There has been a hiccough in uploading the prayer at the end of today’s Thought for the day, so here it is in full:   Lord, we all carry around regrets. Some can loom quite large. Help us to acknowledge them, and where possible do something to put them right. We acknowledge that there are […]

16 Today is Shrove Tuesday. In some parts of the world there are usually large ‘Mardi Gras’ carnivals on this day – but presumably they are cancelled this year, and at most there will be an online event. Often in Britain it is referred to as ‘Pancake Day’ – with pancakes served as main course

13 Figures issued by the Scottish Government suggest that all, or almost all, adult care home residents have been vaccinated, as have over 90% of care home staff. That is a tremendous achievement given all the challenges involved. The care sector had a very tough time last year – struggling to keep everyone safe, while

12           News headlines today say that the economy contracted by almost 10% last year. For most people that is a statistic that doesn’t mean a lot. But people can relate to businesses they knew closing: shops, pubs, cafes and more; people they know being made redundant, or not being offered hours of work under their

11           The sun is shining in Dumbarton, the sky is blue and the snow (such as we have) looks picturesque. The situation in other parts of the country (eg Aberdeenshire and the Borders) is rather different, where they have had heavy snow and very low temperatures. Key workers, including the staff driving the gritters and

10 There have been headlines yesterday and today about regulations coming in requiring travellers from abroad to quarantine when they arrive in this country. For many of us travel to or from ‘abroad’ is not on our radar at the moment – if we could just go to Helensburgh, or Glasgow or Braehead… But there

9              Safer Internet Day Especially during this pandemic, millions of us have relied heavily on social media and the internet to keep in touch, to shop, to keep going. However, in recent weeks we’ve seen concern about the use of social media in trying to invalidate the result of the American elections and trying to

8              International Epilepsy day The second Monday in February is International Epilepsy Day, which is marked in 130 countries to acknowledge and highlight the problems faced by people living with it, their families and carers. According to the WHO over 50m people worldwide are living with epilepsy. What is it? A sudden intense burst of

6 On Wednesday an independent report commissioned by the Scottish Government on the future of Social Care was published. Will it be turned into law, will only part of it be turned into law, what do people involved with Social Care think of its recommendations? Over the past year the role of the Social Care