Lord Dunderheid

As I write this we are experiencing a second COVID-19 wave - or maybe it’s still the first wave that’s been let out of the bag, with a second wave still to come? Some of this, no doubt, has been caused by opening up the air corridors so folks can take foreign holidays in the sun - despite, in Scotland anyway, being strongly advised by Nicola Sturgeon not to do so. Some have then come home to find that the country they have visited have been added to the quarantine list and they then have to self isolate for fourteen days - with some deciding not to do so and spreading the virus back home (if they have contracted it while away). What amazes me is that many of those folks have complained loudly about this despite repeated warnings not to travel abroad. Some of this, no doubt, has been caused by trying to open the schools and universities and some just in an attempt to reopen the country so that businesses (restaurants and bars, for example) can start to operate before they go bust. Whate...

Foreword. I am aware that the term ‘anti-Semitic’ is incorrectly used in what follows - but it has become the accepted term for anti-Jewish. The Jews, originally, were a Semitic people - but so are all the Arab peoples of the Middle East. The term anti-Semitic, therefore, applies to the Palestinians just as much as to the Jews, which makes the use of the term, when applied only to Jews, incorrect. But, as said above, it has become accepted that the term anti-Semitic also means anti-Jewish so I have resorted to using it, if somewhat reluctantly. To be clear, all references to anti-Semitic, in this post, should actually be read as anti-Jewish. I currently find myself rather confused over the position of the Labour party and anti-Semitism. For four years, under Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour party was increasingly accused of anti-Semitism - or, at least, failing to even attempt to eradicate anti-Semitism from within it’s ranks. I don’t know if this was true or not as I did not read more than a...

While we are talking about ‘flapping lips’ (see my previous post re Christine Jardine) I see George Galloway has been flapping his, again!I It seems he is willing to work with the Tories to stop the SNP. Now, I can accept a supporter of the Union trying to stop the SNP, but for a far left socialist like Galloway to advocate working with the Tories is simply beyond belief. He would, it seems, rather see the people of Scotland under Tory rule than see a left of centre, independent Scotland. This says volumes about Galloway and I find his position nothing short of staggering and despicable. Any respect I once had for Galloway’s socialist credentials have been totally destroyed (this, of course, assuming he actually said what it’s reported he said). While on the subject of socialist dinosaurs I also see that Brian Wilson continues to spout his bile via articles in, at least, The Scotsman. Wilson, like Galloway, is one of the many aging Scottish socialists who finds it impossible to credit ...

I see that Christine Jardine, the Lib-Dem MP for Edinburgh West, has been flapping her lips again! This is something she frequently does. Firstly, in a piece for The Scotsman and secondly in an interview with Mike Graham on talkRADIO. In The Scotsman piece she starts by having a go at the SNP in Westminster wasting time on pushing pointless questions about a second Scottish independence referendum when they should have been concentrating on more important questions. Well, in case Ms Jardine has not noticed, it’s currently a waste of time asking any questions in Westminster due to Johnson’s huge majority - a situation brought about in no small part by the Lib-Dem’s failure to do better at the last general election (and this assisted by the Labour Party’s failure to do like wise). Boris Johnson is simply able to do whatever he wants - and he does. I would also argue that fighting for Scotland’s democratic right is not a waste of time and needs to be argued for as much and as often as pos...

In the past few weeks we have seen, due to the murder of George Floyd by US police officers, the creation of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. This has resulted in demonstrations in many countries around the world and the destruction of statues celebrating many historical figures who gained their wealth in the slave trade. I have no problem with this protest movement as I fully support it’s general aims - although I do feel that the destruction of statues is not beneficial or helpful in achieving those aims.. There are those, however, who do object to the BLM protests and they have come up with their own slogan - All Lives Matter. I can’t object to this slogan, either but those making it are either deliberately missing the point or doing so without realising that they are doing so. As some in the BLM movement have pointed out, “Yes, all lives matter but that cannot come about until black lives matter”. People of colour (and all non-whites) must be a subset of ‘all’ and if black li...

It is with some disquiet (understatement) that I find myself agreeing with the words of both Donald Trump and ex Tory health minister Jeremy Hunt. Trump recently attacked the WHO for it’s poor, early response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I feel he has some justification in doing so. I feel, however, that he should not have done so when he did as we are at a point where the whole world needs to pull together to defeat this virus. He also said he was going to stop the US funding of the WHO because of it’s response. This, for the same reason, was also a mistake. In addition to that, he was not seeking to change things anyway - he was simply trying to deflect criticism away from his own, also very poor, response to the pandemic. My agreement with Hunt is based on his recent attack on the scientific, medical advice provided to the UK government via SAGE (the group of medical experts set up for this purpose). It is becoming clearer and clearer that this advice was seriously flawed and that th...

I am not one to wish death, or even harm, on anyone (exceptions, if I’d been alive at the time, being Stalin, Hitler and Franco etc., with, later, the likes of Pol Pot) but I am starting to reconsider this view in relation to Donald Trump. This man is not just a moron, he is, in my view, a dangerous moron and a cretin. While now seemingly supporting much of the US lockdown measure he’s, at the same time, encouraging the mass protests against this. Then he seems to suggest that injecting disinfectant (or swallowing some), or getting bathed in UV light, will kill the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, in minutes. The lack of the man’s intelligence and basic scientific knowledge is staggering - and potentially lethal. Having eventually realised the enormity of his error (in this) he then tries to say he was being sarcastic: he simply cannot admit to any mistakes he might have made, by action or by words. I fail to see the sarcasm - flippancy at best. But even if he was being flippant (un...