Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester Combined Authority‘s website today is clear: Avoid travelling outside the part of Greater Manchester where you live. Yet, he has developed a spat with the Scottish Government which has merely repeated his advice. Is he cynically using this as a way of promoting a leadership campaign when Starmer gives up after losing the Batley and Spen by-election? If George Galloway delivers the final cut by seducing the Asian vote with his pro-Palestine credentials, he must surely go and the combative Burnham will walk in. Countless thousands will have been enraged by this fabricated controversy but hey, … Continue reading Today, Burnham says ‘Avoid travelling outside the part of Greater Manchester where you live’

I stumbled on the above in Waterstone’s, Perth, on holiday last week. Yes that’s the level of excitement you get on my holiday jaunts. I knew then next to nothing about Homer beyond enjoying those 60s ‘sandals and swords‘ film epics like ‘Jason and the Argonauts‘, with my school pals, aged 12/13. The title sent me back to schooldays. Turns out it’s from Keats. Anyhow, it has gripped me and you might like to know that the author relates the Homeric tales to those of the Celtic bards of Scotland and Ireland. What particularly caught me were fascinating details. For … Continue reading Read this book by a toff

In the Herald today from the often excellent Ian McConnell: Most Scottish businesses “don’t want to have the conversation” about independence, the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry has said.Tony Danker, asked by The Herald in an interview about the renewed focus on the independence question north of the Border, said most Scottish businesses he spoke to were “not convinced of the notion this is the right time to be having this debate”. Danker is clearly ill-informed and relying BBC-like on anecdotes but surely his staff spotted this research from October 2020, a proper survey of 102 ‘captains of … Continue reading Danker doesn’t know his facts as only 6% are really worried about independence

In a BBC Scotland report, not headlining the website and not yet featuring in TV broadcasts, the Accounts Commission finds major failings in Aberdeen Council where a coalition of Conservatives and Labour has conspired to keep the SNP out of power, placing unionist tribalism shamelessly before leftist, progressive policies. The BBC Scotland report, of course, keeps the political identity of the council off the headline and reveals it only in the 9th paragraph. Even in the reporter’s own words the commission’s conclusion are damning: The commission said the council ranked among the lowest in Scotland for satisfaction with schools, and … Continue reading Damning report accuses Tory/Labour coalition council of failing patients and pupils

So, the Conservative UK Government is about to impoverish hundreds of thousands including children and someone is telling the ‘SNP’ to make up for it. Is anyone telling the Scottish Tories to tell their fellow meanies in Westminster to keep the Universal Credit uplift going? Nope. Who is ‘telling’ the SNP? No one. ‘Poverty campaigners and opposition MSPs have called on the SNP to speed up the commitment of doubling the Scottish Child Payment to £80 per month’ Calling? Not really telling is it. Calling on the SNP? Pointless? The Party members might like to help out but probably don’t … Continue reading Watch their language

I never, ever, read Brian Wilson. I don’t need to any more. When I saw this with the wind farm shot, I was reminded of reading and posting on a breakthrough in turbine manufacture by a Glasgow company some time ago which could not get government funding perhaps from the Labour administration that Wilson served in. I can’t find it in the archives of the blog or after a bit of googling. Perhaps a reader can? Anyhow, I did find this: So, once more, we invented something useful first and the Union let us down. To be fair, 1887 is … Continue reading If anyone finds a UK industrial strategy please notify Brian Wilson

I’ve changed. 60 years ago, I watched Scotland: England games with my dad and with knotted bowels. England then were all white, Anglo-Saxons with that sense of superiority over any colonials, even us. The TV commentators were pompous, racist, jingoistic, old white guys. Both fuelled my hatred and desire to see them hammered even if they had been playing a team of orcs from Mordor. They’re not the same. More black than white, more victims of racism than perpetrators of it and, of course, often likable guys when interviewed. The commentators have improved too though they’re still prone to forgetting … Continue reading Cringe, cringe as Auld Enemy with 10 times the population scrapes a win

As soon as I saw Prof Tomkin’s headline, I was reminded of something I wrote almost two years ago. So, it’s not quite up-to-date but given the falling, or at worst, stabilising crime trend in Scotland, I feel sure it still stands. Scotland’s university cities the safest in the UK by a very long way From the Complete University Guide 2019, we can see that the overall fall in crime in Scotland in the last ten, or so, years is reflected in the relative safety of university campuses. Of particular interest is the level of crime (incidents per 1 000 residents) … Continue reading Scotland’s cities ARE falling behind but in a good way

Labour stuck in a rut, the Lib Dems flattering to deceive with another by-election protest vote, Johnson’s English Nationalist Party are unbeatable despite doing whatever they like to enrich themselves and their chums. Welsh Labour get the message and will try to save themselves by going independent? Scottish Labour will be collectively sectioned as a danger to themselves and others? Monica Lennon joins the Scottish Socialists? Scottish Tories all die from a new wasting disease brought on by moral corruption? Scotland’s over-65s still not sure about voting yes? 2024, independence for Scotland with 52% vote. 2030, England invades Northern France … Continue reading No matter what they do