Quintin Jardine's blog

New age media, okay? The Shereen programme doesn’t air till Sunday, but our interview is live already, on the BBC website. If you’d like to listen, copy this link and paste into a new tab. It should be available globally;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00jlwjy

If it doesn’t work for you, try logging on to the BBC website, navigate to Radio Scotland, click on the ‘Presenters’ section, select Shereen Nanjiani and you’ll find it from there.

Went to Embru yesterday and did my Radio Scotland interview with Shereen Nanjiani, down the line, for broadcast Sunday 9 — 10am. The line of discussion wasn’t what I expected, so it caught me slightly off-guard, and I had to think fast about some of my answers. Since it will be edited down to around ten minutes, I don’t know how the end result will sound, because some of the points I was trying to make relate to a Scotland that no longer exists. If I decide on hearing the broadcast that anything needs clarification, I’ll use this forum for the purpose.

It is’t essential that the Skinner books are read in order, Brian; each one should be accessible in its own right. But it probably helps.

I’m honoured to hear that I’m that well known in Philadelphia. Your newspaper can obtain a copy of Grievous Angel for its book group by clicking on the link to the right. It’ll take you to my official sales outlet.

Finally, sixteen years after its release, I got round to watching Get Shorty last night on DVD. A good Elmore Leonard adaptation, (But what happened in the end to Miguel Sandoval and his crew? [That guy has made a career playing Colombian drug barons.]) made even better by the presence of Rene Russo, who brings added value to every movie she makes. I note that after a long absence she’s back playing Odin’s wife Frigga in the otherwise ridiculous Thor, alongside Sir Anthony Hopkins as the Big O. For that reason alone, I will buy the DVD.

Tonight I may watch the sequel, Be Cool; which brings me to Uma Thurman . . .

Heading for Edinburgh shortly to record an interview with the lovely Shereen Nanjiani, for her Radio Scotland programme at 9am Sunday. Sadly she will be in Glasgow, but I won’t let that ruin my day.

How glad am I that I am not a Hearts supporter? You couldn’t possibly imagine.

I have a planning application on place at the moment with East Lothian Council. When I sorted my mail a few days ago, I found an invoice for £110, in respect of a public notice placed in the local newspaper. On enquiring why this had been necessary, I was told that it had been placed because ownership of land to the north of my property was not clear, and that statute allows such an ad to count as neighbour notification. In fact, the ground in question is owned by my eight immediate neighbours and me. A simple question to me or my agent would have revealed this and five more notification letters would have taken care of the issue and saved me £110. When I put this to the very nice lady at the cooncil, she explained that it is not its policy to ask. When I asked her what recourse I had she advised me, urged me even, to write to the Scottish Government. It seems that there is no desk in the grand and expensive offices of East Lothian Council on which the buck actually stops.

In this day and age it might seem  that the obvious no-cost solution is for such notifications to be placed on the websites of planning authority, but that doesn’t cut it. There can be no obligation on individuals to constantly check council sites on the off-chance that something might be happening that could have an adverse effect on  their property. Equally, there should be no obligation on them to buy and study the woeful rags that  most local newspapers have become, yet the present law seems to indicate that there is. And it seems that it does more, if councils such as mine are using it as an excuse for not making any effort to find out for themselves the answers to the simplest questions.

I’ve paid the bill. I had no choice, or my application would have been rejected. But I’m not letting it lie. Once I’ve posted this rant, I will be forwarding it to my councillor and probably to a few others in the hope of some satisfaction, however unlikely that may be.

Just been watching the cricket test on telly, and am now asking myself, who was that bloke they were calling Shane Warne? The guy in the commentary box had different teeth from the original, different hair, different eyes, and looked to be about ten kilos lighter. Yes, he sounded moderately like him, but no . . . please Ms Hurley, let us have the real Warnie back.

I am reading leaks today that the Chilcot Inquiry will throw large chunks of mud at Tony Blair over his handling of the Iraq war and associated matters. Regular readers of my blog will know that I have been contemptuous of this whole charade since it began and of the people who were appointed to conduct it, a collection of academics and mid-ranking public servants, of whom none seemed to have any special qualifications for the job. Even in advance of te report’s publication it remains my humble opinion that my Friday night crowd in the pub were just as fitted for the task and probably more so, since we have all lived and worked in the real world.

I am no Blair fan, and never really was, but I believe this hugely expensive farce to have been one of the biggest stitch-ups since . . . since the Hutton Inquiry. I am also cynical enough to believe that since it was set up by Blair’s hated successor, Captain Barbossa, the motives behind it were shall we say, less than altruistic.

Perhaps Dave will follow up Chilcot with an inquiry into how and why we came to be committed to a ten-year conflict in Afghanistan, with the tragedy of returning coffins which is being played out on a weekly basis. If he does, Eric, John, Keith, Ken and I stand ready to serve.