Not Opinionated At All

Why do so many people seem so clueless about the concept of monarchy?

2010-11-20T20:53:00.000Z

Two "big" royal stories this week. Yes the "Willikate" betrothal grabbed the headlines, and while it was rather overhyped, I could recognise that it did indeed qualify as a news story. If we thought that was a lot of fuss over not very much, we only had to wait for Friday and the "Queen Camilla" non-story. In case you missed it (lucky, lucky you) Prince Charles was asked in an interview for US TV, whether his 2nd wife would be known as "Queen Camilla" once his mum finally pops her clogs.

"umm, err, we'll have to wait and see, I suppose that might be" is a rough approximation of his response. I can't be arsed looking it up to get the exact transcript. Now admittedly it was ITV News I was watching (I know, I should know better, but the mrs was watching that Jungle crap and the news followed it), but the sheer over-reaction to this effectively off the cuff response had to be seen to be believed. Alistair Stewart must have had to take his suit directly to the dry cleaners immediately after posting his report, he really was that excited.

Quite apart from this being deeemed such a huge story, worthy of major billing on the main evening news bulletin, there's another problem I have with this. Presumably, if you actually care even a jot what Camilla's title is, was, or will be in the future, you would call yourself a monarchist, or a supporter of the monarchy. Personally, I couldn't give a toss if they call her "Queen", "Princess", "No.1 Doris", or "The Royal Spunk-Receptacle". Clearly, there's a hell of a lot of people in this country who support the monarchy, yet have completely misunderstood what a monarchy actually is. You don't get to have an opinion, you don't get to have a say, you just get "ruled" by whichever chinless wonder happens to emerge first from the loins of the last one (legitimately of course, no bastards allowed!). That individual then gets to do whatever the hell they want, when they want, to who they want.

This is the same bunch of thickos that will opine "that Charles shouldn't be King, we should just skip him and give it straight to that nice young Wills". Someone should explain to them that there is a system where the people get to choose the Head of State, and if that person does something (or someone) they don't like, they can vote them out and choose another one. It's called a Republic.

Sadly if you tried this you would get a vacant, mouth-breathing stare back at you with a soundtrack of gurgling. Possibly followed by a punch to the chops. Personally, I think we should move towards a system of dictatorship. I'm sure I don't need to tell you who should be the dictator. Or what place there would be in my society for anyone who had ever given an opinion on who the next monarch should be or how we should refer to their preferred shag...

The heart of a country - according to Google

2010-11-02T12:05:00.000Z

The Google maps Japan - China jetski adventure* got me to thinking about where Google takes you if you just ask for directions to a country. Interestingly, directions to both Scotland and Wales end on very remote lakeside roads (Loch Tay and Nant y Moch reservoir respectively), while England is a housing estate in Milton Keynes called Silicon Court.

Ireland is a bog in Co. Roscommon, while Germany actually has an official "Mittelpunkt" in the town of Niederdoria which is where Google will lead you.

*On the off chance you haven't seen this just ask Google maps for directions from Japan to China and scroll down to no.43 in the list.

Boris in shock resignation – urges Cameron to follow

2010-10-05T09:00:00.000+01:00

Boris in shock resignation – urges Cameron to follow
from our blue rinse correspondent

London Mayor Boris Johnson today announced he was to step down from the post with immediate effect. In a move that has left commentators, supporters and opponents stunned, Johnson said “How can I possibly be considered to have a political mandate when only 45% of the electorate actually bothered to use their vote? Millions of hard-working Londoners are affected by my capricious policies and this situation really cannot be allowed to continue any longer”.

As some of the audience at his party’s conference in Birmingham started to wake up and realise that someone was speaking to them, Johnson added “And when one considers that the Conservatives and our coalition partners the Liberal Democrats only received 38% of the vote between us, one has to ask whether Dave and Gideon can possibly continue with their nakedly and blatantly far-right programme of cuts?”

Doing something about it

2010-07-12T22:03:00.000+01:00

So it's official. I've joined the Labour Party. Since getting involved with various campaigns and issues in my teens I've been mostly apathetic with occasional ranting. At most elections in the last decade I've walked into the polling booth with a shortlist of 2 or 3 - I needed the pressure of actually standing with the sheet of paper and the short fat pencil to force me to make a decision.

It took the trauma of the 2010 election aftermath to clear the fog from my brain and make me realise that there really is only one way to vote in this country. I may not agree with everything Labour did in power and I may not agree with every policy the party has, but the best way to deal with that is to get involved and get my voice heard.

It's often said that if you don't get involved, you shouldn't be entitled to complain about stuff. So get ready for a lot more ranting from me in the future...

Joined up thinking in Edinburgh

2010-06-28T12:23:00.000+01:00

Juxtapose 2 recent news stories and you see the complete stupidity going on in planning for the future in Edinburgh. On the one hand there is a strong possibility that despite the fact that Leith has suffered more than any other area during the tramworks, the line will initially end at York Place, and then be extended at some point in the future to Leith and Newhaven. On the other hand, the council grants outline planning permission for thousands of new homes, hotel beds and office desks in Leith. Joined up thinking?

What will happen to the cash paid by the builders of developments close to the tramline if it is not completed? Presumably the council will have to refund that money. Does anyone know how much it is? What proportion is it of the £55m supposedly required to complete the job properly I wonder?

Lost votes in the "Home of Democracy"

2010-05-07T03:44:00.001+01:00

It seems there have been a number of places where people have been unable to vote yesterday. There have also been some stories of problems with postal ballot papers not showing up. We've been affected in my household. When my wife realised she would be away on business on polling day she applied for me to act as her proxy. She posted the application 1st class on the Thursday when the deadline was the following Tuesday. We subsequently received notification this week that the application was received too late. I suspect that it was delivered by Royal Mail before the deadline, but that due to the volume of applications close to the deadline, it was not actually processed until afterwards. Unfortunately I have no way to prove this, as the form was not sent by recorded mail, but it would be a rare letter that did not manage to travel barely half the width of the city in 4 postal days.

After several successive elections where we've heard much concerned comment about voter apathy and low turnouts, it does seem rather unfortunate that a 100% effort has not been put in to allow those who wish to cast their vote to do so.

Election night TV

2010-05-06T14:24:00.003+01:00

Just checking out what time the different results shows start tonight and what's on to keep me occupied before they do. Discovered to my surprise that ITV still do an Election Night show. Thinking about it I probably shouldn't have been surprised, but still, I was.

It led me to wonder why they bother and then to wonder whether ITV had been wondering the same thing. I decided they probably had been, and this in turn led me to imagine the meeting where they discussed the alternatives.

Of course they would have to do something really big to grab the ratings away from BBC and Sky News. The obvious choice would be an after-the-watershed Corrie special like what Hollyoaks sometimes do. Several Rovers regulars haven't been seen for a while. Locals think they heard some of them mention a last minute break and therefore they could be stranded abroad due to the ash cloud. Meanwhile Fred the Butcher's new recipe sausages are flying out of the shop but for some reason Fred is evasive about his "secret ingredient". In the meantime Ken Barlow has parked his Rover 25 at a popular dogging location on a windswept Lancashire moor. Too late, he realises that the sphincter he's enthusiastically rimming belongs to Gail Tilsley. Cue the saxophone. The 2nd half of the episode will be shown 90 minutes later.

Filling the gap we start with the ITV News which leads on how last year's X-Factor finalists voted in Britain's Got Talent. Those that also voted in the General Election tell us how they cast that vote too.

Next up Alastair Stewart would be narrating yet another of those series based on footage from a camera mounted in a police car. Except that he's taken the hump at not getting to do an election show. So Notts County footballer Lee Hughes is doing it instead. Viewers in Scotland will miss this in favour of the first episode of the eagerly awaited 15-part fly-on-the-wall series following Rangers star Kyle Lafferty and his fiancee Tori as they prepare for their wedding. Shoppers at Braehead are outraged as Primark closes for 2 hours to allow Tori a private shopping experience. That bloke off the Postcode Lottery adverts is doing the voiceover.

Corrie fans now only have 16 minutes of adverts and 18 minutes of When Seagulls Attack to sit through before we return to Wetherfield for the exciting denouement.

End of free "Special Uplifts" - a backwards step?

2010-05-04T12:07:00.002+01:00

Many Edinburgers are no doubt unaware that as of April 2010 the council no longer offers a free annual special uplift to every household. All Special Uplifts are now charged at a minimum of £19.99.

While I understand that the council is operating under budgetary contraints I see this move as completely counter-productive. Yes it's true that if you if you are a car-owner and can fit such items in your car you can transport them yourself to the Seafield recycling centre and dispose of them at no charge. But how does this encouragement of unnecessary car journeys tally with the council's Sustainable Transport Plan?

In any case, far too many people are far too lazy to do this. They know fine well that if they simply dump their larger waste items on the street, the council will eventually collect them anyway. Meanwhile we have unslightly piles of old TVs, large cardboard boxes, unwanted sofas etc rotting on our streets for weeks at a time until they get collected.

Is this all in line with the council's much vaunted "Edenburgh" campaign? Is it in any way a desirable situation? I believe the answer is no.

Product Review - Sony Walkman NWA3000 MP3 Player

2006-01-11T13:57:00.000Z

So I've finally joined the "digital music revolution".

I've been intending to buy an MP3 Player for a while now. I've used my partner's IPod and been unimpressed with the sound quality and also put off by the fact that it's only able to play Apple's own music file format. Plus the fact that every Tom, Dick and Harry has one!

The Sony looks beautiful, sounds amazing, has simple intuitive controls and is an absolute joy to use so I'm really pleased I picked it ahead of the Apple and Creative options. Unfortuantely the Connect software really lets it down. I've had no problems transferring tracks from the PC to the player with it, other than that it takes a wee while to start up, but the problems occur when trying to rip CDs onto the PC. I find that it will rip a CD successfully into the library but then immediately hangs up and cannot be restarted. Even forcing it to quit through Task Manager seems to leave a lot of processes running so you have to reboot. The solution occured to me when Sony rolled out a firmware upgrade to the player, allowing it to play .WMA files. So now I rip all the CDs to the PC through Windows media player, and then import them to Connect and simply use that to transfer to the player itself. Slightly more fiddly but it seems to work well enough and it means I can get all my CDs onto it and start enjoying my music! I'm sure given time Sony will sort out the software glitches but for now this is a workaround that I'm happy with.

Gig Review: BETAGARRI, Knust, Hamburg 2/12/2005

2005-12-28T16:20:00.000Z

I took in this gig as part of a trip with a few mates to Hamburg for a long weekend. We had tickets to see St Pauli vs Werder Bremen II on the Friday evening and when we were sorting out the match tickets we found out that the St Pauli fans xmas party was taking place after the game so we got ourselves tickets for that too.

The barman in the Jolly Roger pub promised us a great night and particularly talked up the 2nd band who were to perform: Betagarri, "very good Basque Ska band. You will like".

The doors for the event opened pretty quickly after the match finished but we took our time in getting there so by the time we did so it was already pretty busy. The venue had 2 main rooms - a larger area with a stage at one end, a main bar and a small bottle bar, and an upstairs balcony around the top, also a fairly large bar, slightly brighter and with more seating. The gig was in the main auditorium so we made our way and got ourselves some drink just as the band came on stage. The audience were initially a little slow to really get into the performance and the band themselves seemed to take a wee bit of time to really get going. We made our way forward through the crowd and settled on standing about 20 feet or so from the stage for the fitrst few numbers. It was clear that there were a few people in the audience that were there specifically for the band and had heard them before, but that the majority were there as St Pauli fans and the music was as new to them as it was to me.

After 2 or 3 songs I felt that this was a performance I was going to enjoy, and the rest of the crowd started to get into it too. This seemed to feed through to the band, who were really warmed up by now and starting to put some feeling into the show. Frontman Iñaki Ortiz de Villalba proceeded to move around the stage like a madman for the duration of the gig, running up and down, dancing on the spot, spinning round in circles "shooting" the crowd and his band mates and gradually removing his top couple of layers of clothing as the place warmed up.

After another couple of songs my mate James suggested we move a bit closer to the stage so the 2 of us squeezed out way forward and eventually made our way onto the mosh pit where a good crowd of guys and girls were jumping, pogoing around, doing what in the Uk would be known as a "Madness Walk" and generally building up a healthy sweat.

Betagarri's music is a roaring Ska/Punk combination and live they are a fantastic experience. The rhythm section as you would no doubt expect, comprises drums and bass, then there are 2 guitarists and a brass section of trumpet, trombone and sax. As you would expect from a bunch of talented musicians who have been gigging together for a number of years, they're pretty tight and they really seem to enjoy themselves on stage.

The performance was interrupted for about 15 minutes when the St Pauli team arrived on stage and were lauded by the assembled throng. At this point James and I were pushed back slightly by some of the female members of the crowd - who'd be a footballer?!

Subsequently the band got stuck right back into their set and we proceeded to give ourselves some pretty achey legs and feet in the morning. The highlight was probably their biggest hit, "Verde" during which Ortiz de Villalba led the band and the crowd in enthusistic jogging from left to right and then back again - from my view at the front the level of participation was pretty high.

As you might expect from a Basque band there is a political element to some of their songs, reinforced by a chorus of "Bandiera Rossa" in Italian late on in the set case you hadn't picked it up from the Basque lyrics. This was never going to turn off too many St Pauli fans of course!

All in all a very enjoyable gig by Betagarri. I've had a look at their website which has a fairly extensive amount of English content but I can't see if they have ever performed in the UK. I know they gig pretty heavily throughout the Basque Country and Catalonia, and that the Hamburg gig was part of a German tour. They have also played in the USA in the past. If you do get a chance to see them I would recommend it - otherwise do check out some of their music on their website.

Postscript: A big surprise when I got home and played the CD I bought at the gig to my girlfriend ("I hate Ska" - though to be fair about the only Ska she knows is Madness!). Once it finished she asked me to put it on again and we've listened to it quite a few times since. Now there's a recommendation.

Restaurant Review: Domenico's, Sandport St., Leith

2005-11-06T13:40:00.000Z

I'd been meaning to pay a visit to Domenico's in Leith, ever since a workmate recommended it after she visited with a friend a few months ago. I finally made a reservation on Friday night, and man, I wish I'd got round to it much sooner.

Domenico's is a small place, probably less than 30 covers, and with an unassuming appearance, situated on Sandport Street, off Commercial Street, in the heart of Leith's main restaurant area. We managed to acquire a table in the window, giving my partner, D, a view of the whole restaurant and myself a view of the small park across the street.

The waiters were friendly and contributed to the relaxed atmosphere with a fairly casual approach to their tasks. That's not a criticism by the way, but a positive comparison with some of the over-attentive staff found in some establishments. We never had to wait more than a few moments for attention when we wanted it. The Italian accents seemed to be genuine which I have often suspected not to be the case in certain of Edinburgh's better known Italian eating-places.

Some beautifully fresh bread was brought, along with a small plate of large black olives, and we selected the house "wine of the month", a very drinkable Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. The hand written menus are changed every few weeks, as the waiter explained while apologizing for the slightly worn nature of some of the pages, urging us to ask him if we couldn't make out any of the dishes properly!

D selected the Mussels "Mariniere", while I plumped for the Mackerel in Lemon butter. Both starters were generously proportioned, cooked to perfection and frankly, delicious. In each case the sauces were spot on, contributing an interesting flavour without overpowering or detracting from the taste of the fish. D considered asking for some more bread to soak up her sauce but based on the size of the starters, decided she should save plenty of room for the main course to come.

The mains appeared after a respectable interval to allow us to digest the starters (doesn't it annoy you when the mains are in front of you almost as soon as the starter dishes have been cleared? Fair enough at lunch time but slow down in the evenings guys!). I had selected the Rigatoni with spicy sausage, brie, red pepper, cream and tomato sauce. A large bowl of this arrived and proved to be most enjoyable. However I think I would be able to be much more positive about what was a fine dish, were it not for the sublime Pork fillet in creamy brandy and pepper sauce which D was tucking into. I had also considered ordering this but decided against it as I often find pepper sauce (especially the type often served with steak) slightly unpleasant and overpowering. I couldn't have been more wrong. The sauce was a fine subtle, creamy compliment the tender pieces of meat. A selection of firm boiled veg and potatoes made up the ensemble. Fortunately for me, D was feeling full well before she reached the end of the dish and so I managed to snaffle more than just a few morsels.

The waiter collected my plate, realised we were still finishing off the pork, and noticing that we had finished our wine, kindly topped up both our glasses for an open bottle from the bar "to help it down". A small touch perhaps, but one of those things that sends you away with a good feeling (as if we needed it after that food!).

We ordered coffees, liqueurs, and a portion of caramel apple tart to share (we just couldn't resist!) and finally asked for the bill, which arrived with another 2 liqueurs, compliments of the house. The total? Less than 60 quid! I challenge anyone to find a better quality, more enjoyable dining experience at this kind of price in Edinburgh.

George Burley "parts company" with Hearts

2005-10-22T15:00:00.000+01:00

So, it wasn't entirely unexpected but I don't think anyone saw it coming today. Vladimir Romanov told the Hearts first team at about 11am that George Burley would not be there today (or in the future) and that 1st team coach John McGlynn would take charge for this afternoon's game.

Is this a bad thing for Scottish football? Undoubtedly yes. More competition in the league has created a lot more interest this season (in stark contrast to England!) and today's news will surely weaken Hearts' challenge. Of course there is always the possibility that they will unveil a big name manager at this evening's press conference, but I suspect this will not be the case.

Certainly it's a good thing for my team, Celtic, at least as far as this year's league title race is concerned. Rumours are flying around cyberspace that Burley has walked out of Tynecastle in the knowledge that he will replace Alex McLeish in the "Ibrox hotseat" but surely we have enough of a lead over rangers that it will be too late for this season at least.

The scorelines from both Tynecastle and Ibrox this afternoon will be interesting to see, as will the developments over the next few days.