It’s taken me four weeks to write this, because I barely knew where to start.
Channel 4 showed the singular and vastly wonderful The Banshees Of Inisherin at the weekend, and as brilliant as it is in its own right, it also came loaded with all sorts of resonances and finally prodded me into action.
The equally singular and wonderful Jonathan Nash, who will be known to readers of this isolated and quiet island parish under a variety of names, died last month, of death. It was sudden yet expected, and in those respects very much the opposite of the man himself.
Alert viewers may have already noticed a new addition to the central links column: The Sealand Gazette. (If so, they should award themselves 200 Alert Viewer Points and add them to their Viewerscore card.)
The Gazette came about because I have a bad habit of using Twitter as a sort of Post-It Note for news stories I want to keep on file for future reference. It is, of course, singularly badly suited for this purpose, because finding anything you posted on Twitter more than a couple of days ago is a hideous trial and – as I learned only recently – Twitter deletes your old tweets forever when you exceed your quota, which varies according to how prolifically you tweet but can be as little as a few weeks.
So instead, now there's the Gazette, the newspaper for people who increasingly wish they lived on an isolated former gun platform in the middle of the North Sea. Published through the rather nifty Scoop.it platform, the benefits are that it's incredibly easy to use – a couple of clicks adds a story – and both persistent and searchable.
(NB To search the Gazette use the "FILTER" function below the banner, not the Search box at the top of the page, which searches the whole of Scoop.it instead.)
At launch many of the stories are old-ish, because I've been going through my Twitter account grabbing everything I've posted there since April before it gets wiped, but from now on it'll be hot-off-the-presses stuff, and there's even a Page Three girl today as an introductory bonus. (Though of course, it's a rather sinister and troubling one.) Readers can also easily suggest stories to add.
The Gazette should be a lot less trouble to maintain than the short-lived "Reasons Not To Recycle" blog, and fulfil much the same purpose. (Misanthropic nihilism, essentially.) But I'll make a special effort to throw in a few nice stories too, because mass reader suicide isn't the goal. Although in the broader sense, it is a bit.
Ex President Xiden on The Party Of The Dead: “So in this scenario if it was the wife who had been defrauding on a massive scale, buying camper vans…” Aug 9, 10:36
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “Dry your eyes, Dan. You were the one mocking “Reform supporters” for bemoaning what even you (now) consider to be…” Aug 9, 10:32
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “So another day and yer still acting an arse and pathetically jist casting untrue derogatory assertions about in a woeful…” Aug 9, 10:20
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “Oh do be quiet, thicko. It wasn’t Englishmen “like me” who promoted this fake professor and lauded him to the…” Aug 9, 09:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Party Of The Dead: “Just saw this Turkish proverb somewhere: « The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe as…” Aug 8, 22:18
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “If roles were reversed, maybe the wife would have bought a smaller camper van, and a smaller Jag. And no…” Aug 8, 20:47
Jay on The Party Of The Dead: “Caveman, (he of mega-loot and high-flying career) regarding your 11.41am comment: I was wondering whether you might be a well-informed…” Aug 8, 20:34
agentx on The Party Of The Dead: “The “I won’t say any more on the matter” Sturgeon: “She argued the scrutiny she faced had a gendered dimension.…” Aug 8, 20:25
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “Ach, now yer jist acting out like a spoilt bairn due to yer lack of tolerance of other folk’s often…” Aug 8, 18:59
Stevie on The Party Of The Dead: “I would add, the same people who attacked me are the same gullibles travels, believing Hamas are freedom fighters and…” Aug 8, 18:12
Chas on The Party Of The Dead: “Maybe, just maybe your ‘speech’ is being censored because it is the same shite over and over again? The learned…” Aug 8, 17:17
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “That’s right Dan. Fed up of twats like you.” Aug 8, 16:57
Dan on The Party Of The Dead: “Had a wee chuckle at a Reform supporter stating they’ve had enough of the UK, and he and wife now…” Aug 8, 16:39
Stevie on The Party Of The Dead: “Reading through this thread, reminds me of my being te first voice to point out that they/them had discarded all/any…” Aug 8, 15:12
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: ““It is a spectrum, none of which is any worse, or less or more worse, but it is a spectrum…” Aug 8, 14:05
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “Yes, I read that piece that Hatey linked to the other day with incredulity giving way to rage, rage giving…” Aug 8, 11:41
David Ferguson on The Party Of The Dead: “It appears I was wrong. Glasgow did in fact award him a full professorship. I think it was the Dugdale…” Aug 8, 11:09
James Che on The Party Of The Dead: “Treaty of union article XV111private Rights Scotland.” Aug 8, 10:47
James Che on The Party Of The Dead: “If the 1707 treaty of union were a reality Scotland would have complete ” freedom of speech ” under “”Private…” Aug 8, 10:44
James Che on The Party Of The Dead: “Again free speech is being censored by moderation, no swear words, no attacks on diversity, no disagreements with others included,…” Aug 8, 10:05
James Che on The Party Of The Dead: “The policy of keeping the people blindly ignorant from the reality of facts allows for the people to be easily…” Aug 8, 09:53
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: ““Glasgow denies any knowledge of the ludicrous mountebank in any form at all” They’ve most certainly heard of him now!” Aug 8, 08:00
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Extraordinary, Confused, that you still can’t bring yourself to get onside with a former colony fighting desperately to fend off…” Aug 8, 07:56
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “Sure, Alf, but our membership of the EU was never on the basis of a multi-party treaty between the individual…” Aug 8, 07:39
Aidan on The Party Of The Dead: “Oh yeah that’s a cracking idea that, let’s keep North Sea oil and gas in the ground but instead by…” Aug 8, 07:14
Confused on The Party Of The Dead: “main – What part of EFTA did you not understand you persistent eructation of bad faith argumentation? – I did…” Aug 7, 22:49
Alf Baird on The Party Of The Dead: “Personally, like you I’m not a big fan of the EU, Hatey. But really this should have been and is…” Aug 7, 21:44
Captain Caveman on The Party Of The Dead: “” Note the ‘C’ word there. Readers who have swallowed whole Professor Baird’s “Scotland as colony” thesis can’t seriously be…” Aug 7, 19:33
Hatey McHateface on The Party Of The Dead: “An interesting article on how the pro-EU government recently voted into power in Hungary is gerrymandering the constitution to ensure…” Aug 7, 19:11
