Iain Macwhirter
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Noughties: Decade of Delusion
Why do current affairs seem to order themselves into decades?Reviews of the year and the decade are really just a journalistic device for filling space during the winter holiday season. But somehow events conspire to arrange themselves accordingly. For it is impossible not to look at the last 10 years as a meaningful collision of events. … Continue reading
Imagine: an X Factor Election.
Simon Cowell, the evil genius behind the Prime Minister’s favourite programme “The X Factor” has made clear that he’d like to extend the franchise to politics. The talent show mogul is offering to stage high octane debates on key issues during the general election campaign. But why stop there….? Brash music. Stars. A giant … Continue reading
Christmas in the House
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: twelve bags of compost; eleven hanging baskets; ten Tudor beams; nine toiltet seats; eight trouser presses, seven leather arm chairs; six porno films; five flat screen TVs, four Ikea kitchens; three garlic presses; two second homes and a duck house in a bell … Continue reading
Weather chaos on the roads. A traveller’s tale.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. I was caught on the ‘white hell’ of the M74 yesterday. And great fun it was too. People got out of their cars and helped each other, grinning inanely. A local farmer trundled around offering tows. Heaving men pushed vehicles out of ditches. Lanarkshire has never … Continue reading
Excluding the SNP is unfair and undemocratic.
The Scottish National Party has every right to feel aggrieved at being excluded from the proposed televised debates involving the three UK leaders during the forthcoming general election campaign. The problem is what to do about it. It is manifestly unfair for not one, but three ninety minute debates to be shown in Scotland … Continue reading
Copenhagen: not as bad as it could’ve been.
It’s a pity there weren’t a few bankers around the Bella Centre in Copenhagen last week – then there might have been a deal. Perhaps Greenpeace should’ve flown a task force of Wall Street’s finest on the final day since investment bankers are the only people who seem able to get world leaders to open … Continue reading
Copenhagen – does anybody really care?
There’s an advert currently playing Scottish cinemas paid for by the environmental campaign group, Plane Stupid. It shows polar bears falling from the sky, bouncing off tall buildings, and then landing in bloody heaps on the city streets. Killed by plane emissions. It’s pretty disgusting, and when it was shown at a cinema last … Continue reading
Tell the bankers where to go
There comes a time in the affairs of men, as Roosevelt said, when the people decide that enough is enough. When the national mood hardens from indignation to resolve, and politicians are forced finally to act. It happened when the House of Lords, a bastion of unelected privilege, tried to destroy Lloyd George’s welfare budgets … Continue reading
"Climate Change is a Lie and a Fraud"
Well, that’s what a lot of people think following the revelations at the University of East Anglia, where climate scientists appeared to be manipulating data on global warming. But if this is really what you think, you are pitting yourself against the overwhelming consensus among scientists world-wide. There is not a single credible scientific organisation … Continue reading
Universality of Cheese-gate. A Blogger Writes AGAIN
Well, I stand corrected. I’ve rarely seen such a considered and thoughful clutch of comments on any blog post. How embarrassing for poncy pundit. Too much to comment on so I’ve done a post. I fully accept that I come from an age before new media, being a preening presenter and professional pontificator. Many did … Continue reading
Iain Macwhirter 