Golf Tango Foxtrot

My Dad’s posthumous award of the Arctic Star has been confirmed.  The decoration was bestowed by virtue of the fact that he had served on Arctic Convoys in World War Two.   He was in the Fleet Air Arm and serviced planes which supposedly provided air cover for the convoy.  I say supposedly because mostly the Arctic weather was so horrendous there was no prospect of the planes flying at all even if their engines were thawed out.   Most of the time above the Arctic Circle was spent at Action Stations, ready to fight the ship at any moment.  For Dad this consisted of lying on the hangar deck  out of the way of seamen working the ship and gunners defending it.    Despite the fact that the Canadian and other Allied governments had decorated their Arctic veterans, the British government waited for seventy years to do it.  Too late for my Dad of course but fortunately there are still a number of living recipients of the medal. There...

The campaign for and against independence is fairly heating up. Tempers are flaring.  Threats are being uttered and Twitter accounts have been trumpeting their rectitude.   I have no pretence at impartiality.  I am for YES, unreservedly and whole-heartedly.  Without an ounce of doubt.  For the benefit of younger readers that is a very small amount indeed. Nonetheless, partiality and the zeal of the true believer means that I at least try to pretend that my position is based on verifiable fact and supporting information (discounting the notion that these are one and the same).   The above is not even six tweets worth at 140 characters a tweet.  Funny how microstyle affects ones writing even when there is no limit.  Twitter’s 140 characters and the SMS limit of 160 characters has changed how people write.   While it is customary to deprecate the effect of social media on the young in particular and society in general, one thin...