Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh

IT is great to start off an article on the Middle East on a positive note. On Friday, we learned that the father and mother of Councillor Nadia El-Nakla – the parents in law of First Minister Humza Yousaf – had safely made it out of Gaza and yesterday they arrived back

THIS is my last column for this newspaper and it will not be about Scotland – at least not directly. It is a sign of the insularity of the Scottish political commentariat and the inadequacy of the mainstream media that there has been hardly a solitary word about what the new Northern Ireland deal really means for Scotland.

WELL, that’s the leadership campaign off on a rocky road. If it carries on like this, then SNP members will be in for a bumpy ride and the mainstream media will have a bun feast.

IN 1964, with the Cold War at its height, film maker Stanley Kubrick teamed up with the genius actor Peter Sellers to produce the satirical classic

ENGLAND decapitated Charles I in 1649. Almost 400 years later, Australia have found their own way to do it to Charles III – by deciding that his head will not appear on their new fiver.

TODAY, Neale Hanvey will rise in the House of Commons to propose the Scottish Sovereignty Bill.

A NUMBER of years ago, the BBC outpost in Scotland broadcast a cracking programme on Burns entitled Rabbie’s Bairns.

THERE is a apocryphal story about Barra for which I am grateful to the MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar. It concerns an American tourist searching for his ancestral roots, or perhaps a stray surviving bottle or two from the SS Politician.

SO, 1066 and all that. That was the last time William and Harry faced-off for the throne of England. The difference this time round is that, at least at this stage in the battle, it is William who is getting one in the eye.

IT will not be the greatest shock of 2023 thus far for National readers to find out that I shall not be ordering my advance copy of Spare.