Ten years ago, I took part in an introductory weekend course for clergy and religious from abroad who had come to work in Scotland. The main goal of that weekend course was to give us a better understanding of the country, including its historical, cultural, religious and political background. One talk was about the political framework of the UK including…

Over the last 20 years I’ve seen my fair share of weddings, and I’ve attended a good number of wedding parties in Poland as well as here in Scotland. Generally speaking, weddings in both countries look outwardly pretty similar. There is one significant difference, though. In Scotland there are a couple of complimentary drinks provided at the start of the…

The game of statistics is one of the favourite toys of politicians. Statistical data is used by the opposition to expose a government’s shortcomings or downright failures. A government uses statistical data to demonstrate its efficiency in dealing with economic and social challenges. Funnily enough, sometimes both the opposition and the government use the same set of data to support…

In recent weeks the gender pay gap has been in the news, particularly after the BBC was forced to publish the salaries of its employees earning over £150,000 a year. Another pay gap, coming to the fore from time to time, is that between the highest and the lowest earners in the country. On average, a FTSE 100 CEO earns…

  ‘Honesty is the best policy… unless you want people to like you’. This one-liner sums up perfectly the difficulty of taking on board Jesus’ call from today’s gospel. Generally speaking, we usually prefer to guard our silence or to tell a little white lie instead of telling the honest but unpleasant truth. Life itself is difficult enough without creating…