UK Terror Threat Level

A bonus blog for you all tonight.

The UK terror threat level has just been raised from "substantial" to "severe" 

The new level means a terrorist attack is considered "highly likely".

The Home Secretary claims it is in response to the perceived increased threat from international terrorism following the failed Detroit airliner bombing on Christmas Day. 

Johnson stressed there was no intelligence to suggest a terrorist attack was imminent. 

So they've increased the level to "highly likely" even thought they have no intelligence to suggest there's an attack imminent, but because of a failed bombing a month ago on a plane from Holland to the USA.

Anyone else confused by those seemingly contradictory statements?  

Cyclops and the Postman wouldn't be ramping up the terror angle to make themselves look like Statesmen with a General Election looming would they?

Or even as a conduit to try and get the General Election postponed as the terror threat is "too great".......................surely not.

Just asking like.

Bonus music recommendation - Green Day - "Good Riddance (Time of your Life)"

The Kids are (not) Alright

I'm sure you've all read today about the two brothers from South Yorkshire who attacked other children in a sadistic attack.  They have been sentenced to an indefinite period of detention.  This sounds like a decent sentence until you hear they will serve a "minimum of five years".  

Being the UK Justice system that means they will be out in 5 years, be given anonymity and allowed to spend the rest of their lives as free men, like Thompson and Venables who murdered Jamie Bulger in the early 90s.

The pair, aged 10 and 11 at the time of the attack, threatened to kill their 9 and 11-year-old victims. 

During their 90-minute ordeal the victims were stamped on, forced to strip and hit with bricks. 

So who's to blame here? The offenders had a chaotic upbringing with their violent father, mother and five brothers.  They were shown "extreme" horror films and the younger brother had access to pornographic DVDs and smoked cannabis grown on his father's allotment. This may be extreme, but it's not uncommon nowadays for children to be brought up in a home of this nature. 

You might think this is a "big city" problem.  Only happens on sink estates.  Nothing to do with us.

I disagree.

I don't think it matters where you live. We have feral children in the village.  One in particular roams the streets, mother has no idea (or concern) where he is.  She has 4 kids from different fathers and the wee lad is just left to his own devices. 

With a bit of guidance I think he'd be ok (although he always has that wee glint of devilment in his eyes!) but there's no doubt he'll be in the new "superjail" at Peterhead before the decade is out. 

He's accumulated a gang of others with less than stringent parents (including my old friend Ms Audi A3's boy, who's never off the streets). 

We won't let our two out of the garden as I don't want them getting involved with them.  There's always the worry that your own kids, less "streetwise" than these bairns who have had to fend for themselves since they were toddlers, will get abused physically or mentally by these urchins.

It's a shocking indictment on the country, if we have this kind of thing in a wee village in Aberdeenshire, nowhere's immune.

Lord of the Flies house rules I guess.

Music tonight, another Scottish band for you - Franz Ferdinand and the excellent "Take me Out"

Sir James of Calderwood - Not a Homecoming

So the man with the infamous Glasgow "patter" returns to Pittodrie on Saturday in charge of Kilmarnock.

After all his posturing for a "bigger" job, it has finally dawned on Jimmy Calderwood that the Aberdeen job was the biggest he'll ever have in football.  He's still droning on in the press that he can't understand why he got the sack from the Dons.  Let me explain Jimmy.

Yes, you stabilised the club at a time of complete turmoil.  However your mates in the Central Belt press over-egged your reputation to a nonsensical degree.  The rubbish that was spouted about your attacking play defies belief.  The football was mind numbingly boring.  In the whole time you were in charge I think I enjoyed the following games:

Dundee United 2-0 win at Pittodrie.
Dundee United 3-2 win at Tannadice in the Cup.
The wins at Pittodrie against your beloved Rangers.
The UEFA Cup game against Copenhagen (I was ill and couldn't attend Bayern Munich).
Celtic 4-2 win at Pittodrie.

I cannot and will not forgive you for the pain inflicted in the Cup defeats to Queens Park, Dunfermline and above all Queen of the South,

Queen of the Fucking South James.  At Hampden.  In a semi final.  All you had to do was calm the team down for 10 minutes after we'd equalised, pass it around a bit, take the sting out of the game and all would have been well.  Basic managerial stuff.  But you let us get sucked into a ding dong cup game.  Great for the neutral.  Soul destroying for a fan.  With an out on their feet Rangers waiting in the Final.  Clueless.

I hated the way you "matched up" your teams to whoever we played, let it be Munich or Montrose.

I hated the way you attacked Aberdonians for being soft and mollycoddled.

I hated the way you went on endlessly about your Rangers connections and your dad drinking in the Govan Bowling Club.

I hated the way you endlessly touted yourself for a new job, trying to use my club as a stepping stone, especially when taking the credit for a win. 

But always blamed the players when we lost.

I hated the way you sucked up to other teams and their players, "Big Lee", "Wee Barry", "Coisty" etc etc etc

I hated the way you name dropped.

So what to do on Saturday when you roll up the touchline at Pittodrie.  I know you'll be dying to get a poor reception.  This will allow you and your chums in the Glasgow press to go after Dons fans again. 

So I won't give you the satisfaction.  I'll do what I do with every other opposing manager.  I'll ignore you. 

And hope to God the Dons get three points.  Or we'll never hear the end of it.

Music tonight from American Rockers Train with Drops of Jupiter.  Sublime.

Reading Recommendations

I have a real passion for certain things in life.  Music, Politics, the North East of Scotland and Sport (especially the Dons, golf and cricket) have been documented a lot here, but not the other big love I have - reading.

I've always been a huge reader.  I have no doubt my dreadful eyesight is due to reading the likes of the Famous Five under my bed covers to torchlight as a kid (amongst other things that make you go blind!!!!).


I normally try to get 30 - 60 minutes of reading in before I go to sleep of an evening.  History, Biographies and Autobiographies are my favourites, it is rare for a fiction novel to catch my attention - Mrs MacBeth, also a voracious reader is the fiction fan in our household, Ian Rankin being a particular favourite of hers.



At the moment I am reading the wonderful "Berlin - The Downfall 1945" by Anthony Beevor.  A history book, but certainly not a dusty boring read, Beevor narrates the end of the Third Reich at the hands of Stalin's Red Army like a fictional novel, the scary thing being the total destruction of this great city at the heart of Europe was real.  The brutality of both sides, as the Russians wreaked furious vengenge for the invasion of the Mother Country, is unspeakable.  

If like me you have a real interest in the World Wars of the 20th Century this book and also his similar book on Salingrad are must reads.   I would also recommend Martin Gilbert's tomes on the First and Second World Wars.  Lengthy and you need to have stamina to get through them, but incredibly well researched and written.


In a similar vein, Orlando Fige's "The Whisperers" investigates the private lives of the general public in Stalin's Russia.  The interference and surveillance is horiffic.  I think our wonderful Prime Minister is taking his lead from his Comrade in state interference!


If you think this country is going to hell in a handcart, read Peter Hitchens' the Abolition of Britain, where he chroncicles the decline in Great Britain since the death of Churchill in the late 1960s.  Whilst I don't agree with all he says (he does go into wild hyperbole at times) the essence of the book is sound.


Although a left wing firebrand, I fall into hypocricy again, by being a big fan of the works of George Orwell.  Penguin have a wonder "Complete Works of George Orwell" compilation which gives you the classics (Animal Farm, 1984) along with short stories and other lesser known works.  


Also recommended for the political animals in you are the diaries of Tony Benn, Alan Clark and Chris Mullins, along with Thatcher's "The Downing Street Years".  


If I was to recommend a fiction novel to you - Joseph Heller's "Something Happened" is a challenging read about an average Joe descending into manic depression.  


My next read will be Lewis Grassic Gibbon's "Scot's Quair" which includes the seminal Sunset Song, though I am determined to read the whole trilogy and not just the famous singular novel.  It is to my eternal shame I have not read this local classic long before now.  


Let me know your own recommendations and favourites in the comments sections.


Music tonight is an absolute stone cold country classic - the Harper Valley PTA by Jeannie C Riley.  A wonderful attack on the establishment's hypocrisy.

End of An Era - another Chance for the Lefties to Bash Thatcher

Hi Folks

Many thanks for all the queries about the lack of blogging.  It's a real tonic that a lot of you are encouraging me to get back into it and that there's a lot of people who read it without having added themselves as followers - don't be shy folks get logged on and get commenting!  And I promise I'll get back to blogging 3 or 4 times a week, time permitting.  Truth be told it's not easy with work and home commitments, but I'll try my best!

So the thing that really caught my eye today was the news that the Mickey Mouse Government in Edinburgh are passing legislation to cease the sale of council houses to tenants. 

This was a flagship Thatcherite policy of the 1980's and hundreds of thousands of working class families took advantage of the chance to buy a house.  Many were the first in their families to have their own property and it gave the working classes a chance they'd never had before. 

The lack of houses being built by the councils to compensate has been the main reason why there's now a dearth of "social housing" (what we called council houses!) and the housing associations that have popped up don't pick up all the slack. 

It would also help of course if the available council houses weren't handed out to undeserving individuals and given instead to hard working families who've been priced out of the market.  Get some buckfast or heroin down you guys, or have a few kids (dad can move in later once you've got the house) and you're straight to the top of the list.

But none of the above can take away the gratitude a large section of the working class of this country owe to Thatcher for the opportunity they were given. Yes that right lefties, the working class, you know the people you claim to help.  Shame that once again a Labour Government will leave office with the poor worse off and more unemployed than when they came to power.  Still let's not let facts get in the way of a "Tory toff" soundbite eh.

However the left wing of this country's absolute hatred for the Iron Lady means the bile is out again, blaming her for the mess the housing stock is now in.  There's a mass of individuals in this country waiting to dance on her grave when she passes away.  Of course she made mistakes.  But the lefties forget the mess this place was in when she came to power. 

Strikes, 3 day weeks, power cuts.  Going cap in hand to the IMF.  Rubbish left uncollected in the streets.  The dead unburied.  I remember as a kid many nights sitting round a paraffin heater, playing Monopoly by candlelight. 

I'll blog again at a later date about the 80s and the rest of the Thatcher premiership.  I was 10 when she came to power and 21 when she was ousted.  I am one of Thatcher's despised children.  Working class kids in the 80s were not seen to be aspiring to better themselves.  Nope, historically we've been tarred as greedy, selfish bastards. 

This country is now run by a clique of left wing media clowns (BBC, Guardian et al) who's spite and hatred for a woman (would they have been so hateful if it had been a male?) who has been out of office for 20 years is undiminished and they will peddle their myths about her and the generation who grew up under her Premiership until we're all in the grave.

People who's politics are Centre Right are now a small minority in Scotland.  As recently as the 50s Scotland was predominantly Tory voting.  Again I'll discuss the reasons for this more as the election draws nearer.

Tonight's music is by a man who was no fan of Mrs T but when he wrote songs like Sweet Gene Vincent you can let Ian Dury off with a lot.  His band the Blockheads were brilliant, keeping the rhythm section perfect whilst Dury's lyrics meandered.  A sad loss when he died, Dury had polio as a child but never let his disability get in the way of his powerful stage presence.

A True Story (Probably)

Happy New Year to you all.  This global warming malarkey is wonderful isn't it.............

Let me tell you a story.  Steve and Jennifer Bobton-Smythe have been extremely inconvenienced by the current poor weather.  Neither come from upper class stock, the double barreled name comes from them adding their surnames together when they married.  He's an accountant and she's a Travelling Persons Diversity Benefits and Culture Co-Ordinator. 

They looked all the spring and summer months last year for a perfect home and finally found one in a small hamlet 30 miles from Aberdeen.  What a wonderful, rustic, rural community to live in. 

The first frosts of October worried Jennifer, so Steve bought a big ugly 4x4 for them.  They drove in and out of town at 80 miles per hour on a daily basis, tailgating other road users and lording it over the oiks in their lesser vehicles.

But oh dear.  The rural idyll has gone the way of the pear.  The worst winter in 50 years is upon us.  And now Steve is driving into town at 20 miles per hour with a queue a mile long behind him of people he normally tailgates and abuses.  Steve cannot handle his 4x4.  Or Snow.  Or Ice. 

The moral of the story - don't buy a house in rural Aberdeenshire if you can't drive in poor weather and adverse road conditions. 

I thank you in advance for your co-operation in this matter...............

First music recommendation of the year from Glasvegas "Daddy's Gone".  More than a nod to the Motown bands of the 60's and all the better for it.