Three blind mice
I am still laughing. George Osborne, Ed Balls and Danny Alexander are agreed that an independent Scotland will not use the pound sterling. Look out three sets of crutches, someone, for each has shot himself in both feet.
Leaving aside the legality of this tripartite diktat, if that proves to be the case, it will be a small price to pay to be rid of Mr Osborne, Mr Balls and even Mr Alexander, Westminster MP for about half of Scotland. He will shortly be doing what all former Treasury ministers do when the electorate has found them out, namely collecting lucrative non-executive directorships in his new adopted homeland.
As Mel Gibson’s Wallace might have said, ‘They make take our pound, but they’ll never take our free will’.
Yes for Scotland.
Wreck
Someone just told me about the Miley Cyrus ‘Wrecking Ball’ video. If I was Billy Ray, I wouldn’t be pleased
Shameful
As a blogger, it’s self-evident that I’m all for free speech, but as a Scot I won’t stand for being the subject of xenophobic abuse by an English journalist. A responsible newspaper proprietor would fire Paul Hayward and discipline his editor.
Yes for Scotland.
Puzzling
Spotted recently in Newcastle Station. So what does it mean? If you turn up on time but the doors are closed we ain’t going to help you board?
Anything you can do
First Becks owning a football club in Miami, now . . .
Nemo me impune lacessit
Over the last few days, the people of Scotland have been told what’s best for them by Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, Bob Dudley, the boss of BP, and now by David Cameron, the Prime Minister. They’re all belittling Scottish Independence and telling us that they know best, and we should stick with the Union.
None of these people have any locus in the debate, or even an understanding of it. But why should they? For the record, Mr Carney is Canadian, Mr Dudley is an American, and Mr Cameron is an Old Etonian twat. Our referendum isn’t about currency, it isn’t about business and it isn’t about the best interests of the English. It’s about Scotland always having been a nation in its soul, and about the right of Twenty-first Century Scots to be recognised internationally as citizens of an independent state.
Cleared
I’ve just read that William Roache, AKA Ken Barlow, has been acquitted on all charges brought against him. From what I’ve been able to glean from the reports of the trial, this has not come as a surprise to me, nor, I suspect, to anyone else who has been studying it.
Coming on top of the farcical trial of Michael Le Vell, another Coronation Street actor, on similar charges, and his acquittal, this must raise very serious questions about the judgment and competence of the Crown Prosecution Service.
KP nuts
Until they went to an predictable walloping Down Under, the England cricket team had won three Ashes series on the trot.
In assessing their performance and planning the way forward after this winter’s humiliation, it would have been reasonable to expect the England Cricket brains trust to have looked at what the Aussies did to rebuild, after their disappointments. But no, that can’t have happened, or if it did, they took nothing from it.
How do I know this? Well it’s self-evident; the Australians would never react to a defeat by getting rid of their best player.
TKO
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/26035952
The very definition of a bad loser.
Shame
Watching ‘Pointless’ the other night, (yes I know) I heard a young contestant remark that he had just completed a university degree and as a consequence was twenty thousand in debt, so a share of the jackpot would come in handy.
I may have said this before but I’ve no worries about saying it again. Any developed nation that allows such a situation should be ashamed of itself. If we don’t invest properly in our young talent then we are ******.
Asparagus in Evesham
www.asparawritingfestival.co.uk
I’m involved in this very interesting new project in April. It’s set in a beautiful location and well worth supporting.
Sad comparison
We travelled on two trains yesterday; in comfort in ordinary Turista on the Spanish AVE from Figueres to Barcelona, then in a shoddy and under-catered First Class carriage on Cross Country from Newcastle to Dunbar. UK train operators are taking the piss, they really are.
Music while I work
Paul Rodgers : The Royal Sessions. I don’t throw the word ‘great’ around too much, but he surely is. Album of the year, and it’s only just February. So good I’ve got to stop working and concentrate on it.
Sorry, Naomi
My friend’s partner is a Spurs fan. He will be walking on eggshells today, but her anger is justified. Her team were always going to lose last night, but to be walloped thanks to the second-worst penalty decision of the season, that takes some accepting.
The worst call of the season is the penalty awarded to Chelsea in the last minute of injury time vs West Brom, a howler for which the referees’ boss apologised. The same ref gave last night’s spot-kick to Man City, but only after he had awarded (correctly) a corner kick, and then allowed himself to be over-ruled by his linesman. His sin was compounded when he red-carded the Spurs player involved, thereby cheating everyone who had paid to see a much-anticipated eleven-a-side encounter. There are millions riding, in various ways, on every Premier League game. If a referee’s confidence is so low that he can’t back his own judgement, then he should not be out there. As for the flag-wavers, they should stick to their own job, which is difficult enough. If they’re asked for a view, okay, but they should never be allowed to contradict a referee once he has given a decision.
When your van is a joke
I have a fascination for TV ads that are really crap. For example the Victor Chandler Series, or those awful Wonga creations. But for me the bottom of the quality league at the moment is a commercial for something called Vanarama. If I had the need for a van, for sure I would go nowhere near a company that could commission something as terrible as that.
Top of my quality league at the moment? Probably Thomson Holidays’ ‘The Story of Simon the Ogre.’
Value for money
The BBC told me this morning that the Royal Family costs the British taxpayer £31m a year, and that The Firm is under pressure to cut costs.
In its last financial year, the BBC cost the British taxpayer, through the euphemistically named Licence Fee, £3,656m.
Make what you will of that.
Little box
Every so often I read or hear a news report of someone having died, and I say ‘Again?’
So it was this morning with Pete Seeger. Back in the early Sixties when we all wore Aran sweaters and sang Clancy Brothers songs when we were steaming, Pete was the great folkie icon. He was a big part of my vinyl collection and most of my discs were played all the way through. The great thing about him in those pre-Dylan days was his ability to write songs about things that mattered, when very other composer did exactly the opposite. If he didn’t invent Bob Dylan, he sure played a big part in his creation.
Then he faded away into old age, and now at 94, he’s gone to the great Hootenanny in the sky. On behalf of my generation, thanks Pete.
The Fearties and the FCO
An excellent piece today by Tom Gordon in the Sunday Herald, revealing a black Foreign Office operation to sabotage the independence campaign is well worth reading. For anyone who thinks it’s far-fetched, it isn’t. Cameron is running scared, no question about it.
There is no overwhelming argument against independence. In my current experience the people who are most vociferously against it are those who fear the taxation consequences, and they, ironically, have the least need to worry about them. If my Scottish passport costs me more in tax each year, I’ll live with that.
