From the sadly missed author and national treasure Iain Banks in a letter to the Guardian, 3rd June 2010. (15 years ago…) www.theguardian.com/world/2010/j...

The Onion there, pulling no punches:

From the New York Times, February 4th 1939. History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. www.nytimes.com/1939/02/04/a...

What do you call someone who's anti-anti-fascist?

Just days after Starmer stood up in Parliament and insisted that police would only target serious offences and boasted about the UK being a bastion of free speech. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Started, going, etc.

This is remarkably cool: bogdanthegeek.github.io/blog/project...

What would Orwell think about a huge face on a gigantic screen telling a crowd of people they should wage war on foreigners and dissidents? No way of knowing, I guess.

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity." —W.B.Yeats, The Second Coming, 1919

US Republicans seem to be really upset about a shooting at a school for a change.

File under "Fair Comment". www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politic...

Ian Murray, a man who literally sacrificed what he claimed to be his "lifelong principles" (such as opposing nuclear weapons) in order to be a part of Starmer’s administration. His reward? To be unceremoniously booted out of office. You'd need a heart of stone not to laugh.

So apparently Douglas Alexander's the new Secretary of State for Scotland. The same Douglas Alexander who was the Labour Party's Chair of General Election Strategy in 2015 when Labour lost every single seat bar one in Scotland. Bring it on.

"Go to an old cemetery. See all the baby graves from before the 50s and 60s? After that, hardly any. That's when people started vaccinating their children. If you're unsure what to do to protect your kids, the answer is literally written in stone." —Michael Okuda

The only appropriate response to this question is "grow the fuck up."

Labour politicians now having a Union Jack-Off.

It is insane to me that the richest man in the world is using his global megaphone to call for millions of British people to be rounded up and deported (including my family) and somehow this isn’t even news.

Starmer could have said: Vandalism isn't patriotism; daubing red crosses on Chinese takeaways and writing racist graffiti isn't patriotism; perfomatively sitting in front of a flag or tying one to a mosque isn't patriotism; Patriotism is about making this country safe, happy productive for all.

Weirdo. www.thenational.scot/news/2543204...

What we're seeing in the UK (predominantly England) today is simply thinly-veiled racism dressed up as patriotism. Just call it what it is: scapegoating immigrants for problems created by decades of government policy and corporate greed.

The UK is a signatory to the Refugee Convention. The Refugee Convention is part of international law. This UK policy is in breach of said Convention*. It's more accurate to call it an "illegal policy" than it is to call asylum seekers "illegal immigrants."

Tony Blair invented New Labour. Keir Starmer's invented New UKIP.

Under Stalin, repression was so severe that the Soviet Gulags held one sixth of the entire world's prison population. Just kidding - that's the United States, today.

Starmer refuses to criticise anything about Farage's speech today. Not his description of ‘invasion’, nor his prediction that the UK is on brink of civil war, nor his plans to pay the Taliban or Iran to take back refugees. Pathetic excuse for a Prime Minister. www.thenational.scot/news/2541792...

Exactly the issue. Easy for Nigel Fraud, while not (hopefully never) in power, to spout rhetoric but nobody is asking how he will implement it. Not one person. MSM compliance is disgraceful.

The BBC there, parroting Farage and Reform with barely a word of context or critique. Case in point: 'Farage asked senior Reform UK figure Zia Yusuf whether it was realistic to deport 600,000 people within five years, and in reply he said "totally, yeah".' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I remember taking my then girlfriend to The Georgic mid-1980s. The barman sidled over and said, "You do understand that we have no ladies' ... facilities." Changed (for the better) days. www.glasgowlive.co.uk/whats-on/foo...

I thought daubing paint on stuff was terrorism leading to your organisation being proscribed. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Frankie Boyle on the fragrant J.K.Rowling:

Letter in today's Times:

Another Category A event - the most serious and the second in the space of two years - which carries an "actual or high potential for radioactive release to the environment," at Faslane. I'm sure @BBCScotlandNews and @jackiebmsp will be all over this. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2538811...

Orwell's "1984" was not intended as an instruction manual. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Robin Cook, the last serious, principled Labour Foreign Secretary, died on the 6th August 2005, 20 years ago today. The inscription on his gravestone in Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh reads: "I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of Parliament to decide on war."

The breaking story of the UK government and the Speaker of the House of Commons being bankrolled by Israel and blocking all attempts by citizens to determine why has somehow *still* not made it into the mainstream UK news cycle - with the honourable exception of @scotnational.bsky.social

Americans had a revolution because they didn't want to pay a tariff on tea.

Unionism: the belief that two small, pretty similar countries might be better off together, unless those countries are both part of Ireland.

We can but hope that "Big, Beautiful Bill" turns out to be Trump's cellmate when he's eventually imprisoned.

"I am here to do your bidding, Master. I am your slave, and you will reward me, for I shall be faithful."

Another example of Scotland’s vast resources being sold off by speculators and ‘Vote No’ Labour cronies to a Norwegian state-owned company - directly benefiting Norway not Scotland - who’ll sell the energy back to us at a premium. And the Herald celebrates. via @PhantomPower14 archive.ph/qPK7V

Ever get the feeling you've been conned?

I really don't want to go through the whole rigmarole of seeing Farage win power and then fuck everything up and have loads of sympathetic voxpops with dismayed Reform voters expressing their regrets when it was extremely fucking obvious what would happen because his platform is incoherent garbage

"The scenes in Gaza have moved beyond description. We write as artists who’ve chosen to use our public platforms to speak out against the genocide occurring there & the role of the UK government in facilitating it." www.wsws.org/en/articles/...

So unemployment in Scotland is down while it's risen in the rest of the UK. Seems like good news for the Scottish economy, so naturally BBC Scotland informs us that the figures can't be trusted - with this astonishing quote: "The Scottish figure could be higher than the UK one, but probably isn't."

Opposing genocide is not a crime.

The Guardian reporting that "the UK is the worst in G7 for MMR jab rates. Only 89% of children received their first vaccination in 2024," neglecting to mention that Scotland, at 95% is second best - just behind Germany with 96%. The UK=England, as usual. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

A YouGov poll of six major European nations between June 12th and 27th 2025 has found that voters in the EU would overwhelmingly support bringing an independent Scotland into the bloc. www.thenational.scot/news/2531038...

Two stories on the same day from the @Telegraph. The first about someone paying £7.4 million pounds for a handbag. The second describes a wealth tax as "a moral abomination." Draw your own conclusions. www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/news... www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...

Another good excuse for being late for meetings coming up. “Sorry I’m late. Fucking Spiderman - again!” www.glasgowlive.co.uk/whats-on/wha...

Foiled by a plucky band of faux-socialists, billionaires and energy conglomerates. www.theguardian.com/business/202...