Events today

have kicked my bum and made me realise that I've been neglecting blogging for too many months. My dander is up so you'll be hearing a lot more of my opinions in days and weeks to follow.

See you all very soon.

The man is an arse - part 79

Three guesses as to which man is an arse in my opinion:
1. Gormless Gordon Broon? Nope.
2. Con man Cameron? Nope.
3. Fishy Eck Salmond? Nope.

I'll have to tell you then - drum roll - Donald "hairspray" Trump.
Why?

Not content with issuing an "open letter", which was filled with spite and malice, attacking my friend Councillor Debra Storr, over her justified complaints that his lackeys had blocked public access to the Menie sand dunes (I've seen the photos and boy was access blocked!), his latest bout of petulance is to lodge a complaint with the Standards Commission, the body which oversees Councillor conduct. It would appear that the complaint refers to the fact that Debra complained to Aberdeenshire Council's access officer and the Police that access had been blocked.

This bullying behaviour by Trump appears to be part of a campaign to browbeat Debra over her honestly held, genuine and substantial objections to his plans to build 2 golf courses, 500 houses and 950 holiday homes on the Menie estate. These plans will involve the destruction of a unique set of sand dunes which are a SSSI.

Oh, before I forget, Debra only found out about the "open letter" when she was contacted by the media.

Keep up the good work Debra, there are many, many of us who remain on your side!

More on hens

They now have names even though we don't yet have them in our possession:
Hen 1: "Pugh Pugh"
Hen 2: "Barney McGrew"
Hen 3: "Cuthbert Dibble"
Hen 4: "and Grubb"

And before anyone asks - NO we are not painting the coop fire engine red!

Hen mania reaches Carnbo!

After some weeks of thought and discussion we took the plunge today and went and paid for a hen coop and run (see photo), which will be delivered next week. It comes as self assembly so I'm rather glad that C. has better DIY skills than me. Were it left to my talents we'd probably end up with some form of dodgy looking bookshelf not a hen coop. All of which reminds me of a (bad)joke from Thatcherite days: "what do Cecil Parkinson and MFI have in common? One bad screw and your cabinet is F****d!"

The week after next we will then take delivery of 4 Black Rock chooks which, all being well, will be supplying us with 18-24 eggs a week. Really excited!

I also suspect that there will be other additions to the household in future a doggly has been discussed for some months and C. has desires for slug eating ducks or a goose, although they will have to wait until the garden is properly fenced off at front and back.

Getting really hacked off with our internet provider

Pipex or whoever they are owned by nowadays (I suspect Tiscali) are really doing my head in at the moment. I'm an night owl and use the interwebby thing more later in the day than in the morning or early afternoon. It does not matter what time of day when I fire up the laptop but around midnight I get the internet explorer saying "sorry we cannot connect you to this page". Now I'm perfectly aware that we have our phone line and "narrow band" via BT and, that living 4+ miles from the local town we don't have undergrounded cables, so have to take some considerations in to account. What I cannot live with is that in the last 40 minutes I have been kicked off the interwebby 5 BLOODY TIMES!

Oh, and before I forget we can't get digital channels on our new £500 quid all singing, all dancing Sony HDTV. Pah!

Which reminds me that the Broon and NuLab have been wittering for the last couple of years about "Digital Britain". That's a load of bollocks which I shall believe when I see a cable being run down the village street. About as likely as a squadron of pigs flying past a blue moon.

P.S If you can't see this post it's because Pipex/BT have shut me down again.

Back to his old publicity seeking ways

Despite a trial for perjury haning over his head Tommy "The Trot" Sheridan has come up with what he thinks as another clever wheeze to garner himself some free publicity. It seems that he's teaming up with an assorted rag bag of lefties and the RMT union to run in Scotland for the European Parliament at the elections which take place on the 4th of June.

Is there nothing this man will do to get some media coverage? In the traditional saying: "If he were made of chocolate he'd eat hinself".

Neil Craig

His comments will not be published on this blog nor will I respond to his nonsense on any other blog, forum, dicussion board, chat room etc.

Councillor Debra Storr

My good friend Councillor Debra Storr has today taken the decision to resign from the Scottish Liberal Democrats after many months of strife. I wish Debra all the very best for the future and can assure her of my continuing friendship.

For Facebook users there is a group entitled "Solidarity with Debra" which is open to all.

I had better stop this post now before I say something which certain elements within the party disagree with and I find myself suspended from membership.

Our friends in the North

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;

And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

I shall speak up for you and others shall too.

Hmm

Thought for the day

When making coffee on the 4th of January 2009 do not use milk which has a 24th December 2008 use by date. One lump or two?

Going to take a lot of convincing

Can't say that I'm terribly impressed with the casting of 26 year old Matt Smith as the new Doctor Who. I know that he's going to have one hell of a job in filling David Tennant's shoes but am left somewhat deflated by a pretty unadventurous choice. Personally I would have preferred a female or black candidate. Think of the really imaginative plot line that could have seen Billie Piper becoming the new Who.

Aw well, it'll be a case of watch and decide.
Rumour has it that Vice Cable was in the running but was too busy as he's about to become Chancellor whilst Ming becomes Speaker of the Commons!

Ooops I forgot

Two things I forgot to say earlier:

Congratulations Ros on the start of your term as party President - I still get a little frisson of delight at seeing that result and it was enhanced by hearing one of your opponents on radio 4 earlier this evening.

Secondly - it is with some trepidation and pleasure that I can announce that my term as Convener of the Ochil Liberal Democrat Local Party commenced about an hour ago. Wish me luck folks. The poor sods don't know what they've let themselves in for!

Actually there is a third thing I wanted to mumble about - (Lady) Mark, Alix & Jennie have all helped to make last year a better place - ta.

Happy New Year!

With less than an hour to go until we reach 2009, I would like to take this opportunity to wish a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you who visit this blog. As regulars will know I've not been blogging much these past few months, primarily for health reasons. I'm happy to report that I seem to be well along the road to recovery although still waiting for an appointment with the Neurology department at PRI (letter last week saying that I'll get an appointment within the next 18 weeks which will undoubtedly become the kernel of a future post).

Anyway enough of my waffle - just off to check that the tablet has set, the shortbread is open (no black bun here - it's an East coast abomination!) and the champagne is chilling.

Happy New Year to you all and may the best of 2008 be the worst of 2009.

Cheers!

Health update & a pop at Ryanair

I realise that I've not posted here for a tad over a month, so thought that I'd better update my health status - the hospitalisation ended up being only for two days (1 overnight) and I was cleared of having a DVT or PE or meningitis, which is the good stuff. The less so good news is that the headache which I've now had for 5 weeks continues, varying from a dull throb (when fully medicated) to what I would liken to wearing a skull cap of molten metal. At times it affects my ability to read and, especially, look at emails. I'm still hors d'combat and won't be blogging until I'm back to work. I also await further medical intervention, although the current consensus is that it's most likely to be a viral infection caused by mosquito bites in Barbados.

Before signing off, I must share this letter from today's Guardian:
" A spokesperson for Ryanair on Radio 4 complained they had to cancel 52 flights and "very little information was available". Now he knows how it feels."
(Runway protests, December 9th)
Dave Garner
Southport, Merseyside

Blogging blip due to hospitalisation

This post is being typed up by my charming assistant who married me less than 14 days ago and ALREADY I'm in hospital.

Seriously though - the medics are concerned that I may have a pulmonary embolisim and are keeping me in overnight for observation before tomorrow's tests.

Back soon I hope.

The wife types - he should have worn his socks!!!

Good week - Bad week

Good week:
Getting back home from our holiday/honeymoon in Barbados.

Barack Obama winning the Presidency of the USA.

Wedding congratulations from lots of family and friends.

Seeing the smirk wiped from Alex Salmond's smug face as the Gnats got thrashed in Glenrothes.

Having a house guest last night.

Catherine's folks offering to host a party to celebrate our marriage (accepted!)

Ros Scott winning an astonishing victory in the Lib Dem Federal Presidential race.

Seeing our holiday/honeymoon photos properly (I got a bit carried away and took over 1000 shots in 12 days).

Bad week:
Drop in temperature from 31C in Barbados to 9C in Carnbo.

10% drop in Lib Dem vote and lost deposit in Glenrothes.

Urgent GP appointment yesterday as left foot swollen to twice normal size and painful to walk on, being referred to hospital in Perth as GP suspected DVT. A 4 hour wait to see medic before having a blood thinning injection in stomach which was repeated today and will be repeated again tomorrow with a scan to follow on Monday. Bah!

Congratulations President-elect Ros Scott from one of the 72%

Baroness Ros Scott has stormed to an astounding victory in the race to become Federal President of the Liberal Democrats and I'm delighted to have backed her from an early stage.
The full result, which is all over the Lib Dem blogosphere, is:
Chandila Fernando 1 799 - 6%
Lembit Opik MP 6 247 - 22%
Baroness Ros Scott 20 736 - 72%

I supported Ros because I firmly believed that she was the candidate who would be the voice of the ordinary member and activist, was not an elected Parliamentarian, has experience in both Local Government and Lords, and has the character to effectively fulfil the onerous duties of the post. Ros will soon be getting an invite to come and visit us in the Ochil Lib Dems on her next trip to Scotland.

It's a particularly nice feeling to be on the wining side for a change as I didn't give my first preference to the winner in either of the last two Federal leadership contests or the last two Scottish Leadership contests. I think the last time I cast a vote for the winning candidate in any of these types of ballots was when Charles Kennedy got himself elected as Federal Leader.

My 1st preference for Ros was cast positively and not a vote against either Lembit or Chandila, both of whom I believe have much to contribute to our party in the future.

Many congratulations once again Ros. I'm sure that you'll be a President to be proud of.

Ouch! That was bloody painful.

Beaten into 4th by the Tories.
Bloody worrying.

Labour's 6000+ majority must cause serious concern for the Gnats.

I suspect that Mr Roy will actually be a good constituency MP.

Sqeeezed badly and a lost deposit with a drop in our vote of around 10%.
A bad, bad night and we must very soon address the issues which surround our party.

Is it time to remove all co-operation with the Gnats in Local Government?

Is this another Garscadden?

It seems from watching the Gnits and NuLab on the beeb that Lindsay Roy has won the Glenrothes by-election for Labour.

If this is indeed true then I wonder if the waves of the high tide of Gnantionalism have crashed ashore on the jaggy rocks of Scottish sensibility as happened in the Garscadden bye-election of 1978(?).

OK, it seems that we've may have lost our deposit but I'll make the usual excuses that we've been squeezed.

Looks like that the "broon boonce" exists.

Mea culpa that I've not been to help out.