The name of this blog has been known to upset and offend, particularly those who have never heard of Trainspotting or Irvine Welsh.
Raw Propaganda
THE RISE OF RAW PROPAGANDA
by John Pilger
Marshall McLuhan’s prophecy that “the successor to politics will be propaganda” has happened. Raw propaganda is now the rule in Western democracies, especially the U.S. and Britain. On matters of war and peace, ministerial deceit is reported as news. Inconvenient facts are censored, demons are nurtured. The model is corporate spin, the currency of the age. In 1964, McLuhan famously declared, “The medium is the message.” The lie is the message now.
But is this new? It is more than a century since Edward Bernays, the father of spin, invented “public relations” as a cover for war propaganda. Whatisnew is the virtual elimination of dissent in the mainstream.
The great editor David Bowman, author of The Captive Press, called this “a defenestration of all who refuse to follow a…
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Finding stillness
In a world of perpetual pain, finding stillness is the greatest achievement
Drifting in and out of sleep and denial, I imagine bringing a body into conditions of complete quietude, its only movements the autonomic responses sustaining its being alive.
Continue reading “Finding stillness”The last Munro
If the past is memory and the future fantasy then the fleeting nothing of the present is all there is
I have been dreading the writing of this post, putting it off and vacillating, finding other things to do, or nothing, in order not to engage with what must be written, lest my story be left hanging in the air. I suspect too it will the post my readers will have been fearing for a while and might find difficult to read.
Continue reading “The last Munro”Quirks and charms
Previously, I have written about various oddities in the case which saw Craig Murray imprisoned for contempt of court. One such quirk is the very concept of ‘jigsaw identification‘. This ‘offence’ occurs when details are published which when combined with other details already in the public domain can lead to the identification of a person or persons who have been granted the privilege of anonymity by a court of law. This is getting quirky already. The individual charged is being prosecuted not for identifying the person afforded the protection of the court. They are being prosecuted for publishing details which when combined in a particular way with other information might make it possible for someone sufficiently interested and determined to identify the person being protected.
The details published don’t have to identify anybody and nobody need actually be identified for an offence to have been committed. There is no…
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Our Police State — Grouse Beater
Former ambassador and human rights activist, Craig Murray, released from Saughton Prison The ludicrously over-the-top jail sentence handed down to human rights activist Craig Murray, for a minor infringement of a presposterous court rule called ‘jigsaw indentification’, together with the hurried embracing of a ban on assembly around our Parliament building, is yet more warning […]
Our Police State — Grouse Beater
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT TRANSWOMEN? TAKE THE TESTS — Gordon Dangerfield
This is a very clever piece of writing. It fits beautifully into the rubric of the shiteness of being Scottish and will either infuriate or entertain.
The Scottish Government believes that transwomen are women and that this statement is so self-evidently true that it is not even up for debate. I believe that transwomen are not women, and that this statement should not require debate in any rational society. Which of these two opposite beliefs you hold is important because which […]
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT TRANSWOMEN? TAKE THE TESTS — Gordon Dangerfield
Legally (just) Sex is Immutable, But is the Law Impermeable?
Guest essay by Scottish Casandra
The WordPress blogosphere echoes with more voices than just bloggers.
Continue reading “Legally (just) Sex is Immutable, But is the Law Impermeable?”Road trip
Since we met on the slopes of Ben Dorian at the start of 2017, Martyn has talked with great animation about his mountaineering club’s hut near Achnasheen, how well placed it is for Torridon, West Monar and much more besides. Circumstances have thwarted all our previous plans to stay here for a few nights and to use it as a base, but last week we were able to coordinate other commitments, and Martyn booked two nights during a period of particularly fine weather. Two days after we returned, despite considerable stiffness and pain round my pelvis, I got out of bed and realised that I was able to stand with both feet flat on the ground, with my knees level, my legs straight and my hips perpendicular to my line of motion.
I consider this to be utterly miraculous.
Continue reading “Road trip”The King’s Seat, the pool of the ambitious fish and other long walks
When I reached the summit of Mullach na Coirean last November, I felt that this would be my last Munro. Not only had I taken the tally to 200, my excursions last year into the Mamores and Fannichs meant I had now summited every Munro above 1100 metres, the top 50, which seemed like a good moment to take a step back. Winter was coming and I needed to recover.
The aftermath
all these years of SNP government have done little more than establish further the same systems of power, sinecure and patronage that comprise the British state
When I write about politics I do so from the perspective of history, philosophy or psychology rather than as an activist or campaigner.
Continue reading “The aftermath”
It's shite being Scottish 