Archive
Droning on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25180906
This story may sound crazy, but it’s not. When I visited the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid a few weeks ago, they were setting up a stage for a performance event, and one of those things was flying around. They are among us already and they will multiply.
The other side of the coin is that is Amazon develops an ability to make unmanned deliveries right to your door, it will also be able to bomb the shit out of you if you upset it.
Tragedy
Driving through Glasgow last night, on the way home from excellent library events in East Kilbride, then Greenock, I caught sight of a helicopter, and said to Eileen, ‘Hey look, it’s the polis’.
Little more than an hour later, that aircraft . . . there could not have been another . . . had fallen out of the sky and crashed into a crowded pub. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims, and with the survivors.
Unwanted
I read today that the President of the Government of Spain has chosen to chip in to the referendum debate by offering his opinion that an independent Scotland would have to negotiate EU membership from the outside. The right-wing Sr Mariano Rajoy is notorious and deeply unpopular within his own country. He is beset by crisis and personal scandal that would have driven him out of office were it not for the fact that nobody wants his job, and in those circumstances he is seizing each and every opportunity to deflect attention from his own troubles. We have had the Gibraltar harassment for months, and now it seems he wants a piece of Scotland’s action. Of course his interest is driven in part by the Catalan situation, with Spain’s richest province demanding its own independence referendum, having been driven beyond the point of tolerance by Rajoy’s refusal to grant it the same degree of fiscal economy enjoyed by other parts of the country. That being the case he may have shot himself in both feet.
El Presidente has a reputation for being intransigent and authoritarian; he also has a reputation for being wrong. As the pigmies on the Scottish opposition benches were told when they attempted to cash in on Rajoy’s intervention, the Scottish Government has firm advice from authoritative sources that the Scottish state’s future relationship with the EU will be negotiated from within in the event of a Yes vote. But what of England, Wales and Northern Ireland? What would their position within the EU, since the present EU member state will no longer exist as such? That might be a tricky one, since Westminster has damn few friends within Europe at this moment.
Thanks . . .
. . . to the staff of Waterstone’s Edinburgh West End branch for staging last night’s ‘Bloody Scotland on Tour’ event. Many thanks also to the audience who gave of their time to listen to my fellow panelists and me. And finally cheers also to Lin Anderson, Aly Monroe, and Sara Sheridan for their wisdom and insight. Here’s to the next time, ladies.
Robotic
I’ve never met a bookseller who was in the job for the money. It’s a vocation for every one of them, which makes the following all the more disturbing. I’ve been a big Amazon shopper for years, but I plan to be more discriminating from now on.
Signings
In just under an hour (11:30am) I’ll be signing copies of As Serious as Death in Simon Kesley’s excellent bookshop in Haddington. Later, at 2pm, I’ll be doing the same in Waterstone at Cameron Toll, Edinburgh. Look in if you’re nearby.
Fund-raising mutton-chops
I’m joining in the spirit of Mo-vember. I haven’t worn whiskers for over 15 years, but this year I decided to give it a go. The project is now sufficiently advanced for me to go on the hunt for sponsors. This is my Just Giving page, in aid of Marie Curie, a worthy cause.
https://www.justgiving.com/Quintin-Jardine
No pressure . . . well, not much.
Doubtful?
This is from the Church of Scotland website.
Click to access carradale_manse_argyll.pdf
Read it carefully and you will note that drainage is by ‘sceptic tank’. I find myself wondering:- Are sceptic tanks for disposing of non-believers?
Short term thinking
QJ’s definition of a pessimist: A person who won’t buy green bananas.
Cap d’Any
http://www.hostalempuries.com/en/environmentally-friendly-hostel-in-costa-brava/new-years-eve-2013
If you happen to be in the L’Escala area on December 31, you could do worse than this.
Language!
Thanks to my Vancouver buddy Lionel for sending me this entertaining link.
Gone
I have a stack of DVD and BluRay movies on my shelves waiting to be watched. Some have been there for years. Last night we finally got round, seven years late, to Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Departed‘. We watched it in silence; when it was over, Eileen said one word. ‘Wow!’ That’s all the review it needs.
Living the role
Poirot’s farewell last week was predictably sad. I don’t remember Hercule dying on the page in the book,but TV handled it well. The ‘Being Poirot’ documentary that followed was interesting and enlightening. The off-set shots showed very clearly that when David Suchet was dressed and made up as Poirot, he was Poirot, right down to the accent and the walk.
Loathing
Some TV ads, I just hate, instinctively. Top of my list at the moment is that Network Rail commercial, the one where the brat kills his sister. And they keep showing it, over and over again.
Stairway to heaven
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24933090
This is okay for you, pal, but I don’t have any.
Welcome home
I’m pleased to see that Laura Kuenssberg is coming back to the BBC, as chief correspondent and presenter of Newsnight, where she will be a welcome counter to the caricature that Jeremy Paxman has become. (Isn’t it odd that both of the BBC’s famous Jeremys are large arrogant bullies?) I have a feeling that Ms Kuenssberg won’t stop there. Nick Robinson had better look to his laurels.
Ho ho ho
Six weeks to Christmas but the freezer’s full already!
Taking liberties with geography
Late home last night, so I only just caught up with the end of the excellent The Escape Artist on BBC1. I can be hard to fool, but I had did not spot that plot twist coming, not for one second.
I have only two small queries. The first: why did the producers find it necessary to move the Kielder Forest into Scotland? The second: having established that Will’s hideaway cottage was on the East Lothian coastline with a clear view of the Bass Rock, why did they change the name of the station from which he caught the train from Dunbar (which it was) to Berwick-upon-Tweed (which it wasn’t)?
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