Golf Tango Foxtrot

Of note this week is David Cameron's plans to celebrate (sorry, commemorate) the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War in 2014. Now I am an oldish but by no means geriatric guy. In fact I was born in the year 1960.  This makes me fifty three this year. When I was a small child I first came up against the consequences of the First World War.  I was taken on a family visit to some distant relatives who lived in Laurencekirk, I would have been about four, certainly no more than five.  So, 1964 or 1965. These relatives were an elderly brother and sister who shared a household.  The sister had looked after the brother since he was invalided out of the the army in the First World War after being caught in a poison gas attack. Let's say 1916 or 1917.  This guy had basically been a bedridden invalid (as the phrase used to be) for more than forty five years.  That thought still has the power to shock me now.  Roughly the same interval of time a...

There is no difficulty in making an unremunerated career as a musician.  You can be out playing every night of the week for nothing.  However, as the Musicians Union says.  "This is work, not play".  As you may imagine, I write this on the back of another cancellation by someone interested enough to provisionally book. In doing so they prevent one taking any other gigs on that date but then of course never gets back to confirm, hums and haws, tries to beat you down in price and generally fucks you around shamelessly as if you are a worthless piece of shite. When someone complains to your face that "thon's an affa price for musicians.." You can tell that not only are they a cheapskate, they are probably too stupid to actually appreciate music.  If they did have the sensitivity and emotional facility to actually enjoy music, they wouldn't make such a crass comment to a musician. It seems that there is an expectation these days that musicians will play fo...

It's beautiful and sunny.  Warm and dry.  Note even a breeze to cool things down.  I have a washing out on the line and another one in the machine ready to swap over with it when it comes in dry.  I have played some guitar and put up some new tunes into the solo set list. A few more need to go in to the set list and I will be ready to tout myself in a solo blues act across the length and breadth of the country. Lots more filth needs to go in I think. More of the "You got nipples on your titties big as the end of my thumb, you got something between your legs can make a dead man come" sort of thing. What sorts of things should I be writing songs about?  Political situation of course, poverty, bedroom tax, repression in spain, turkey and greece. So why do all the songs I write end up coming out about lost love and cheating and personal stuff about relationships gone wrong? Possibly because most political songs are either boring or embarrassing. Not all of t...

In the news today, more scaremongering from the "Better Together" campaign.  This time prophesying that Scottish people living in England will become "foreigners".  Aside from what this says about "Better Together" attitudes to people it sees as foreign, this is simply mince. The Brit state, not even the "Rump UK" state has no powers to strip people of citizenship. Even though I will be proud to replace my British Passport with a Scottish one at the earliest opportunity, I will always have the facility even in an independent Scotland to travel on and be entitled to a British Passport. That is also the basis on which an independent Scotland would be admitted to the European Union.  Simply put, the European Union has no power to deprive people of citizenship of the European Union,  We have all been citizens of the EU for many years and that will continue. Similarly Scottish people living in England will have the ability to retain British ci...

We live and learn as they say.  That is an absolutely unacceptable use of cliche.  I'm not sure who it is totally unacceptable to but never mind. It seems this Blog has managed to annoy Dave MacDonald, local honcho  of the National Front in Aberdeen.  He is not happy at the last Blog entry which reported the things that were being said about him by the British National Party.  He challenges GTF to show the evidence that he fiddled the funds. GTF of course was only repeating what the British National Party have said about him. Dave is at pains to point out in his comment that he did not leave the British National Party because of allegations of fiddling money. Oh no...he left it because "it was going soft and was no longer a white racialist party".  Frankly I think that comment casts a greater shadow over Dave MacDonald's reputation than being accused of a bit of tea-leafing. But, that's just the GTF view. I guess Dave fancies himself as the Ernst ...

Today saw 20 members of the National Front protest in Aberdeen against the building of a mosque in the Seaton area of the city. They were countered by 200 Aberdonian Anti-Fascists opposed to such dirt.  Dirt is the best word for such white trash.  It is indeed the good Doric word for those and such as those. The National Front local chief is a guy called Dave MacDonald.  This creature used to be in the British National Party.  Until a little matter alleging the thieving of party funds came about. I have no way of knowing if any of the more lurid allegations of the British National Party in the matter have any basis in truth.  Certainly they are not at all flattering to Mr MacDonald's reputation, even if that reputation could survive public identification with the National Front that is. Be that as it may, nothing salubrious ever seems associated with the Fascist cause in Aberdeen. Even historically, this seems to be the case.  Aberdeen's Fascists ...

There is rioting in Istanbul.  the police responded to a demonstration yesterday against the closure of a park in Taksim Square in Istanbul with tear gas, water cannons and baton charges. The police seem to have gravely underestimated the anger of the demonstrators who are now being joined by many thousands of protesters marching over the Bosphurus bridge to join the demonstration in Taksim Square. For those of you who have never been to Istanbul, Taksim Square is in the European part of Istanbul on the north side of the Golden Horn.  It is essentially the heart of what in the United States would be called the "business district". Gezi Park in Taksim Square is probably the last green space in the area.  The plan is to uproot the trees and build another shopping mall.  This will allegedly recreate an ancient Ottoman military barracks which stood on the site. The demonstrators are not convinced.  Not convinced enough to physically seek to prevent the bulld...