Communications & Public Affairs. Former BBC & Scotsman Education Correspondent. Eriskay roots. Own views.
Edinburgh Scotland
Joined August 2010
- Tweets10.1K
- Following4.1K
- Followers3.2K
- Likes3.7K
Seonag MacKinnon retweeted
£14k of heroin and cocaine under the seat. A lamb called Pablo eating chips in the back. 'Trainee shepherdess.' Avoided jail. Scotland: never change.
Man caught in car with £14k of drugs as a lamb ate chips in the back seat avoids jail bbc.in/4im0eQs
Seonag MacKinnon retweeted
Women are being killed in Scotland and I fear we are getting used to it…..strong words from Karyn McCluskey CEO of Community Justice Scotland telling it like it is. Karyn never sugar coats reality. She has seen the human cost of the increasing violence that means the most dangerous place in Scotland for many women is her own home and as a result thousands of children are living in terror. This is why we launched It’s Time…the carnage must end now!
As if the production team of Balamory children’s TV programme put in charge of painting the #traitors castle
Seonag MacKinnon retweeted
Never mind the future. We’re currently queuing outside to even access arrivals. You’ve become a national embarrassment @EDI_Airport & getting worse. Fancy shops & lounges are great, but you MUST sort arrivals. Shocking.
✈️| This is Our Future.
Our £500m investment programme will create more capacity, improve facilities and enhance the passenger experience.
🎥 Take a look at how the plans will be phased over the years ahead.
Find out more and watch the full video here: tinyurl.com/2fa8wheh
The Deputy First Minister says the OECD PISA education survey rewards « rote learning ». Not true - it is pre-eminent because it measures children’s ability to APPLY knowledge. I.e.deep learning.
Ranking of English pupils above Scots is ‘only marketing’
thetimes.com/article/2a328cb…
Seonag MacKinnon retweeted
UCL professor Sallie Baxendale, who has faced personal abuse and smear campaigns after she raised concerns over the impact of puberty blockers on young people’s brains, has been shortlisted for the Maddox Prize for “standing up for science”. @jgro_the reports #science #research #MaddoxPrize
timeshighereducation.com/new…
Seonag MacKinnon retweeted
We will get a lot of chancers with no background in local governance jumping on the bandwagon offering 'expertise' now this issue appears on the agenda. But Keith Yates really is expert with vast experience. This should be read, he should be heard.
sceptical.scot/2026/10/scott…
“What we learn from Pooh Bear is nothing but pure, silly tenderness for its own sake.” ♥️ #fiction #writerLift #winnie
Winnie the Pooh was published one hundred years ago today.
I cannot be sensible about this cartoon bear. I am a boy of no brain when it comes to him; all I have to say is that I feel every bit as hopeless with affection for him, every bit as grateful for his companionship in the world of my mind, as a child hugging a stuffed animal.
In the screwtape letters, when the young man dies and goes to heaven, he suddenly understands “The dim consciousness of friends about him which had haunted his solitudes from infancy.” The angels have been keeping watch over him in the nursery, whispering to him of divine love through childhood stories and imaginary friends.
What we learn about from Pooh Bear is nothing but pure, silly tenderness for its own sake: divine foolishness. It’s enough that I could almost wonder if, when I die, the child in me will cry out as Christopher Robin does at one point in the book: “Oh Pooh! Where are you?”
And maybe I’ll hear what Christopher Robin hears:
“‘Here I am,’ said a growly voice behind him.
‘Pooh!’
They rushed into each other's arms.”
Thanks Winnie, for everything. Happy 100.
Beginning of a more level playing field for small shops. Chancellor targets online marketplaces in £1bn tax crackdown #retail
thetimes.com/article/6aa6a60…
What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get tackled. Minimal action means customers may get toxic tobacco and takings are down for honourable retailers. #retail #tobacco
Seonag MacKinnon retweeted
As a former Rector of St Andrews University I respectfully urge its students not to support
someone who tries to understate the appalling psychological effects of rape
When I was a student at St Andrews University, the late great Nicholas Parsons was Rector. He was approachable, diligent, and did a proper job; students could contact him, he turned up, and he took the role seriously without turning it into a platform for ideology.
Now Q Manivannan is standing for the same position. Before becoming a Green MSP, Manivannan went on a podcast and claimed there is “definitely a demonisation of rape” and that rape is “a spectrum,” with “different modes” of consent and contexts. An apology followed, with claims of selective editing and insistence that all rape is equally serious. Rape crisis centres still called it out for minimising sexual violence.
A Rector is meant to be someone female students can trust when they need the student voice amplified on safety and assault. Electing a candidate whose public comments treated rape as a theoretical spectrum sends the opposite message to survivors: your experience can be relativised.
Gender-critical students face an extra problem. Manivannan is non-binary and insists on “they/them” pronouns. Putting someone in a position of institutional power who insists on those pronouns forces students who reject gender ideology to either comply or risk being labelled bigoted or simply not to contact their Rector at all. That’s not representation, it’s compelled speech from the person meant to open doors for them.
As an MSP representing Edinburgh and Lothians East, Q would also have less time available to his constituents.
For someone who is such a proponent of DEI, Q also seems very keen to greedily collect extra senior institutional roles for himself rather than sharing them out with others.
Nicholas Parsons showed what the Rector role should look like: friendly, diligent and focused on students. Manivannan’s record raises serious doubts about whether that standard can be met at St Andrews. Students and constituents should take note.
Seonag MacKinnon retweeted
Edinburgh Airport last night. Passengers from 3 flights bussed to, and then herded through a narrow entrance to climb a staircase, to then descend another in order to join a massive queue at passport control!
It's a dreadful experience, which feels almost third world, and a terrible welcome to our capital City.
And who owns Edinburgh Airport? The highly profitable Vinci Airports (French) and Blackrock!
The great arguments for privatisation included modernising and responding better to customer demands, but what we've ended up with in Edinburgh is fat cat profit over national pride.
Is there any evidence Russia also had an impact on the Scottish referendum?
Andy Burnham says it was clear Russia interfered in the Brexit referendum after he sought answers about the allegations when he arrived in Downing Street.
But the PM does *not* disclose who gave him the assessment, what evidence it was based on or - crucially - whether any interference had affected the result of the 2016 vote.
Last month at the UN general assembly, Burnham attacked Russian information warfare, saying there was evidence Moscow had tried to interfere with the 2019 general election.
In this podcast, he says the UK needs to be more open about attempts by hostile states to interfere in its politics, particularly as European leaders grapple with the rise of the far right.
Seonag MacKinnon retweeted
🔴EXC: Stephen Kerr, the government's Social Security Director, has caused fury among civil servants for comments on an internal message board
He told staff upset at new mandatory 40% office working days that if 'they don't like it they can leave'
scotsman.com/news/politics/a…
He says: International Congress for School Effectiveness & Improvement in 2015….education academics from Scotland congratulated by academics from around the world about reforms - downgraded knowledge, devolved decision-making to hard-pressed schools and diluted accountability.
