Homage to All Ears.

Drunk customer: "Hey, I served you like 5 years ago at a bar!"
Bartender: "Really?"
Drunk customer: "Yeah, now things have come full circle and you're on the other side, haha!"
Other bartender: "Actually, not really, things have only gone half way, full circle would be if you were serving him again after he served you. So really, it's just that the tables have turned."
Drunk customer: "Why does everybody have to get so f*cking technical at a Low gig?"

New favourite quote #7.

Work as if you lived in the early days of a better nation.

-Alasdair Gray.

I keep seeing this quote when catching up on the news about the upcoming Scottish election and it cheers me. Alasdair Gray is a well kent SNP supporter and this quote goes some way to summing up my feelings about Scottish independence. Blair and Brown leant heavily on the aspirations of millions of people in 1996-1997, fooling them into thinking that we were getting a real alternative to what had gone before. Instead we got the same, and in some cases worse. The major difference this time around is that the SNP are offering the opportunity for the people to take their destiny in their own hands- to change the system and bring political accountability back to Holyrood. Blair and Brown sold us a white elephant and have subsequently gorged on power to the extent that Blair is loathed around much of the world as well as on his own doorstep for his role in Iraq and Brown has been characterised as a control freak intent only on becoming the PM.

I want Scottish independence for a multitude of reasons, but mostly because I don't believe the problems in Scotland are given sufficient attention as part of the Union. Westminster and Whitehall have plenty of other things to do you see- foreign adventures, sorry I mean illegal wars of aggression, nice wee holidays at the expense of the tax payer or at the behest of American businessmen looking to locate in Britain (no strings attached, honest), the Olympics in London (how many billion at the last count?), fending off the pesky David Cameron and his laughably 'resurgent' Tories (capital punishment support and all), sleeping with various characters they perhaps shouldn't be (hello David Blunkett! hello Ron Davies!), finding a "good day to bury bad news"- the same day that thousands of innocent people perished in the appalling attack on the WTC, funding extravagant property purchases (hello Geoffrey Robinson and Mandelson!), taking gifts from pornographers (Richard Desmond) and speaking of gifts- the one thing that may yet topple this shower of crooks, liars and self-aggrandisers- selling peerages for the House of Lords, where laws are passed that govern every single one of us! I could go on, but I don't think I have to. New Labour sold us a big fat lie and it's time for change. If you vote Labour then you're voting for more of the above. Feel free, it is your choice. Lies, sleaze, fraud, it is all there for you to change.

EDIT: I've just read the Sunday Herald (06/05/07) and discovered that Alasdair Gray isn't the author of the above quote. Dennis Leigh wrote it and Gray put it in one of his books.

History Repeating?

"We meant to do better, but it came out as always."

Viktor Chernomyrdin, former Prime Minister of Russia, talking about an unsuccessful monetary exchange performed by the Russian Central Bank in July 1993.

Why can't I shake the feeling that the above quote will have some resonance after next week's election? Scotland has a real opportunity to stand up for itself and take responsibility by forcing the issue and voting SNP. More political accountability, more power to Holyrood and the chance to make the MSPs there start actually earning their not inconsiderable pay (including expenses obviously). Devolution is a step towards independence, it's just that political events have conspired to present Scotland and its people with a wonderful opportunity to effect real change in the country for the better sooner that anyone expected. If Labour retains its position it'll be the same old same old. Westminster is not accountable to Scotland and doesn't really care- that was proved in the Conservative administration and indeed the current incumbent's administration. Or perhaps maladministration would be more apt. Either way, I really hope that the voters take this chance to make a change for the future of Scotland. And that the quote above is rendered irrelevant to the conversation.

My new favourite quote #5.

How could I bring myself to be a Conservative? They offer me neither food nor drink- neither intellectual nor spiritual consolation. I should not be amused or excited or edified. That which is common to the atmosphere, the mentality, the view of life of- well, I will not mention names- promotes neither my self-interest nor the public good. It leads nowhere; it satisfies no ideal; it conforms to no intellectual standard; it is not even safe, or calculated to preserve from spoilers that degree of civilisation which we have already attained.

- John Maynard Keynes, 1925. Keynes was speaking about the Conservatives in the inter-war period, but let's face it could very well be speaking about them now. Intellectually, morally and spiritually bankrupt. Compassionate conservatism is an oxymoron and well they know it.

My new favourite quote #1.

I expect this will be part of an ongoing series.

"Mountain rescue only ever rescue pricks."

-Duncan 24/01/06