Blog - Chris Creegan

Building a think-tank for Scotland — with a little help from Yo-Yo Ma

09/09/2018

On Saturday 20th September 2014, my husband and I sauntered along Edinburgh’s George Street. Just two days after the independence referendum we, like many other Scots, were sweating the small stuff while occasionally pondering on the existential elephant that lumbered along beside us. We’d left the polling station having placed our crosses in different boxes. […]

Growing up gay — what we must learn from the tragic death of Jamel Myles

29/08/2018

How old were you when you first knew you were straight? If you are straight, I wonder if anyone has ever asked you that question. You may be the exception that proves the rule but I’d hazard a guess they haven’t. Because that’s not how it works. But as the tragic death of Jamel Myles […]

How running caught up with me – and why I can’t stop yet

29/07/2018

‘Honestly, Chris, the main issue is that you have osteoarthritis in your knee and the meniscus has a short shelf life.’ One of the best running physios around cutting to the chase. The bone even. That’s all there is when cartilage has crumbled to nothing. Peel back the medical jargon and it’s what the MRI […]

Obesity needs drastic action – but name calling individuals won’t do

18/07/2018

When I passed the 11 plus in 1972, my mum sent me to tea with Charles. Charles was the other boy in my class who would be going to the grammar school that autumn. So my mum and his mum thought we should be mates. It didn’t really work out that way, although I did […]

Trump, the F word and an ignominious welcome

15/07/2018

Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin is a semi-autobiographical account of his life in the city in the early 1930s. By the time Isherwood died in 1986, just three years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the city had experienced not just a home-grown fascist dictatorship, near obliteration and division, but a Soviet imposed communist […]

James and Adam – and a world with Down’s syndrome

13/07/2018

In less than a fortnight, the World Down Syndrome Congress arrives in Glasgow. It’s the first time the triennial event has been held in the UK for 32 years. The Congress offers an unmissable opportunity to join the worldwide Down’s syndrome community for three days of discussion, debate and celebration. For people in Scotland, it’s […]

Some thoughts on living with dying – and remembering

10/07/2018

In July 1995, my partner of 10 years, Lawrence, left me. He’d been leaving for a while. First his body and then, in the last few months, his mind. Not a sudden parting, more an ebbing away. Like a lingering tide, occasionally he would threaten to come back. But the pull was unstoppable. He had […]

How Brexit failed the past and stole the future

23/06/2018

Once upon a time, progress was inevitable. Wasn’t it? Neither simple nor linear. Trial and error had its piece to play. But we learn from history. Don’t we? I certainly hoped so. But I’m beginning to wonder. I’m a child of the 20th century. And as the second decade of the 21st century draws to […]