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Mark Smith

Mark Smith

Herald Scotland

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Mark Smith: The strange case of the Scots who can’t get enough of Donald Trump

Mark Smith: The strange case of the Scots who can’t get enough of Donald Trump

An opinion poll suggests most Scots have a negative opinion about Donald Trump, surprise surprise. It also suggests Trump is less popular among the...

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Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: CCTV in Glasgow is dying. Could that be a good thing?

Mark Smith: CCTV in Glasgow is dying. Could that be a good thing?

Next time you’re strolling through Glasgow and spot a CCTV camera, why not give a cheery wave in case there’s someone on the other end watching...

04.03.2025 8

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Scotland's next new railway line just got a little bit closer

Mark Smith: Scotland's next new railway line just got a little bit closer

Summer last year, beautiful sunny day, and I’m on a train with John Swinney and not just any train either. It’s the first train on the newly...

02.03.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Free transport for everyone in Glasgow. Enough is enough

Mark Smith: Free transport for everyone in Glasgow. Enough is enough

I was at the pub with some chums recently and we know how to have a fun night so were talking about the provision of bus services in Glasgow. It...

25.02.2025 8

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Brace yourself for the Clyde Tunnel toll – but some of us won't pay it

Mark Smith: Brace yourself for the Clyde Tunnel toll – but some of us won't pay it

Okay, so we know now that the council tax in Glasgow is going up by 7.5% and we know the effect and we know the reason. The effect is some folk will...

23.02.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Glasgow’s busted budget: was there really ‘no other way’?

Mark Smith: Glasgow’s busted budget: was there really ‘no other way’?

Glasgow City Council’s budget for 2025/26 will be set this week and it will be done amid the ruins of the budget for 2024/25. The council has...

18.02.2025 4

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The New Nasty: When did lefties become so vile? It was Theresa May who worried, some 20 years ago, that the Tories were becoming the “nasty party”, but let me tell you about a few of the things left-wingers have said to me lately. Let me also show you what some of the so-called progressives, the nice ones, have said, in public and private, openly and secretly. Then let me ask you a question: who’s nasty now?

Mark Smith: The New Nasty: When did lefties become so vile? It was Theresa May who worried, some 20 years ago, that the Tories were becoming the “nasty party”, but let me tell you about a few of the things left-wingers have said to me lately. Let me also show you what some of the so-called progressives, the nice ones, have said, in public and private, openly and secretly. Then let me ask you a question: who’s nasty now?

It was Theresa May who worried, some 20 years ago, that the Tories were becoming the “nasty party”, but let me tell you about a few of the things...

16.02.2025 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Barlinnie: the billion-pound price tag isn’t the real problem

We were told this week that the cost of the replacement for Barlinnie will now be £998.4m, but we’re not fooled. We know supermarkets price things...

11.02.2025 6

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

The Guardian view on violence against women: put victims and survivors first

09.02.2025 8

The Guardian

Mark Smith

The Guardian view on interest rates: the Bank of England on its own won’t revive growth

09.02.2025 8

The Guardian

Mark Smith

I saw illegality and complicity with war crimes. That’s why I quit the UK Foreign Office

09.02.2025 20

The Guardian

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: 'A new George Square:' how the M8 cap would actually work

You may have seen my piece the other day about a cap over the M8; lots of people told me they support the idea, but the day after the piece was...

09.02.2025 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Dear God, what have they done to this grand old street?

I knew it was bad but not this bad. It’s early afternoon, about 1.30pm, and I’m standing in the middle of the road to take a picture. I can stand...

04.02.2025 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Happy birthday Glasgow. I love you (despite you know what) People sometimes accuse me of being negative about Glasgow when I talk about the state of the streets and the litter and the ruined buildings and all the rest of it. But you know what it’s like: when you love someone, or something, you can see the faults as well as the strengths because you’re close-up and that’s certainly true of Glasgow and me. So Glasgow: I know you, and I love you.

People sometimes accuse me of being negative about Glasgow when I talk about the state of the streets and the litter and the ruined buildings and all...

02.02.2025 7

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: A trip to WH Smith Sauchiehall Street. So this is where we are now is it?

It was Tom Baker, the greatest Doctor Who, who said that going into WH Smith makes you want to open a vein and I know how he feels. Sunday morning....

28.01.2025 2

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Thank you, Tim. Why the Wetherspoons Effect has been good for us

You may be getting a little tired right now of loud opinionated male millionaires throwing their weight around but they can be right sometimes. One...

26.01.2025 6

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Rejoin! The slogan that proves the SNP hasn't learned a thing

People of Scotland, prepare to be addressed by your First Minister. Mr Swinney will speak to us on Wednesday and will lay out his vision for the years...

21.01.2025 5

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Listen to Lisa at the bus-stop – why Reform is rising in Scotland

The Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr has defected from the Tories to Reform and I’m thinking about the time I walked down Shettleston Road with Mr...

19.01.2025 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The fate of this building is a warning. Now we need change

You know the score: building is neglected, building deteriorates, building goes on fire (probably), building is pulled down, building is gone for...

14.01.2025 6

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: ‘Do not approach’: time to get real about the illegal release of the lynx

Reports of big cats prowling round the British countryside usually turn out to be domestic moggies who’ve had a few too many Lick-E-Lix Salmon...

12.01.2025 5

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The Loo Rule: a quick way-out of Scotland’s toilet crisis

Let me do you a list. The one across from my flat. The one at the end of the street where I used to live. The one near my old office. The one on...

07.01.2025 2

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Prisoners versus patients. This is not the way to do it I had reason to eat hospital food recently. Round and round the canteen I went looking for something that wasn’t fried or processed or boiled to death and the best I could manage was a banana on the point of expiry so I sat and chewed at it disconsolately in a room with the cheery atmosphere of a budget hotel on an industrial estate off a motorway slip road and wondered to myself what the point of life might be.

I had reason to eat hospital food recently. Round and round the canteen I went looking for something that wasn’t fried or processed or boiled to...

05.01.2025 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Rats on the rise – Glasgow needs a new approach

A friend tells me about the rat he saw in his garden. “It was as big as a rabbit!” he says. “With a mean look on its face!” A neighbour tells...

31.12.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: ‘Fighting the forces’: a final bit of cheek from Nicola Sturgeon

Sorry to end the year on a downer but Nicola Sturgeon has been talking about how politics has changed and the mysterious forces that are apparently...

29.12.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The lessons of 2024 – and there’s some good news for the SNP

2024: Starmer in, Yousaf out. Energy prices down, energy prices up. More fighting in Ukraine, more fighting in Gaza. An assassin fails in his...

24.12.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Scotland’s XL Bullies: Can we talk about what's really going on?

We have been here before. A woman is attacked by a dog. She is treated at the scene but the medics cannot save her. Her friends and family talk...

22.12.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The idea that could help save Glasgow: Sauchiehall square

Look at it now: girders stripped of stone, gaping windows, doors to nowhere. Every now and then someone stops to take a look but most people are...

17.12.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The case for breaking up the Highlands I was up in Inverness recently stopping people in the street and asking them questions, as you do, and one thing that kept coming up, because I kept asking about it, was what they thought of life in the Highlands. On the whole, they said, it was good; they loved it. But what they didn’t love was the state of the local services and the local council. The big question is: what’s to be done about it?

I was up in Inverness recently stopping people in the street and asking them questions, as you do, and one thing that kept coming up, because I...

15.12.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Red squirrels are on the rise. But the price we’re paying is too high

It’s the borderlands: the moorlands, hills and forests where Ayrshire becomes Galloway and where, in the last year, there have been several...

09.12.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The Elgin Marbles have to be sent back to Greece. But there’s a catch

If you haven’t been to the new Perth Museum yet, do go. Very good. The exhibition about the Stone of Destiny is particularly lively but I remember...

08.12.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Read this book, and weep for what we’ve lost

I met him, once. First impressions: not good. Skin: thin. Self-esteem: high. Self-awareness: low. Saving grace: the odd good one-liner. He said...

02.12.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Shoplifting in Scotland is up by 25%. Who’s really to blame? Shoplifting in Scotland is up 25% in a year and yet the news has created barely a ripple. People walk into shops, they steal, they pinch, they nick, they leave, the authorities appear to do nothing, or virtually nothing, the problem gets worse, and we look up from our phones, or don’t, and say: what do you want me to do about it, it’s how the world works, isn’t it?

Shoplifting in Scotland is up 25% in a year and yet the news has created barely a ripple. People walk into shops, they steal, they pinch, they...

30.11.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The deep-down problem with the plan for Scotland’s Tories

We’re starting to get our first impressions of Russell Findlay, the new leader of the Scottish Conservatives, but one of the first things I said to...

25.11.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: It’s here: the ferry no one wanted The first thing I did was check whether the windows were real because you’ll remember that when Glen Sannox was “launched” in 2017, the windows were painted on; they were fake. But this time the news is good: the windows are real, the ferry is finished, and we’re ready to go. It’s finally here: the ferry nobody wanted.

The first thing I did was check whether the windows were real because you’ll remember that when Glen Sannox was “launched” in 2017, the windows...

23.11.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The Govan revolution that could be good for all of us

If you want me, I’ll be in Magpie’s Nest, and if you ask nicely I’ll take you across the road to the Pearce Institute for a plate of chips as...

18.11.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Which one are you: the hater or the hated? It’s time for a rethink

Ask me what I hate. Lots of things. I hate that the Scots pay higher taxes than the English. I hate that so many people still eat animals and abuse...

16.11.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Another idea of the Scottish Greens goes up in smoke. Happy days

The Scottish Government, now largely free of the influence of the Greens we think and hope, has ditched some of its plans on wood-burning stoves....

11.11.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: A simple way to fix the problem of the disrespectful grave stickers I don’t want to imagine what it’s like to go and visit the grave of a friend or relative and discover the cooncil has slapped a gummy, gaudy information notice on it headed “Warning! this memorial has failed to meet safety standards.” People have called it disrespectful and I think that’s exactly the right word. It is. What were they thinking?

I don’t want to imagine what it’s like to go and visit the grave of a friend or relative and discover the cooncil has slapped a gummy, gaudy...

09.11.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: A question for every Glaswegian: would you pass the leaf test?

The council in Glasgow is asking residents to help clear leaves off the streets and the way people have reacted to the idea is revealing. Call it...

04.11.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: A very personal message for Scotland’s private school whingers Full disclosure: I went to private school, my parents paid the fees, the education was good and I’m sure it improved my chances and opportunities. As to whether it damaged my personality and gave me an arrogant sense of entitlement, you’d have to ask the people who know me although does anybody care about their opinions I don’t think so.

Full disclosure: I went to private school, my parents paid the fees, the education was good and I’m sure it improved my chances and opportunities....

02.11.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Why are people moaning about this Glasgow mural?

Right, let’s see what all the fuss is about. I jump in the car and drive along Paisley Road West and there it is. A big hairy man and a big hairy...

28.10.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: I asked readers to email me about the A9. It wasn't pretty You may have read my opinion piece the other day about the A9. The thrust of it was that the Scottish Government is committed to dualling the road for all the wrong reasons and that the changes which the upgrade might, or might not, bring about do not justify the cost. I also asked readers to email me their thoughts on my arguments, and they did. It wasn’t pretty.

You may have read my opinion piece the other day about the A9. The thrust of it was that the Scottish Government is committed to dualling the road...

26.10.2024 2

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Check your prejudice – Glasgow’s drug room is the start of something new

Today’s the day, or at least it should have been. The UK’s first drug consumption room was due to open in Glasgow this week but it’s been pushed...

21.10.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: It may be time to admit the truth about the A9

Next time you’re stuck behind slow-moving traffic on the A9, do not clench your teeth, do not swear, and do not, for heaven’s sake, attempt a risky...

19.10.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Let’s be honest about Alex Salmond: what made him also destroyed him

Everyone is talking about their last encounter with Alex Salmond so I’ll do it too. It was late last year, we talked on the phone a couple of...

14.10.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The Scots who love Badenoch and Jenrick

I remember the day an English person I used to work with who doesn’t speak to me anymore found out that I am not left-wing. “You’re not left-wing?”...

12.10.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: We should all be worried about Scotland’s use of facial recognition

The fact the police could do something in the name of solving crime doesn’t mean they should. The police could, if we allowed them to, fingerprint...

07.10.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: I’m partial to a Dobbies now and then - but why are they in trouble?

Let’s drop everything and go to a garden centre; it always ends well. Two of the best? Gemmell’s in Ayrshire and McLaren’s near Glasgow, and even...

05.10.2024 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Byres Road has a message for Glasgow. But are we listening?

If you think you know Byres Road, I recommend you do what I’ve just done and take a stroll along it with Barclay Price. Barclay is an author and...

30.09.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Everyone calm down: seagulls are not the threat you think they are It’s funny how they always use the language of war. “Living in fear”. “Attack”. “Bombardment”. They also say that we should get them before they get us. It’s probably why, of all the species on this planet, human beings are by far my least favourite.

It’s funny how they always use the language of war. “Living in fear”. “Attack”. “Bombardment”. They also say that we should get them...

28.09.2024 4

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith