‘If you want to be involved as a volunteer in this youth group, you must reach such and such average mark at school’ was the message conveyed to a group of teenagers in one of my previous parishes. The bar was set at the beginning of each term. Once after such an announcement, a young man approached me to talk…
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Years ago, a friend of mine asked me to take her cousin on a hill walk to show her the best of the famous Scottish Highlands. I knew she was a capable hillwalker, so I agreed and decided on the Lairig Ghru western ridge, made up of four Munros: Braeriach, Cairn Toul, the Angel’s Peak and the Devil’s Point. The…
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When top football players make headlines, it’s usually for all the wrong reasons. However, most recently we’ve heard quite a lot about a certain Marcus Rashford of Manchester United and England fame. He’s made headlines by appealing to the British government for free meals for the poorest children in England. I’m not going to delve into an ongoing discussion whether…
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Last year a man in London was convicted of using a mobile phone while driving his car. However, he then successfully appealed against the conviction using a loophole. He argued that filming or taking photos while driving does not match the wording in the current legislation, which says it is illegal to use a device “which performs an interactive communication”…
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In less than a month’s time, on 11th November, the country will commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. This tradition was born out of the national trauma of the Great War. The Remembrance Day is a sombre, solemn celebration, inevitably focused at the staggeringly enormous…