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.
robertkknight on Blue In The Face: “Not that it’s going to happen in my lifetime, but if Indyref2 was ever to be held, only those entitled…” Jul 15, 00:34
Northcode on Blue In The Face: “This is a long one… scroll on by if you can’t be bothered ;earning something interesting and informative. I feel…” Jul 15, 00:16
Young Lochinvar on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “SHM I served then, but not in the Falklands, indeed I remember seeing the remnants of the Argentinian debris of…” Jul 15, 00:03
StrangerHereMyself on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “Cheering on the Argentinians and not the exploits of the Scots Guards at Tumbledown? This self-identification lark is good, eh?…” Jul 14, 22:23
Young Lochinvar on Step One: “Pastor Fagat Wow! And you suggest I am thick? Phew you’ve got a nerve. Read again your own summaries against…” Jul 14, 22:21
robertkknight on Blue In The Face: “Sorry… Should say “got” not “hot”. Either way, it’s not in the interests of the British State to see the…” Jul 14, 22:00
Andy Ellis on Step One: “@ Young Lochinbore Not even close, no cigar…soz. Any variations are minor. The principle remains: all of them used broad,…” Jul 14, 21:29
Innocent bystander on Blue In The Face: “Within the second paragraph of PS response they apologise that reference was made that they had been advised HOW to…” Jul 14, 20:50
robertkknight on Blue In The Face: ““Would be sweet karma if Nicola bust the SNP by self-obsessed accident.” I’d say by design rather than by accident.…” Jul 14, 20:19
Dan on Blue In The Face: “Aye, indeed it is a rather self-induced wretched state of affairs, but I’m not sad, more frustrated and somewhat angry…” Jul 14, 19:41
Young Lochinvar on Step One: “Pastor Fagat 2nd attempt to post this reply, fingers crossed this time. I am using your numbered list, see below…” Jul 14, 19:39
sarah on Blue In The Face: “Urgent and Important: Scotland’s independent legal status has just been directly denied by the UK government in the Court of…” Jul 14, 19:35
Chris on Blue In The Face: “Apologies Stuart,, I was a bit impatient, sorry.” Jul 14, 19:18
James on The Interests Of The Many: “Aye, just like you, petal. Why don’t you three get a ‘family room’ somewhere for a night?” Jul 14, 19:00
James on Blue In The Face: “Light bulb moment, Inglis?” Jul 14, 18:56
Wally Jumblatt on Blue In The Face: “I don’t know the details of the SNP’s Articles of Association or whatever, but I suspect that they are now…” Jul 14, 18:44
MP on Blue In The Face: “Worth the follow-up Q’s, but I think that they are saying (1) they knew that the money had been spent…” Jul 14, 18:44
agentx on Blue In The Face: “Those Bloody English!” Jul 14, 18:40
Alf Baird on Blue In The Face: “Aye Robert, for a people who are out of the game, “all roads lead to Rome”. The native seldom looks…” Jul 14, 18:32
Eric on Blue In The Face: “There seems to be more buck passing here. It states these “matters were … reported to the COPFS for guidance”.…” Jul 14, 18:25
barelybare on Blue In The Face: “I agree, Houston leaves us hanging by ending the story with report to COPFS. One could conclude he is saying…” Jul 14, 17:54
Captain Caveman on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “Heh, well maybe – but not if we’re talking about the Court of Public Opinion? That’s really quite the cliff…” Jul 14, 17:17
Young Lochinvar on Step One: “AI Dun Well you would wouldn’t you! Remember; A is B, black is white and up is down in your…” Jul 14, 16:46
robertkknight on Blue In The Face: “It is becoming clearer by the day that Police Scotland and/or the COPFS have been told this far, (Murrell trial/conviction),…” Jul 14, 16:35
Andy Ellis on Step One: “@Young Lochinbore I see you have comprehension difficulties on top of you other issues. The point of the list is…” Jul 14, 16:33
Young Lochinvar on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “Pastor Fagat & 1.51 The classroom creep.. “Please Miss! Please Miss! Please Miss!; Alf used the “C” word!!!!”” Jul 14, 16:30
Aidan on Step One: ““Some English person took the piss out of Scots and therefore we better deny all English people living in Scotland…” Jul 14, 16:28
Young Lochinvar on The Unstoppable Lie Machine: “Confused Now now, that’s enough of that! Poor AI Dun will have swooned requiring a touch of the vapours after…” Jul 14, 16:25
Thistle's Bristles on Hey Lord Don’t Ask Me Questions: “‘His lawyer says he is “Overwhelmed by feelings of embarrassment & shame” ‘ Who is? That is, does the ‘he’…” Jul 14, 16:22
