Quintin Jardine's blog

I’m afraid I misled a few people when I said last week that the full version of my interview with Shereen Nanjiani for Radio Scotland was accessible globally on the BBC website. Honestly I thought it was, for in the past I’ve been able to access radio material in Spain post-broadcast, but from what friends in Australia, the US and Canada are telling me it isn’t available. I can understand why television drama screening might be restricted to UK IP addresses, but I’m disappointed and a bit puzzled to find that this applies to news magazine radio programmes also. The BBC is about to launch an international version of its iPlayer, so maybe this anomaly will be corrected when it happens. I can only hope so, for honest, folks, I’m as frustrated as you are.

I’m thinking about coming back early from Spain in October. Why? Because Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes are playing the Ferry in Glasgow on October 14. Best live band I’ve ever seen; okay, it was thirty-five years ago, and some of the personnel may have changed/died/gone to jail during that time, but I reckon that I’ve improved with age since then, so why shouldn’t they?

Glad you liked Grievous Angel. Prequels are good for introducing new readers to the series and  giving characters back story for recidivists. Yes, the next one will be contemporary.

That’s a bugger. Have you tried the BBC World website?

Hope you’re fully recovered. Few people will lift your spirits better than Jacqueline Anne. The ‘St Andrews Book’? It’s a few years ago, but I reckon that would be Lethal Intent.

Further to my inbox problem; it seems it’s a glitch where you have a Gmail based service collecting mails from an AOL account. I’ve changed my settings and that seems to have worked.

I left AOL Broadband last year, as its UK customer book is now owned by the detestable Talk Talk, and it treats all its customers like Daily Star readers. (Note to blog visitors. If you want to get QJ’s dander up, drop the phrase ‘celebrity gossip’ into the conversation.) Once I’d switched providers, I thought that would be that, but my AOL email address simply became a free address accessible through AOL.co.uk, and because it was accessible several of my chums ignored what I’d said about having a new mailbox and continued to use it. In the wake of  this morning’s shambles, I was moved so go on to the AOL UK website, sign in to that address and delete it. Simples? No, the opposite. There is no detectable mechanism that will let you do that. Once thee bastards have their hooks in you, you are a potential profit centre and they will not let you go.

Time for a complaint to Ofcom, methinks.

I run my main email address through Gmail. When I logged on  this morning I discovered that every email I’ve ever had and filed or deleted was turning up again in my inbox, as new. I’m talking thousands here. Google is so big that it can’t deal with individual user complaints, so, if anyone else out there is experiencing or has experienced a similar problem, and knows how to fix it . . . help!.

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.

Back in Scotland after an interesting trip via Barcelona, where I visited my new bank and was introduced to Senor Campos, the manager. Amazingly, he revealed himself to be a Hibs supporter. (My Aussie pal Fred will love that.) Sr. Campos speaks no English, which must make his affliction a little easier. He’ll be pleased this evening though, his team having nicked an away win at Inverness, even of it was courtesy of a last minute comedy goal.

Hell of a weekend. Eileen had never heard of Janis Joplin. I had to explain who she was, and what became of her. For a while now, whenever I’ve read of another Amy Winehouse excess, I’ve found myself thinking of her. Some things may be inevitable, but that doesn’t mean we should resign ourselves to them. God knows, the government takes enough in tax from the sale of alcohol, so how about investing some of it in a system by which individuals would be licensed users? Doesn’t seem like a brain-buster to me, but it’s green-field thinking, whereas Westminster is strictly brown-field.