Month: January 2019

Alex Salmond is facing 14 charges of sexual misconduct. Has he been set up and if so by whom?

Alex is an incredibly able politician, probably the most able in the whole of the UK political system, as such he poses a threat to those who would see his main purpose in life realised. That of independence for Scotland.

He recently won a case of judicial review against the Scottish government. In fact, he won the case because the Scottish government withdrew their defence when Salmond’s team insisted on sight of correspondence probably as a specification of documents, which would have proven who knew what, regarding how, and in what manner Salmond came to be under investigation regarding two alleged complaints of sexual harassment.

Much has been said regarding how this all came about and the fact that the person who was responsible for installing the system that was used in this case was the permanent secretary to the first minister of Scotland and that the civil service in Scotland is one and the same civil service that supports both the Scottish government and the Westminster government, leading to much speculation that it was the British government through the Civil service who were responsible for the witch hunt against Alex Salmond.

I do not think that is the case, I think the person responsible is Nicola Sturgeon and here is my rational.

Leslie Evens who is the permanent secretary to the First minister was not chosen for the position by the commissioner of the British civil service, she was chosen by Nicola Sturgeon, from a short leit arranged by the commissioner of the Civil service. It is the duty of the permanent Secretary to work for and on behalf of the Scottish Government like all other Civil Servants in Scotland.  Her immediate boss is Nicola Sturgeon. Leslie evens was tasked, by Nicola Sturgeon to implement a system which would bring to account any politician’s past or present who had been guilty of sexual harassment, Nicola Sturgeon was (it would appear) aware that there had been suspicion that Alex Salmond had been accused of some form of harassment as far back as 2013 in two cases.

It would appear from the judge’s determination in the Judicial review that this new system could have been designed around the Salmond case and in fact the implementation of it was probably used in such a manner that the investigating officer Judith MacKinnon actually encouraged the complaints to be pursued. The system was implemented in an unlawful manner for various reasons one of which was that the investigating officer had been involved and had prior knowledge of the case and had approached the possible complainers, quite possibly encouraging them to pursue the complaints, before she was made the investigating officer, that in itself contravening civil service rules. It is inconceivable that Leslie Evens and in all probability Nicola Sturgeon did not know about this. This new system was Nicola Sturgeons baby signed off by her, this was the first time it had been used why would she not have been kept up to date with what was going on?

When the court made its determination and it was obvious that illegal activities had been employed, then why was Leslie Evens not sacked? was it because Nicola Sturgeon was closely involved? I suspect that was the case. Both Nicola Sturgeon and Leslie Evens made the case that all other issues other than the procedural issue regarding Judith MacKinnon had been discounted by the court but in fact that was not the case as none of the other issues had been adjudicated on because of the Scottish governments abject surrender in the case. It should also be noted that it was the Scottish Government who reported the matter to the police and also that there was an email emanating from the office of Peter Mural, sent out to past and present employees of the Scottish government asking for any experiences of sexual harassment, which could have been taken as a fishing expedition for accusations against Salmond.  

So, has there been bad blood between Salmond and sturgeon for some time? yes of course there has and that was never more obvious than it was at the time it was announced that Alex Salmond was to host a TV show on RT and Nicola Sturgeon openly criticised him for doing so. There was no need for her to say anything, but the thing was, that it gave Alex Salmond a platform to carry forward the independence cause and that was something, that for some reason went against Nicola Sturgeons agenda.

Ok, so let’s look at Nicolas agenda and compare it with what one would have reasonably expected from Alex and let’s go right back to the last referendum in 2014. We lost that referendum, much against the expectation of most of the independence movement and Salmond resigned, succeeded by Sturgeon. Now there were various accusations surrounding the operation of the voting procedure, especially the postal voting and the fact that there had been no exit polls. Now a lot of the resentment could have been sour grapes but there was a lot of evidence that could have been legitimate but there was never an investigation into any voting irregularities, if for nothing else to lay a ghost to rest. Any reasonable person would have expected the SNP to immediately conduct an enquiry into what went wrong with the intention to correct mistakes and continue with a lesser campaign of education and explanation, concentrating on the issues we lost the referendum on. To this day four and a half years later we have not had a single item of effective preparation for a future referendum. That is unless you count the Economic commission chaired by Andrew Wilson which came to the conclusion that a future referendum should be more or less fought on the same monetary union principal that lost us the last referendum. Absolutely crazy and in any case has been kicked into the long grass by giving it to Keith Brown (deputy leader of the party) who is by coincidence a strong believer in preparation for a future referendum. So that killed two birds with the one stone.

Now throughout Sturgeons reign she has marched the troops up to the top of the hill and down again that often that it would have made the grand old Duke of York dizzy, without actual committing to any sort of either preparation or a referendum. She has lost countless opportunities such as the day after the vote to come out of the EU when even the Daily Record came out and supported another referendum and the polls went up to 59% in favour of in dependence.

At every election since the 2015 GE Sturgeon has presided over significant seat losses and in the last snap General Election a loss of over half a million votes. She has been seen to have sided too comfortably with the British establishment, as seen during the Scripal poisoning incident where she immediately parroted the British government stance of Russia being guilty, without a shred of evidence being produced., Even Jeremy Corbyn was more careful by saying that he would reserve judgement until evidence was forthcoming. An inclination to extreme right-wing adherence which was again obvious with the SNP support of the British government’s position, backing up American involvement in regime change in Venezuela the other day. All this together with Sturgeon ‘s propensity to save the Union as she has blatantly and consistently attempted with her Brexit policy. A rather annoying trait she has, is to dress in Margret Thatcher look alike jackets, perhaps an indication of her role model.  

Nicola Sturgeon has become a liability to the independence movement and now she is attempting to remove the one man who could actually take the fight forward.

The original accusations against Salmond were leaked to the press (daily Record) on the 24^th august. The same day as I received a message from a friend who is deeply involved in the inner workings of Holyrood, including contacts with the press. The message said,” Sturgeon has stabbed Salmond in the back”. It came at that time, as no surprise to me and having subsequently thought at length about it, I am still of the same opinion.

Now, as far as the accusations against Salmond are concerned. It will be interesting just how these accusations are presented in court and more particularly how they are answered. Now, make no mistake, allegations of sexual harassment and particularly of attempted rape are very serious and should, if proven be dealt with in the appropriate manner, but I have my suspicions that these allegations could have been the result of a similar fishing exercise that it would seem was the purpose of the initial contact between the investigating officer and the two original complainants. I also am of the opinion that going by Salmond’s statement that he has done “nothing illegal” that there has been some sort of personal contact but perhaps consensual. Only the outcome of the case when brought to court will determine guilt or innocence. It is getting to the stage that nothing short of written consent will be required for personal contact between the opposite sexes to be initiated. With all the recent celebrity accusations going back many years, I have yet to see any definitive procedure for initiating intimate contact.

Nicola Sturgeon is a strong feminist and made a point of showing up at the lead of a gay rights march recently. To my knowledge she has never been near any of the many independence marches that have taken place over the last four and a half years, since she became leader of the party of independence. Perhaps her priorities lie elsewhere, and she is of course perfectly entitled to express her personal preferences in what ever manner she sees fit and chooses, but as the leader of the SNP she has a job to do and I and an increasing number of others are becoming disillusioned with her performance.

There is one thing I am convinced of and that is that Nicola Sturgeon is not fit to lead the SNP and I have also the feeling that she has been involved in character assassination of the one person who could have taken us forward to a victory at another referendum. She has painted the SNP in to a corner, and perhaps she will now be forced to call a referendum, if she does and despite the wilful lack of preparation, I think we will win, if we do, it will not be because, of Nicola Sturgeon, it will be despite, her.

Yes, not my normal abode for my wee blog on what’s happening in the World from my point of view, and not a normal week either, as today marks my 72^nd year on this planet.

I have had a very busy morning till now, dealing with all the wonderful good wishes on my Birthday, and although I have tried to answer every one of them, I am sure I have missed some, and I therefore apologise for any omissions. One of the minus things about this ship is that it does not have a full cruise package of WiFi so you more or less pay as you go, with the exception of the FREE element of 250 minutes which I get because of my loyalty level with Princess.

The term FREE got me thinking and drawing a parallel with something that is very much in the news at the moment, Brexit. As I am sure most of you know, there are not many things in this life, free. For instance, this FREE internet I get is subject to paying a couple of grand on a cruise, I can’t just rock up to this ship, switch on my computer and get free Wi-Fi, can I? No, of course I can’t, I have to be part of the club of mutual benefit, to do this and I have to pay the entry fee, just like being a member of the EU.

Ok, so what do I get for this, well the first thing I get is everything I signed up for, I get all the benefits together with all the commitments, which I will continue to get until such times as I decide to leave. I get, security, safety, I get treated with respect, I get value for money (my entry fee just like the EU)., I get, first class meals, made with produce which has gone through rigorous testing. I get first class entertainment, I get excellent coffee, I get all the best brands of beverages, I get first class exercise equipment.

If I were to break all this down individually, it would cost far more if I was not in the club, for instance lets take an average day, I go out in the Morning and head into the town, I pay transport costs and possibly parking charges, I am responsible for my own security and wellbeing. I go into a coffee shop and pay say £2,50 for a coffee, possibly two. I go around shops and make purchases, not knowing the standard of the goods., I go to lunch in a restaurant I have no idea of the standard it holds. I pay, possibly £20 for a meal. Later I decide to go to a Broadway rated, show but to do this I would have to perhaps travel to Edinburgh, so I have transport charges and the cost of the show, perhaps £50. So, I then have dinner to pay for, perhaps £40 by the end of my day it has cost considerably more than my day on the ship (or EU club) and that has been an exceptional day out, whereas on the ship (the club) I can have this every single day because of the economics of mutually sharing benefit and finance.

Ok, so on a ship we have the stratified components of benefit. We have the passengers, similar to the established members of the EU who put the bulk of the financing into the club., We have the domestic staff who are the mobile labour and represent the newer members of the club. They go from ship to ship, offering their services, probably at the lower end of the scale in wages but far higher than they can earn back home in their home countries which are the newer members of the club (EU).

Then we have the crew who steer the ship on a true course, avoiding the storms and incidents that can affect life on board the ship (club), Just like the EU commission and parliament.

Ok, so what happens if, a passenger decides to leave the ship(club)? Well, no problem, but there are restrictions, as the ship (club) has made commitments based on the complete cruise, such as commitments to port charges and supplier contracts which must still be honoured so there are implications such as refunds of payments. In otherwards, you cannot expect to leave the club with all the benefits still intact, and you cannot expect to leave without payment.

In the UK case, not only is none of that understood as far as the Eu is concerned but they actually want to leave the ship on a sea day!! Before reaching port.

Ok, so that is my analogy of the madness that is Brexit and if this is not stopped, it will go down in history as the worst case of self-harm ever willingly brought upon a country by its electorate, ably assisted by a bunch of Eton educated crooks.

Otherwise, the cruise continues, with a day at sea today, and the usual list of breathtakingly exciting activities to choose from like, bingo, flower arranging or upsetting people at the lunch table, who support Donald Trump. I wish people would stop becoming upset when they ask me my opinion on US politics, and I tell them.

Just one more thing before I go, and that is the amount of people who I have crossed sward’s with in the past, mainly because of my opinions on the way the SNP have handled the independence case, who have wished me a happy birthday, and said that although they do not agree with all I say, they enjoy my wee rants, raves and travel experiences.

No one can ask for more than that.

Have a good remainder of the Weekend folks, I will get on to what else is happening in the World in the days to come.

Slainte

Saturday 19th January 2019 Trump, May, Corbin and Nicola

Well, another week in and another interesting one it was. Busy week for me with new horizons in the making, business wise, another contract awarded on the Coach side of the business and an increase in service work for a major supermarket store group in the vehicle repair department of the business, so busy times ahead.

And so to the rest of the world on the periphery of the metropolis of Dundee , let’s start in the US where oor Donald is still holding the country to ransom by refusing to sign off on the budget and allowing government to start actually functioning again. Yes Donald does seem to do some daft things, but I have been thinking about his two years in charge of the most powerful country on the Planet. He has not actually started a war yet , which sets him apart from previous presidents and he seems intent on abiding by his promises to bring the troops home from their terrorist actions in various parts of the World. Yes and when I say terrorist actions I mean just that, because if they are fighting against recognised governments as they are in Syria and were in places like Libya then they are terrorists and no other reasonable construction can by put on a scenario like that. America is of course not alone in this as many other Western countries are allies in this terrorism, but the US does lead.

Now Donald is indeed bringing the boys ( and girls) home, and I think the American people should actually thank him for that. Now had things turned out differently and hillary Clinton been elected President, then I think the World would have been a more dangerous place, because Hillary was a warmonger, probably as bad if not worse than people like John Bolton, and I firmly believe that if she had been elected ,we would have been at war in Iran together with a proxy war with Russia in Syria, and Israel would have been given a free hand in annexing large swathes of Syria in their greater Israel ambitions. The other thing is North Korea, and although that initiative has stalled somewhat lately there has been a significant movement towards a solution, which shows that when two dafties get together , it can be surprising what comes out of it. So on the basis of no one is all bad ( or stupid) then there are things out there that we should thank oor Donald for .

So back to the good old UK and what a week it was in the British parliament. We had the government’s “plan / agreement” on exit from the EU, defeated , in fact massacred would probably be the word. The worst parliamentary defeat any British government have had in the history of parliament. Guess what? they still do not get it. Normally a prime minister would have resigned after having sustained a defeat of that magnitude or called a general election, but not this lot of chancers. Instead they decided to ask all the opposition parties what to do next and then promptly excluded the leader of the opposition from these talks. Corbyn promptly said he wouldn’t be going to them anyway unless the government took a hard Brexit crash out of the table.

Both of these idiots are depriving the British people of another referendum on the basis that a very small majority who voted for just that, trying to make us believe that it would be undemocratic to hold another referendum, even although it is now patently clear that we were lied to and deceived on a grand scale during the referendum campaign.

It is the same as a group of people buying tickets for an air journey, the plane taking off, and during the flight the Captain discovers that there is not enough fuel on the plane but instead of turning back he keeps on going until the plane crashes, because the people bought the ticket in the first place.

The problem we have here is that we have an incompetent government heading for the cliff edge and the alternative is the leader if the opposition ,Corbin who would also throw us off the edge of the Cliff if he was in power. What a prospect to look forward to.

Ok so that neatly brings me to the SNP and their glorious leader, Nicola Sturgeon. Now just in case there are anyone out there who doesn’t know what SNP stands for, it is Scottish National Party and their main purpose in life is the gain independence for Scotland. However Nicola’s main purpose in life at the moment seems to be in saving the UK, as she is putting far more energy in that direction than she is in gaining independence. I have been warning about this ever since the day before she brought out her paper on Brexit in 2016. I called it :” A Road Map To Unionism” The following day when she published the document, I read through the whole 64 pages and then wrote another blog called ” I told you so”.

At long last, mainstream commentators are waking up to the fact that all is not well with Nicola’s ideas of independence and many politicians and activists in the party are the same. Nicola has been painting the SNP in to a corner for some years now and she will have to realise that something has to be done and that is what i am afraid of because she had done not one credible thing to prepair for a referendum and I feel she is about to call one in desperation.

I do not think that this means we will not win a referendum but it means that if she had allowed the grassroots groups and SNP activists to continue a campaign of information and explanation of issues on a lower level after the defeat in 2014, we would have been ready at any time to go for another referendum., She didn’t and we are not.

So, to save her any stress or effort I will tell her how we can win a referendum regardless of how ill prepared she has left us.

First thing ,monetary situation. In gaining independence and in the time between the referendum and actually becoming independence, allowing for negotiations into sharing of assets etc, we use the pound sterling probably for about one year. We then peg then pound Scots to either the pound sterling to Euro until we set up a central bank which would take a couple of years maximum and we can then use our own currency.

Pensions, we set a target of doubling pensions within 10 years bringing it to within most EU countries .

We produce a projected set of accounts for an independent Scotland instead of these silly GERS figures, showing a balance sheet which gives our assets inherited from thye UK.

If the british government interfere in the referendum as they did the last time or are difficult in apportioning assets we do not take a share of the UK national debt.

We start a national oil company like Statoil in Norway owning the production and distribution of oil giving preferential rates for fuel, heating oil and gas to Scots. We start up an oil fund linked to the bank account of every person over 18 with an oil revenue dividend payable every ,say 5 years .

This is a start and if we find ourselves in another referendum campaign, this is how we fight it, along with taking no nonsense from the press this time. It is time we stood up and nail our colours to the mast. No messing about this time and another thing it has to be before brexit actually happens to allow us seamless transition to the EU as an independent country.

So enough of politics, it is Saturday night , time for refreshment in the company of good friends, so , I raise my glass to all my friends the World over .

Slainte

Trump, Brexit, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon.

Well here we are, another week in, and a busy one at that, with a few new ventures in mind, the Coach side of the business holding up well, in what is normally a quiet time of the year, and the repair and maintenance side getting busier by the day.  Never a dull moment.

So, that takes care of Dundee but elsewhere in the World. Well let’s start with our friends across the pond.We still have this crazy situation with the president of America refusing to sign over the authority to finalise the budget causing millions of federal employees to go without wages and the people of America to go without necessary public services. The rest of the sane World look on with dismay, and of course I do not include the Uk in that category of “the sane World” as we are the laughing stock of the world also, with our problems with Brexit.

OK so let’s look at solutions to both problems and let’s start with the US. Now Donald has two problem’s at present. Well to be accurate he has more than two but let’s leave out the mental health issues he so obviously has and focus on the ones that are shutting down the government. Now he wants a wall built along the border between the US and Mexico and he originally said that Mexico would be paying for this wall. This last week he has been trying to say he didn’t say this, but he did, many hundreds of times. He is attempting to persuade Congress to back his plan to spend 5.,5 Billion on the wall.

Ok so here is the solution.The biggest factor in building a wall is the labour costs, so Trump persuades Congress to pass a much lesser amount, say 2 billion and he buys a few million concrete blocks, sand and cement and has the materials deposited along the border. He then offers Mexicans or south Americans the opportunity to build a section of the wall without wages, in place of wages he allows them to bring their close family to America . This way Mexico, in a way, pays towards the wall, congress gets off the hook by passing a much lesser amount, Donald gets his wall, and everybody lives happily ever after. Job done.

Now let’s turn to Brexit,this is actually easier to remedy but needs some explanation. Right, firstly we had a referendum with a simple question. Do you wish to leave the EU, Yes orNo. Scotland voted by a huge majority to remain, Northern Ireland also voted to remain England and wales voted by a small majority to leave but because of the population difference the overall vote for the UK was a small majority to leave. Now the British government stated that Brexit means Brexit and promptly started to conduct negotiations emanating in an agreement to not quite leave. So from “Brexit means Brexit” the British government have went to Brexit doesn’t quite mean Brexit and taking into consideration that only something like 36.5% of then, eligible voting public actually voted to leave therefore leaving 63.55% of the voting eligible population not voting to leave, and also taking into consideration that people have now realised they were misled by the leave campaign and every poll taken lately shows a large majority to stay, then it doesn’t take a genius to realise that there needs to be a rethink and quick. Add to that the comedy of this Government going from one disaster to the next and making a laughing stock of themselves in the process and it seems obvious that something needs changing and it is this.

We simply need to cancel Brexit and we will have everything this government are trying to negotiate and more,much more, what is the bloody problem?

Right, now that I have solved two of the World’s most pressing problems let me now go to an issue that is far more important than any of these crazy situations.

This week Alex Salmond won a case of Judicial review against the Scottish Government, or to be exact the Scottish government capitulated when their case threatened to be exposed for what it always was and that was a blatant attempt to smear Alex. Now the person nominally responsible was Leslie Evans who is the Scottish government permanent secretary. She was responsible for implementing a policy decision made by Nicola Sturgeon on openness and accountability for harassment.

Now I have been reading all week from ardent Nicola Sturgeon fans about Leslie Evans position which is as apart of the Civil service of the UK, which is correct and she was put forward as a candidate for the position as part of a chosen and vetted group by the UK commissioner for the civil service., The point missing from all of these outpourings of anger was that it was Nicola sturgeon as Scotland’s first minister who actually appointed Evans and Evans was responsible for implementing Nicola Sturgeon’s policy on harassment. The policy and implementation that the high court Judge remarked was contrary to law on several points.

now there has been criticism of Sturgeon for not immediately sacking Evens and indeed Mc Kinnen who was the person responsible for the investigation into the Salmond allegations.

I feel the reason for this unwillingness to sack Evans is because if she did then the whole house of cards would tumble down.

Just before the story of the Salmond accusations became public and coincidently, I was standing in Mennies when I received a message with one sentence, “Sturgeon has stabbed Salmond in the back” This came from a friend of mine well dug into the Holyrood political establishment. Two days later it was all over the papers and on every news outlet. The allegation was that Salmond had sexually assaulted two women in 2013 when he was first Minister.I had suspected for some time that relations between Salmond and Sturgeon had been strained and several incidents such as the comments Sturgeon made when Salmond took on a show on RT. She was openly critical of him instead of simply saying nothing.

So, taking all that had happened, I formed the opinion at the time that the message I received was in all probability correct and the revelations this week have done nothing to change my mind. It has been known that Salmond would prefer a more direct approach to independence than Sturgeon in fact any approach to independence would have to be better than Sturgeons approach which has been a succession of marching her troops up to the top of the hill and down again that many times that it would have made the Grand Old Duke of York dizzy.

I have also been of the opinion that Sturgeon is a liability to the independence movement and this Alex Salmond case has done nothing to change my mind on that.

I feel there is quite a way to go and quite a few revelations to surface surrounding this case. We will have to wait and see, but it is the Scottish government who are on the ropes at the moment not Alex Salmond.

OK so, it is Saturday night, there are refreshments to be had and discussions aplenty no doubt, so I raise my glass to all my friends the World over and I am planning a cruise towards the end of the month which will leave from Fort Lauderdale so might catch up with one or two of them.

Slainte

Trump, Brexit, the SNP, the “takeaway” ship company. 5th Jan 2019

Well here we are in the first week of the new year, and what a year it promises to be, with Brexit only 85 Days away, an incompetent government at the wheel in the UK, an unstable president in the US, and a party of independence in Scotland who are lost somewhere along the road to independence. What could possibly go wrong this year? Oh, and before I forget, happy New Year.

So, let’s start with oor Donald., and when I call him oor Donald, I do so because of two things, firstly he is Scottish by ancestry, as his Mother came from a small village near Stornoway on Lewis. Secondly, because, regardless of how you loathe or love the Man, his decisions as President of the most powerful country on the Planet, affect all of us, every day of our lives.   Donald is an enigma, on the lower end of the scale of enigmas. He makes decisions that are illogical, bazar and sometimes actually sensible. Let me start with the sensible ones as they are fewer of them. I class his decision to withdraw troops from Syria, as a sensible decision, firstly because they should never have been there in the first place as they were never invited by the legitimate government of Syria, making their presence there a terrorist operation. He has backtracked slightly on this by extending the timescale from a matter of weeks to several Months, quite possibly because someone told him that by leaving, he would be stuffing the Kurds in favour of the Turks. The Kurds themselves have slightly ameliorated this situation by inviting the Syrian Army to take over the town of Manbij which they themselves liberated from the Israeli and US financed, terrorist group, ISIS. The US has been playing a double game here, but that was too complicated for Donald to work out.

On the illogical to bazar decisions Donald makes, his press conference yesterday after his meeting with Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat committee, was a classic. I found it difficult to believe I was listening to the president of America, who started off by telling the World how great he was. This took up most of his speech which was to have been about his meeting with the Democrats regarding opening up the government, and his obsession with his wall along the Mexican border. The wall, you will remember that he was going to get the Mexican Government to pay for.

Well I do not think I have heard such a rambled, and at times incoherent diatribe from a politician for a considerable time. The only thing I could take from it was that instead of a wall he seems now to be speaking about a steel fence. There was no agreement from the Democrats (who now control the Senate) so therefore he continues with the government shut down, leaving millions of government employees without pay and even more millions of Americans without services. A terrible situation to allow a country to endure because of a silly vanity project.

So, elsewhere and we come once again to Brexit and the New year sees Theresa may scuttling around EU leaders with her begging bowl, desperately trying to get “clarification” of the backstop arrangements for the border between the EU and the UK which just happens to be in Northern Ireland. This before parliament debates the EU agreement on the 14^th of January. What an utter mess this government have gotten the UK into.
To add to the black comedy that is Brexit we have the Tory government awarding a £14 million contract to provide ferries to the EU, to a company who have never traded, run by a guy whose last company folded owing millions of pounds to creditors. A company who do not have a rowing boat never mind a fleet of Ferries, and whose attempts at even producing a set of conditions of trading was hilariously copied from an internet fast food delivery company. So presumably, once they are in operation you will be able to phone them up for, two tickets for the ferry from Ramsgate to Ostend, two large pizzas and a large bottle of coke. As if that was not bad enough, another part of their terms was taken from a jeweller’s web site and part of another section in their terms was in Latin. One thing that was apparent is that the present board of Seabourn are big donors to the Tory party. Honestly this government are going from one disaster to another. When will someone put them out of their misery?

This neatly brings me to the state of the independence movement under the auspices of the SNP. We have a situation where there is a government in Westminster barely capable of governing. We have a situation where we are about to be driven over the edge of a cliff called Brexit, like a suicide of Lemmings, a Brexit Scotland voted against and we have the so-called party of independence, the SNP, caught like a rabbit in a car’s headlights with no apparent pan to extricate us from this cesspit of inanity and incompetence. Instead we have the leader of the SNP attempting to save the Union. There was a poll done recently that showed that in the event of a snap General Election the SNP could gain 14 seats (some of the ones they lost in the last general Election) and this could give them the balance of power. Many people see this as a way to force the government (presumably labour) to agree to a section 30 to allow an independence referendum. I honestly feel that although the SNP have put us in the position of being ill prepared for another referendum or contest for independence, they should simply go for the GE on a single-issue manifesto, that of independence, with the intention to declare independence in the event of a Scottish majority of Westminster MP’s.

I do not think they will do that, and instead will use the increase of SNP Westminster MP’s to assist the UK back on its feet after Brexit.

So enough of politics, it is Saturday night and time for a pint in my favourite hostelry Mennies. The proper name of the pub is the Speedwell Tavern, it is called Mennies after one of the previous owners Mrs Mennie who ran a tight ship. Her claim to fame was one night after performing in a concert in the Caird Hall here in Dundee, the Rolling Stones paid a visit to the Pub. They became rather rowdy and were asked to leave by Mrs Mennie.

A wee dity I penned as part of my speech at my daughter Laura’s wedding.

You will climb the wall to look over and see that the grass is greener on the other side.

You may be tempted to cross over to sample the greener grass

If you do, then remember this

The most important thing you can take with you is the ladder.

I wish my friends the World over a great Saturday evening and a good weekend.

Slainte