Should we fear a Mugabe-style land grab in rural Scotland?

23 May 2015 9:00 am

Are estate owners to be nationalised?

How Spain got blamed for the Spanish flu — and where to find Ebola on a map

16 May 2015 9:00 am

Plagued by stigma The World Health Organisation told doctors to stop naming diseases after people, places and animals so as…

James Runcie’s diary: A Willie’s shock at the SNP

9 May 2015 9:00 am

I am writing a play about Dr Johnson and his Dictionary. It will be performed in Scotland later this year.…

Ruth Davidson: on the campaign trail with Scotland’s top Tory

9 May 2015 9:00 am

Scotland’s top Tory is a moderniser’s dream

The year that Scotland learned to hate

9 May 2015 9:00 am

If the SNP isn't about Scottish purity and hating the English, why do so many of its supporters behave as if it is?

John Knox (Photo: Getty)

John Knox: like the blast of 500 trumpets

2 May 2015 9:00 am

John Knox, Cranmer complained, was ‘one of those unquiet spirits, which can like nothing but that is after their own…

A clear-eyed account of socialism: Paul Higgins and Stella Gonet in ‘Hope’ at the Royal Court

If you thought politics was boring, you should check out today’s political theatre

2 May 2015 9:00 am

How has political theatre fared during the coalition? Not very well, writes Lloyd Evans

What happens to politicians who insult the audience? Ask Dan Quayle

25 April 2015 9:00 am

Any answers? Nigel Farage accused the audience in the BBC opposition leaders’ debate of being left-wing. Need insulting an audience…

Spectator letters: England’s defining myth, and another forgotten genocide

25 April 2015 9:00 am

Enemies within Sir: I thought Matthew Parris was typically incisive in his last column, but perhaps not quite as much…

Scotland knows the power of a common enemy. We English don’t

18 April 2015 9:00 am

When last Sunday Pope Francis took the brave step of acknowledging the Armenian tragedy as the ‘first genocide of the…

The SNP has replaced the Church of Scotland

18 April 2015 9:00 am

The great SNP revival, and why it’s impervious to reason

Do Scots really die that much younger?

11 April 2015 9:00 am

The Scottish way of death Nicola Sturgeon said the SNP would block a rise in the state pension age on…

A Scottish revolution is coming, and everyone’s losing their heads

11 April 2015 9:00 am

Normally, if a candidate whose party came fourth in a constituency last time tells you they’re going to win, you…

Danny Alexander’s diary: Trying to put an undercover reporter at ease, and the unicorn poop question

21 March 2015 9:00 am

It’s dangerous, in my line of work, to promise you’ll be anywhere by 8 p.m. I made this mistake recently,…

The real threat to Britain (and it’s not the SNP)

21 March 2015 9:00 am

What a load of mendacious balls everybody talks about Scotland. It’s like a disease. It’s like, you know how they…

My plan for Question Time: mug up and fail anyway

7 March 2015 9:00 am

I was invited on Question Time this week, which gave me a few sleepless nights. Natalie Bennett’s disastrous interview on…

Immigration, not money, will improve Scotland's most deprived schools

14 February 2015 9:00 am

I suppose we should be thankful that Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged there’s a problem with Scotland’s public education system, even…