Golf Tango Foxtrot

In my time I have owned three reasonable collections of vinyl records.   All of them were lost on the shoals of life.   Breakups, poverty and emigration for the most part.   I have resisted the temptation to return to vinyl as a post-modern fad but I have over the years picked up some records with a view to eventually getting round to buying something to actually play them on. My listening devices have spanned 50 years.  From a Dansette Gramophone as they were called, to the early cassette players, to a Midi system, to a Walkman, a CD player, the MiniDisc player, MP3 device and now often enough listening online on my PC or phone. Recently I saw a deal on eBay for a device to actually play records.  It was a bargain. £15. Now at that price you don't expect HiFi sound quality.  You don't get it either.   At any rate it is no worse than the auld Dansette (I wish I still had it), of which I see examples going at £200 these days. The ...

Delivered as a speech to the Arbroath Declaration Commemoration April 9th 2017 "Welcome to Arbroath those from further afield from Radical Independence Campaign Angus & Mearns I was told I had tae make a speech today a while ago and I put off writing it till this morning, there's been so much going on in the world. I promise I won't be long as I've sat through too many boring harangues in the past from people who should know better. These are interesting times to live in as the ancient curse goes. I have been coming to this event for years and never has the alignment of history been more in our favour. Those of us for whom Independence is not an end but a beginning have every reason for optimism. Independence is coming. The dogs on the street and even the Bookies know it!! More and more we see the old Labour Party, the party of the aristocrats of labour being disowned by people who can now see through their falsehoods. Who see them i...

  On joining the EU Spain suspended it's territorial claim to Gibraltar and opened the border.   Now that Westminster seems hell bent on dragging Gibraltar ( and Scotland) out of an EU to which Gibraltar (and Scotland) voted to remain it should be no surprise that on Brexit Spain will close the border and renew it's territorial claim.   Old vampires like Michael Howard are now discussing war with Spain. This used to be called "sabre-rattling".  The warmongers should (and do) know that the Royal Navy wouldn't have a hope defending Gibraltar short of nuking Madrid so run down is it's non-WMD capability.    The mainstay surface ship Type 45 Destroyers keep breaking down.  Perhaps they could be towed to Gibraltar to act as a deterrent? They were so unreliable they had to be withdrawn from the "Falkland" Islands.  They were also plagued with propulsion problems in the Gulf.   Given the impotence of Westminster to actually threaten another ...