A tribute to my late friend Gareth Smyth – I should have chased him up sooner How many unanswered emails should it take to prompt a proof-of-life Google query? In my case, it was two – albeit a year apart. …
Originally published in The Sunday Times Scotland, 24 September 2006 Outdoor swimming may be choppy, cold and sometimes scary, but once you get used to not being able to see the bottom it is intoxicating. And right now the sport …
A seaside postcard Surveying the seafront at Margate from the window of a barrel sauna, the juxtapositions are striking. Fishing boats bob beneath Turner Contemporary’s elegant sheds. Flamingo Amusements and adjacent Weatherspoon entice one market niche, Wayne Hemmingway’s reimagined Dreamland …
The journalists’ union’s Delegate Meeting in Blackpool The NUJ’s incoming general secretary, Laura Davison, painted an upbeat picture of her first few months at the helm. She told the union’s biannual Delegate Meeting (DM) of new recognition agreements – most …
As the Atlantic alliance falters, recalling the Normandy landings is all the more poignant On 6 June 1944 Private Francis McKinney from North Carolina stepped off the Castletown dock, in Portland, Dorset. With four crew mates, he boarded an amphibious …
A new age of steam brings rejuvenation by the barrel load The rush of scalding vapour is too hot for me to breathe. My ears might be on fire. Airborne moisture swirls so thick that it occludes my view over …
Index on Censorship’s event in Dublin, Ireland, brought together lawyers, journalists and victims of legal bullying to discuss the implementation of the EU’s Anti-SLAPP directive, deformation law reform in Ireland and the campaign to free journalists from judicial interference. Malachi …
Report from #ConnectingEU2025 “Voices from the terrible past are rising around Europe,” were almost the first words uttered at the European Economic and Social Committee’s (EESC) ‘Connecting EU’ Seminar. Several further speakers repeated that precise phrase during the course of …
After four days strategising with the leaders of southern Africa’s journalists’ unions in Gaborone, Botswana, a moment’s downtime felt deserved. I picked up a copy of local paper, The Voice, and started to read. By page six the issues facing Africa’s journalists …
Common cause: southern African journalists’ unions join forces Read more »
Belgian motor museum doesn’t fully engage Were Top Trumps reimagined as a visitor attraction, Brussels’ Autoworld would provide a useful template. The attraction showcases 250 historic motor cars in a cavernous nineteenth-century hangar of iron and glass. Explanation, beyond notes …