Satire, psychology and social media: welcome to the Sunday Herald's three brilliant new columnists

With almost 25 years of clinical experience, mostly in the public sector, Glasgow-based Burns has treated a wide range of patients, including many who have suffered emotional and sexual abuse. She also spent four years in Ireland, where she worked with victims of the infamous Magdalene laundries.

“Mine is an unusual job in that you see people when they are very troubled,” says Burns. “People come to see me because they have a dilemma or crisis that is impacting on their life in such a serious way that they can’t function.

“They feel overwhelmed and I help them to think differently. I help them have more understanding and empathy for themselves so that hopefully they are able to find a way to move on with their lives.”

She will bring a sense of this to her new column for the Sunday Herald, which will offer a psychological take on news events, whether that entails looking at the issues around specific cases, analysing the actitons of people in the news, or exploring public reaction to high-profile events.

Asked which groups in society struggle most with psychological issues, Burns shows particular concern for young people.

“I think young people today have more mental health problems than in previous generations,” she says. “There are many reasons for this, including the breakdown of families, not playing outside enough and the isolation that occurs when they are stuck in with a computer or a mobile phone.”

Many are presenting with serious problems such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and self-harm, according to Burns, which is only being made worse by celebrity culture in the digital age.

“Young adults now have higher expectations of life in terms of their success and achievements – silly things like celebrity, fame and money seem to matter hugely,” she says.

“There is a serious mismatch between their aspirations and the skills and experiences that would lead to them gaining that “success”, because they’ve been in their bedrooms on a computer or a mobile phone, reading “news” about the Kardashians.

“Then when they’re at college they find it very hard to make real friends - they’re all often not used to relating to people in a meaningful way, or even just chatting to others in class or the canteen.”

Burns admits that she can’t help herself from viewing the news through a professional prism, and mentions the recent case of 16-year-old Becky Watts, who was murdered and dismembered by her stepbrother Nathan Matthews.

“Matthews must have had a pathological envy of Becky, or a pathological resentment of her to want to dismember her in that way,” she says. “I suspect he had an undiagnosed personality disorder. The fact that this wasn’t picked up in his family is so unfortunate – there would have been many clues. Why don’t people see what’s in front of them? It is interesting and also very frustrating. There is always a backstory.”

“Crimes can’t always be prevented but there are always clues,” she adds. “If people get the right support or have someone around to help them to think about the dynamics of their families, then maybe things can turn out differently.”

Burns hopes her insights will help readers think about issues in a different way, which could assist them in helping others - or even just enrich their experience and offer them a wider perspective on life.

HARDEEP SINGH KOHLI

Trying to pin Hardeep Singh Kohli down to one topic of conversation isn’t easy. He’s got one of those minds that even as it is describing one thing, is already three steps ahead pre-empting the next level of argument or off on a tangent exploring something else altogether. The delivery can be a bit disorientating – but the chat is thought-provoking and brilliantly funny.

These days Kohli is something of a modern renaissance man – a writer, broadcaster, chef, comedian, restaurateur, and documentary maker who is about to add another string to his bow: columnist with the Sunday Herald.

After spending most of his adult life in London, he moved back to Scotland last year to campaign for a Yes vote in the referendum, and speaks with the zeal of someone who is still revelling in the joys of homecoming.

“When you’re the child of an immigrant and you’re a proud Glaswegian, home is a moving target,” he says. “So when I talk about coming home, it’s not just about a physical move – it’s coming home politically, philosophically, to journalism and to my city and my country.

“It’s amazing being home - I’ve missed the chat so much. I also find it deeply emotional.”

Kohli says he’ll be using his column to take a bitingly satirical look at life in modern Scotland. But how does he think the country has changed in the years he’s been away?

“For me what’s really significant is that since devolution we’ve lost that thing where we blame the English for everything,” says the 46-year-old, who is the older brother of comedian and actor Sanjeev Kohli. “Don’t get me wrong there is still some anti-English sentiment, but we have a new-found maturity and ability to grow as a nation – that’s very live and present.

“We know exactly who we are these days and that really congealed around the referendum. People are leaving London and they are coming to live in places like Dennistoun – it’s such an exciting time to be Scottish.”

Following the disappointment of the No vote in the referendum, Kohli says he is keen to talk to people from both sides of the political divide about where the country goes from here.

“Bridges have to be built between the Yes and No voters, and I’m really interested in doing some of that building,” he adds. “I want to commune with folk and engage with them.

“It’s really nihilistic and anti the Yes cause to think that people who voted No are not patriotic. I think there were lots of No voters who actually wanted to vote Yes.

“I remember speaking to a group of amazingly impressive young Scottish businesswomen who were all voting No because they were not convinced by the economic argument. I think we can convince them of the argument.”

And he says humour has an important role to play in this.

“People in the west of Scotland have an ability to laugh at themselves that is legendary – but to be honest there wasn’t a huge amount of room for that during the referendum. We were being bombarded by the mass ranks of the establishment media – it was a full-time job just refuting the propaganda. It was a serious business.

“In this column I’ll mainly be focusing on soft rather than hard politics. But I also think we all need a laugh at the moment – and if I can’t give folk a laugh then I might as well pack it all in.”

Kohli says he can’t wait to get stuck in.

“Look, I would not be the man I am – and many people would wish I wasn’t – if I wasn’t from Glasgow.

“I owe my city and my country a great deal, so it’s lovely to be home and get involved with projects that are part of a bigger picture – for me, this column is a big part of that.”

ANGELA HAGGERTY

“You discover a lot by analysing how people respond to each other on social media,” smiles Angela Haggerty. “It’s amazing how many high profile people say consistently stupid things on Twitter. It’ll be good to take a shot at that now and then.”

The journalist and commentator is telling me what she’s looking forward to most about writing her new column for the Sunday Herald, which will take a wry look at the week in social media.

If anyone knows about the power of social platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it’s the 29-year-old editor of the Common Space digital news and comment site, who was the subject of an online hate campaign when she edited a book about the collapse of Rangers. In a landmark case, the ringleader of the abuse was sentenced to six months in jail in 2014.

This didn’t put Haggerty off using social media, though she says she has a healthy awareness of how it is used for both good and ill.

“There’s definitely a gender issue on social media,” she says. “Women have a great platform to raise their voice – everyone does.

“But women doing this seems to upset some people. You just have to look at the response when women and men make similar points – women tend to get the biggest backlash. Even if it’s not direct sexist comments, it’s the fury of the reaction towards women.”

But the positives outweigh the negatives, according to Haggerty, who cites the referendum as a landmark in digital interaction and community-building.

“Social media gives people a platform to be involved in a conversation, to take part in politics, as we saw over the last couple of years,” she says. “Social media was massively influential and important during the referendum – we mustn’t underestimate the power it held. Social media transformed Scottish politics and we should be aware of that, and try and encourage the positives that come from that.

“Whenever you see stories in the media about social media it tends to revolve around the negatives – trolling, online abuse, or people actually breaking laws.

“But there’s also a really funny side to Twitter - that’s why we’re all on there and why we still do it. It will be nice to pull print readers into some of that – some may feel that Twitter and Facebook is passing them by. It’ll be nice to mix the two elements.”

Like most journalists, Haggerty uses Twitter in both a professional and personal capacity – sometimes merging the two – and particularly enjoys how humour is used in the Twittersphere.

“The way people interact on Twitter is very funny,” she adds. “You only have to look at the hashtags that reflect the news. After the recent Paris attacks, for example, obviously everyone was very down and devastated – it was one of those stories that dominated the whole feed and it felt like it was inappropriate to talk about anything else.

“Then Kaye Burley Sky news anchor tweeted a picture of dog with ‘sadness in his eyes’. Everyone picked up the hashtag and ran with it, tweeting random pictures of ‘sad’ animals and objects – there was a particularly good one of a washing machine. All this showed a glimmer of light amid the darkness - it was OK to laugh again.

“It almost doesn’t matter which side of the political divide you come from, social media allows you to share humour.”