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Sizzling alternative to boring BBQ

FED up with charred sausages and burnt burgers? With the weather heating up, the familiar smell of sizzling summer barbeques will soon be filling the air so why not think about an alternative that's as tasty as it is healthy.Read

The public don’t want a lecture!

LAST week, as Gordon Brown tucked into his eight course meal with G8 leaders in Japan, he told the rest of us not to be so wasteful with our leftovers!Read

Scotland is a soft-touch for drinkers

THERE has been a heated debate over the last few weeks on the SNP Government's Alcohol Framework Strategy.Read

Let's Go Outside: Where kids can run free

IN summer, the woods of Perthshire Big Tree Country offer dappled shade for refreshing walks, while the surrounding hills turn purple with blooming heather. Many routes combine leafy paths with open slopes where you can breathe the honeyed scent of heather. Others take you to refreshing burns where dippers bob, and peaceful lochs with darting dragonflies.Read

By-elections and belt-tightening!

YOU know the old saying that a week is a long time in politics? Well, since I write this on a fortnightly basis, I sometimes feel as if two weeks is a whole different country.Read

Baffled by Piper Alpha comments

WHILE everyone is entitled to air their opinion in the PA (lawyers permitting of course), I was a bit baffled by the gent who got in touch last week to complain that the Elton John concert was being held on the anniversary of the Piper Alpha tragedy.Read

The things you hear on the top deck of bus

I’VE often wondered what motivates folk to follow a life of crime.Read

Commons Comment

On Wednesday we had that extraordinary vote on 42 days, which the Government won with the help of Ulster’s Democratic Unionist Party. The fact that they won it by nine votes (the exact number of DUP MPs) underlined just how hollow and pyrrhic the Government’s victory was.Read

In Season: Asparagus

NAME one thing we Brits do best…Asparagus. Hailed by leading chefs as the best in the world, make sure you don’t miss out on its relatively short season of just seven to eight wonderful weeks (from May 1 to the end of June).Read

MSP: 51st parade emotional

These events can be quite emotional and this one for me specially so because my father was in the 51st. He wasn't much of a one for parades of any kind and certainly he never took part in any veteran events.Read

Classic Rhubarb delights

I DON'T know about all you posh Perth folk, but when I was growing up in Glasgow back in the 1970s, a stick of rhubarb dipped in a poke of sugar was considered a rare delicacy for the under-10s, writes Alison Lowson.Read

MP: Post office closures

WELL, Perthshire has learned its fate in the latest round of Post Office closures and it’s a mixed bag for the Big County. Rural Perthshire has escaped relatively lightly, with only one closure in Kinrossie and a further five receiving a reduced service. However there is no such comfort for the city area, which will see the closure of three vital offices.Read

MSP: Ambulance cover

I HAVE been following the letters and articles over the last few months in the Perthshire Advertiser on the issue of Meals and Wheels.Read

Editor: Giving Bill Oddie a run for his money

IF you haven’t dropped into Perth’s very own ‘Springwatch’ then you are missing a trick!Read

Jail is what it takes to prevent another tragedy

EWAN Macpherson will have to live his life with the knowledge that his actions killed five people.Read

Pete Wishart: Three little words that rocked Scottish politics

BRING it on! These three little words have changed the whole political context in Scotland and have led to the almost total meltdown of Labour in Scotland. I can't even start to guess what was in Wendy Alexander's head when she launched these incendiary words, but the fallout is still reverberating around the whole body of Scottish politics.Read

Independence referendum question won’t go away

EVENTS in Holyrood over the last couple of weeks have been dominated by the Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander’s remarkable swithering over the idea of a referendum on independence.Read

Let's Go Outside: Catch spring in all its splendour

THE countryside is looking as pretty as a picture so why not get out and drink in the sights? There’s no better way to appreciate the views and wildlife of Perthshire Big Tree Country than by walking some of its wonderful woodland paths. Choose from this Forestry Commission Scotland guide to six of the best. Remember to take your camera so you can enter our Spring Woods photo competition.Read

MSP: Opt out could save thousands waiting for organ transplants

HAVING been brought up in Perth, I am delighted to be writing my first article for the Perthshire Advertiser today as a Labour MSP and Shadow Public Health Spokesman.Read

Let's Go Outside: Take a stroll from St Monans to Crail

THE Fife Coastal Path offers easy and attractive walking, especially between the East Neuk fishing villages. This part of the long distance path – from St Monans to Crail – is eight miles long and makes a good day walk. If you prefer a shorter outing, just go as far as Pittenweem (2.75 miles) or Anstruther (four miles).Read