Scunnered with postal strikes

The news this morning that there have been wildcat strikes by posties in London & Liverpool makes me want to bang the heads of both sides together and shout at them that they are destroying a once great institution.

I appreciate that the CWU and their members have a genuine grievance with Adam Crozier and his fellow managers but, quite frankly, continued strikes and especially these wildcat actions are losing them a lot of support with the long suffering postless public. time for the Government to get involved and get this resolved.

Some years ago when I worked at BT as a specialist International Directory Inquiry Operator I was a member of the CWU. However, when BT stated closing call centres all across the UK, the CWU was as much use to it's members as a chocolate teapot and did absolutely nothing to save my job or the 117 other jobs at the UK's specialist International team.

P.S.For non Scots readers: "Scunnered" means absolutely fed up with something.

Barbados here we come

In October 2008 Catherine has a Soroptimist Conference in Barbados for 3 days. Well after some humming and hawing, by me, because of length of flight, we decided to have a decent length of holiday so we booked up for 11 nights in the 4 star Amaryllis Beach Resort (pictured) and upgraded to a superior ocean view room.

We've been saving our Tesco clubcard vouchers as they get exchanged at a rate of £1 of clubcard vouchers to £4 of Virgin holiday vouchers. In the end we got about £600 off our holiday - not bad for just doing our everyday shopping!

To say that I'm really loking forward to the holiday would be a slight understatement.

Back in the swing of things

I'm delighted to report that I started back at work, full time, a week past Monday. It's been a longer recovery than I had expected but am delighted that I'm back. I'm also back into my full range of party activities and thoroughly enjoyed our Scottish Lib Dem Autumn Conference on Saturday.

I am however somewhat relieved that Broon did "bottle it" as I didn't much fancy a second election campaign in one year - too bleeding tiring! Wouldn't mind betting that the next GE will be the same day as the European Parliament Elections on the 1st Thursday in June 2009.

How do you pronounce the Polish word Rzeczpospolita?

I'm currently researching a Polish army from the period 1576-1631, which is known at the Rzeczpospolita, or "Commonwealth" in English. The idea is that I shall construct a wargames army of this ilk. however I feel that it would be a tad embarassing to have an army the name of which I can't pronounce, so would welcome pronunciation from any Polish speakers out there. Ta.

In memory of John Rubie Dale 1925 - 2007

This post is to celebrate the life of my Dad, John Rubie Dale, who died at 00.45 hours on Saturday the 18th of August 2007.

Haven't been up to posting before now for obvious reasons.

Dad was born on the 23rd of March 1925 and was one of 5 brothers, one of whom died at around the age of five. Those who survived to adulthood were (in age order) Archibald, John (Dad), William & Robin - Uncles Archie (84) and Robin (66) are still living.

On leaving school at the age of 14 he, after several jobs, was apprenticed as a slater & roughcaster, to the Rubie firm, which he was related to. This apprenticeship was interrupted by the second world war. A pragmatic man he eschewed the opportunity to join the commandos and subsequently "accidentaly" managed to fail his training course to become a rear gunner on the North sea bi-planes (life expectancy of 6 weeks). Eventually he settled in as an armourer on aircraft carriers of the Fleet Air Arm, serving in th Med and Far East. He always warned Billy and I to avoid the Isle of Man, just in case we met anyone who looks like us!

In 1946 he joined Scottish Masonic lodge number 149 - Irvine St Andrew's (which iconic Scottish poet Rabbie Burns attended during his period in Irvine, although well before Dad's time) and remained an active member for some 60 years

A year later he met the love of his life, Marion Lockhart (Mum) and married her in 1948. Mum and Dad had many happy years together but these were cut short by my Mum's early death on the 1st of April 1989.

John and Marion had two Sons - Billy, my Brother, was born in January 1950 and after, as Dad quipped "eleven years of going on to Glasgow rather than getting off at Paisley"I appeared in August 1961.

Dad worked consistantly at his Trade until 1972 when he decided that our family would be better off if he set up for himself. He ran his own sole trader business for almost 30 years and was a tradesman of high reputation which, according to impartial winesses, was well deserved.

In the last few years he suffered a stroke which caused Dementia. This led to him being hospitalised some 23 months ago then going to a Nursing home 16 months ago. As noted above he died on the 18th of August 2007. Cause of death was bronchial pneumonia.

There is so much more that I would like to say about Dad but shall leave to future posts. I will however, with many others, celebrate his life on Thursday at the Funeral Parlour, Cemetary and Purvey.

Goodbye Dad.

Welcome to the world Magnus Charles Dundas

For the fouth time this year I delight in welcoming another wee one into this world.

Magnus Charles Dundas came into the world at 11.35pm on Wednesday the 25th of July.

My congratulations, and love, go to Mum Siobhan and Dad Charles. Hope to see you three soon.

Liberal Party - 1977 centenary medal - info please

Around 15 months ago I purchased a piece of Liberal Party history on eBay, which is a Liberal Party centenary medal (stamped no. 32 of 500). Photos of the medal (badly taken by me) are shown above.

I would greatly appreciate some information about this item & would be really interested to hear from other others who are custodians of other medals such as this. Thanks.

Felicity

There's a young lady who lives across the street from me and she has designs on me!

Nothing untoward in that and Catherine should have limited worries as Felicity, as I've named her, is a smashing wee ginger and white moggy.

Two problems:

1. Catherine ain't keen on cats.

2. I'll be moving to Kinross-Shire within the next 12-18 months to set up shop with Catherine.

My dilemma: I really love cats and this wee lady is a beezer - she doesn't bother too much with the tidbits which I give her and goes into heavy purr mode by just kicking around the house with me. The folk who she already owns have, at least, one other cat and three weans.

Therefore I need assistance with the following questions:
i. If I let Felicity "own" me will I be causing hurt to the family already "owned" by her?
ii. Will Catherine accept her when they are both in the house or will there be a cat-fight (worst pun on this blog - ever!)
iii. What happens to my relationship with Felicity when I move to Kinross-Shire?

Answers on a postcard please.

Please support Cats Protection.
More info at: http://www.cats.org.uk/

I was 16 before discovering that F***ing Tories were two separate words

The 25th "anniversary" of the Falklands war brought back home to me why I loathe, hate and despise the Tories and that auld witch Thatcher in particular. You see, it reminded me of what life was like under them in the early 1980's.

Hearing her voice, almost from beyond the grave, as she gloried in her decision to send hundreds of British service personnel to their needless deaths or wounds in the Falklands sent shudders up my spine and made me recall what life was like under her Premiership.

In 1980 I moved from Irvine to study at Teesside Polytechnic in Middlesborough. At first I behaved as any 19 year old would being away from home and off the leash for the first time. However, after a few months my eyes started to open and I realised what the "Thatcher Revolution" was doing to the area and the other areas of Britain which hadn't supported the Tories in the '79 general Election. If you worked in heavy industry, then tough, your jobs were going. If you lived in poor housing, then tough, the market should sort it out. if you believed in society and helping those around you, then tough as the Government didn't. If you were sick, old or unemployed, then tough because the Government would give you a pittance to survive on. If you believed in peace and nuclear disarmament, then tough, because they were going to spend billions on nuclear weapons and yet pay squaddies a pittance. If you were against us, then tough, as you were the "enemy within" and would be treated as such.

Thatcher and her cronies are the reason why we now have an avaricious, selfish, society in which too many people are only concerned about me, me, me and don't give a damn about their fellow citizens, their communities or our society.

Andrew Marr said on TV the other night that "we are all Thatcher's children". That may well be true but I am proud to be one of the rebellious ones.

Yes it was foodie heaven

As intimated in my last post, I attended the Channel 4 organised "Taste of Edinburgh" event at the weekend. Catherine decided it wasn't her idea of a good day out so the party consisted of her Dad, younger Sister and myself.

The entry fee of £25 seemed quite steep but it did include £15 worth of tokens to spend in the restuarants, bars & retail stalls and actually proved to be reasonably good value for money. Some 15 Edinburgh restaurants participated, each of which offered 3 taster dishes from their menus. I won't rant on about the whole panopoly but shall say that it is my intention to visit two particular restuarants in the shortest order. these are Suruchi & Iggys. I just hope that the full experience lives up to the taster menus and ambience they created.

I ended up coming away with Boerwoers sausages, Jordanian lemon infused olive oil, Appleton's 12 year old Jamaican rum, stuffed olives, zait & zaatar*, dolmades and Oleifera rapseed oil. Also ended up slightly tipsy and replete with good grub.

Hopefully this will be an annual event and that the organisers can expand to hold a similar event in Glasgow each year.

*Zait & Zaatar is Arabic for extra virgin oil and thyme mix. 1. Take a piece of bread 2. Dunk the bread in the oil 3. Dip the bread in the zaatar. 4. Enjoy a really wonderful taste sensation!
The Zaatar comprises of thyme leaves, roasted wheat, roasted sesame, roasted coriander, roasted fennel, roasted caraway etc.

Foodie heaven

I'm through in Perth again this weekend as Catherine has a meeting from 10 o'clock until the back of four - yep, Soroptimists again.

Whilst she's stuck in her meeting her Dad & I are planning to pay a visit to Edinburgh to visit Channel 4's "Taste of Edinburgh" event which is being held in The Meadows from the 7th - 10th of this month.

There are three different entry levels and I'm planning on doing the £25 one which gets you in and also gives you 30 "crowns" to spend on grub and booze. There are 15 "prestigious" chefs creating "signature dishes" for tasting, a beer masterclass, wine tasting, chef demonstrations - including Martin Wishart, live music and 80, count em, 80 specialist food and drink stalls. Truly a heavean for us foodies or pseudo-foodies. Yummy!

www.channel4.com/tastefestivals

Soroptimists are off the hook

In a previous post I railed against Catherine's Glasgow Soroptimist Conference depriving me of her active participation in most of my Birthday this year and also meaning we would not be able to get away for our usual early August break.

I'm delighted to be able to recant and inform that either Catherine or her Mum had got the dates wrong. Catherine blames her Mum for this but I have my doubts!

Anyway, it means that I get the pleasure of her company for all of my birthday and we also get 4 days in Dublin, a city neither of us have been to before, which we both eagerly await visiting.

Probably also means that I won't get her to buy me dinner at Rogano's to assuage her guilt.

I will have to work out our carbon offset for a return flight from Prestwick (Rabbie Burns International as it should be called - see rants in previous posts!) to Dublin. Any suggestions as to where I can work this out would be appreciated.

www.soroptimistinternational.org

Bryson at his best

I bought Bill Bryson's "Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" a few days back, which is the story of his childhood in Des Moines. Having enjoyed all of his previous books I thought that it would be a good read. Well I certainly wasn't let down. It's absolutely side-splittingly hilarious and in certain parts had my crying with laughter. Indeed from time to time I had to stop reading it as I was hurting too much from laughing.

It is recently published in paperback by Black Swan and it's RRP is £7.99.

www.billbryson.co.uk

Soroptimists steal my Birthday & our holiday!

Catherine and her Mum are involved in a Wimmin's organisation called the Soroptimists an excellent organisation for professional women who wish to give their talents, time and money to help make lives better in many countries around the globe. They are also particularly concerned about human rights issues. More info can be found at: http://www.soroptimistinternational.org/ or http://www.soroptimist-gbi.org/

In most circusmstances I fully support Catherine in her work with this very worthy organisation.
No today though! I've just learned that she's at their Conference from the 29th July to 4th August. So what I hear you say. well, 3rd August happens to be my Birthday and we had planned to be in Krakow or Bruxelles from the 2nd - 7th of August. Instead I'll be limited to seeing her on the evening of my Birthday and a few nights away somewhere in the UK. Bah!

At least the conference is in Glasgow so I can claim a Birthday dinner at Rogano's and I have also found a great looking B&B in Wigton (Scotland's National Book Town), which, at the last count, boasted 24 independent bookshops. I'm salivating already at the prospect. Guess where my Birthday dosh will be going?

Actually, it's worth the price in the long run as the major Conference next year is in Barbados, for which we are already saving. Ten days staying in the Barbados Hilton in October 2008 sounds quite nice. No, it doesn't; it sounds BLOODY FANTASTIC!!!!!!

How a bank holiday weekend should be, for me

Just returned from Craigend (village near Perth) where I spent Friday through Monday with Catherine and her family. This weekend has been fun, relaxing and just damn fine - a mighty blow against the "Black Dog", either that or the new meds are working. No matter which, it was very, very good.

On friday night we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I know it's not a "great" film but it's fun and easily enjoyable entertainment and, a bit of a counterpoint to my current reading matter: 'Scottish Covenanter Stories - Tales From The Killing Times' by Dane Love. (£8.99 Neil Wilson Publishing). This I shall return to in future posts.

Saturday morning saw Catherine & I rise earlier than normal and pottered in to Perth for some shopping and a look at the art fair. In the afternoon we went en masse to the Hill of Tarvit (National Trust for Scotland) where we duly inspected the "steps that Catherine built" and generally poked our noses around the place. In the evening Catherine and I ventured to Perth racecourse to see the 1st ever Scottish Fireworks Championships. I'm a fireworks junkie, so was absolutely in my element - 3 professional displays lasting 10 minutes each & only a tenner to get in. Must strongly recommend FireworX, who were the 2nd competitor and, in my opinion, the best of the lot. I hope that this becomes an annual fixture in Scotland and that there are more competitors in any future events.

On Sunday we slouched and mooched around the house, with the only interuption being a trip out for a mountain of Sunday newspapers and, later a marvellous dinner, cooked by Catherine's Dad, then watching "Primary Colors", which is on my top ten favourite films list.

Headed back to Irvine today and feel so, so much better for the break!

(Above is the view I woke up to the last three morning)

A grubby, tacky deal stitched together in spite filled rooms

Today North Ayrshire Council had a full Council meeting. At this meeting the SNP (8 Councilors), Tories (3 Councillors) and 4 of the 5 so-called Independents produced a last minute motion to exclude our 2 Lib Dem Councillors from ALL COUNCIL COMMITTEES! This passed on the casting vote of the SNP Provost.

How can these people be so arrogant as to exclude our democratically elected Councillors from participating on the Council's Committee structure? The whole thing was cobbled together by the SNP as I understand. This is a despicable, politically immature, act which makes me fear that the new proportional system of electing Councillors is not understood by the SNP with the increasingly irrelevant Tories and 4 of the "Independents" going along for the ride.

I understand that the SNP are flexing their muscles as the 2nd largest group on the council but it's no way to win friends and influence people and a bloody affront to democracy. They have let themselves down and, most importantly, have let down the people who elected them.

If this is how they are behaving locally then how are they going to behave as the governing party in Scotland? - very badly, I fear.

Maybe we should take a lesson in democracy from England where all Council Committees are shared out on a proportional basis.

A final word to the SNP & Tories and their "Independent" (sic) bedfellows: stop your political posturing and tribal politics - the folk of North Ayrshire deserve much better.

Oh well, life goes on

I didn't get elected to North Ayrshire Council. Bugger, blast, damnation and f**c!!!
Actually not - Catherine missed out in the Carse of Gowrie too (she on the 5th count and me on the 7th), we both hit the woodwork. No gloating Mr Dale of the Tory persuasion. Well I shall allow you a small gloat on the basis that it was a Tory who nipped in ahead of me for the 4th seat in the new multi-member ward although the Tory group went down from 5 to 3.

I'm disappointed of course, but the fact that we both lost means that we can actually start to plan a future together rather than spending most of our time 90 miles apart. No rush, no hurry but we have plans.

The really good news, however, is that Ruby got elected in Irvine East and Andrew in Kilwinning. I'm over the proverbial moon for them especially as they are the first Liberals elected in Irvine & Kilwinning for over 60 years - yes we made the breakthough which we have worked bloody hard to achieve. I know that they will be a credit to our party and excellent Councilors. Well done!

I would also like to thank everyone who voted for me in Irvine West and assure them that the Focus leaflets will still keep coming. My thanks also go to the 1977 people who voted for me as their MSP. This is a rise of just under 2% from last time, which was pleasing on a night which didn't go the way we hoped.

Jim Hume was elected as a South of Scotland list MSP and I'm really confident that Jim will be an excellent Parliamentarian and a first class standard bearer for Liberal Democracy across the whole of the South of Scotland.

When I returned home in 1999 we had no Lib Dems representing us at any level of government in Ayrshire. We now have Councillors, a MSP, a Lord and a MEP - that's what I call progress!!

Good luck my friends

I write this to wish my many friends in the Scottish Lib Dems all the best tomorrow. if I listed them all then this post would go on forever but I would like to specially mention just a few people:

• Catherine Carruthers in the Carse of Gowrie
• Ruby Kirkwood in Irvine East
• Andrew Chamberlain in Kilwinning
• Lewis Hutton in the North Coast & Cumbraes (also Cunninghame North)
• Jim Hume in the South of Scotland
• Siobhan Mathers in Edinburgh Central
• Kathy McInnes in Strathkelvin & Bearsden
• Nora Radcliffe in Gordon
• All the rest of my friends and colleagues across Scotland

You've all worked extremely hard and deserve success!

Sore feet

Well that's all the leaflets delivered and all the campaigning over. I must have lost a fair few lbs over the last couple of weeks. Now all we wait for is the voters verdict. I think I have done enough work and campaigned hard enough to win a council seat but still have the usual butterflies. All will be known by lunchtime on Friday.

Flattered ego

My ego has just been flattered by news from a friend that I have reached the dizzy heights of 2nd in the Male category on sexymsp.com. A website which I hadn't come across prior to yesterday. No, I wasn't vain enough to vote for myself! The Tory Iain dale also mentioned this startling fact on his Iain Dale's Diary blog.