Yet another new blog

For a couple of weeks now - more or less since Greta Thunberg went off on a sailing ship across the Atlantic to speak in front of the United Nations - there's been a kind of 'knee-jerk' reaction to all young people who are activists on climate change. There have been the most amazing attacks on Greta Thunberg: it seems she's not 16 at all - she's an adult; she's an actor; she's being manipulated; according to a speaker on Fox News in the USA, she is 'mentally ill.' (You know, given that the USA was founded on equality and fairness, some of the attitudes that get aired there are pretty nasty. Remember the physically disabled reporter that Donald Trump mocked during his election campaign? Bullying is what that was). Of course, Greta Thunberg is not mentally ill. She has Asperger's Syndrome. It's not a medical condition or an illness - it's a way of perceiving the world and a way of thinking that are not mainstream. It doesn't sto...

I know I'm old because I keep remembering stuff like this. Dae a hufty ? is what the three of us would say to our long-suffering, hard-working mother when she insisted we had to do something she wanted us to do. It didn't matter what it was: take the bins out, do our homework, go for messages. In the end, we always did it, of course. Dae a hufty? was just a protest. Now I find myself looking at Boris Johnson and wondering if he never had a mother (or a parent figure) who came out with the posh English equivalent of my mother's reply: Aye, ye hufty ! There was no arguing with that: there were things you had to do as your duty. You could moan about it but you couldn't refuse to do it. Somewhere the Tory party (the 'natural party of government') lost track of its duty. The Labour Party did the same. The LibDems are well on their way to losing track too. They have all lost track of the basics of politics: even if you don't mean it, you have to claim th...

Yeah, I know: I need to get out more. But I've been thinking a lot today about Boris Johnson and his pronouncements on Scotland. And I have a question: What will we do if the Tory government shuts down Holyrood and refuses to 'allow' Scotland a second referendum? I'm guessing there will be more than SNP people - us so-called 'separatists' - outraged by such a move. But as far as I can see there's nothing to stop the Tories doing it. Johnson has gone so far as to tell his BBC pals about his plans for Scotland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-49844298 And they don't include any move towards independence. It won't bother Johnson that we've already heard all the Tory guff before in Scotland - or that the political situation has shifted dramatically since 2014 - and we're a lot more sceptical than we were 5 years ago. So what will we do if we're faced with being tied to the failing state called the UK after...

We're coming up to the weekend when news papers and online media try to lighten up a bit and provide stuff like giant crosswords and quizzes. I don't have a crossword, giant or otherwise, but here's a short quiz of the week: 1  Who said:  "This Parliament is a dead Parliament, it should no longer sit. It has no moral right to sit on these green benches"? Yes, it was Geoffrey Cox, Attorney General, the senior legal figure in the current Westminster parliament. This is the man who gave the UK government wrong information about proroguing the house of commons which led to the UK government's decision to close parliament down being overturned by the Supreme Court.  Did he apologise? Far from it: he thinks this mess is all the fault of the UK's elected representatives. In particular, he seemed to be talking to his own party's MPs.  2  Who  said: "Humbug" when told off by MPs for using inflammatory language? Yes, it was the UK Prime Minister. H...

Today on Sky someone said: 'The problem is Scotland doesn't understand how Parliament works.' Really? Has that been the problem all along? Is that why we Scots are so bolshy? It's that we just don't get it. You would think after centuries of national and local government, we'd have sussed out how things work. Maybe the person who was talking meant to say: Scottish people have worked out how government works and don't necessarily like it. My own view is that our problem is that we are over-governed: we have people in the EU who make decisions about us. Then people in the UK. Then others in Scotland's parliament. And then local councils. You'll have to forgive me for saying this but I'm not sure we're any better off for having 4 different levels of management making decisions on our behalf. Because that's what politicians are these days: management. Admin. They're not under any obligation to come up with ideas and make things be...

We're used to parades in Scotland. You can call them marches if you like, but the biggest parades here right now are on behalf of Scottish Independence and they don't involve marching. People walk. There's a bit of music and a lot of flag-waving and there are weans in buggies, folk in wheelchairs and even people on motorbikes. There are speeches and concerts afterwards and folk generally have a great day out. It's a rare way to see the country and meet other people that support independence the way you do. But we're open to most kinds of walking/marching/parading/protesting in Scotland. What we're not up for are violence, confrontation, intimidation and abuse, so you might want to consider these ideas when planning a march: 1 You can march but you have to get permission from the local council. 2 You can say where you want to march but you won't be allowed to arrange the route of your march so you pass churches of a faith you don't like. 3 You c...

We'll ignore the'Tosh and piffle' comment because I don't speak 19th century English, not to mention the use of 'sung' instead of 'sang' Poor show, Eton.  Let's ask for a definition of a few other comments: - 'a few months of hardship'. Who will suffer this and what will it consist of? David Lammy's whole point is that it will be the people least able to afford hardship who will suffer most.  - 'Once proud Britons'. You just know what's coming next: The War. The bravery of the people - not people like Winnington-Havers or people like you and I who weren't alive at the time - but the poorest people in the UK at the time: in London, Coventry, Liverpool, Clydebank and Glasgow. - 'rationed suet'. What the hell is suet rationed or otherwise? Is that the level of food supply we can expect from brexit? The Great British state has rapidly gone to hell in a handcart thanks to Johnson and his pal Domini...