Gavin Esler
Gavin Esler
Always the media to blame - but it's politicians who are the problem
TO RESTORE faith in the Scottish Parliament and devolved government, according to Professor James Mitchell*, one of the things we require is a "more mature media".
Physicist who crosses the great divide to make you smile
IT’S THE 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s remarkable year - 1905. Exactly a century ago, Einstein - then a young man - produced in rapid succession three scientific papers which transformed the 20th century. Or perhaps the right phrase is that he created the 20th century, and our scientific understanding of it.
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Our world is now in the hands of number-tappers and PINheads
THE new credit card - which I never asked for - arrived through the post, just in time for Christmas.
Photographs, too, paint a thousand words, but which ones to choose?
SOMETIMES there is nothing more important than a photograph. A loved one, especially a child, caught by a photographer in less time than it takes to blink an eye. Perhaps an ancestor.
My pioneering daze with the BBC's very first mobile phone
ONE of my few real claims to historical fame is that I used the first mobile telephone owned by BBC News. It was at the time of the King’s Cross fire in 1987 - a terrible blaze in the London Underground late one evening when I was the most junior of junior reporters on Newsnight. I was sent to the spot and told that to help me I’d be given the latest technology - the BBC mobile phone.
Kenyan woman who is planting the roots of peace in Africa
IF YOU think Edinburgh or Aberdeen is dreich at this time of year, you should try Oslo. I’m flying off there tomorrow - airports and weather permitting - to meet and interview this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Professor Wangari Maathai. The Nobel committee said of her: "She thinks globally and acts locally."
Yes - I could just about squeeze Angelina Jolie into my schedule
THE voice on the phone was that of the producer of an arts and culture programme called Hardtalk Extra on BBC World. "So," he says, enigmatically, "how are you fixed for a week on Monday?"
Warmth and humour - the other side of President Chirac
THE first thing you notice about the Elysée Palace, the home of the French president, Jacques Chirac, is that it manages to be very grand and a bit shabby at the same time. Rather like Buckingham Palace, it is a symbol of a formerly great - formerly imperial - power, a superpower of its day, not quite a superpower any more, where there is a whiff of regretful nostalgia around every corner.
Our drinking culture under Muslim and Arab influence
I AM IN the southern Spanish city of Jerez, sipping ice-cold and very dry sherry. I know, I know. It’s hard work. Anyway, I’ve just been on an exhausting trip around the sherry bodega, so I need a bit of a rest.
John Kerry never learned to press the right religious buttons
IN THE past week you could almost hear the cries of American political disappointment across the Atlantic. The anguish of the Democrats reminds me of the almost proverbial concession speech of a losing candidate in the distant past. He is supposed to have said, generously: "The people have spoken." And then muttered under his breath: "The bastards."
How victory for Kerry could scupper Hillary Clinton's chance
WHOEVER wins today’s US presidential election there is one clear trend: America and Europe are going in separate directions.
Poisoned chalice of leading the UN fight against terrorism
THERE are few jobs more difficult than that of Javier Ruperez. He’s a Spanish diplomat who has become an assistant secretary general at the United Nations. He is also the first-ever chief of counter-terrorism at the UN. What a poisoned chalice, especially in the world after 9/11 and the Iraq war.
Brave new wave of migrants to our land of opportunity
THE man at my friend’s front door had just a few words of English. "I George," he said, pointing at his chest. "I Polish." Then he thought for a second for the right word. "I gardener."
The write way to bring those bloated books down to size
DETERMINED to make my birthday card for a friend look good, I pulled out my favourite nib pen and filled it up with ink. It’s months since I used it. Now I remember why.
Chocolate does sweet nothing for me
‘HERE," the woman said. "Try some of this." I must have looked unenthusiastic. "It’s chocolate," she beamed. "A new recipe." Oh, dear, I thought. I know what it is. But how do you explain to someone that you would rather eat Brussels sprouts or broccoli than chocolate?
So much hatred - but so many Americans still backing Bush
GIVEN the current state of the US economy, America’s fastest-growing industry nowadays is quite possibly hating George Bush and doing so in print. I have lost count of the number of people I have interviewed in recent months who turn out to be George Bush haters of one type or another, or how many books on why America is on the wrong track have been delivered to my door.
US journalists under fire from the Thinking Man's Hollywood
YES, THIS is name- dropping. And the name I’m about to drop is that of Tim Robbins, the actor, writer, director and altogether over-achieving Oscar winner, one of Hollywood’s top box-office stars. He’s also a controversial political figure, which is why I am dropping his name.
All aboard the cattle-truck for a transatlantic flight to forget
DOES anyone remember when air travel was considered glamorous? I do, vaguely. Not exactly the flying boats and BOAC or the heyday of Pan Am, but I do remember my first flight - from Edinburgh (or maybe it was Glasgow) to Belfast.
'Leftie' New York got its money's worth out of the Republicans
I HAVE just returned from New York city after a week or so watching the Republican convention at Madison Square Garden. Three things immediately strike you about Madison Square Garden. It’s nowhere near Madison Avenue or the city of Madison, which is in Wisconsin. It’s not square - it’s circular. And it has nothing to do with any garden. It is, in fact, just part of one of the concrete canyons of New York near the Empire State Building.
Forget about the Olympics - it's time for some speed-reading
THE past few days have been like sitting university finals again. Black coffee. Long days in an armchair reading. The temptation to break rule one of any book-lover by marking the novels I am reading with pencil in the margin. I have enjoyed reading the books - but wish there was not quite so much to do.
- Rangers takeover: Duff & Phelps threaten legal action against BBC
- Family mourn death of Glasgow ‘fight’ schoolboy
- Today’s youth not fit to be employed, says car firm Arnold Clark
- Rangers administration: Fans fear Duff & Phelps claims could scare off Green
- Rangers takeover: triple penalty punishment enough, says Johnston
- Alistair Darling leads ‘No to independence’ fight over tea and biscuits
- Scottish independence: SNP flip-flops over Nato
- Scottish Independence: SNP ‘won’t be Yes campaign’s only voice’
- Today’s youth not fit to be employed, says car firm Arnold Clark
- Scottish independence: ‘People here are best qualified to run Scotland’
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Weather for Edinburgh
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
