Opinion

Imagine how difficult it must be for a minority administration to sort out a deal when it is propped up by a small party of just 11 members.

We are less than 1000 hours away from Brexit. No-one has a plan – neither the Government nor the official opposition or the many other factions in and some now outside the main parties.

The news that almost three quarters of Scottish schools are serving processed meat to pupils in school meals should be a major concern for parents and for the populace in general.

There’s never been more ways to access the news. But newspapers – accountable, properly researched journalism, paid for by the cover price and the adverts opposite the story – are under immense pressure. Last week the Cairncross Review into the future of the press painted a vivid picture of the challenges facing high-quality journalism in the UK.

Labour’s defectors should resign their seats and force by-elections or risk being branded cowards, says Brian Monteith

“Some women secured the parliamentary vote a century ago, women have had equal voting rights to men for 90 years, but the uncomfortable truth is that gender equality is still an unwon cause – an unwon cause that it is the duty of our generation to win.”

There is no doubt that social media platforms have been playing an ever increasing role in ­attempts to influence voters throughout the world, whether it is alleged Russian interference in the United States presidential elections to the spread of unsubstantiated ­reports of wrongdoing in the current Nigerian polls. In other words the spreading of ‘fake news’ is a tactic that is here to stay.

Is it time for Edinburgh to introduce a No Drone Zone in the city centre?

I was but a toddler when a group of Labour MPs broke away in the early 1980s to form the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Naturally, I was more interested in cartoons than breaking political stories, but I’ve read enough history books and Labour biography’s to know that the band of breakaways had, let’s say, mixed reviews.

When Edinburgh welcomes the world – at Hogmanay, or at the Festival and Tattoo – we celebrate with fireworks. Firework displays, loud and colourful as they are, can be fun and memorable family events.

PARTY politics is rarely seen by the public as entertaining and funny.

As the debate over the so-called tourist tax continues, I feel it is my duty to present a solution.

This week we will see the City of Edinburgh Council set its budget for the coming year. That’s not unusual but what is different this time is the unprecedented financial circumstances the council finds itself in, some due to Scottish Government choices but much of its own making.

THERESA May earned applause last week – though of course, it had nothing to do with Brexit. Scraping the mould off her jam revealed that she doesn’t believe in food waste, and it started a healthy debate which had nothing to do with the EU, no-deal, or the World Trade Organisation.

The new Meadowbank will be a place for participating rather than spectating, argues Edinburgh Leisure’s June Peebles

Good to see that a new project manager for the proposed Old Town BID has been appointed. Currently there is a very one-sided competition between businesses in the New Town and Old Town with Essential Edinburgh representing many of the big businesses and institutions and the Old Town without any organised representation.

You wait yonks for a film set in Scotland, and then two show up at one time. Typical. Robert the Bruce got in first with Outlaw King. Our hero was portrayed by the new Captain Kirk in the recent Star Trek reboot.

JODIE Prenger might be known as @MusicalMissy on Twitter but her latest projects couldn’t be further removed from the roles that made her famous after being discovered on the BBC talent search I’d Do Anything.