Golf Tango Foxtrot

Amidst all the Waterloo commemoration silliness which played up to Brit nationalism and an anti EU "little England" jingoism I was surely not alone in wondering how differently our history might have played out if Napoleon had won. Would there have been two world wars? Sorley Maclean's poem Two MacDonalds muses on the MacDonald who "shut the gate at Hougoumont while behind it your brother did the spoiling". Lieutenant Colonel James MacDonnell commanded the troops at Hougoumont Chateau.  Attacking French infantry had broken into the farmyard, the key to the entire Allied position.  MacDonnell and a Sergeant of the Coldstream Guards showed great personal bravery by shutting the gates to further French intrusion.   The unfortunate French soldiers who were now trapped INSIDE the Chateau were slaughtered, the only survivor being a Drummer Boy. All the while that the brave Lieutenant Colonel was in action at Waterloo, his brother was looking after the shop...

Ajax Amsterdam is a football team with a proud heritage. A team that was popularly identified with the Jewish community. When I lived in Amsterdam (in the 1980's) the "Golan Shawarma" was my local fast food joint in Staatsliedenbuurt, the neighbourhood I lived in. The flag of Israel was proudly displayed behind the counter, not as I first assumed as support for the Zionist state but for Ajax the football team. The guy who owned the place was Turkish and held no truck for the Zionist state. He loved his football though.  As one walked round the city in these times, many bars and houses would display an Israeli flag to indicate their partially to Ajax. In my last  few brief visits to the city, things are different. It's rare now to see an Israeli flag. Even the Ajax Ultras the self-styled "Super-Jews" (most of whom are not Jewish) seldom fly the flag any more. In November 2024 Ajax hosted Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europe League. In the ensuing riots...

Donald Trump is an arsehole and a piece of shit. A convicted rapist, thief and someone who cheats at Golf. Trump has put his puppet Zelensky in his place.  Whether this is due to his new found desire for peace ( but only in Ukraine), desire to cash in the US investment in arms supply for rare minerals, or the threatened disclosure of pictures of Russian sex workers pissing in his mouth I cannot tell.  Keir Starmer doesn't know where to look. He is the dowplicker's dowplicker. Ah, when thieves fall out.... 

We are told that the Russian government has ordered a "partial" mobilisation in response to apparent reverses in the war in Ukraine.  Global tension rises and the threat of nuclear war grows.  NATO alliance members in their war on Russia are arming their "ally" Ukraine in order to bleed their Russian rivals white.  It seems that their reinforcement of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is paying off.   Am I the only one to be thinking we are back in 1914?  For "gallant little Belgium" read "gallant little Ukraine".  We were told then that the German huns were raping and butchering their way through Belgium.  Nowadays it's the Russian bears are doing the same in Ukraine.   In the 1990s the west, (principally British and US Imperialism) created a monster in Russia. The counter-revolution to restore capitalism in Russia resulted in the creation of a kleptocracy fit to challenge its creators.  Frankenstein created the monster which grew to riva...

Ruth Davidson has gone as Tory leader in Scotland.  The shower of has-beens, never was-es and non-entities (Fraser, Tomkins and Carlaw respectively) who seek to replace her are casting about to see where the land lies.  The Westminster shit-storm over a Brexit that Scotland rejected and the fear of an early General Election which will wipe out the Tory party in Scotland (again ) has been vexing them sorely.  We can expect the idea of a "separate" Tory Party for Scotland which is not just a branch office will rise again from the grave where someone forgot to drive a stake through its heart.  A bit like Gordon Brown's "vow" this one gets trotted out as a "new" idea whenever it looks like the Jocks are getting restless. What form might such a party take? A clue comes from the shameless pandering of Fraser and Tomkins to the Orange vote.   Before the Labour Party won the working class Orange vote in Scotland in the 1950s Scottish municipal politics...

Karl Marx famously observed that history repeats itself. The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. The coronation of Boris Johnson as the Westminster Prime Minister, brings Karl's quip to mind.  Listening to this corrupt, practised liar, bought and sold by whichever plutocrat has his ear this week makes one want to throw up. Simply to hear Johnson self-consciously ape the speech patterns of his idol Winston Churchill brings the realisation that this is the farce.  The dog returning to his vomit. The recycling of the bombast that characterised Winston Churchill and his brandy-soaked cigar-chomping reactionary politics. Policy that promised the world to his listeners and ultimately (by the most delicious of ironies) delivered the demise of his beloved empire. The members of a party which hasn't had a majority in Scottish seats at Westminster for more than 60 years have inflicted on us the most right-wing cabinet that has been seen in living memory. The smirk...

Here ah sit, masell alane, washed up an failin wi fadit memories ae a life thit his bin full ae hope. "If we dinna live in hope wull dee in despair". Its warm oot though.  The air is fullae blossom and scents ae thi flooers i the gairdens.  Thi first time ah passed by this foontain years ago ah met a refugee fella wha wis livin rough here in the Larribal Gairdins.   He was haein a morning wash. Wi passed the time ae day in a sortae English, sortae French sortae Catalan wye is thi nearest spik wi hid thi githir.  Ah gied im a couplae Euros.  He looked like he cid yais thim. Back up thi hull ahint is is the Miro Foundation.  It still his Alexander Calder's Mercury Fountain.  A wee bit ae Scottish art in this finest ae cities. Ah widna tak a wash in it though.. The toon itsell lies alow mi. Ahm nae quite king ae aw I survey.  Truly ah dinna own a handful ae this hale earth. Its stull thi foreneen. Ah cin see Tibidabo awa ower on thi ...

. ..update on my last post.. Theresa May, yet again, makes a "statement" which says nothing...

Theresa May's Government is once more sucking up to the bigots of the "Democratic Unionist Party".  There will be a third attempt to pass the meaningless "Meaningful Vote" to get her Withdrawal Agreement over the line. Despite (or rather because of) Chancellor Phillip Hammond's denial everybody knows there will be another bung to keep the DUP onside.  They will demand (and get) a seat at the table to negotiate the post-brexit trade deal with the EU. A seat that has already been denied to the Scottish Government. No-one in Scotland (or the EU for that matter) can have any faith in the bona fides of British negotiators and their government. Devoid of any principle other than clinging on to government at (literally) any price. A byword for dishonesty and bad faith. Liars, Cheats, Thieves and self-promoters every one. That's the government.  It's hard to say anything good about the "opposition" either. Without a compliant media and a ...

...readers can expect a bittae mair action on this Blog...these are interesting times as they say...

Apologies for the length of time since the last post on GTF but life gets in the wye yi ken...? I wis reading an article in the Guardian HERE thi ithir day..(well tae be fair I dinna BUY thi Guardian, I follow links that folk post on Twitter)   It purports to say that the First Minister of Scotland will not call another Independence Referendum in Scotland without the "permission" of the Westminster Government granting a "Section 30 Order". I'm pretty sure the First Minister (and I'm not an uncritical believer) said no such thing. Its worth looking at what a Section 30 Order actually IS. It's not "permission" for Scotland to hold an Independence Referendum.  Its an agreement by both governments (Westminster and Holyrood) to respect the result.  That's what happened with the last Section 30 Order in 2012 which kicked off the campaign for the 2014 Referendum.   David Cameron's Tory Government supported a  Section 30 Order in 2...

Labour's "resurgence" in Scotland comes from voters keen to support Corbyn in the belief that he represents new and socially radical policies. Scottish Labour have spent the last two years miscrying Corbyn at every opportunity.  The ungrateful Dugdale and Murray persist in thinking they've won seats by being the minor partner in the unionist machine rather than opportunistically gaining votes garnered for them by a leader they hate. They continue to be the third party in Scotland. They continue to be the "Fakers" that John Maclean called them in the 1920s. The Tory "victories" are simply unionist votes. The unionists ran an anti-indy campaign.  they talked about nothing else. They had a free field of fire. The SNP and other pro-indy forces did not run a pro-indy campaign.  This was the dog that didn't bark.  Despite the one-sidedness of the campaign (and the relentless buy in to the premise by 95% of the media) the unionists failed. ...

Scotland sometimes congratulates itself on being free from conventional far-right extremists like the National Front and the British National Party.   One of the reasons this is so is because this ground is already occupied by the Orange Order and their hangers-on. A collection of (very few) religious zealots, the wannabe (and actual) Loyalist paramilitaries down to the assorted mob of lumpen wine swillers who follow the Order's walks and who even the Lodge disdain. As a corollary the only places where the BNP and NF have managed to historically have a presence in Scotland is in places where t he Order was kicked out long ago. These are the forces who can always be relied on to provide the bully-boys to intimidate and divide the working class (and Indy) movements. The classic function of Fascism.  The Order says that at least six of its members "and many more friends of the Order" have been elected as councillors in the May 2015 Scottish Council elections.   An...

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 ...

..I will always support the right of a Scottish Government to govern Scotland. Not being a member of the SNP, I never feel the need to defend the current government, they're big enough to do so themselves. What I will always attack is the pretence that the "Labour" Party is in any way progressive or on the side of working people. They made their alliance with the Tories and they are most certainly "better together". No doubt half their Shadow Cabinet will defy their leader and vote with the Tories to bomb Syria. Their "opposition" (or otherwise) to Trident simply allows any of them to face both ways. Their "opposition" to austerity in Scotland is a joke. It consists of getting a few cooncillors on expenses to picket Holyrood and blame the Scottish Government. One could suggest they actually fight the Tories, but that would be too difficult and expose their unionist flank. Who you vote for is up to you, but don't have any illusio...

There is a metal bridge on Castle Terrace in Aberdeen over a railway line that leads to the docks. Two performers on either side of the road use rubber-faced hammers to make the plates and webs of the bridge sound. Performance is ad libitum and underscored by ground bass of passing traffic. Afterwards the performers refresh themselves with a pint in the Prince of Wales public house.

Clouds Over Strathmore A fleet of lenticular clouds Process across Strathmore Alien spaceships Pinkened by the evening sun Their lights go out one by one - I drive to the west and enjoy. From My Kitchen I marvel through the window As freshly turned furrows Smoke in the sun The fence falls down minute by minute I remember the Gean tree that felled it. The Gean Tree Blown down in the Big Wind You blossomed yet for two more years You brought Spring, you! Two years was all you got  For a chainsaw to tick you off its list

It’s been a while. For this blog at least.  We have been busy in other spheres.  The rumour that we went to jail again is unfounded.  The word is busy. Busy +++. Bands, day jobs, consulting, contracting, agitating, politicking, making trouble.  That has been the watchword of the day. Since we last updated GTF, the Smurph has been appointed to be leader of “Scottish” Labour, whatever that may be.  It is simply an accounting unit within the great british Her Majesty's loyal opposition Labour Party. Murphy of course is a career politician.  He has never had any other kind of a job.  Like me (I am slightly older) he benefitted from a public policy of Grants for students.  We got our education at the public expense.  When an official of the National Union of Students Murphy was one of those who strove to ensure there would be no opposition to the abolition of grants. One difference between Murphy and myself is that the public has ...