Archive
Contemptible
Mystery
A disturbing story. I will watch this with interest and wait to see how long it is before some enterprising soul writes the novel. It won’t be me, out of respect for the family.
Meantime, Kenneth is right. The Crown Office cannot let this go without further investigation. If Ayrshire had a more locally accountable police force, it might help.
Mano en mano
For those of you who think that independence movements are just people blowing off steam . . .
Yesterday was the annual National Day of Catalunya; by coincidence it falls on 9/11. This year it took on extra significance because of an organised public demonstration in support of a binding referendum on Catalan independence, not simply the consultative poll that has been proposed, and ignored by Madrid. The idea was that people should link hands all along the road that runs from the French border to the territory’s southern limit. They made it work: an estimated 1.8 million people of all ages and stages turned out in one of the most impressive and peaceful displays of national spirit that I have ever seen.
There’s no way that we in Scotland could link hands from the Shetlands (making allowances to the water!) to Gretna Green, but I hope that Blair Jenkins and his team are looking at the precedent that’s been set.
Bloody Stirling
Heading for the airport in three hours, en route for Stirling tomorrow and the second Bloody Scotland, our very own annual crime festival. I’m on in the opening event, a thorn between the two roses that are Lin Anderson and Alex Gray. The kick-off time is 5pm in the Albert Halls. On Saturday, at 2pm, I’m in a second event with Jason Webster, a very bright guy with Spanish connections that are far stronger than mine.
Events like Bloody Scotland aren’t made by the authors they attract, but by the people who turn up to hear them, question them, throw fruit at them . . . okay, skip the last part. If you can get to Stirling this weekend, but haven’t bought your ticket yet, please do. We’re nothing without you.
I’m free
Sorry I’ve been off piste for a few days. I’ve been working rather hard to finish the first draft of something that will not see the light of day until late 2014. I’m there now, but it’ll be a formidable edit.
New music while I work
Thanks, Dom, for introducing me to Nuria Graham, a half-Irish half-Catalan lass, with a big guitar and a big voice. First Tracks, her demo album will be available for sale soon on her website,
http://www.nuriagraham.com/en#!index
More than a Katie Melua clone; much more.
Deja vu
It seems that we are being told, on the basis of top-quality US intelligence, (Does that ring a bell?) that the Syrian President possesses weapons of mass destruction, and has used them against his opponents, killing innocents in the process.
It seems also that our government is going to join the US and anyone else who can be recruited in ‘punishing’ him, by launching massive missile strikes against his country, a tactic which will lead inevitably to the deaths of still more innocents. Change a few names and we could be back where we were ten years ago.
Will a missile strike bring back the dead? No, it will only add to their numbers. Will it bring the regime to heel? Unlikely; but it could provoke them into doing the same again . . . that’s if it was them in the first place and not the rebels. So why has David Cameron suddenly become a war-monger? Hasn’t he cast an eye upon the haunted figure that is Tony Blair today, to recognise the danger to his reputation?
Can we have the referendum now please, before Scotland is sucked into another Westminster War?
Meldrew mode
Okay you’re going to call me a grumpy old ******* but here goes anyway.
Yesterday evening we flew from Newcastle to Girona; on a rough head count as many as 20% of the passengers were children of school age, holiday bound. It may be they were all going on five day breaks and will be back when the English schools reopen on Monday, but forgive me if I doubt that. Yes, I know that holidays are more expensive in July and August than in June and September, but parents are legally obliged to present their kids at school during term-time and, I would suggest, morally bound also.
I would suggest that UK-wide education authorities should station observers at all airports, because for too many people, when it comes to a choice between sunshine and education, stupidity rules.
Pointed
Someone in Pointless must have read my post earlier today! Nonetheless your record still isn’t good, folks.
More music while I work
Georgia Lee ; Tom Waits, from the album Mule Variations. Not a happy song, but the man’s a genius.
Provocative question of the week
Why are there no black contestants on Pointless? Is it made by the same folk who used to make Midsomer Murders, till they got caught?
Thank you all
Finally, now I have a chance to draw breath after a hectic weekend, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined me in the big tent at the Edinburgh Book Festival last Thursday afternoon, and also to the guy on my right, my friend and chairman, Brian Taylor.
I enjoyed it; hope you did.
Sergio Leone
Truly
I have just seen the idiot of the week on Pointless, a man who thought that Treasure Island was written by Hans Christian Andersen
Emo!!!
“I heard a rumour that Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa.”
That has been voted the funniest joke at this year’s Fringe. Eh? You want funny, try this:
Cumpleanos, Guillem
It’s Bill Clinton’s birthday. Does he look older than me, or younger? Answers please.
For a horse
Thank you BBC for The White Queen, great gripping knights in armour drama. Fiction rather than history, yes, but bloody good, especially the barking mad Margaret Beaufort.
Too bad there can’t be a second series. They’d pretty much run out of Yorkists at the end.
Great
And so farewell, Top of the Lake. Almost two months of mesmerising drama; it got everything right that Twin Peaks got wrong. Its absence will leave a hole in my Sunday evenings.
Beware
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10241770/Barcelona-worst-city-for-holiday-scams.html
This is not news; Barcelona has been this way for ever. Eileen and I were in a taxi last year going past the foot of the Ramblas, when our driver said, unprompted, ‘Un carrer muy peligroso,’ or in English, ‘A very dangerous street.’
Egalitarianism
My non-Facebook friend Kenneth Roy, back to his perceptive best; read it to the end.
Quintin Jardine's blog 