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Five MPs with names that may no longer be mud, including David Cameron

Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Discovered, of all places, at the (Canadian) National Post:

"Scots..whose ancestors supported Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite rebellion may not know it, but their family names have officially been mud for more than 250 years....Now, the Scottish Parliament is taking steps to remove any stigma associated with support for the Stuart cause..Scottish Conservative Jamie McGrigor has tabled a motion, with cross-party support, calling on the Scottish Parliament to back a petition that demands the Westminster Parliament overturn the Acts of Attainder and clear the names of Jacobite families".

Taking the list of names and comparing it to a list of current MPs, those who stand to be unsmirched moniker-wise are David Cameron, Christopher Fraser, Anne McIntosh, Ian Stewart and Richard Younger-Ross (ish). I also make it 14 peers of the realm.

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posted by Croydonian

Keeping a sense of proportion, Scottish style.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The WWF - the one associated with furry creatures rather than blokes in lycra - is probably regarded by most of us as a fairly vanilla organisation that gets on with being nice to pandas and the like. However, sticking to one's knitting is rarely in vogue for long when it comes to NGOs, as that does not get one's face in the papers or create a stir over 'ishoos'. So, over to The Scotsman for this piece of arrant nonsense:

"Homeowners who do not to take action to improve the energy efficiency of their properties should be treated as criminals, one of the country's most influential environmentalists said last night. Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, believes tough measures are needed to force people to cut their use of fossil fuels and thinks governments should consider making it a crime for members of the public not to take measures such as installing cavity wall installation...Dr Dixon said: "I think it should be a crime to be wasting energy. It's clearly a moral crime against the climate, and I think we should be having a discussion about whether it should become an actual crime...Dr Dixon...suggested the penalty for not having the likes of cavity wall insulation should be to have the work forcibly carried out, and then for the home owner to be landed with the bill".

What next, the stocks for people who leave the hall light on?

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posted by Croydonian

Scotland's classy Labour MSPs

Thursday, January 15, 2009
From The Scotsman:

"Bill Butler, the Labour MSP for Glasgow Anniesland and a former candidate for deputy leader, listed the £1 claim as a "carer fund donation".

"The list of rejected claims included attempts to claw back money for Christmas cards, plants and satellite navigation kits. Another senior Labour MSP, Malcolm Chisholm, tried and failed to get £3 back for a charge on a pay-as-you-go smart card"

I think this is the best one though:

"Some have got away with strange claims. In 2007 Lib Dem MSP Jamie Stone was able to get 42p back for a pint of milk".

On the subject of elected Scots, there may well be a tale involving some rather poor behaviour by an MP from Scotland's east blogged later.

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posted by Croydonian

Money can't buy happiness. But it helps...

Thursday, August 14, 2008
I am indebted to the research wing of the Scottish 'Government' for that particular jaw-dropper (links to be added later), it having investigated life satisfaction North of the Tweed.

Our Caledonian chums belying their rep are the third perkiest Europeans after the Danes and the Swiss at 8.06 out of ten. The rest of the UK rates 13th at 7.2. *krainians are last at 4.38. Those deeming that they are living comfortably outscore those struggling for life satisfaction by a commanding margin.

Further, Morag is happier than Angus and the young & the old outdo the middle aged. Wodehouse's Scotsman with a grievance would appear to be a middle aged man, unemployed, in poor health and living in a city.

Looking grim for Labour ex MPs in 2010, isn't it?

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posted by Croydonian

Good grief

Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Visualise a doctor. He or she is wearing a white coat, and maybe sporting a stethoscope but Lombard Street to a rotten orange will have an expression of extreme smugness.

Not, however, North of the Border, as our Caledonian chums have just published the 'NHSScotland (sic) Dress Code (Interim)' report:

"Appropriate steps should be taken to minimise the risks of infections and cross contamination for patients and the public;

for example: staff should wear short-sleeved shirts/blouses and avoid wearing white coats or neck ties when providing patient care".

As if cracking down on the basic sartorial standards of a gentleman was not bad enough, life is about to made unpleasant for nerds too:

"Staff should not carry pens or scissors in outside breast pockets".

The plod will be wearing shorts next, you'll see. Meanwhile, I hear the thundering hooves getting ever nearer.....

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posted by Croydonian

The Scots. I am beginning to worry about them

Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Scotsman has been surveying Caledonians on their attitudes to lurve and so forth, and it has come up with some very, very alarming figures:

"Which celebrity most closely resembles your ideal man?"

Gordon Brown - I like powerful men - 1.8%

"Which celebrity most closely resembles your ideal woman?"

Cherie Blair - powerful women do it for me - 0.9%

Based on the current population, that suggests that a truly alarming 2,218 chaps have the hots for La Booth, and a scarcely less credible 4,764 lassies are pining for the Dour One.

Broon's is more popular in his Fife backyard - 3.3% fancy him. But no-one in the Kingdom of Fife will admit to carrying a torch for letterbox gob Mrs Tony. Should Tone & Cherie split up, she should hasten to the Lothians or Strathclyde, where she will have a better than 1 in 50 chance of being chatted up. Apparently. Mr Valiant for Truth (in *his* estimation) would be most likely to get lucky on Tayside (5.9) or in the Highlands (5.6).

Meanwhile, all hail the sensible folk of the Borders and of Grampian, where neither GB nor CB got a look in.

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posted by Croydonian

An odd measure of success

Tuesday, August 07, 2007
The Scottish Executive has been berating 16-26 year olds who go out once a week or more on the perils of Bolivian marching powder, and is feeling remarkably pleased with itself, judging by the executive summary.

Digging a little deeper, the following is buried deep in the text:

"Respondents were asked whether they were more or less likely to take cocaine after seeing the campaign. The majority (58 per cent) said that the campaign had not altered their likelihood of taking cocaine. A quarter said they were less likely (25 per cent), whereas 12 per cent said they were more likely".

So, all that money, and three quarters of that demographic have unmodified behaviour or are making haste to see The Man. And always bear in mind that if someone walks up to you waving a clip board and starts asking impertinent questions, you are always going to be commendably frank in your responses....

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posted by Croydonian

Have they been rebuilding Hadrian's Wall?

Monday, July 09, 2007
I have to wonder, having just read this little gem from 'Alan Cowan, UNISON Scotland's representative on the UK Labour Link committee':

"The areas of equal opportunities, energy, council tax benefit, pensions and immigration are all areas where greater devolution could have allowed the Scottish Parliament to make some very progressive decisions for Scotland". Source.

Erm, this is still a United Kingdom with free movement of people across the nation, and if Caledonian state pensions are made more generous than those on this side of the Tweed, stand by for wily pensioners to make haste to Tayside or wherever. Likewise, given that 'progressive decisions' on immigration presumably means that it would be easier to emigrate to Scotland, just how would Holyrood hold on to its new Scots, I wonder?

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posted by Croydonian

Introducing America's East Dunbartonshire

Thursday, April 19, 2007
Which is the town of Asheville in North Carolina, according to a survey by Relocate America. I make the Caledonian parallel as that was rated the best place to live in these islands the other day. Rather selfishly, the survey fails to come up with an equivalent to Reading, which rated as our Village of the Damned.

I take East Dunbartonshire's showing with a whole salt mine's worth of salt as the 1,162 people polled had 408 locales to choose from. Unlikely to be statistically valid, I would think. Similarly, I'm inclined to think that Asheville's standing is bunkum (1) as the survey is self-selecting. Mind you, it was the home of the Fitzgeralds, and Zelda ('when it comes to plagiarism, my husband thinks it begins at home') died there, and the rather lovely Ms Andie MacDowell resides in the area.

The town labours under a Democrat Mayor, has a rather comically named baseball team in the Asheville Tourists, and the egregiously awful 'Forrest Gump' was part filmed there.

Apart from the relocators, it has also won plaudits as one of "The 50 Most Alive Places To Be" one of "America's Top 25 Arts Destinations," "Happiest City for Women", one of the "Best Places to Reinvent Your Life", "New Freak Capital of the U.S.", "a New Age Mecca", the "most vegetarian-friendly" small city in America. Source. The place must be crawling with tie-dyed boomers. How very unlike the life our own East Dunbartonshire.....

Chicago proves to be a sweet home too, edging out Cary NC from fifth place.




(1) - Asheville is in Buncombe county: "In 1820, a U.S. Congressman, whose district included Buncombe County, unintentionally contributed a word to the English language. In the Sixteenth Congress, after lengthy debate on the Missouri Compromise, members of the House called for an immediate vote on that important question. Instead, Felix Walker rose to address his colleagues, insisting that his constituents expected him to make a speech "for Buncombe." It was later remarked that Walker's untimely and irrelevant oration was not just for Buncombe--it "was Buncombe." Thus, buncombe, afterwards spelled bunkum and then shortened to bunk, became a term for empty, nonsensical talk". Source

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posted by Croydonian

Pigeons

Friday, September 29, 2006
Expensive beasts to deal with, by the look of things. The Telegraph reports that it will cost £250 to remove a pigeon nest atop the Scottish Parliament in Auld Reekie, while our beloved Mayor of London's campaign against them in Trafalgar Square has cost £225,000 to date, or £90 per London Council Tax payer for every one of the blighters removed.

Must say I'm not enormously keen on pigeons, especially after one of them left its calling card on my suit some years back. A friend with foodie tendencies swears blind that London pigeons taste of cheese & onion crisps, owing to that being a major part of the average urban pigeon's diet. A 'farm' pigeon is a rather different proposition, and well worth eating.

Further thoughts on the Scottish dimension from David of Freedom and Whiskyhere. (a fine combination - C)

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posted by Croydonian

Trouble in Broon's back yard

24dash.com is making a big hoo-hah about a council by election result in Fife:

"Labour was rocked by a landslide by-election defeat uncomfortably close to Chancellor Gordon Brown's political homebase. The Scottish National Party's John Beare won Fife Council's Markinch and Woodside East seat on a 30% swing since May 2003. The ward comes under Glenrothes' Westminster constituency, next door to Mr Brown's Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath".

As I've noted before, I am not especially keen on the SNP but for the time being my enemy's enemy is my friend.... Mind you Broon took 58.1% of the vote in 2005 to the SNP's 14.5%, so perhaps I should not get too carried away.

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posted by Croydonian

Good grief - The SNP has 'Tartan Bookers'.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Here is something truly astonishing:

"One of the Scottish National party's leading figures today sets out a radical plan for greater involvement of the private sector in the provision of public services. Michael Russell, a former MSP who is virtually guaranteed to return to Holyrood next year, warns that the government in Scotland is fattened "to the point of dangerous obesity". Among the proposals the two put forward are for education vouchers, previously a Tory policy, the private sector competing with the NHS and for the abolition of Scottish Enterprise.

I am by no means religious (a sort of Anglican agnostic/atheist), but this seems apt:

"I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance". Luke 15 7.

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posted by Croydonian

A whole new way of looking at Albion

Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Click here

Or, come to that, the United Kingdom

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posted by Croydonian