The quasi-state funeral of Margaret Thatcher was a reminder of how planet politics was a land once stalked by big political beasts. She may have been a divisive figure in life but in death, politicians of all sides gathered in St Paul’s to sit side-by-side, to as much, one suspects, pay their respects to her as spot who else was there and, more importantly, who was not. And it was an impressive roll call. But while the first few rows were inhabited by the shiny potentates and their immediate predecessors, like Blair and Brown, it was the middle to back rows of mourners seated in the pews for Thatcher’s last tarrah that provided the talking point as they offered a unique glimpse of the UK’s rich political past. They were politicians who were still instantly recognisable, despite...

In hindsight, Britain’s historic shift from coal to oil was inevitable; as inevitable as the shift from wood to coal. Today, there is debate on when exactly the shift from fossil fuels will occur – and to what. Experts argue over how long the oil and gas sector has to run, climate change is forcing the pace of renewable energy and disruptive technologies – among them, so-called ‘fracking’ – and hitherto little-publicised energy sources – such as ‘fiery ice’, or methane hydrate – threaten to turn assumptions on both sides upside down. But at the time the shift caused huge controversy. When Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911, he set about modernising the Royal Navy. He declared it should be fuelled with oil instead of coal; because burning fuel...

Jordan Allan has never seen Scotland compete in a major competitive tournament. Th e 14-year-old Airdrie attacker, who the weekend before last became the youngest player ever to feature in a Scottish football game, had not yet been born when a nation looked on, almost astonished, as John Collins coolly stroked home the spot-kick inside a sun-soaked Stade de France that pulled Scotland level with world champions, Brazil. As they welcome top footballing talent from around the globe next summer, a ninth manager to take up the Hampden hot-seat since that inaugural World Cup 1998 fixture will be attempting to avoid a ninth failed attempt to join them. Against this backdrop, despondency would likely take hold in any assessment of Scotland’s standing on the sporting stage. And yet, a matter of...

Fifteen pages into Tam Dalyell’s fascinating autobiography, The Importance of Being Awkward – which goes some way to explaining how an old Etonian toff from Linlithgow became a rebellious Labour MP elected to a West Lothian mining constituency – he reveals that his granny, Mary Marjoribanks Askew Robertson, possessed a sex toy. This unexpected and intimate exposé betrays the fact that even from a very young age, Dalyell was not only blessed with a precocious line in questioning, but that he was also not prepared to let a subject go, just to spare anyone’s blushes. One of his earliest childhood memories, he says, is sitting on a chair watching his mother going through her own mother’s possessions shortly after she had died. “What’s that,” asked the young Tam, as his mother...

When last year a small group of keen cyclists decided to up their game and protest outside the doors of the Scottish Parliament, they had no idea of the impact it might have. The organisers of the Pedal on Parliament, which called for more support – and funding – from Scottish ministers, had hoped for maybe 300 people to join them – with a fair wind, perhaps 1,000 would turn up. They got 3,000. Next month the event is back with renewed vigour. Th e police will close the roads in anticipation that the event may again attract an even higher number of protestors. Overall, the campaign message too has developed, complete with an eight-point manifesto. They are urging not just more funding for cycling, but for it to be designed in to Scotland’s roads; safer speed limits near to...