Join us for a convivial evening with the scribes of Leith. https://t.co/H00Be3uSEI Presentations from contributors to The Darting Salamander, and live music.

Writers of Leith: sharpen your quill, dust off your keyboard. Put your piece in to the second edition of Leith Writings https://t.co/vCz6ej16Iu The theme this year is Leith links... plenty of scope there to get creative. We're aiming even higher than The Darting Salamander.

Certainly the most disgraceful statement I've ever heard from a Prime Minister and one of the most effective responses I've ever heard from a leader of the Opposition.Tone all important PM getting it catastrophically wrong KS pitch perfect right reducing Tory benches to silence.

The 2021-22 Scottish Budget will be debated in the Scottish Parliament today. It will mean devastating cuts to services we rely on and they won't even acknowledge that. Enough is enough.

The state of Scotland at the dawn of 2022. Let's party tonight the best we may, but we're not in a good state.

@parlaywithpad On track (or on the tracks) for a 🎄 arrival to Pádraig Station 🚉 🤝 It's been a slow-burner (the best kind for biography pieces), and it's been a "Top Book", @TSpotting_Tim 🙏 I'm hoping to get a first-hand tour experience next year when I (again, hopefully) go to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@TSpotting_Tim Thanks so much for making such great book, Tim. 'Fred's story is equally incredible, what a human experience. I loved the the publisher piece on the @LuathPress website, such a stunning moment when Irvine himself joins you guys for a read in the pub 🙂

Everybody's asking "What about the Irish in Leith?" And here's the answer, and guess what, Trainspotting comes into the conversation. Not because I always talk about Trainspotting, but because the Irish come into Trainspotting. A lot.

And while I'm on, no Leither should be without The Darting Salamander. Read online or ask for a hard copy:

It was Harry Gibson (the play) and Danny Boyle (the film) who took Welsh's Trainspotting away from Leith. It all took off from there, but we need to bring it back to its roots.

Illegal drug-related deaths in Scotland and turmoil in Afghanistan are directly linked. Scroll to my letter in today's Herald:

The "War on Drugs" isn't a war at all, it's a business. Excessive Scottish drugs-related deaths are a consequence of denial:

They came to clean up the street! See what my MSP and councillors have to say about it:

From Holyrood to the City Chambers, the SNP have to own this. Unable to vary Council Tax bands, and for three consecutive years with the lowest per capita settlement of Scotland's major cities, Edinburgh Council can't maintain its own infrastructure in a Conservation Area.

Leith writers need a wee bit of support to get a book out:

An introduction to Leith history 1920-2020 https://t.co/RnU1SG1AGF goes live 1300 hrs Friday. Reactions welcome!

On May Day five years ago a bandstand on the line of the demolished Wall, with a banner ZEIT FUR MEHR SOLIDARITAT, TIME FOR MORE SOLIDARITY. Germans (and Irish) know the truth of it from experience. Scots should take note. A divided mainland Britain will never be happy.

In the event of Scotland separating itself from its biggest trading partner which would inevitably incur a major economic hit and create currency turmoil, and with no certainty at all when, or on what terms Scotland would join the EU, when will the green revolution begin?

Between the SNP and Alex Salmond, the only way is down. https://t.co/z8Ofge9XxH We deserve better.

The tide is going out for SNP. But it will probably remain as a dead hand on Scottish politics for a long time. See my letter https://t.co/8h5n5Rw9hF fourth from the top of the page.