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Mark Smith

Mark Smith

Herald Scotland

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Do not believe the middle-class moaning about private schools

You’ll remember that when Labour said they were planning to put VAT on private school fees, some people said it would be disastrous, schools would...

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Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

At last – maybe we can start talking about the issue we’ve all been ignoring

At last – maybe we can start talking about the issue we’ve all been ignoring

The new British Social Attitudes Survey, and the public reaction to it, told us quite a few things we knew already: lots of people are struggling...

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Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Tunnock’s is being blamed for society’s problems. Step away from the teacakes

Tunnock’s is being blamed for society’s problems. Step away from the teacakes

I’M going to be honest here: the Tunnock’s Caramel Log is not, and has never been, my biscuit of choice. My biscuit of choice would be the custard...

24.06.2025 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Are you ‘upset’? The dangers of flags in Scottish schools

Are you ‘upset’? The dangers of flags in Scottish schools

It was revealed this week that a headteacher in Scotland wrote to parents suggesting the Union flag could be considered a sectarian emblem, but...

22.06.2025 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

These are the latest plans at the Glasgow School of Art. Really?

These are the latest plans at the Glasgow School of Art. Really?

It’s funny how you can go to two different places and end up in the same place. I was in Glasgow the other day, walking up Bath Street, and a couple...

17.06.2025 30

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

No more Edinburgh Book Festival for me – where did it all go wrong?

No more Edinburgh Book Festival for me – where did it all go wrong?

The death the other day of the great old man of thriller writing Frederick Forsyth reminded me of the time I saw him at the Edinburgh Book Festival...

15.06.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

A Scottish legend says cancel culture is over. Yeah right

Mark Millar, comic book writer, Scottish, Coatbridge boy, £25million in the bank after selling his business to Netflix, bit of a legend, said...

10.06.2025 5

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Britain is Scottish: a truth from history that’s still true today

Open a history book, any one really, and there it is: the way we are now. The past may be different on the surface – the clothes, the food, the way...

08.06.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

A Pride hate crime on Arran? No, just a sign of where we are now

Arran hasn’t had many LGBTQ Pride events but it so happens I was staying on the island in 2023 when they had one of their first. I remember...

03.06.2025 40

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

The best building in Glasgow, and what we can learn from its tragedy People say the Hatrack on St Vincent Street is the building Glaswegians love the most but I look at it and think: really, that one, why? I know it’s a good example of art nouveau and everything and that’s fine, but don’t you think all the spikes and prongs and urns and wings are a bit much? And what’s with the screaming goat’s head over the front door? You know who’d feel right at home there? Rosemary’s baby.

People say the Hatrack on St Vincent Street is the building Glaswegians love the most but I look at it and think: really, that one, why? I know it’s...

01.06.2025 9

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

The Argyle Street Gap – what does it say about Glasgow?

Here’s a corner of Glasgow that tells the city’s story. Over there is a patch of ground where the supermarkets and showrooms used to be. Down the...

27.05.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

The TV channel that saved us, and heralds the change to come

A man walks into a pub. He orders two large pernods for him and his friend and gets change from a quid. He overhears two guys talking about property...

25.05.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Eurovision 2025: the year they fixed their Israel problem

Any TV show that features a Finnish woman in Cathy Gale boots singing “ja tanssin sun kaa vaik häävalssin mut nakuna” while standing on a giant...

20.05.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Not My Scotland: what the anti-royal protesters keep getting wrong

Up on the hill, in the sun, they lay it out straight. “People are beginning to wake up,” they say. “There’s growing momentum,” they say....

13.05.2025 40

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Can it be true? Sensible policies for Scotland’s trains at last

I was listening to the First Minister talking about the government’s new policies on trains this week and how it’s going to mean more money in...

11.05.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Don’t blame the English – the splinter factor is Scottish too

There’s a graph you may have seen that predicts what the next Westminster parliament would look like if the swing at Runcorn was repeated...

06.05.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Another student tower rises. But what does it mean for the rest of us? We’re in that glorious part of Glasgow that dips steeply down towards the river, but we’ re looking up – at the grand red steeple of St Columba’s, the Gaelic church, and at a giant crane, neck straining towards the blue and white, and at a pillar of concrete that has counted up 1, 2, 3, 4 and will keep going until it gets to 16. This is the start of another of the new towers, the student skyscrapers. But they raise a few down-to-earth questions don’t you think?

We’re in that glorious part of Glasgow that dips steeply down towards the river, but we’ re looking up – at the grand red steeple of St...

04.05.2025 3

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The BBC, bias, and what happens next with the licence fee

I was tidying out some cupboards the other day and there they were: some old copies of The Herald and an old version of me. The papers were mostly...

29.04.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Lord Gove of … where? Is this some kind of joke?

Remember that clip of Michael Gove dancing on his own in a nightclub in Aberdeen at 2am, all wide-eyed and waggly-armed, like one of the Thunderbird...

27.04.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The new motorway that Scotland doesn’t need

Ash Regan of the Alba party has said that what we really need in Scotland is more roads, specifically a new motorway, but I have a message for Ash...

22.04.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Men like me need to say sorry John Swinney was asked this week if he wished to apologise to women after the court ruling on what’s meant by the word women and he said this: “We’ve acted in good faith. We’ve tried to navigate our way through two pieces of legislation, during which our position has been supported twice by courts in Scotland in this particular case, so the debate has been around very uncertain areas of definition and the Supreme Court has concluded on that, and that is an end to the matter.” Lots of w

John Swinney was asked this week if he wished to apologise to women after the court ruling on what’s meant by the word women and he said this:...

20.04.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Twelve pubs, one lesson: something has to change

I suggested to my editor recently that I should visit lots of pubs and he said “nice try, do it in your own time” but I said “no really, I want...

15.04.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Morrissey and the 'Scottish harasser': will we never learn?

Glasgow. Drums. Dry ice. Bright lights: red, blue, red. I’m up near the back with Gillian, who says she loves him more than I do (as if). And there...

13.04.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The corner of Scotland that’s really going to feel the pain of Trump

This’ll do. I’m in the Cairngorms, it’s a beautiful day, we’re sitting by the River Avon, fire blazing, and Iain, master blender, is passing...

08.04.2025 9

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Bye bye Patrick – there are some things you need to take with you

Remember back when Nicola Sturgeon and Patrick Harvie were in government and we thought that, like winter in Narnia, it would never end? Well, here we...

06.04.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Can we fix the taxi problem before it’s too late?

Usually when I get in a taxi, I ask the driver clever questions off the top of my head, like “busy tonight?” or “when does your shift finish?”...

01.04.2025 30

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: It’s not over yet – the new battle to save Glasgow’s Vogue cinema

You may remember the story of the Vogue, the old art deco cinema in the north of Glasgow. It was very nearly demolished – I stood and watched the...

30.03.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: The £200m that’s being wasted on the wrong train line

You may have heard Chancellor Rachel Reeves saying the other day that “the world has changed” and more cuts are coming on top of the cuts she’s...

25.03.2025 6

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: These buildings will be blown to bits tomorrow. Have we learned nothing? You can actually taste what’s happening here. It’s the taste of the dust and the dirt that’s being stirred up by the machinery; it hangs in the air and lands on your tongue. Tomorrow, it will all be dust.

You can actually taste what’s happening here. It’s the taste of the dust and the dirt that’s being stirred up by the machinery; it hangs in the...

23.03.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: A common sense solution at a Glasgow graveyard. Now let’s do the rest

Every night, at the same time, a man would make his way up the spiral staircase, check it was 8.15pm, and ring the bell. The sound of the bell meant...

18.03.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

How many legal parents can a child have? The Dutch are asking the question

17.03.2025 20

The Guardian

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Here we go again. Why are so many Scottish laws a bit rubbish?

It’s the first day of the fines for pavement parking in Glasgow and I’m weaving my way past all the cars parked on the pavements in Glasgow...

16.03.2025 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

Mark Smith: Read it and weep: the shocking stats on books and reading

Is there nothing I agree with Nicola Sturgeon on, I mean nothing at all? The former first minister sometimes talks about her favourite book of all...

11.03.2025 7

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

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...

09.03.2025 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

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 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

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

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 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

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 20

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

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 10

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?

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 10

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith

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

09.02.2025 10

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 7

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 10

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 10

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 20

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 10

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 6

Herald Scotland

Mark Smith