Unbelievable – Jim Devine

This is unbelievable on every level. However, what is most worrying is the fact that this is one of the 646 MPs who are elected to supposedly run our country. Watch this and weep. . .

Ed Milliband – Am I Bovered?

According to today's Daily Mail Ed Milliband, the brother of that man with the pencil case, has broken his silence on the ongoing row about man-made climate change by declaring war on the 'siren voices' who denied global warming was real or man-made.

Bovered?

She ain't No SuBo!

This woman is suing Simon Cowell under the the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. She claims he and the other judges on Britain's Got Talent didn't give her a chance. This is everything that is utterly wrong about these type of programmes. They give people, with absolutely no talent whatsoever, a false impression of their chances of success. In this woman's case she has no chance of ever being a singer – she's clearly tone deaf. Embedding a youtube video has been denied, no doubt by her legal team. Just go HERE to hear absolute rubbish.

The BBC's Very Own Management Bollocks

If ever I doubted there would be enough material for Management Bollocks 2 then bless the BBC. They are advertising for a 'Change Lead' position in their internal newspaper. They describe the position as. . .' 'responsible for shaping and managing the execution of the change ambition' for the Digital Media Initiative Programme.

In the meantime I'm just finishing Political Bollocks – the biggest challenge? Fitting it all into 124 pages!

The Great Del Shannon!

I've just written the sleeve notes for a new 30 Del Shannon compilation. It's a fabulous musical journey through the career of one of the greats from the 60s. You can buy it HERE

Trump's Hole?

Rubislaw Quarry in Aberdeen, Europe’s largest man-made hole, is on the market for £30,000. Perhaps the Donald will buy it and turn it into 'the world's greatest water feature'

A Showboat to the Maldives

It's been revealed that Scotland's main climate change champion, none other than our Glorious Leader Alex Salmond is to visit the Maldives en-route to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. It's not as some of you may assume because it's the Maldives Derby or Grand National, no it's so he can study the effects of climate on the Islands. The visit has been promoted because Mr Salmond signed an agreement with the government of the Maldives to help combat global warming at the recent climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Seriously, does his actions make any difference at all? With the problems that beset our economy, news that the NHS in Scotland does not perform as well as in England and all the other issues that we have – like the SNP's wilful desecraeation of Scotland through the gung-ho policy of approving wind farms – does he honestly think this is the best use of his time?

Rather than flying to the Maldives perhaps he should take a showboat

Do you have a bladder problem?

Well it seems that you may not be alone. So un-alone in fact that someone has created runpee.com. It's a site that tells you when you can go to the bathroom while you're at the cinema without missing anything vital in a movie.

How the BBC Say Sorry

According to the BBC Complaints web site they should have done better on the One Show in their piece of biased reporting.

Complaint

We received complaints that an item about politics and class in The One Show on 14 January was biased against the Conservative Party.

The BBC's response

A number of comments have been made about the report on class on The One Show on 14 January. It is one of several features that The One Show will air in the run up to the election, covering political parties and politicians. We accept that the piece was not as good as it should have been. The One Show production team are aware of their responsibilities to ensure fairness in their output.

They cannot quite bring themselves to admit that it was just plain wrong. By saying "We accept that the piece was not as good as it should have been," it demonstrates all that is wrong with a culture that emanates from by the overpaid and overpromoted DG

Rupert Holmes – Pursuit of Happiness

It's back. . .after a sabbatical of unprecedented length. It's the album of the week. I've written about Rupert Holmes before, his Widescreen album was the first of his that I ever bought. I had all of them on vinyl back in the 1970s and 80s but they got sold in either the great financial necessity purge or a later space saving purge. I've been in pursuit of them all ever since and today I finally got the last one, The Pursuit of Happiness.

It was released in 1978 and even then was somewhat at odds with the prevailing mood of pop. Rupert's songs are complex and witty but they are always catchy and just about every track on this album is super catchy. From the opening number, 'Less is more' you are invited into an intimate world of New York loft apartments and sophisticated people – today it might just sound a triffle dated to some (Ok, a lot dated in its feel and form) but I love it. I've always been a sucker for great pop songs and that's what this album and all of Rupert's albums are all about. Other standout tracks include, 'So Beautiful it Hurts', 'Speechless', 'Let's Get Crazy Tonight', 'Guitars' and 'The Long Way Home'.

If you only know Rupert Holmes from 'Escape (The Pina Colada Song) don't be put off. It's a song that has had a huge amount of airplay and perhaps has a tendency to grate for some in that the story wears thin after too many listenings. That's not a charge that you can level at the vast majority Rupert's output.

In recent years he's written a couple of very good books. I've read Swing, a good murder mystery and I have Where the Truth Lies to read. There's also a new book called The Musician's Daughter

The BBC's Bias as Exemplified by The One Show

I've just sent this complaint to the BBC....probably a lot of good it will do...

Is it really the BBC's job to make party political broadcasts for the Labour Party? The piece on yesterday’s One Show was incredibly one sided and its whole tone was anti-David Cameron – just because he went to public school and had a privileged background. The people that were interviewed were a lop-sided group, including Kevin McGuire of the Daily Mirror who is lock stock and barrel Labour. What would happen if it was a package asking the question, do we really want a Scot as our Prime Minister. That of course would be unthinkable for the BBC because it would be racist. Even the presenter's follow-up was biased.

Yet again we see the institutional bias of the BBC come to the fore. Perhaps your millionaire DG who went to public school has something to say about it?

Not Only are Policemen Looking Younger. . .

"I used to be able to walk around my local supermarket but now someone else will do my shopping for security reasons."

No, not a member of the Royal Family, a senior politician or an X-Factor winner. It's 46-year-old Peter Vaughan, the new head of South Wales police (since New Year’s Day). He's paid £144,500 a year to come out with this kind of crap!

The Macdonald's were right. . .

. . .you should never trust a Campbell

Harvey Brooks & The Electric Flag

Harvey Broks is a bass player who has had the privilege to play with so many great musicians – Dylan, Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Steve Stills, Cass Elliot, the Doors and Miles davis. His composition, Harvey's Tune that is featured on the Super Session album has long been a favourite of mine. Harvey was also a member of the Electric Flag, a band put together by Mike Bloomfield & Barry Goldberg in 1967 that included Buddy Miles, who played some of the most inventive rock of the period.

You can catch Harvey talking about the Electric Flag HERE, it is fascinating. There are other vidlogs on Harvey's site about working with Dylan, Miles davis and a whole host of other musical legends.

An Apple for Teacher. . .Mandarin for all Pupils

Mandarin for all pupils, says Ed Balls, so goes the headline in the Daily Telegraph. No, not an update of the apple for teacher routine but a plan by the aptly named Balls to allow all children to learn the Chinese language. He also thinks that more children should be able to study Polish, Russian and Arabic up to GCSE level. It's all very laudable but like so much Nu-Labour policy it's all about the soundbite, grabbing the headlines with little or no attention paid to the reality of delivering on the ideas. How will schools cope with yet more subjects to schedule? Could we just get the basics right? In Scotland, and to be fair Balls has nothing to do with the situation north of the border, one in five children leave school without being fully literate. It may be better in England, but i suspect not by much. . .

Classical Music List is Flawed

According to a show on BBC Radio 2 yesterday this is the The People's Classical Chart Top 30, that is to say Britain's most widely heard classical music recordings.

1 Orff - O Fortuna From Carmina Burana (Kurt Eichhorn)
2 Vaughan Williams - Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis (Bernard Haitink)
3 Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade (Charles Mackerras)
4 Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty (Mikhail Pletnev)
5 Schumann - Romance In F Sharp Major Op 28/2 (Joseph Cooper)
6 Delibes - Sylvia (Richard Bonynge)
7 Rachmaninov - Symphony No 2 (Vladimir Ashkenazy)
8 Holst - The Planets (James Loughran)
9 Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty (Valery Gergiev)
10 Schubert - Symphony No 5 (Neville Marriner)
11 Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No 2 (Vladimir Ashkenazy)
12 Bizet - Carmen (Giuseppe Sinopoli)
13 Holst - The Planets (John Eliot Gardiner)
14 Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending (Sarah Chang)
15 Zipoli - Elevazione For Cello And Oboe (Robert Clark)
16 Beethoven - Symphony No 6, Pastoral (John Eliot Gardiner)
17 Grieg - Piano Concerto (Krystian Zimerman)
18 Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (Charles Dutoit)
19 Litolff - Scherzo (From Concerto Symphonique No 4) (Peter Donohoe)
20 Holst - The Planets (Simon Rattle)
21 Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (Nigel Kennedy)
22 Rodrigo - Concierto De Aranjuez (Julian Bream)
23 Saint-Saens - Symphony No 3, Organ (Myung-Whun Chung)
24 Elgar - Cello Concerto (Jacqueline Du Pré)
25 Bruch - Violin Concerto No 1 (Maxim Vengerov)
26 Mendelssohn - Symphony No 4 In A Major, Italian (John Eliot Gardiner)
27 Orff - O Fortuna From Carmina Burana (Riccardo Muti)
28 Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade (Seiji Ozawa)
29 Holst - The Planets (David Mathias Lloyd-Jones)
30 Mendelssohn - A Midsummer Night's Dream (Yoel Levi)

I don't believe it. . .as they saying goes. Do they seriously want me to believe that Bach's Air on a G-String, the music from the Hamlet ad, is played less often than some on this list? What about Dvorak's Largo from his New World Symphony (It's the music from the Hovis Advert)? This chart was supposed to cover adverts, lift music, radio plays etc etc.

Now I know all lists are basically daft but this one is UNBELIEVABLE!

The Making of Modern Ireland – An Alternative History

A new book, but not one of mine; this one is written by my friend Geoff Robinson. Writing a book is challenging in all sorts of ways and the amazing thing about Geoff is you're never too old to take that challenge. He has just published The Making of Modern Ireland – An Alternative History and he's 88 years old. Geoff's book is both extremely well researched and written in such a way as to make history engaging and interesting without being in the slightest bit stuffy.


“The Ireland I now inhabit is one that these Irish contemporaries have helped to imagine.” – Seamus Heaney

The history of a nation all too often depends on an admixture of truths, half-truths and mythology; exemplified by the story of Britain and Ireland. Both countries were part of the Angevin Empire that controlled an area from the banks of the Shannon to the Centre of France until after its defeat by the French, in 1399. But Ireland did not experience English rule until her colonisation by Henry VIII in the 16th Century.

Basing their story on past ills which resulted in the 1798 Rising by the United Irishmen and the birth of republicanism, together with carefully selected facts, folklore and historically inaccurate assumptions, the Fenians produced a mythology which was in part responsible for the Rising of 1916. Few are aware that this would not have been possible but for the secret connivance of the enemies of Irish freedom, while Ireland gained her independence not by the Rising but as a result of British over-reaction which produced the War of Independence.

The Making of Modern Ireland looks at the broad sweep of the nation’s history from the 12th Century, when it was part of the Angevin Empire, right up to 2009 and the government of Brian Cowan. Geoff Robinson’s narrative offers an alternative view, stripped of the half-truths and mythology, that has passed for much of the country’s history.

Though born and educated in England, Geoff Robinson is an Irish citizen who has lived in Ireland for over fifty years. An unswerving believer in the rectitude of the Irish cause, he knew many who had been involved in the 1916 Rising and later came to meet others of such divergent political views as the daughter of a Redmondite MP and the editor of the “Bulletin”, a clandestine newssheet published during the War of Independence
Following his marriage in 1966 to Bernadette Tiernan, a national teacher, he developed an interest in Irish politics. His wife’s revelation that no critical examination of the events leading up to the 1916 Rising was contained in the schools curriculum, prompted him to make a re-evaluation of Irish history which has resulted in his book, The Making of Modern Ireland.

Buy it from Amazon UK

Buy it from Amazon US

MANAGEMENT BOLL**KS – How to talk your way to the top…

Just who is picking the low hanging fruit? Is brainstorming a thing of the past or do we now just do 'thought showers'? If you have ever spent time in a meeting contemplating yet another 'paradigm shift' then you will be the first to realise that at the end of the day it is all a load of. .

It's out now and it's the perfect stocking filler for all your executives friends (and even those in the family!)

What the publisher says – For some people Genghis Khan was the earliest example of an extremely competent manager; although it’s doubtful whether he ever wasted time on management speak – for him actions spoke louder than words. Management speak seems to have been gifted to the world by America. Chester Irving Edwards’ 1938 book Functions of the Executive has a lot to answer for. With statements like, “The line of communication should not be interrupted when the organization is functioning,” you could have guessed that it was only going to get worse.

Initially it was those on the cutting edge that talked the talk, soon middle, junior and even non-managers embraced this language as a means of getting ahead. Management speak is very seductive – the bottom line is we’re all trying to leverage our fair share of the intellectual capital. Even politicians, who look increasingly like middle managers in marketing departments, have hi-jacked management speak to ‘present’, or at least try to differentiate, their ever more similar ideas from those of the other parties.

It is now so pervasive that everyone in society at least grasps the basics of the language. It’s no different from the language as a whole; it’s evolving year by year as new words get added to the lexicon almost every week. It would be wonderful to know who dreams some of it up. Who was he first numpty that uttered the immortal phrase, ‘transferable skill set’? Who said ‘impactfulnesss?’ and managed to keep a straight face? Who decided it was a good idea to have hymn sheets in the office? But whatever the answer, who needs to walk the walk, when you can talk the talk?

While euphemisms have crept into management speak for just about every kind of business activity, recently one old fashioned piece of straight talk has come back into fashion. ‘You’re fired!’ Still, it’s better than if Genghis Khan had been your manager, in his case it would have been ‘You’re dead!’

Brilliant!

Lord Mandelson's Gardening Costs

Back in 2004, five days after Lord Mandelson accepted an offer from Tony Blair to become Britain’s European Commissioner his Lordship, although back then he was lain old Mr, received a bill from his gardener for £1,500 for work on his back garden. It covered “crown topping of overgrown trees, pruning of leggy shrubs, digging up and removal of rogue saplings (elderberry and sycamore), removal of weeds, all tree branches, leaves and green rubbish taken away”. If Sir Thomas Legg thinks £1,000 per annum is sufficient for gardening costs can we assume his Lordship will repay the £500. . .always assuming of course that was all he claimed for gardening that year.