Journalist & Writer
The Big Knitathon is back throughout the month of November, calling on knitters to join forces to support UK Big Issue vendors. The Big Issue Foundation‘s annual event – now in its fifth year – invites new and seasoned knitters to pick up their needles and join the fun to raise money through sponsorship and sales... Continue Reading →
With 60 screenings at over 20 global film festivals under its belt, ‘Something You Can Call Home,’ has opened up new dialogues among diverse audiences in the past two years around often unseen homelessness issues. For its director, Rebecca Kenyon, the idea rose from being drawn to people who live in their cars while holding... Continue Reading →
The One Festival of Homeless Arts brings together talented artists who have experienced homelessness, showcasing their creative work in Central London. Friend of INSP and previous judge of our annual INSP Awards, Dave Tovey is the spearhead behind the festival of art, film and animation, which runs until the end of September. Based at the... Continue Reading →
Giving voice to perhaps the city’s least heard demographic, Settled in Glasgow - an Oral History Archive, SIGOHA, is an online archive sharing stories of people who’ve settled close to the River Clyde. With recorded interviews from the experiences of over 23 Glaswegians born outside the UK, the stories reveal humorous, honest and often poignant... Continue Reading →
Whisper social enterprise in Scotland and you might hear shouts of The Big Issue, or smell the savoury success of Social Bite, with its coveted George Clooney marketing edge. Listen long enough and you’ll catch a firmer definition why this burgeoning sector isn’t about simple charity, tackling a short-term need. It is about enterprise and profit,... Continue Reading →
This month Danish firm, Dong Energy, announced plans to build the world’s largest wind farm located off Yorkshire’s North Sea coast—creating a massive boost to the renewable energy industry and the one million homes that will receive its power. Many on UK soil might ask why a Danish firm rather than a British one is... Continue Reading →
If you can’t find your smokey feet and get down to one of the finest hip hop classic, original rump shakers of all time, you must be dead...or worse, depressed. Dancing—like exercise, like baking, like sex, like laughing and breathing are all good for you, so they say, during a bout of depression. But, during a... Continue Reading →
A German-based, Sunday night spy thriller accompanied with subtitles doesn’t seem like the most alluring pitch to the average telly watcher. However Channel 4 has got it spot on with its broadcasting of Deutschland 83 as a welcoming start to 2016. Delving into the heat of 1980s Cold War tensions, the plot follows spirited 24-year-old... Continue Reading →
Covering the themes of Tech for Good + Gender-Based Violence, for Tech for Good TV, I chatted with ElsaMarie D’Silva, the founder and managing director of Safecity, a non-profit organisation providing an online platform and grassroot workshops for people to share their personal stories of sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces in India WITH over... Continue Reading →
At Tech for Good we’ve posed ourselves the task of gauging the future health of tech, design and innovation for good in the short and long term. How better to start than by getting up close and personal with a group next generation designers and tech heads. We visited the recent Glasgow School of Art... Continue Reading →
From a war-torn Kurdish homeland to knocking on the doors of Scottish political power, Roza Salih has lived a life of standing up for one good ‘fight’ after another FROM her 22nd floor bedroom window, 12-year-old Roza Salih had one of the best views in Glasgow. Peering out of a high-rise flat in Knightswood, the city’s glistening grey panorama may... Continue Reading →
Perched on the corner of Dunn Street and Dalmarnock Road, Andrew Muirhead & Sons nestles on the site of Glasgow’s once heaviest of industrial areas. With its unchipped, burnt-red brick front having stood the test of time, behind the unassuming doorway lies a 10,000 sq ft sanctum of world-recognised leather manufacturing dating back to 1870. While... Continue Reading →
Although I didn't think too much about it at the time, was I the only child who grew up in a house arrayed with ornaments that played makeshift for famous trophies, awards and gongs? The 12” super-heavy glass vase my mum kept for flowers she never received was dusted off at soccer World Cup finals and raised aloft... Continue Reading →
They say smell is the strongest sense which evokes emotion. You can’t argue with that. The smell of new trainers takes me back to a youth that was trainer smell filled. They should bottle that, for nostalgic saps like me. Though somehow now the aromatic of an Adidas trainer box doesn’t hold that same strong,... Continue Reading →
With 32 years of experience working among Ayrshire lace and looms, what design director Margo Graham doesn’t know about a good shuttle and a half drop repeat would fit on the width of a postage stamp. Fact. Cooried in where the thrum of a bygone industry once drifted across the Irvine Valley you’ll find MYB... Continue Reading →
Cail Bruich West Located diagonally across from the Botanic Gardens, the award-winning Cail Bruich is Scottish-flavoured fine dining without the pomp nor heavy tariff. Don’t be surprised to find Glasgow’s culinary experts eating out here on any given night. Though at Cail Bruich, it’s not about being seen, it’s about being fed. Pride is taken... Continue Reading →
In 1998, the Britpop that had consumed me for four years was officially dead, Scotland played in its last World Cup tournament and that crazy notion of an information super highway was teetering on the brink of world domination. Meanwhile, I was teetering on my 22nd year and stuck in a rut of endless part... Continue Reading →
What defines a classic football shirt? Is it the Sir Stanley Matthews two-button-loose-high-collar stylee as worn in the famous Blackpool 1953 FA Cup victory? Or the silky Brazilian crew neck stretched across the chests of Sócrates, Falcão and Co at the 1982 World Cup? Surely not the 1991 Arsenal 'sickly' away jersey that strangely through time is starting to hold its own legendary properties?... Continue Reading →
26th January 2014 A nation's a nation for a'that Smug is as smug does. Though we'll get to John Barrowman later. In the meantime, the First Minister - top beneficiary of the smug jibe - was spotted early in the week with a cheeser like he'd got a coat hanger stuck in his toot. The... Continue Reading →
On a dry December evening two Fridays before Christmas the ramped entrance of Edinburgh's The Wee Red Bar is lined with five placards. Each imparts a message - a pun on words, two song titles, a question and a statement, all in bold black type on white cardboard. Aye, Have a Dream. That Ship Called... Continue Reading →
By 9pm the Concert Hall auditorium was nicely warmed, courtesy of a self-proclaimed 'Hairy One.' Edinburgh singer-songwriter, Freddie Stevenson, who cut a fine, yet quirky figure of a soulfully dulcet Yorkshire Ripper, made good with an audience who'd stepped in from their dark Decemberness to bear witness to the evening's main event; a performance by The Waterboys of... Continue Reading →
The rushes. By 5 o’clock a melting film of amphetamine has settled via the base of my spine into the back of my skull. I slink against the fence perimeter watching the ticketless as they down more Frosty - every drop an affirmation they’ll stay beachside until post-encore and the drunk and ragged filter out. I... Continue Reading →
Following last month’s shock announcement by Johnston Press revealing the publishing group’s intention to drastically reduce their Scottish photography staff, NUJ Scotland today made clear its position to represent those affected by the potential job losses. The Edinburgh-based media company - which claims to have trimmed its costs by more than £30m this year as... Continue Reading →
Football goalies are the ultimate quirky breed...that's a fact known for as long as footie time immemorial itself. On fields of green they get up to tricks your average, common or garden left-back would never risk in their dreams. Those flamboyant foibles bring out all the ooohs and aaahs of the day, as well as a few squeaky bum... Continue Reading →
Journalism students from Glasgow Clyde College were treated to their own private scoop at Holyrood last week thanks to a timely Q&A session with Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont. Just hours earlier, Lamont had been at the heart of a fiery exchange of words during First Minister’s Questions when she had been asked twice by presiding... Continue Reading →
Everton's unbeaten start to the season ended by Manchester City's slick quality comeback In a match with four goals, nine bookings, six substitutions and two blooded shirts, Everton forgot one of the oldest rules of the sport; you’re never more susceptible than when you’ve just scored. It took Alvaro Negredo just one minute and 32... Continue Reading →
Clubs opt out of campaign to tackle the homophobia which continues to blight British football Once there was a gay rights charity, an Irish bookie of ‘reputation,’ and a national cast of footballers…or so the joke may kick off in folklore down the pub someday. Which risks the question, from Elgin to Exeter, did British... Continue Reading →
The sole low-key aspect of Friday night's UEFA Super Cup was the pre-kick-off handshake between managerial rivals, Pep and the newly self-dubbed ‘Happy One’. Albeit, never has such a limp squid of a mutual fingerwrap been so highly charged. Three hours later there was only room for one gargantuan bruised ego in the making of... Continue Reading →
I told a friend on Monday morning that I’d been to see a Never Mind the Buzzcocks team captain in the flesh...at the Fringe...for free. He replied in half shrug, that in his opinion Noel Fielding was no Sean Hughes, though in the same breath conceded that catching a Mighty Bush for gratis was something... Continue Reading →
You know you're having a dog day afternoon in Goonerville when there's just no ducking the taunts of a mass clutch of Brummie Villans 15 minutes short of the final whistle. It was to get worse - before it gets better for Arsenal. Antonio Luna's 85th minute strike sealed Villa's 3-1 win, giving their faithful... Continue Reading →
Come mid-afternoon the walkways and thoroughfares around the Green had turned from empty, chud-strewn slabs into pocket dens of festering hell bent delirium. Find yourself upstream against the crowd along the Saltmarket and you were caught among braggart swagger, bucket hats perched atop bulging eyes, anticipation a plenty. And that was just the women. One... Continue Reading →
It was no El Clásico. No matter. It was a certifiable Die Klassische, played on a north London postcode. On the slopes of Wembley it was all signing, all standing, all German. It’s twelve months since Bayern Munich failed to sweep past a Russian owned English club in their own Bavarian backyard. On Saturday night they banished... Continue Reading →
Have you heard the new rule about being allowed one blonde moment per rainy Saturday in May? I squeezed mine in yesterday while telling a friend I was going to Stag and Dagger where the headliners were They Promised Us Parachutes. Jesus. Beam me up! Clearly hadn’t had my vitamins yet. Around 9 hours later,... Continue Reading →
Last night amidst the red and redder league title parade through the city of Manchester, Sir Alex Ferguson spoke of the send-off he’d received the day before at his last home game: “Yesterday was a day I’ll never forget. I thank you for that.” Waking up this morning, Roberto Mancini’s first quip of the day... Continue Reading →
When you hear the noise of the Tartan Army boys, they’ll be coming down the road...on a Wednesday evening…in August…to a national stadium near you. At the invitation of the English FA, to help mark their 150th anniversary, Scotland will take the trip south to play their oldest adversary in a friendly at the spiritual... Continue Reading →
I promised myself I wouldn’t get caught up in the national hoo-ha, and forego writing a piece on Monday’s passing of Britain’s most famous milk snatcher - from any angle...just to pretend to be boringly bored of it all. . . .And then I saw the noughts on the potential funeral bill. I say potential... Continue Reading →
So I find myself in the Carphone Warehouse on Sauchiehall Street, where the employees are all kitted out in navy fleece and the shop is possibly the smallest on the pedestrian strip, making slightly redundant the warehouse bit. I don’t know why it is that when in town with a bit of time to kill... Continue Reading →
What I’d give to go back to the days of the serious affairs of the playground debate. A bunch of 10 years olds wanting to get their two pence worth in on each other at break time was a sport worth participating in, and no place for the meek. In the 80’s, there was less for... Continue Reading →
I don’t have it in for bald men, I’d like to be clear about that. A Jean-Luc Picard hairline neither appeals nor grates on me. And God love them - they don’t realise they’re part of the bigger problem. Though when Bill Gates feels inclined to chip in on a subject, you kind of know... Continue Reading →
As I write this, pictures are being broadcast around the world of the new Pope’s first appearance on his velvet verandah giving it the Bona Sera. If you’d just switched on, you might’ve thought you were watching a fancy dress episode of Bullseye such is Frankie boy’s resemblance to the veritable Jim Bowen. I was... Continue Reading →
Will our Scot's resolve to have a drink ever be challenged by a pricehike or ten? I have this thing about watching Coronation Street episodes from the 1970’s on You Tube. I’m more in it for the modern socio-history lesson than the fuel to my dodgy fashion and gawdy wallpaper fetish. Though what knocks me... Continue Reading →
So the Pope has only gone and given tinkle to heaven’s hotline to call in sick – permanently. With the start of Lent, here’s me quitting celibacy (again), while Big Joe gives up the Vatican, for good. It’s true, old age doesn’t come itself. But fair play, 15 years from a diplomatic birthday card from... Continue Reading →
I read somewhere recently that time is the mother of all biases. And there was me thinking that it was just a wee healer that waits for no man. The jist of the meaning didn’t click at first, but a bit like understanding the sensation of treading over hot coals, you have to put yourself... Continue Reading →
Woolworths, Comet, Jessops, HMV (almost) and now Blockbuster, WTF eh? To be fair, am surprised the Blockbuster chain lasted as long as it did. That 1990’s shop front design was dated in the Eighties, and did you ever visit a branch where the Slurpee machine wasn’t out of order? The administrators over the door of... Continue Reading →
What a red hot start to the year it’s been for us Gingers. Gingerama, Gingermania, Gingivitis...okay scratch that last one with baited (bad) breath, but 2013 is definitely looking rosy for the redhead. Despite all the ridicule and ginger pube gags, those damn flame-haireds are set to soar high in the next 12 months. Bringing... Continue Reading →
When I was a kid I thought all the paintings on view in the Louvre Museum were housed in the glass pyramid that stands central to the grounds of the Louvre Palace. A bit like once thinking a piece of Hubba Bubba if swallowed takes 7 years to digest, I never questioned my logic. Alright,... Continue Reading →
There’s this memory of a 1960’s Audrey Hepburn flick running through my mind as I walk down the smirr-soaked streets of the Marais the Saturday night before New Year’s. It’s not My Fair Lady, nor Breakfast at Tiffany’s, as the latter I recall is definitely more Big Apple than La Grosse Pomme. In the beautiful City... Continue Reading →
Cat Cochrane 