Great to see @stmargpri & @cowieps pupils & heads & many others at Monday's 2nd memorial event for Everiss Scholars]from Otaki College in NZ. Warmer than last year! Moving occasion & reat welcome from #CowieBowling Club. Robert Gordon's College NZ-UKLink-Foundation Royal NZ Air Force

Thanks also to The Wood Foundation The Wood Foundation, past Otaki Scholars from Robert Gordon's College, Chris Parkin, Babcock International and Sander Ties for making this moving commemoration & new NZ Scotland link a reality.

The US/UK bombing of Houthi sites: even if effective (doubtful), we are the wrong people to do it. heraldscotland.com/politics/viewp…

Musing on seeing 10,000+ up early today to hear May morning choral singing from Magdalen College Tower, alongside news of the action at Columbia Univ. I hope student - & other- life can continue to embrace beauty & good tradition,at the same time as activism & idealism.

The civil service groupthink underlying some of the damning recent Inquiries should have lessened with greater recent diversity. But there are risks of losing public service ethos if too much of the civil service's identity is lost. #Instituteforgov heraldscotland.com/politics/viewp…

I was involved in the margins of Whitehall planning for the D-Day 50th anniversary, with discussion of which heads of state to invite. 2 were obligatory: Grand Duke of Luxembourg & President of Israel had both taken part in the landings, both in Irish Regts of the British Army

Pres. Putin was invited to the D-Day commemorations in 2004 & 2014, representing the extraordinary Soviet sacrifices in WW2. Sad that he has made himself unsuitable for today's events but good that Pres. Zelensky can much more appropriately represent the former Soviet Union

I hope this is a temporary blip.But it's hard to see why the Gov't seems to be rejecting the benefits of an EU youth travel scheme. It's nothing to do with the single market - and even if it was,B Johnson campaigned for Brexit on the basis of keeping that heraldscotland.com/politics/viewp…

George Fergusson: A cost-free option to make things better heraldscotland.com/politics/viewp…

For once I hope a politician - Tom Tugendhat - doesn't mean what he says. Getting rid of ECHR needs thought on how to replace it. This article suggests much more thought needed. Tim Bale @conorgearty Droit constit

Interesting review of the Northern Ireland Executive's work since it resumed business earlier this year: much more to be done.

With Pat Lorimer on Tiree, 80 years to the day after his father John's midget sub mission against the Tirpitz, Op Source: 2 VCs,3 DSOs Alastair Bruce #WW2

#Auroraborealis in spectacular shape over South Ayrshire last night. #northernlights

Good @Scotrail story.I bought tickets from Maybole online, but no option for e-tickets: machine collection only.But no machine at Maybole.Stranraer-based Lynn told us to wait for her @Glasgow,saw us past the barrier, & checked us through the machine.Friendly,helpful,professional.

200 years ago this month @JamesBraidwood started the world's 1st municipal fire service, in Edinburgh. He then founded London's fire brigade, & died in the London Fire Brigade in Tooley St in 1861. An elder of @CrownCourtChurch in Covent Garden,a plaque there commemorates him. @Scot_fire

'His way ahead looks hazardous' George Fergusson: Keir Starmer has some difficult choices ahead heraldscotland.com/politics/viewp…

Save us from lottery elections: we must change the system heraldscotland.com/politics/viewp…

Don’t proscribe organisations: prosecute criminal actions. Why proscribing is often an unnecessary mistake. Article in @HeraldScotland. heraldscotland.com/politics/viewp…

As a former student newspaper editor,I agree with most of this article (& welcome its distinction between suffragettes,who called themselves terrorists,& suffragists).But disagree that proscription rather than prosecution is the answer. heraldscotland.com/politics/viewp…

A land swap idea as an underpinning for peace in Ukraine sounds great - for the nanosecond before you realise that there is no Russian land that Ukraine wants or is likely to be offered. If the deal is swapping Ukrainian land for Ukrainian land, the suggestion looks emptier.