Bath, readers – which some of you may be aware isn’t even in Scotland – is a pretty darn pleasant place to while away your days, all things considered. Packed from head to foot with gorgeous Georgian architecture the colour of set honey and nestling amid a clutch of lush green hills, it’s like a miniature version of Edinburgh in sandstone.
It’s big enough to be lively and have plenty of culture, with theatres and museums and venues and galleries and cinemas both multiplex and arthouse. Countless movies and TV shows have been shot here, from contemporary episodes of Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The Unexpected to a whole string of period costume dramas, and the “Little Theatre” cinema seen in Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr Fox” is based on our real one.
It’s also very handily placed. Situated on or close to two main railway lines, you can hop on a train and ten minutes later be in Bristol, an ugly and unlikeable but still vibrant and eventful city. 30 minutes takes you to the classic English seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare, or the unfairly-maligned Swindon. Stretch it to an hour and you can be in a whole other country, in Barry Island or the impressive Welsh capital of Cardiff. 90 minutes gets you to London, and a couple of hours will see you in any of a bunch of places on the south coast (my personal favourite is Weymouth), all direct. You can even get straight to Edinburgh or Glasgow with only a single change of train at Bristol.
Having a car unlocks lots of other magical and fascinating places that are well within daytrip distance, like the ghost villages of Tyneham and Imber, the striking Cheddar Gorge, Longleat safari park and the world’s greatest museum ever, the batshit-mad Oakham Treasures, as well as Lacock, a quaint 13th-century townlet entirely owned by the National Trust, which gets invaded by Nazis every year.
(If you love a stately or historic home, you can join the Trust and visit somewhere new within 40 minutes’ drive just about every week for a year. Then you run out.)
I still don’t like JK Rowling, for reasons I set out earlier this week. I certainly never in a million years imagined I’d ever find myself in a position where I respected her 50 times more than I do Nicola Sturgeon.
My legal team and I have just received, unexpectedly early, the sheriff’s verdict in my defamation case against Kezia Dugdale. The short and paraphrased version is that yes, she did defame me by inaccurately calling me a homophobe, but because she’s an idiot who doesn’t know what words mean, she’s allowed to, so we lose.
It’s always nice to see Michelle Mone in the news again, especially when the Tory peer crowbars an attempted intervention into Scottish politics into everything she does.
And since there’s not much else going on, it seemed like a good excuse to have a wee delve into what she’s been up to lately.
I apologise in advance to readers for the personal indulgence of this post.
Some months ago, quite coincidentally, I happened to avail myself of Twitter’s archive function, which allows users to download their entire tweet history. For various reasons I’ve been looking at it recently, and until I did I’d been unaware that it records not just a user’s own tweets, but also the tweets from other people that they’ve retweeted.
I’ve collected some of Wings’ tweets and retweets – in reverse chronological order – below. (Famously, of course, RTs aren’t necessarily endorsements, but you can decide on the underlying tone for yourself. Each of them links to the original tweet so you can see the whole conversation, or click on the links being referenced.)
They’re all on one subject, by way of illustration, because Twitter is a transient medium full of people all too eager to jump at the slightest excuse to make spurious and hateful allegations about everything (and anyone) under the sun to serve their own agendas, and for the sake of the future of human discourse it’s worth remembering that nothing exists in isolation or free of context, and we shouldn’t jump too easily to conclusions.
Great news, readers! After years of requests, it’s now finally possible to possess and cherish your very own adorable cuddly toy version of Wings’ symbolic embodiment of benign and welcoming independence, Hamish the lion!
This site is still hampered by the consequences of TotallyUnbelievableMadnessGate, so until normal service is resumed here’s a quick recap of a few stories from the last few days you may have missed.
Since it now looks increasingly like we might be doing this indyref thing all over again pretty soon, we thought you’d like to meet our Fulfilment Department:
This short video by the ever-excellent Phantom Power Films takes you to the heart of AyeMail, who not only handle the delivery of immaculately-packaged donor perks for pro-indy fundraisers and things like the Wee Black Book, but also produce a growing range of merchandise direct, ensuring that as much money as possible stays within the Yes movement.
If you want some stuff made for Indyref 2 – This Time It’s An Emergency, we can recommend their various services without hesitation.
*No payments or incentives of any kind in either direction were solicited or received for this endorsement.
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “Cecil Rhodes was a raging homosexual. How does that fit with the theory. Confused? You will be.” Sep 13, 18:50
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “So Memmi was Jewish? The usual suspects are going to have to airbrush him out of the post colonial boys’…” Sep 13, 18:49
Chas on A Long Hard Think: “DaveLooney Many thanks for your response. Who do you speak for? Could it be Fanny, Mummi or Ceaser. Or is…” Sep 13, 18:26
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “I speak English, TURABDIN, and I am better than the rest. Like most Scots, I’ve little time for the inferior…” Sep 13, 18:23
twathater on A Long Hard Think: “I notice now that the yoonionist parties have come to the realisation that their unwavering support for Is ra hel…” Sep 13, 18:21
Hatey McHateface on A Long Hard Think: “Very happy to accept that you are, Confused. We’re in Scotland, world leader in accepting self-identification in all its forms.…” Sep 13, 18:15
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “…they’re both on Hatey’s ‘Love/Hate’ scale but at opposite ends?” Sep 13, 17:51
DaveL on A Long Hard Think: “@ Chas You speak for no one but yourself and all we hear is whines whinges and moans. Get back…” Sep 13, 17:46
Captain Caveman on A Long Hard Think: “QUACK QUACK OOPS. Ah, but you’ve been such a lovely contestant, Fatso. Bus fare home. 🙂” Sep 13, 17:44
James on A Long Hard Think: “Is the answer….”Captain Caveman”?” Sep 13, 17:41
Chas on A Long Hard Think: “Will you ever realise that over 90% of Scots have no interest in your repetive shite. I suspect that the…” Sep 13, 16:51
Aidan on A Long Hard Think: “I think you’d have to get a job to join a trade union James . .” Sep 13, 16:15
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “What did Hitler and Elvis have in common?” Sep 13, 16:14
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “What has Hitler and Alf Baird got in common? Hitler had no people in his paintings and Alf Baird has…” Sep 13, 16:07
Captain Caveman on A Long Hard Think: “Here’s another: CLUE: “Morbidly obese, unemployed troll with a sub-80 IQ”. F _ T S O” Sep 13, 16:01
James on A Long Hard Think: “Can we have the real “Northcode” back, please? Anyway, whoever you are; here’s today’s crossword clue for you. It’s quite…” Sep 13, 15:40
agentx on A Long Hard Think: “The numerous Sturgeon items were originally listed by the Police/ COPFS but were removed from the criminal charges list when…” Sep 13, 15:39
James on A Long Hard Think: “Wait, what? “Communist unions”?? Which ones are they and where do I sign up!? Or do you mean the ultra…” Sep 13, 15:31
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “To think, out of all the very clever people on here no one thought to point to the most obvious.…” Sep 13, 14:16
Captain Caveman on A Long Hard Think: ““That we are treated similarly to a colony is, I think, indisputable” “indisputable”? I beg to differ. As Northcode rightly…” Sep 13, 14:04
Ex President Xiden on A Long Hard Think: “If it is the case that Sturgeon has not surrendered these items voluntarily then the police must petition the court…” Sep 13, 13:54
Confused on A Long Hard Think: ““we never got it as bad as the darkies”? – alas, Scots and Anglos are the same shade of pink…” Sep 13, 13:51
Mark Beggan on A Long Hard Think: “And to think Scotland got taken to the cleaners for the price of a campervan and a few pens. How…” Sep 13, 13:51
lothianlad on A Long Hard Think: “Police Scotland are corrupt. Establishment lackies!” Sep 13, 13:37
Captain Caveman on A Long Hard Think: “That’s because it isn’t.” Sep 13, 13:31
Lorncal on A Long Hard Think: “Northcode: spot on. That we are treated similarly to a colony is, I think, indisputable, but that we ARE a…” Sep 13, 13:28
TURABDIN on A Long Hard Think: “IT IS A FACT that Scots/Scotland have become rather accustomed to the grave insult of being the mere appendage. >300…” Sep 13, 13:24
