Archive
One to remember
You know how Ryanair insist that any duty free you buy at the airport must be put in your cabin bag, max weight 10kg?
Travelling through Girona last week I was interested to see signs all over the terminal advising that Spanish law entitles passengers to take a purchase bag on board in addition to their cabin baggage. I didn’t see anyone try it but i’m waiting for the day when it happens.
Radio radio
Busy guy last three days, and Sunday too. 5pm BST this evening, I’m on our community station, East Coast FM, with a mix of chat and music. You can listen on line or on 107fm in East Lothian.
Garth
We’ve lost another good man in East Lothian. So far, 2013 has been a hellish year.
Sir Garth Morrison, KT, was the county’s Lord Lieutenant, the UK’s former Chief Scout, a one-time submariner, a successful farmer, and a most generous supporter of our community. My heartfelt condolences to Gill and her family.
You can’t go home again
So Jose’s back at Chelsea. I seem to recall that he was fired last time because his football wasn’t attractive enough. What has changed?
Live by them
In the wake of the current ‘scandal’ stories, we are told that our weak-kneed, dysfunctional government is looking at ways of giving constituencies the power to recall their MPs, ie sack them.
No way.
I’m a firm believer in the principle that we should live with the consequences of our own mistakes . . . including those that are made in the secrecy of the polling booth.
Stung
I admit to being slightly underwhelmed by reports in recent days of Parliamentarians and their ‘availability’ to lobbyists. This is old news, and not worth the fuss that’s being made. While it’s all a bit seedy, nobody died, and nobody appears to be lying. Apart from . . .
These stories have been generated by deliberate acts of deception by a couple of broadsheet newspapers and by the BBC’s vicious, morally questionable, Panorama programme. Their reporters posed as lobbyists and lured their targets into setting themselves up. That’s entrapment, pure and simple. How could it be legitimate reporting? The story didn’t exist until they set it up.
How were these people targeted? Is it a mere coincidence that Patrick Mercer MP is one of Dave Cameron’s fiercest critics within his own party? I think we should be told.
The sooner the proposed register of lobbyists is set up the better, to protect the public interest and to protect MPs and Peers from themselves.
See you Thursday?
The Coronation isn’t the only significant event to chalk up a big anniversary this year. It’s twenty years since the publication of my very first novel, Skinner’s Rules. I’ll be celebrating that milestone at the launch of Skinner 23, Pray for the Dying, at an event in Biggar on Thursday, June 6. It’s being organised by the town’s excellent independent bookshop, Atkinson-Pryce, which celebrates its own twentieth anniversary by being named Scottish Bookseller of the year for 2013.
The gig takes place in the Elphinstone Hotel, Biggar, kick-off 7:30pm. Tickets are still available from the bookshop, telephone 01899 2212125.
60 years on
What did you do on Coronation Day? (Always assuming that you were around then.)
I watched it on a twelve -inch black and white 405-line television screen, in our house in Motherwell. My uncle and aunt were there too, as they hadn’t joined the limited ranks of telly owners at that stage. It went on for a hell of a long time, more than the attendance span of my cousins and I, for I remember playing in the rain at one point in the afternoon. A day or so later, our street had a party in a community hall. The kids all did turns. I sang a song called ‘In a Golden Coach’ for which I received a warm ovation; it was the beginning and end of my show-biz career.
The other referendum
In Scotland, the Independence debate is in full swing, and it will carry on until the day that our votes are cast.
In Catalunya, a similar referendum will be held next year, albeit without the agreement of Spain’s central government. Nine months ago there was a great outpouring of nationalist sentiment, when fifteen percent of the Catalan population demonstrated in the streets of Barcelona, demanding a total split from Spain. Today, the independence flags are still flying, but there seems to be little discussion of the subject.
A L’Escala businessman friend of mine gave me an interesting insight a couple of weeks ago. ‘It’s all right asking for it,’ he said. ‘But how do me make it work? Where will the money come from? We need to think about that.’ That’s what the argument here is really about. The Catalans believe they are being ripped off by Madrid; at its heart their grievance is financial. They might vote ‘Yes’, but only if the money is right. They won’t bet the house on sentiment.
I hope we’re above that in Scotland. My mind was made up forty years ago. Next year I’ll vote with my heart and soul, not with my wallet.
Lip service
Always keen to be accountable to the Broadcasting Taxpayer, (let’s be aware of what the so-called ‘TV licence’ really is) the BBC offers its viewers a platform to criticise its news coverage. and take its executives to task. It’s called ‘Newswatch’.
The importance of this programme to the BBC hierarchy is demonstrated very clearly by the time at which it is screened: Saturday morning, 7:45am.
Says it all, doesn’t it?
Cuckoo
There is a predator in Scottish football, and it’s called Rangers. I had hoped that last year’s turmoil would have put a little humility in the soul of the newborn club, and that it would be a little more considerate in its treatment of others. In years gone by, the Old Firm have seen the other Scottish clubs as mere breeding grounds. Celtic seem to have moved on from that, but not so New Rangers.
Even though the club is banned from the transfer market until September, pre-contract agreements are in place already with players poached from four Scottish sides. Trust me, there will be more, even though the Ibrox club will play next season in the third tier of the football league. The club was bust last year and it has still to prove that it is financially stable once more, but the old attitudes and practices of the Murray era remain, and money is being spent that only one other Scottish club could match and no Division Two side could possibly justify.
If that sounds bitter and jealous it probably is, but when our national game needs stability and quality more than ever before, it irks me that the bloody great cuckoo in the nest in Edmiston Drive is doing its best to undermine it.
Stormy weather?
A rare thing in Cataluna this month; a sunny day. The downsides are that more rain is forecast for later and that it’s cold. The natives say that it’s the worst May they can remember. Doesn’t seen too bad to me!
Railing against injustice
I’m going well off BBC Breakfast. More and more it’s a platform for the grinding of axes, and a video box for actors, authors and musicians with something to sell. The presenters are amiably smug . . . apart from Carol Kirkwood and Sally Nugent who should be given the whole show to run on their own . . . and the content is formulaic. Just occasionally, though, something does catch my attention and stops me from switching to Lorraine or to Sky News.
This morning there was a guy on arguing, in all seriousness, without a flicker of a smile, that bus passes should be taken from senior citizens and given to young people. There was also the obligatory guy arguing that they shouldn’t. Neither impressed me. I have a bus pass, but I use it very rarely, because if I have to go any distance I will either drive or take the train. However it isn’t just a bus pass, it’s an entitlement card that is programmed to be my library ticket as well, with the potential to serve other purposes. If Kim Jong-Eck and his Government decreed that I couldn’t have it any longer, it wouldn’t bother me, but I would take up the cudgels for those people who really do need the concession to let them go further than their own front door. Likewise I’d probably support travel concessions for jobseekers, during business hours, when the job centres are open and when interviews are held.
However I’m concerned that the bus pass argument is throwing up a smokescreen for a problem that is threatening the whole economy. Travel costs are becoming prohibitive for many people, but nobody in power is doing anything about it, not even demonstrating that they understand or care a toss.
I have just renewed my senior railcard in Spain, for another year. It cost me €5.35, and it gives me 40% off every journey. It pays for itself in one journey to Barcelona. In the midst of the worst economic crisis in its democratic history, the one thing that the Spanish government is not raising significantly are the rail fares, recognising that if people have to choose between getting to work and food, there is no way back. On the other hand, in Britain rail and bus costs are spiralling. It’s time the lamentable UK government, which can offer only fudge and compromise at a time when strength and clarity of purpose is needed most desperately, realised what is wrong with its own infrastructure and addressed it. Instead of pledging billions to create a high speed rail line between two English cities at some time in the dim and distant, it should be sorting out the shambles that our public transport system has become.
Silvia
Nine years ago, my step-son’s birthday party took place in a garden in St Marti d’Empuries. There was a band, a trio who sang Flamenco, led by a girl with a voice like a bell. She’s a solo artist now. Her name is Silvia Perez Cruz. Check her out, folks.
Anomaly?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22685416
If North Korean nuclear reactors get everyone wound up . . .?
Fridges to Eskimos
I don’t watch a lot of daytime TV. Most of it is too cheap and cheerful to hold my attention for long, but there are a couple of exceptions. One is Bargain Hunt, on BBC1. I rarely watch it all the way through, usually tuning in for the business end when the two teams, Reds and Blues, find out how just sharp their three buys at antique fairs have actually been, when they’re sold at auction.
Regular viewers will know that break even is a good result; somewhere in the world there will be an anorak who could tell you what the average score actually is, but my guess is that it would be in double figures and would have a minus in front of it. But analyse it more deeply, to produce stats for each of the auctioneers who feature regularly and that would vary. For there is one who stands out head and shoulders from the rest . . . metaphorically, for she’s not very tall.
Those contestants who are lucky enough to have their choices sold by Anita Manning, at Great Western Auctions in Glasgow, are on a winner from the off. I can’t remember a show where Anita didn’t return a profit for the teams on the majority of items, and in one I watched last week, she was in the plus column with eight items out of eight. I need to move on some paintings soon to create some wall space. I know where they’re going.
Simples?
This morning I downloaded a bill from BT. On reviewing it, I saw that my direct debit payment for May had not been collected. I wasn’t sure whether this was BT’s fault or my banks, and so to check, i used the BT live chat system. The following is the text of the discussion.
My on-line question: ‘I’m looking at my latest bill which has led me to review my bank account. I note that my monthly direct debit to BT for May has not been collected. Who’s at fault here, you or my bank?’
‘Mohd Khalid: Hello. I’m Mohd Khalid. Thanks for that information, I’ll check it and get back to you in a moment.
Mohd Khalid: Hi Quintin
Quintin Jardine: Yes
Mohd Khalid: Quintin once the bill is generated it will take 14 days to be taken from the bank account.
Quintin Jardine: I know that. My point is that last month’s bill has not been collected and is showing as unpaid on the bill I’ve just downloaded. I don’t like this and I want to know why it has happened.
Mohd Khalid: Quintin have you paid your annual line rental saver amount?
Quintin Jardine: Yes, on April 26.
Mohd Khalid: Quintin your bill amount was take from your line rental saver and it will be carried forward to your next bill
Quintin Jardine: I do not understand that. My line rental saver has nothing to do with my monthly bill. Simple question. Did you present a direct debit at the beginning of May?
Mohd Khalid: Quintin, when ever you make a line rental saver payment , that months direct debit is not take from the bank account, its take from your line rental saver and later it is carried forward to you future bills and once you receive your next bill it will be very clear to you.
Quintin Jardine: If last month’s payment is taken from my line rental saver account, why is it showing as unpaid on the bill I’ve just downloaded?
Mohd Khalid: The bill was generated on 23 rd however you made payment of line rental saver on 26th if you make line rental saver within 14 days of bill generated, it will be take from your line rental saver and, prior to that you had an amount of 18.72 has been taken from the line rental saver, once you receive your next bill it will be very clear, Quintin
Quintin Jardine: Mohd, it will not be clear. It will never be clear. It is idiotic, but I accept that BT is the idiot, not you. Thanks for your attempts to help.’
Take three girls
Watched the end of Scott and Bailey last night, the best series yet, IMO. I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last. And yet . . .
I read something a few days ago which argued that it is the most sexist show on current television. The writer may have a point, for there isn’t a single male in the series who isn’t either a murderer, an adulterer, a cuckold, or an idiot, with the exception of the one black character in the show, who seems to be the token male good guy, and maybe also the new sergeant, but he hasn’t been around long enough to reveal his character flaws.
The thing that saves it for me is the fact that it doesn’t spare its women either. Janet’s marriage broke up, thanks to her having it away with a colleague. Rachel’s went the same way for the same reason, plus she appears to be a functioning alcoholic. Gill, the DCI, mate one minute and martinet the next, has a cop ex-husband around too, with an eye for the female officers. And then there’s Rachel’s mother, of whom the less said the better. Even the ultimate villain in the current series was female, Helen, played by the magnificent Nicola Walker. It’s as well she was killed off in the end; too much competition for the big three.
Whatever, roll on next year.
Teeing off
The continuing spat between Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods, elevated by the former’s unfortunate ‘fried chicken’ remark, has obscured, unfortunately, the fact that this is a very important week for the European Golf Tour, with its flagship event, the PGA Championship, being played at Wentworth. Remarkably, it is the only tour event being played this year in England, and one of very few of any stature that to be staged anywhere in Europe.
The very name ‘Race to Dubai’, under which the European Tour now trades, is a signal that it is no longer what it claims to be. I am assured by those in the know that the sponsors in Britain, Germany, France and Spain just ain’t there any more, but that sits oddly against the fact that the US PGA Tour, in the face of its own national economic slump, is able to offer weekly prize funds in excess of $6m. In any other industry, the executives presiding over such a decline would have been replaced by now, but there is no sign of that happening in European golf. Instead, they are sitting on their hands while the top players defect to America, taking advantage of lax qualification requirements to maintain dual Tour status. The fact is that the majority of last year’s victorious European Ryder Cup team now live and play most of their golf in the US, while in Europe, complacency rules and fans of the game across the continent have little or nothing to go and watch.
(By the way, if Sergio’s wisecrack wasn’t racist, what the hell was it?)
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