Glasgow IS Manky!!!

Apparently the leaders of the Glasgow bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games have taken the mighty huff with a Nigerian offical for claiming that Glasgow is a crime-ridden midden.

I don't know why that should come as a surprise to anyone, as Glasgow is easily the dirtiest, most litter strewn shambles I've ever come across. Don't get me wrong, I love living here, and I have had the benefit of having lived in a few great cities around the world, but the fact of the matter is the streets are filthy and the council do a terrible job in cleaning up, despite the ridiculous levels of council tax which they collect.

Still, here's a great initiative from the council...


I kid you not. I watched a group of guys working at a bin and when they left, this
is what they'd done. They'd screwed a new sign to a bin, telling us that the district council were screwing signs to bins... OK that's not entirely true, the sign says "It's our city, play your part" and is part of the CleanGlasgow campaign which has a web presence and a group of guys screwing signs to bins, so far as I can see.

Am I being simple? Honestly, does this strike anyone, apart from the Primary 6 class whose idea it might have been, as anything other than a massive waste of time and resource - I mean they didn't even empty the bin when they were there.

Interesting Times

'May you live in interesting times!' apparently an Old Chinese curse - but probably not! Still, it applies to Scotland these past few weeks, as for the first time the Scottish people have granted the Nationalists a greater share of the vote.

As a result of this, the Labour party have gone in a massive huff with the electorate, refused to acknowledge the victory and taken to the courts in order to overturn the result. No word on how long this petulance will last.

The Lib Dems, whose policies as far as I can see were almost identical to the Nats policies have declined to join a leading coalition on the grounds that the Nat's are keen to ask the people of Scotland whether they'd like to run the show for themselves, but they don't want to ask the question - presumably in case they don't like the answer... I think my dictionary must have 'Democrat' wrong.

The Green party were almost wiped out at the election, returning 2 MSPs. Many people have mused over whether the smaller parties lost out due to the increase in Nat sympathy, but closer to the truth is more likely to be the fact that all the parties are now taking Green issues more seriously - hence less need for a Green pressure group. Whilst the socialists massive public falling out with Tommy Sheridan plus the ridiculous behaviour of the likes of Rosie Kane throughout the last parliament simply made them unelectable - good intentions or otherwise!

We're now heading towards a minority administration lead by easily the most capable man in Scottish, or probably UK, politics being propped up by your kindly old neighbour who tended his garden fastidiously and worried about streetlamps polluting the night sky. Alex Salmond's enemies are licking their wounds and waiting for him to fail in order that they can reclaim lost ground... No word on how any of them intend to best serve the people who elected them.

Interesting times indeed!

Here I am...

Having dithered for years, I've finally dived in and joined the covert world of semi-anonymous blogging.

For some time now I've been transfixed by the battle raging between Terry Kelly, recently re-elected councillor in Paisley, and a merry band of 'fiskers' over on Terrywatch.

Given the level of vitriol that flows over there I often wondered whether I might be able to join in and retain some sense of humour about it all. It's easy to imagine being cool and calculated from the safety of anonymity, but here at the coal face of red-hot political debate, will I blossom or perish? Only time will tell.