This got me thinking back to when I used to drink. There was real peer pressure to drink heavily, 'It's not a proper night out unless you're steaming', etc. Toxic masculinity. A very scary number of my pals that encouraged excessive drinking are now dead. glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/24270933.…

I worked in London for 32 years. Due to my job, I met many MPs. I saw Westminster & the HoL close up. The corruption was vile. I hoped I'd left all that behind when I returned to Scotland in 2012. Now it seems the only difference is that some get arrested up here for it.

From the reported 'hate crimes' that are actually criminal, I am bloody disappointed that race hate is still overwhelmingly in the lead, with hate against gay men & lesbians 2nd. In 3rd place, hating the disabled. Joint 4th, religion and age. I'd hoped we'd moved on from the 70s.

There seems to be a genuine movement going on that has the aim of imposing the values of a minority of very middle class pampered clowns on the rest of us, and somehow they are surprised that there is a backlash against it.

37 yr old man called Martin Hackett arrested and charged with 'intent to rape' a 70 year old woman.
11 years ago there was a 26 year old man called Martin Hackett jailed for 4 and 1/2 years for scarring a 9 year old girl for life with a Buckfast bottle. news.stv.tv/west-central/m…

I've not really posted anything vaguely political on here for a long time, but earlier today I posted a direct link to a London Economist piece on Scotland's financial contribution to to the UK, and somehow they're 'my figures' and I'm 'spouting pish', as if I wrote the piece 😂

As far as I know, Scotland still gets £41 billion per annum under the Barnett formula? Yet it contributes £73.3 billion to the UK? £32.3 billion a year to be part of the UK seems a mighty high membership fee to me. 🤔 thelondoneconomic.com/business-econo…

ft.com/content/dd1807… 25% of children in the UK living in 'absolute poverty'. Followed by 'Poverty rates are expected to rise further'. I really hoped when I became a Dad that my children would live in a better society than the one I grew up in. Instead, it's worse.

░A░G░E░N░E░R░A░L░
░D░I░S░A░P░P░O░I░N░T░M░E░N░T░░W░I░T░H
░L░I░F░E░I░N░B░I░O░

I am old enough to remember when Barbour jackets and Mulberry bags were the obvious visual symbols of the middle classes. That was in the days before blue hair, piercings and misdirected rage took over.

A short story in two pictures.

Recently I have had MRIs, ultrasounds, a prostate biopsy, and today a flexible cystoscopy, where my bladder was examined via a cable inserted into my urethra. I can't say it's been pleasant, 🤣but the NHS staff in Glasgow have been amazing throughout. I am truly grateful. #SNHS

I've been spending time in Wales lately. Bilingual signs are everywhere. BBC News presenters says hello and goodbye in Welsh, although the news is in English. I've not seen or heard one complaint. Is hostility towards bilingualism strictly a Scottish/Northern Ireland phenomenon?

It has been a year since I started learning to speak Japanese. This has resulted in some unexpected but wonderful changes to my life.
日本語を勉強し始めて1年が経ちました。これにより、私の人生に予期せぬ、しかし素晴らしい変化がいくつか起こりました。

Robert Burns' 'I Murder Hate', by Ghetto Priest, produced by Adrian Sherwood and released by super trendy On U Sound. The CD pressing quickly sold out. Used copies sell for £50. Why isn't anyone else this active in introducing Burns to new audiences today? youtube.com/watch?v=mo36Sg…

Have a grand 25th of Jan, everyone. I'll be playing some of my favourite Burns tunes and reading a selection of his works. Please do read some of his poetry, it's still extremely relevant today. The 25th isn't all about haggis, ye' ken.

Ali is a good guy and a great piper. If you are looking to join a new pipe band this year, this is a wonderful opportunity.

Whatever your views on Izzard's sex/gender/pronouns/narcissism, there is NOTHING 'working class' about the privately educated, prep school, boarding school, drama student, middle class cliché that they are.

Happy New Year to everyone! Today I decided to look online for info regarding 'I Saw My Love Come Passing By Me' from the Wm. Cocks collection, published by Oxford University Press in 1925.
I swiftly found out that Googling 'love', 'cocks' and 'come' in combination was unwise.

I get very uneasy seeing threads praising the late John Peel. Yes, he played great music, but he also had sex with ''an awful lot' (his words) of underage girls, (people who were legally children, one was 13, he claimed) and got at least 2 pregnant. I can't overlook that.