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White hell
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
‘Or – perhaps more plausibly – a way could be found to close down the Scottish Review’s website and the sites of other refuseniks.’ (18 March) Having spent a long time working with IT and communications, I can say that the above is much more difficult than it sounds.
El Presidente Salmond might be able to leap tall buildings, turn the moon blue and skip across water. He can even keep his acolytes and the voting fodder of the numptorium from saying anything out of line (possibly even thinking out of line) but the internet, ah that’s a different matter.
When they designed the Arpanet it was a distributed system; no matter how many ICBMs Ivan sent, it was still going to keep going. Even better the TCP/IP system is a benefit to those who wish to remain undetected. Sure, he could lean on ISP to close down a connection but now there are many ways to avoid using a single ISP. Having said that, the response of the owners of most ISP to his request is going to be ‘who?’. As for his review group, three lawyers and two journalists is usually the start line of a joke and in this case the idea that some publication in the USA read here is going to bother about the threat from us is definitely a joke.
So redirect your IP address through North Korea and make it appear to be sourced from Nigeria. You could fund the site by asking Lord McCluskey for his bank details as you have £100m which you need to get out of the country. Looking at his report he could be gullible.
Bruce D Skivington
In this day and age of instantaneous communication where, in theory, anyone’s blog or twitter feed can be the public’s source of news, comment and opinion, does it not seem rather pointless to further increase regulation of the little remaining ‘free’ press? What exactly is a ‘journalist’ in this modern context?
It’s not solely journalists that are responsible for holding authorities to account, anyone can. All it takes is evidence and conviction. Will these qualities now require a licence?
Simon Fuller
Congratulations to Kenneth Roy on his demolition of today’s BBC in the outstanding open letter to the new DG (14 March). Apart from the odd programme on BBC4 and very, very occasionally on BBC2, I have given up on television, being sick to death of cooks, quizzes, ‘celebrities’, London-centric attitudes, a surfeit of Guardianistas, the ever-present Stephen Fry and Professor Brian Cox, not the Dundee one. As for radio, even my old standby Radio 4 has fallen off its pedestal, above all in the pathetic offerings now described as comedy.
I can’t believe that good script-writers and producers with intelligent ideas are not still around. It must be that they can’t get past the commissioning editors. Things have never been the same since we stopped calling it the wireless.
Edgar Lloyd
It was with dismay that I viewed Islay McLeod’s photos of Linwood (14 March). Having lived in Linwood all my life I am very well aware of the issues that Linwood has faced since the demise of the car factory. However, Linwood is and continues to be on the up. The things that are now happening have not been down to politicians, councillors or local authorities who have let Linwood down over the years. It has been by the sheer strength of local volunteers and people power.
In December 2011 the Linwood Community Development Trust was formed by a group of residents of which I am a board member. These volunteers recently produced a Community Action Plan which can be viewed on www.linwoodtrust.org.uk. The website also offers a history of the group and how we have got to where we are today. It would have been good for Islay to meet the group as I feel this may have given her a very different view of Linwood today.
Linwood’s glass will always remain half full and never half empty.
Jacqui Thompson
Many years ago I had occasion to be with an STV film crew at the defunct Rootes car factory site. In an underpass between the two parts of the site someone, with typical Glasgow humour in the face of defeat had painted on the wall: ‘Workers of the world, RELAX’. Wonder if it is still there.
Eric Hudson
The Cafe is our readers’ forum. Send your contribution to islay@scottishreview.net
