Sad news indeed. Rush were the first band I went to see (Tour of the Hemispheres, Edinburgh Odeon, 1979) and I’ll forever have a soft spot for them. I enjoyed Neal Peart’s books, lyrics and, yes, even his drum […]

Can’t believe no-one else voted for this – it’s ace:

It doesn’t really matter that much – there are no block votes. I agree that one union in particular could do with a clear-out though.

I may be over-hopeful, however I have a hunch that the leadership election […]

The pressing task is this: do what you can to make sure that Labour’s next leader is someone electable.

A 1,000 piece Hieronymus Bosch jigsaw puzzle. That’s my 2020 sorted out.

Always thought it looked beautiful at night. I wonder how much of an influence that was on the Cocteaus?

Brilliant. Grangemouth?

1. Out of the Ordinary – Stranger Things Have Happened
2. Belle and Sebastian – Days of the Bagnold Summer
3. Hania Rani – Esja
4. Will Burns and Hannah Peel – Chalk Hill Blue
5. Vin Gordon – African […]

It’s more mealy-mouthed than that – it aspires to work towards that goal. Which is fine. I didn’t like the sneering tone that document takes towards medical science though. In sharp contrast to climate change science.

The Scottish Greens and SNP effectively collude to game the system – the Greens do not stand in the constituency section of the ballot, only the List section.

Help – I’m being held prisoner in a Christmas cracker factory!

I had my spinal cord de-tethered a couple of years ago. No, not really in the same class as above but still recovering. Anyway, here the Magnetic Fields with a song about Weird Diseases:

I think that is an important observation. We often forget that the armed forces are a major source of employment for parts of the country.

No. Apart from the intrinsic ludicrousness of the task 1) the Greens want to ban the humane use of animals in medical research ie they want to ban medical research 2) The Greens in Scotland are separatists and […]

RLB? I fear that the country is not ready for someone with a comedy voice. I keep hoping that an interviewer is going to contrive a situation where she has to say “Shirley Bassey”.

I have rewatched the clip with Alan Johnson several times. I find it strangely therapeutic.

The Labour voter coalition contains a large proportion of people who are essentially small ‘c’ conservatives. They’ll vote Labour because they perceive it is in their interests to do so and despite more liberal […]

Yep – cultists gonna cult.

That “hated pseudo-progressivism of Tony Blair” democratised society, massively increased spending on health, education and science and shifted wealth from the haves to the have-nots. That’s real changes to real […]

Labour is also losing – badly – in pro-Remain Scotland. To the extent that the nationalists (who as recently as 2014 were campaigning to leave the EU) have successfully painted themselves as internationalists. […]