Yet another new blog

I remember very clearly when  the lockdown started: lots of well-informed people appeared on TV, online and in the newspapers telling us what we had to do and why. Public health, politicians, medics. And we went for it - well, most of us in Scotland did. I can't speak for anywhere else. It was too scary not to do what was asked of us. There were stories about groups of what are usually referred to as 'kids' gathering in local parks to drink and have a laugh. Probably not much 'social distancing' going on there, I would think. But they weren't normally doing any harm, except to each other and, lucky for them, they're in a low-risk group where C-19 is concerned at least. Generally, people did what the right thing. But unlocking lockdown? Did I miss the bit where another lot of well-informed people came onto TV and told us about the effect on human beings of being cooped up at home for 13 weeks? Especially the effect on young people in their early to mid teen...

This is the third time I've tried to post on this topic and have been kicked off Wordpress. But here we go again. I saw a man  on the TV news walking about with a wand thingy spraying who know what on to cashpoints and the buttons on pedestrian crossings. This was filmed as if hygiene was something new and I have to ask: Isn't this the sort of hygiene we were meant to be doing for decades anyway, without waiting for a global pandemic to give us a nudge in the right direction? Think of all those hours spent (wasted?) telling people - kids at school, posters in restaurants and pub toilets  - to wash their hands after they pee and not to cough or sneeze in other people's faces. And yet, I've seen apparently decent guys come out of restaurant toilets zipping up their troosers, which made me wonder if any hygiene has been observed at all.  It also makes me wonder if the hours spent teaching kids about things like road safety, safe cycling, safe sex, come to that, are w...

I've got nothing against Milton Keynes and, maybe if I knew the man, I'd have nothing against him either. He's an MP and is now something in the Scottish Office (if that's what it's still called). Sorry. I don't know the man's name. And I don't know what his job is. I did google it but I came up blank. But he's a big wig in Scotland now. Allegedly. This is not how we do politics in Scotland. We may hate the politicians in power or aiming to be in power, but at least we know who the hell they are and what they're getting paid for. We tend not to change the staff very often, unlike the Tories at Westminster, who seem to have a new prime minister every few years. No, that's not my fantasy - that's a fact. Some might say that's why Scotland is in the parlous state it's in now. There are many former office-bearers who should have been chucked out on their collective arses - Brown, Darling, McConnell, Gray, Davidson, etc but no, t...

My last blog post about the history of statues an 'at brought a few replies, not all of them friendly. So, true confession time: I'm not a historian. I did study history at secondary school: 'British and European History' - yes that's what it was called in the Scottish syllabus back in the olden days, as if Britain and Europe were separate entities. (Scotland never got a menshie, of course). I then studied French at university and found myself forced to study European but mainly French history for another two years. By the end, I knew more than anyone needs to know about the French Revolution, Napoleon and the Restoration of the French Monarchy, the causes of World War 1, the chaos that passed for government in France (and Germany) in the 1920s and 1930s. I could at one time recite the terms of the Treaty of Versailles 1919 in both French and English. History back then stopped at 1940. Then I went to live in France and discovered that I'd been taught histo...

The National and the National on Sunday run extensive letter pages and the letters are often pretty good. Last Sunday, I saw this: <<I am surprised that, in all the kerfuffle over the British involvement in slavery, nobody has objected to the office of the Secretary of State for Scotland being headquartered at 1 Melville Crescent.>>  No, don't google it! I've done it for you. Here he is: Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville. And he has this distinction: <<The 150ft Melville Monument in St Andrew Square honours 18th Century politician  Henry Dundas , who delayed the abolition of the slave trade.>> I could google some more and find Old Henry's life story on wikipedia, but why would I bother? I didn't know anything about the man before and I don't need to know any more about him now.  Remember the old saying: In this life, you can serve as a wonderful example or a dire warning. I know which camp Old Henry is in.  He can make no ...

I've been watching neo-Nazis attacking the police in London today. Hundreds of them. Spitting, throwing bottles and fireworks and giving Nazi salutes (something that is illegal in Germany). Some wearing football colours. Not that I even begin to understand the mindset that equates neo-Nazism with football.  Apparently, they went to London to defend the statue of Winston Churchill from anti-racism activists. The Black Lives Matter people had already called off their planned demo, but that didn't stop the far right or a small group of young people claiming to represent Black Lives Matter. The fact that Boris Johnson tweeted 8 times about the 'national hero Winston Churchill' - but not once about Black Lives Matter - may not have given extremists the encouragement they needed but what are the odds?  These thugs are said to have been joined by 'far-left protestors' but I can't find out who they were - if they existed. But neo-Nazis, statues and even Bori...

When I was a teacher, I never used the word 'teenager'. I still don't. Some of the young people I worked with were cleverer than me and have gone on to become politicians, academics, artists, theatre producers, farmers, etc.   Calling them teenagers made no attempt to identify who they actually were.   Some were irritating little sods but others were smart as whips. I object to the word 'pensioner' for the same   reason. Just recently, I was complimented by a 111 call responder for being 'so alert'.   That was after she'd asked me my date of birth. I wasn't phoning about anything to do with my age. I was looking for advice about how to deal with a flare-up of collagenous colitis. This is a challenge during a pandemic when it seems the world is focussed on Covid-19. It seems people lose brain power when they reach pension age -  whatever that age is - and that allows the people they deal with to treat them as morons.   Newspapers are the wors...

First I had a flare-up of colitis. Then one of the bulbs in the bathroom light fitting went out and I can't get up there to replace it. Then a hook on the bedroom curtains fell off and I don't know how to put it back. For the sake of my mental health I went to bed and decided to stay away from the internet and especially Facebook. But this morning I went online for a look. The BBC Scotland website tells me "hundreds' have been found to have Covid-19 after admission to hospital. Did people get it before or after they got into hospital? Hell, I don't know and it looks as if the BBC don't know either. What happened to these folk? If they all developed C-19, what was their survival rate? Nothing from the wee guy with the teeth that I occasionally see on the Scottish News. But following their usual procedure of firing off claims over the weekend when there's nobody around in the Scottish Government to reply to them, the BBC further tell us that "not a...

I saw photos of Alok Sharma, the Tories' Business Secretary, coughing and spluttering in the House of Commons and wondered - not for the first time - what kind of fruitcakes are running this government.  But I know the answer to that. I'm guessing the decision to bring the House of Commons together again in person in a chamber that isn't big enough to let all MPs sit down to begin with was left to Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg. You know Jacob, often referred to as the Minister for the 18th Century. Since Jacob doesn't have a title, I'm guessing he's just an ordinary punter like the rest of us and is entitled to a vote. As a voter, he should know that voters are entitled to contact their MPs, MSPs, MEPs and local councillors. We can do it in person or by text or email or letter. Our contact is remote. We're used to that. And we manage fine. In some amazingly developed parts of the world (like Scotland and most of Europe), elected representati...

Someone on Facebook tonight refused to get involved in a discussion of racism because it's 'a minefield'. Sure is, pal. Turn on your TV and there it is. It's not just an American problem. It's  the  American problem, born of centuries of exploitation of other races, the failure of successive governments to do anything much to create a fairer society - and fear. Just pure fear. The fear that started out as white people being scared of blacks once they had been freed from slavery has now turned into paranoia, some of it encouraged by Donald Trump. Decades of work by equal rights workers have amounted to nothing. For some Americans, the only way to be is white. Other races - Native Americans, descendants of former African slaves, immigrants and the children of immigrants, whether they are Indian or Chinese or Mexican - they are not the way America is supposed to be. They are deviants. The way to be is white. To get away from all this -  and in my defence it's b...