Year: 2021

When John Finlayson was growing up, almost everyone in his community on the Isle of Skye was fluent in Gaelic. Now, despite decades of official support for what was once the dominant language of most of the Scottish Highlands and Islands, Finlayson can only think of a single neighbour to the family croft on the island who speaks it.

“We’ve been trying to make Gaelic sustainable for many years. So why is it we are failing? That’s the big question,” said Finlayson, 63, a former headteacher who chairs the Highland local council’s education committee.

It is a question of increasing

Once the engine room of a global empire, Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has in recent years been stripped of influence, prestige and self-confidence.

Britain’s chaotic evacuation effort from Afghanistan in August brought the department’s inadequacies into sharp focus, according to a whistleblower, but critics say the FCDO’s handling of the crisis highlights broad problems in a department once regarded as the Rolls-Royce of Whitehall.

“In domestic terms, the FCDO is at the lowest level of operational competence and respect than at any time in the 45 years I have been studying UK external policy,” said Professor Michael Clarke,