In case anyone at conference was wondering why I looked distracted this weekend, it's because I had this specific song as an earworm. It's DJ Zebra mixing Shaggy and Rage Against The Machine, in case you're not down enough with the kids to tell that straightaway.
Random: September 2008 Archives
I've long bemoaned the poor standard of discussion on newspaper websites, with slavish, abusive and irrational SNP supporters usually the main culprits. A challenger arrives today, though, on this Telegraph article (note: I hit the complaint button, so the comment may disappear).
Now, plenty of cybernats use appalling comparisons, with Brown normally compared to Mugabe using the super-clever phrase "ZaNu Liebour", but this comment goes right to the classic idiot's favourite - Hitler.
In case anyone's not familiar with Godwin's Law, the original states that as time passes in an online discussion, the probability of a Nazi analogy tends to 100%. More recently, it has been redefined to mean that anyone making such an analogy automatically loses whatever argument they're engaged in. I hope we can all agree that's what's happened here.Note: I am not related to this particular "James", before anyone suggests otherwise.
My favourite Liberal MSP (I know, I know, tough contest) is undoubtedly Jamie Stone. His CV is a motley affair, including a spell running Highland Fine Cheeses, the family firm behind Caboc, a yummy soft cheese. According to the Metro today, it's 50% fat, which explains the yummy, and sales are up 40%.
One Rory Stone is quoted as follows: "I can't understand why people still want it."
First, what modesty. Second, why indeed would people buy such fatty foods, especially in Scotland, renowned as we are for our healthy eating? Rory and Jamie are clearly chips off the same block of Stone.
Caboc is available from all good cheesemongers, and is online here. Hopefully a share of the profits isn't diverted to support the Liberals.
Disclosure: this may or may not be related to the fine hospitality he showed me one summer a few years ago.
Yesterday in the chamber Alex Salmond, Iain Gray, Jeremy Purvis, Margaret Curran, Malcolm Chisholm, Ross Finnie, and Andy Kerr all made reference to the work of John Maynard Keynes. But every last one of them pronounced his last name wrong, to rhyme with Beans when it should sound like Canes.
How do I know this? One of our most determined activists is a relative of his, and she listened to the debate, getting more and more cross. His Wikipedia page also confirms it.
Why do the Liberals not know this, when they claim him as their own? Answers would be welcome in the comments. No tracts, please.
(the title is a random train of thought: perhaps Milton Keynes is named for Milton Friedman and Keynes, and perhaps the pronunciation of the town's name has caused this misunderstanding?)
Along with Jeff (formerly SNP Tactical Voting) and Malc (formerly In The Burgh), I now co-edit Better Nation, a group blog. Stuff will still appear here, but more will be there.
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I also intermittently blog on the Scotsman's otherwise excellent Steamie.
If you want a stream of pointless and largely political observations I'm on Twitter too.