Yet another new blog

That has to be the most annoying phrase of the 2020 US presidential election. I'd only ever heard 'thank you for having me' on US tv till recently, but it hasn't taken long for it to spread to the monkey-see-monkey-do journalists in the UK. Where the US presidential election is concerned, if you live in Europe, you're in one of two camps. Either you're fed up with the whole business and have told everyone on social media that you couldn't care less who the next US president is. Or you're watching in amazement as a man who still claims to be the defender of US democracy does his best to undermine the democratic process.  I'm in the second group.  We honestly can't afford to ignore what's going on in the USA. The Westminster government is keeping very quiet. And we know why: Trump doesn't rate them and Biden is suspicious of them.   I like the USA - what I've seen of it - the east coast, the west coast and the southern states. I've ...

I'm watching and reading about the after-effects of Covid 19. These involve people who apparently recover well but are left with terrible after-effects that ruin their health and their lives.  Here are some people I know about:  One woman (38), a health club instructor, a Zumba, yoga and Pilates teacher, was leading classes 44 hours a week. Now she can't work. Another woman (31), a professional dancer, has contracted a severe form of Guilain-Barre. After 4 months she can walk again but her future is uncertain. A PE teacher (35) is still off work after 5 months, although he has never taken sick leave in 12 years. The first person I described here is self-employed. The other two are covered by employers' and state health schemes. I hope they all make a good recovery and suffer no long-term ill-effects - or end up on benefits long term. That's no life for anyone.  But I'd suggest that nobody of any age should take it for granted that they can "ride out" the v...

I'm going to make a wild guess here.  I am the only person in the UK who read a bit about the pandemic before this one (the so-called Spanish Flu of 1918) and realised there would be a a Second Wave of Covid-19 about 6-12 months after the First Wave. I must be the only one because how else would you explain the fact that the UK government wasted the entire summer doing nothing very much by way of planning for the Second Wave? Or listening to the medical, research and public health people? Or even warning people that the pandemic wasn't over?  There is a phenomenon known among secondary teachers as "So what did you think would happen next?" Adolescents are not good at working out the consequences of their actions. So if you pour a can of juice over the guy next to you and a teacher sees it, there will be consequences. And definitely not the kind you want. But you tend to forget that in the heat of the moment.  I used to define adolescence as any age from 12 to 23. Stup...

 In a way, I should be happy that the British Tories are too thick to organise themselves.  I'm reading right now about movements in the USA that are openly or covertly supported by Donald Trump and the Republican Party and their hangers-on.  Boogaloo is the new one.  You can read about it here: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/whitmer-conspiracy-allegations-tied-boogaloo-movement-n1242670?fbclid=IwAR3cwWJLptngSLlDmEUzEVU8L50VsxUfGvSn6vu870_WdUjvLbo_nDOHDuE Americans are good at making up names like this.  Apparently, Boogaloo is another right wing militia group. Some of its members were involved in the planned abduction (and murder?) of the legally-elected governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer.  Sometimes, Republican politicians fail to reveal themselves because they're too scared to declare who they really are and what they really stand for. These days Republicans like Trump are worse than any right wing militias: they are happy to unleash gun...

Four months ago, I saw on Facebook an "ad" for a research project: <<The research is conducted by clinical psychologists at the University of Oxford and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The research is approved by the University of Oxford Central University Research Ethics Committee (R69638/RE001). It is funded by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre.>>  The research is looking into how people's mental health is being affected by Covid-19 and it asks for volunteers. If you're interested in taking part, please don't contact me. Google one of the organisations above.  I agreed to take part back in May. I filled in a long and detailed questionnaire, and now the researchers are back to ask more questions, albeit in a slightly shorter questionnaire, thankfully. I'm guessing here, in a totally amateurish way, that their first bit of research maybe gave the researchers reasons to do a follow-up - in other words, they found grounds for furt...

It's partly about visits to people in care homes. Visits are limited right now because of the pandemic. A small number of relatives (about 40, I see on the BBC website) want more freedom to visit. I wonder how many people live in care homes. Is 40 a representative number?   It's awful, this. And I would love to have some guidance on it. I'm not looking for political guidance - I regard both the Scottish Government and Dr Donald McAskill and Robert Kilgour (on behalf of care home owners) as offering political advice.  The issue for me is people. We all know people who have relatives in care homes. They want what's best for them and they are afraid for their relatives' future in this pandemic. At the same time, people want to visit their relatives and we know it's good for them to have visits.  And at the back of everyone's mid should be the understanding that eventually we will all approach the stage where we will need to be in a care home.  How do we manage ...

 Here's a Commonwealth joke for you: Q What's bordering on insanity? A Wales and Scotland. No, I don't think England or English people are insane. But they are definitely getting a bad press.  I don't believe for one minute that England is populated by right-wing crazies, staging demos in Brighton to fight off the hordes of furriners trying to get there in wee boats from Europe. Ignoring advice to wear masks and observe safe-distancing.  Nor is England overrun by Covid protesters marching around Trafalgar Square, waving placards and claiming the virus is a government plot or a conspiracy by the Russians and the Chinese to attack 'British' freedom. They too refuse to wear masks and observe safe-distancing - oh, and, of course, they take their little kids with them, thus putting them at risk. Action that would have social work at your door if you were living in Leicester or Bolton.  And England is definitely not full of people who can't see a day off coming wi...

Three years ago I adopted Missy. She was 9, had all her injections, was chipped and spayed and insured. She had apparently always lived in a flat, just as I do. Sadly, her human had died and I was told by a neighbour that he had always worried that she would never survive a cattery. She looked to be perfect for me.  I've always had cats, although mostly they've been outdoor cats.  Missy was pretty traumatised when she got here in the cat basket. I spent a lot of time socialising her. It was a while before she answered to her name. Now she eats well. Sleeps on my bed. Is very vocal when she wants something - like breakfast at 4.30am. I've got used to just getting up and feeding her then.  She has her little ways. The big thing is she doesn't play.  A friend tells me we often misunderstand "companion animals" even when we've had them around us all our and their lives: for example, a lot of dogs can't swim and have to be taught, although humans always thi...

As the English schools head back - albeit with a high absence rate - the media have at last picked up on the scandalous cost of school uniform. I'll come clean. I loathe school uniform. I have unhappy memories of my mother going into debt every year with provvie cheques and menojes to be able to kit out 3 kids with all the stuff we had to have in order not to stand out at school as being different: blazers, pleated skirts, jumpers, shirts, trousers, ties (that nobody could knot), PE kit, schoolbags, etc. And the shoes - o my gawd, the shoes - that we grew out of in the middle of the school year and which my mother struggled to replace. And, of course, whatever we did we were different. For a start, we were being educated in a Glasgow scheme school. That fact overshadowed just about everything we did. School uniform is expensive. Thanks to a decade of austerity, a lot of families find their wages have declined. Some families are now dependent on local school uniform banks wh...

I saw a woman on C4 News on Saturday night talking about the English schools going back next week. She's not sending her 6 year old daughter to school just yet. She'll wait to "see how it goes" and may send her later. It occurs to me that this woman is happy to use other people's kids as sacrificial lambs: send them in, see if they catch the virus and if they don't, send your own kid in. Sadly, she wasn't challenged on this attitude. I'm not a particularly moral person but I find that view quite offensive. She was asked about parents who have to work and can't be at home with their children. She was, she said, "between jobs". She looked uncomfortable at being asked about this and she wasn't pushed on it. Me, I wanted to know: what are she and her daughter living on? A partner's income? Savings? Benefits? But it was what she said after that that really offended my teacherish heart: she thought her teaching of her daughter for t...

Let's just imagine that Scotland takes its independence in 2021. That will leave Northern Ireland and Wales thinking: "Bloody hell, we're on our own here now with the loony Tories". And they too will start planning their departure into the big wide world. But what happens next? First, Englandshire (as I see Little England these days) will leave the EU once and for all. After all, folks, that's what a majority of the voters wanted. No, in fact that's not true: somewhere between 34% and 43% of the voters of England wanted to leave the EU but they still live in a world of First Past the Post voting so the result drags everyone out of the EU whether they voted for it or not. And they can't change their minds. They may have known very early on that the EU referendum was purely shite and purely advisory (as all referendums are) but English voters don't seem to have the stomach to argue with the likes of the unelected prime minister Dominic Cummings. So...

...about having a Tory government in power in Westminster for 10 years may be that there will be many people in the UK under the age of 40 who don't remember any other kind of government. I'm not saying the governments that preceded the Tories were good but we knew at least that change was possible. It was possible to have a government that wasn't so arrogant that the Prime Minister appointed a bunch of hedge-fund millionaires with no political experience as MPs and called them his cabinet. The PM didn't dump most of the experienced politicians in his party out of government so no one could argue with him. He didn't bypass parliament and senior civil servants and replace them all with personally-appointed advisers. And he didn't bugger off on holiday several times in the middle of a pandemic, leaving an inexperienced ministerial appointee and one of his advisers in charge of the country. Do you really need evidence that government by SPAD (Special Advise...

I admit I treat all writing by journalists - and all presentations by TV and radio journalists - with suspicion and I foolishly assume that everybody else does too. Tonight I got into a heated discussion with someone I don't know who has 'friended' me on Facebook all the way from California. I like California. I also like Californians. Not always the most down-to-earth people in the world in my experience but very helpful and kind on a personal level. The subject under discussion was UK politics. At one point he told me off for lecturing him. I had to say I wasn't lecturing - I was correcting him because he had written some stuff that was frankly bollocks. (No, I didn't write that word. He's Californian. I doubt if he would recognise it). He had been telling me that UK politics is "centre left". I was a bit surprised that an American should claim that and asked how he knew. He said he considered himself well read. I asked what he read. He said h...

I've been watching on the telly as people pour off ferries at the Channel ports, desperate to escape being quarantined by getting back from France before 4am. I'm pretty sure the travellers aren't just English but people from all over the British Isles. So let me ask them a few questions.  What were you doing going abroad? It's just 5 weeks since we were in lockdown. Have you so little imagination you couldn't picture the virus still being around and - as my granny used to say - just sit on yer erse for a wee while? When we were in lockdown in the UK, which was in fact a fairly relaxed form of lockdown compared to what was (and is) going on in other parts of the world like NZ, Australia, South Korea and Spain, did we obey the rules in order to stay alive? When lockdown ended, did you go rushing out to the shops or did you decide to take your time, choose quiet periods for shopping, wearing a mask, or maybe just go on with online shopping? I'm guessing th...

 I live alone. I have done for many years and I like it that way. But I'm not a solitary person. I like company. I like being with family and friends and having a nice meal, several glasses of wine and a bit of banter. The lockdown has not been good for me but I've got through it. Living alone, I've acquired hobbies over the years that keep me entertained when I can't get out and about.  I've noticed many married people, left on their own after bereavement, struggle to handle the solitary life. Most of them come round, make new friends and develop new interests. There are, though, a few people who just don't have the knack of living on their own. Life must be pretty difficult for them. This pandemic is not over and anyone who thinks we can all just get 'back to normal' is a fool. But today I saw an article in which people in the north-west of England complained the lockdown had been lifted too soon and they were now heading back into a very restricted li...

If you're a parent or a school student encountering exam results for the first time, I hope all went well and it's onward and upward for you. If you didn't do as well as you'd hoped, dry your eyes, talk to the school and decide if you want an appeal. If you do, good luck. If you decide not to appeal, get advice all the same and then move on. Whatever you do, pay no attention to the media. Me, I'm hardened to it all. We've had decades of the media undermining young people and teachers on results day. They tell us: - Results are too good. - Results are bad. - Too many disadvantaged pupils are getting poor results. - Pupils at 'posh' schools do better. No definition of what a posh school is and no mention of how hard all teachers work - every frickin one of them - to improve kids' exam results and thus their chances in life. We know there's a problem for learners in deprived areas of Scotland. We're working on it. One way is to give child...

I've had a free blog site with WordPress for years. Just in the past few weeks, I can't make contact with other people on WordPress, and my attempts to contact WordPress all seem to involve me paying money. I'm not sure I want to bother doing that. We're all surrounded these days by people who want to take money off us. I've registered this blog address with WordPress - just in case I find some way to keep the blog going:  rantingoldbagsblog2749138905.wordpress.com I'm not awfully well right now.  Certainly not well enough to take on a battle with a commercial site. So I may soon be communicating via Facebook's chocolate teapot pages. When I was a teacher, I learned my nickname was Arnie because of the number of times I told kids: "You get on with that - I'll be back".  If you don't recognise the reference, are you sure you were really alive in the late 20th century? 

I started writing this last night (Sunday) and gave up. One reason was that Missy the cat came and joined me on the keyboard and it's quite difficult to keep your ideas together with a cat walking across your writing. She's a good looking cat, isn't she? She is back again. Well, she's a cat and cats go where they want, so she's now on my keyboard.  But I've maybe got my ideas more in line than they were last night. A cat in the UK got Covid-19. Social media was at once full of panic: we're all going to die because of cats carrying the virus. Of course, that's not what this is about: the poor cat is the only one of 401 cats in the sample that had Covid-19 and this poor cat got it from his or her owners. As tv shows say, no cats were harmed in the making of this show, so the cat and her humans are alive and well. Another day, another scare story. The afternoon's scary story was that Dr Fauci, the US's top medic/scientist, has been accused...

There's a good chance you've never given Gaelic a second's thought. You may have noticed the word POILEAS on a police car but you'll have shrugged it off. Maybe you've come across the Alba Channel on TV in your desperate search during the Covid lockdown for any kind of footie to watch, even if it comes with a Gaelic commentary. Maybe your wean watches Peppa Pig in Gaelic. Mostly, you probably do what the First Minister suggests during the Covid-19 pandemic: you keep the heid and move on. Unless, of course, you're a member of the bampot brigade and you're hanging about Twitter and Facebook just waiting to be offended by any reference to Scottishness and are convinced that the "outrageous spending" on a "dead language" by the Scottish Government is an affront, part of a plan by Nicola Sturgeon (because everything is her fault, innit?) to force us all to speak Gaelic. No, I'm not making that up: I've come across quite a few refer...

The First Minister has been on the TV a lot in the last couple of weeks, because the infection and death rates from Covid-19 have dropped dramatically in Scotland. I wouldn't go so far as to claim the FM is responsible for that herself. I tend to the view that we, the people, have done it but politicians listening to the scientists and following the advice of people working in public health certainly won't have done any harm. Tonight Channel 4 News decided to give us a new angle on Covid-19 in Scotland. A 'human interest story'. On came Ciaran Jenkins to introduce a wee fillum from North Ayrshire. North Ayrshire is one of our more deprived council areas. It was a heavily industrialised region but has suffered high unemployment for decades now. There's a lot of under-achievement in its schools and it has historic levels of poverty. It's also where the First Minister and her family come from. Coincidence? Well, only if you believe in coincidences. I don't....