Nicholas Baines

LATEST ARTICLES ( 612 )

• Strictly Traitors

  This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show with Scott Mills.Well, this is going to be embarrassing, but I’ll go fo... Read more

  Posted on 28 October 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Praying Together Again

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Yesterday, for the first time in half a millennium the English... Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• You Want It Darker

  This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show with Scott Mills.Get this: this day in 2016 Leonard Cohen released his... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Today, Tomorrow, and Yesterday

  This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show with Scott Mills.Bob Dylan is coming to Leeds next month and this has... Read more

  Posted on 14 October 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Ugly Duckling, Good Listener

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.There once was an ugly duckling … whose story improved with the... Read more

  Posted on 18 August 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Whose Kingdom?

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.It’s not just what we say that matters, but also how we say it.Every... Read more

  Posted on 11 August 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Lies, Damned Lies, …

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Some people are good with words, some are good with numbers. Read more

  Posted on 04 August 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Final Synod Address

  This is the basic text of my final presidential address to the Leeds Diocesan Synod on Saturday 14 June 2025. This was the 31st Synod since the diocese began... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• The Best Maps …

  This is the script of my Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 3 June 2025 – belatedly posted because of illness.“Sometimes the best map will not guide... Read more

  Posted on 06 June 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• World Book Day 2025

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.So, the world is full of sound and fury. Read more

  Posted on 06 March 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Faith and Science

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Apart from being my sister’s birthday, today sees the coincidence of... Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Iraq and Uncertainty

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.In the last few months I have visited parts of the world where life wa... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Return

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.The week after next I’ll be traveling out to Northern Iraq. Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2025 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• The Holy and the Broken Hallelujah

  This is the script of this mornings Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball (for the last time).I realise that December has one big... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2024 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Syria

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.I have been following events in Syria in recent weeks with considerabl... Read more

  Posted on 09 December 2024 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Advent

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.This weekend I felt the joy of a baby’s birth – on the same day as a... Read more

  Posted on 02 December 2024 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Dylan: Poets and Prophets

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.I went to see Bob Dylan in Liverpool last night. Read more

  Posted on 04 November 2024 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Budgets

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.I’ve heard a faint rumour that a budget might be coming our way soon. Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2024 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Back to the Blues

  This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball.I seem to spend a lot of time on trains. Read more

  Posted on 22 October 2024 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Big Questions

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.How do you go from being a spy to being a vicar? Read more

  Posted on 08 October 2024 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY