Finally made it to @wigtownbooktown.bsky.social yesterday (a dream!), where in @foggietoddlebooks.bsky.social a lovely customer heard my son talking about books and secretly left him money at the till to buy an extra one. He was thrilled! Thank you, mystery book fairy! Means more than you can know.

Well, that picture settles that question, doesn't it?

Been extremely busy so while I heard The News I hadn't actually watched it till now and ... gosh. I didn't think he'd actually look so sad and teary. No one has the RIGHT to be PM, and he was alternately useless or malicious, but why did he put himself through all that? For what? Honestly tragic.

Whether, as time passes, the sting of irrefutable failure after a life of success - which could have culminated in going out at the top of a profession, instead of an Icarus fall - is mitigated by the sheer relief of not being the subject of a nation's intense psychological analysis. Discuss, etc.

The Labour Leader/Doctor Who correlation (thread reprise) KEIR STARMER - NCUTI GATWA Only stuck around for two years. I suppose you can lay some of the blame on trying to appease mad Americans, but he was surprisingly absent a lot of the time and bringing back an old villain was clearly a mistake.

The Cone People have got Lobey Dosser

Really enjoyed reading this article. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Congratulations to Andy Burnham for winning The Masked Singer.

We’re delighted to be working again with the fab indie pop happening, @glasgoespop.bsky.social to host another bespoke walking tour inspired by locations relevant to Glasgow’s indie scene. Date: 14th Aug, starts 2pm. Cost £15 plus fees Tix: www.eventbrite.com/e/glas-goes-...

Pasta, also nuts in any form. Makes being vegetarian fun, obviously.

New measurement of feeling old just dropped - forget policemen, the Mr Miyagis are looking younger. This guy looks like he could plausibly fight in the All Valley Tournament himself.

Yesterday angry at Nazis, today charmed by puffins, what a weekend

One of the good/awful things about being an old lefty is that I've seen all this before, Nazis having a crack at public street displays and it's depressing having to publicly show up and say AW NO YOU'RE NO, but also that it generally tends to work.

A wee group of angry balaclava and mask-wearing anti-immigration guys tried to stop the good people of Glasgow showing solidarity with migrants and standing up to racism and fascism. Well, the far right are far outnumbered... #RefugeesWelcome #MigrantsWelcome #NeighboursNotStrangers #Glasgow

First, robust refusal is the only appropriate response to racist attacks on our streets. Second, a lot of these younger guys, emboldened by ideas online, may have no idea the extent to which they're in the minority. That they should viscerally experience this reality matters.

A good, sad piece. If we are the city of Kenmure Street, we are also the city of St Enoch's. Pretending that we're not doesn't help.

Feeling very outraged on behalf of this poor sea creature. It just looks a bit glum, and so would you if you lived 2000m under water. I bet Prof Brown is no oil painting himself! #JusticeForTheGoblinShark www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Anti-fascist demonstration this Saturday coming. Great to see such an immediate response to far-right thuggery in Glasgow. Make sure they know that they don’t run this city, they’re not welcome here and that if they try it again they will pay for it.

Somewhere Christopher Eccleston is chuckling his head off today.

Your racism isn't concern. Its racism. #LoveGlasgowHateRacism

Glasgow has long had its own distinct "far right" anti-immigrant base that cannot be understood without understanding unionist loyalism. This truth is often dismissed - that's different, it's just about football here etc - but I reckon it's going to become increasingly impossible to deny.

OH, FUCK NO. Get out of our city, scumbags.

Boooooooo!!

I cannot really explain it but baby pine cones are utterly disgusting and make me feel sick. They are SQUISHY.

Nigel Farage Listens to the News

"But if it’s guilt you’re looking for, Buffy, I’m not your man. All you will get from me is my support. And my respect." My favourite Giles moment in BTVS. The best librarian demon fighter ever. RIP lovely Anthony Head who brought him to such life alongside so many other characters.

You must forgive me for not writing for so long, but I just wanted to be on my own for a couple of years or so.

A reminder of what Nigel Farage said following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.

A moving and important letter in the Guardian today. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

He is right! And it's bizarre, because kids never know or care. I told mine that the guy doing Super Mario's voice was the same actor in Jurassic World, a film he's seen approx 50 times, and he could not have been less interested. Being into specific actors comes later than most animated films.

I can only assume Nicola 'thought it was the neighbours campervan' Sturgeon's MIL nothing like mine, who keeps me constantly informed about her neighbours ' holidays, ailments and progress on their extension.

I'm trying to enjoy Spider-Noir as it looks really beautiful in its stylised black and white, but I simply cannot get my head around no one noticing that Nicolas Cage is in his 60s. "Go back to being the hero this city needs!" "I cannot because my fiancee died." Uh, no, it's because you're ancient!

Great interview with Paul Higgins aka Jamie from The Thick of It by @kirsteenpaterson.bsky.social www.holyrood.com/inside-polit...

A great chance to bring some beauty and mystery into your day!

Our Edinburgh's Greatest Hits tour is back @edfringe.bsky.social Off the beaten track, irreverent & entertaining, the tour is led by Fiona Shepherd, rock & pop critic for the Scotsman. Walk'n'roll with us! Tix: www.edfringe.com/tickets/what... Tour pic courtesy @jannicahoney.bsky.social

I would rather we fostered a narrative of national inclusion and tried to live up to it than that we fostered a narrative of national intolerance and tried to live down to it.

a notion of their community and their country as innately welcoming to incomers. All of which is to say the stories we tell ourselves about who we are can shape our behaviour, and sometimes exceptionalism can be less about moral superiority than wish-fulfilment.

Finally saw Everybody to Kenmure Street last night & my main take-away is that, while Reform seems to have given the lie to Scottish exceptionalism, good like evil can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Everything that happened against the odds that day happened because those involved bought into

Put all the purchases from the SNP fraud case in a museum and call it the Murrell Collection

Lovely that everyone goes to Kelvinbridge Park on a hot day! Not so lovely that it looks like this the next morning! Majority is @paesano_pizza boxes, I hope they're contributing to the clean up ...

This list is a work of art, in a way. Imagine risking your career, reputation and possibly liberty just for all this ... random shit. Hang it in the GoMA! www.scotsman.com/news/politic...

Remember if you ever consider doing a fraud, don’t buy amusingly naff stuff with the money, it sticks in the memory. Embezzle £10m and shove it in crypto? Cheat HMRC out of a few million through phoenixing? People will soon forget! Buy an overpriced wine coaster and a gaming headset? You’re stuffed.

Oh my god! That's almost twelve quid, right? Not even a packet of crisps and a can of Fanta with it?

James Kelman at 80: a conference to mark the 80th birthday of the great Glaswegian writer. Spring 2027, University of Glasgow @glasgow.ac.uk

The perfect ironic encapsulation of the ongoing ferry crisis cannot be fou-- oh.

NEW | This was very grim. GIRLS IN AFGHANISTAN ARE BEING SOLD; WHY DID THE BBC FOCUS ON THE PAIN OF THE FATHERS DOING THE SELLING? In news, framing can be everything. A BBC report showed the grotesque results of moral relativism. brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/girls-in-a...

love getting kids ready in the morning because I get to shout nouns

Just a little PSA- Neil Gaiman has reactivated his Bluesky account. Because he deactivated before a lot of people could unfollow him, and/or because Bluesky doesn’t remove you from a person’s followers when you block them, a LOT of you are still publicly listed as following him. You should check.

Never seen this, I love her so much

Time for the annual viewing of Eurovision Fire Saga! Rachel McAdams is so, so funny in this.