Columnists

I have been saying for months that the Brexit betrayal has been stitched up for months and that we were all witnessing an elaborate and well-rehearsed charade which would culminate in the UK never really leaving the EU. However, yesterday’s explosive events seem to have blown my theory out of the water, or have they?

Staggering from disarray to shambles, embarrassment to humiliation, cock-ups to climb-downs, Theresa May’s Government is in chaos. Defeated three times in Parliament on the one day then found guilty of treating Parliament with contempt. Her Government is making history for all the wrong reasons.

French people are standing up for their rights and speaking out for many others around the world who are sick at the injustice of capitalism. None more so than people of Western states who have had to endure decades of economic austerity while a tiny elite become ever more obscenely wealthy.

So, if the UK is the fifth largest economy in the world, can someone please explain why we have so many homeless on the streets.

We're only a few games away from the half-way point of the football season, so it seems a good time to check how our pre-season Sputnik Intelligent Punter's Guide predictions are working out and take stock of what has happened so far.

‘Union Busting Is Disgusting, Recognition Now’ was the chant outside the Glasgow HQ of the charity and social care provider Cornerstone in Glasgow’s Sydney Street today. It was a wretched afternoon with rain but the despicable actions of Cornerstone in the last week demanded action from trade union members regardless of the weather.

The nostalgia tv station Talking Pictures TV (Channel 81 Freeview if in UK and Ireland), has recently been showing repeats of the highly amusing 1981 sitcom Take a Letter Mr Jones, starring John Inman as a male secretary and Rula Lenska as his rather demanding boss.

Well there’s a surprise …Not! On the very morning that MPs are to discuss Theresa May’s EU betrayal and The Tories contempt of Parliament up pops The European Court of Justice’s Advocate General stating that the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50 and stop Brexit.

I had a very interesting Friday night. It was spent in the company of between 40 and 50 Catholic Parishioners from the Cumbernauld area of West Central Scotland. Originally I was invited, via Facebook, to speak at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church Charitable Men’s Breakfast Club. It was to be a morning meeting with a chat and breakfast.

While Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn seem to have spent most of yesterday sorting out the most pressing political and social problem facing the UK…. who should host the Brexit TV debate, Britain continues to descend into anarchy.

The snooker tour's slowest player (no, it's not me), has been criticised by World Snooker supremo Barry Hearn, who is out to rid the sport of what he sees as the scourge of slow play.

It would be politically criminal of me to write a column on this day and not dedicate it to one of Scotland’s finest sons. On November 30, 1923, the man daubed ‘the most dangerous man in Britain’ by the British secret intelligence services, but the ‘fighting dominie’ by the ordinary people, died of pneumonia aged only 44. His name was John MacLean.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is engaging in insane brinkmanship with Russia and the rest of the world. But the Kiev regime's criminal game of chicken should be repudiated by its supposed allies in the United States and Europe because of the atrocious danger of all-out war.

The world is a poorer place for the passing of World War Two veteran, writer and social justice campaigner Harry Leslie Smith, aka "The World's Oldest Rebel", who has died in hospital in Canada at the age of 95.

I know the Spice Girls are reforming minus Posh but I think we could do without “Deluded Spice” joining the touring circuit, couldn’t we? Theresa May is polishing her kitten heels and hitting the road to tell us plebs “what you want, what you really, really want” is her betrayal deal with the EU.

It would be improper and disrespectful to let November pass without mention of the likes of Betty Curry from Cambuslang, Mary McQuaid from Birkenshaw and Betty McEachin from Govan. Those women and millions like them across Scotland, England and Wales deserve special attention around 22nd November every year.

Our so-called leaders are failing in their first basic duty which is to protect this country's citizens and even worse it would appear that they are facilitating terrorism via their incompetence.

You couldn't ask for a better propaganda exposé. British media this week ran reports claiming that a Russian-made cartoon for children was being stealthily used by the Kremlin to indoctrinate young minds.

Haydock Racecourse in Merseyside stages the eagerly-awaited first Grade 1 chase of the season in Britain on Saturday (3.00), with last year's Cheltenham Gold Cup 1-2 Native River and Might Bite heading a small but select field in the Betfair Chase.

How many of you have an inspirational teacher story? I predict almost everyone has at least one memory of something a teacher said to you which shaped your life positively. It stands to reason. Throughout our early formative years Nursery teachers try and teach us essential cognitive skills.