SHAMELESS BANDWAGON-JUMPING

Michael Jackson

NONE OF THE ABOVE

I have always thought that on a British [or any other country for that matter] ballot paper the option ‘None of the above‘ should exist. Several countries have it and there are a number of different procedures should ‘none of the above’ actually win the election. In the UK there is a registered political party [...]

A THIRD WAY IN OR A THIRD WAY OUT?

Because the Irish have the temerity and sheer bloody-mindedness to occasionally ask their people what they think in a direct way [I think it is called a fairly-worded referendum or something like that] they have occasionally been threatened by the powers in the EU. The majority of the rest of the citizens of Europe have [...]

CATCHING UP

Have been incredibly busy at work the last couple of weeks and this afternoon has been the first chance I have had to work my way through 100+ emails. Have finally got the chance to do some writing for the first time in a while so in the meantime, one of the emails I got [...]

URSULA K. LE GUIN

Here is an interesting little piece by Ursula K. Le Guin who I was always aware of but only got round to reading once [well in fact, long after] she had been recommended to me by the Curmudgeon. A Rant About “Technology” In an interesting and favorable notice of Changing Planes (which you can find [...]

GONE TO THE DOGS

I have written before about anthropomorphisation,  which is the act of ascribing human emotions and forms to things that are not human. It really shouldn’t be done. People like to think they know what animals are thinking, but we don’t. A study has just been conducted that would appear to prove this… Can dogs really [...]

TOO LONG JOHNNY

PILGER’S LATEST

John Pilger’s latest article is having a go at the Middle-East speech by the pope of hope… Smile on the face of the tiger – John Pilger At 7.30 in the morning on 3 June, a seven-month-old baby died in the intensive care unit of the European Gaza Hospital in the Gaza Strip. His name [...]

SOUND THE PIBROCH

The Corries…

REPRESENTATION?

Thanks to Scunnert for reminding me of this very salient fact when thinking about Scotland in Europe… Here are the populations and number of people in European parliament for some of the smaller countries in Europe. Can you see which one appears to be different? If you can, can you work out why that might [...]