Why should Alex Salmond
be caressed with a feather
duster by Paxo?
The Cafe 3
Fitzpatrick takes on Hill
We’re enjoying the
deep darkness, and the
light from the stars
Alistair R Brownlie
The brigands have taken over
John Cameron
There is a clear case for a forensic investigation into both Gordon Brown’s decade of regulation and the activity of the financial services industry leading to the 2008 crash. A proper public inquiry is long overdue and such an investigation would likely result in prosecutions and convictions in a country which had a robust system of financial law.
In the US, financiers know how they must behave and the consequences of not doing so but they do not fear arbitrary justice and that is the foundation of American liberty. What happened to Fred Goodwin stands in stark contrast and it says a lot about modern Britain that the goal posts were shifted to allow the public humiliation of an individual.
It is surely a matter of the most profound regret the queen had to be drawn into this seedy farrago by that 21st-century star chamber, the honours forfeiture committee. Of course honours have been cancelled before but only when the recipient later proved grossly unsuitable (Mugabe and Ceausescu) or did something unforgiveable (Blunt). This is the first time it has been done for making a commercial mistake and one which, let us recall, was cheered on by such political luminaries as Alex Salmond.
Due process was replaced by mob rule and back-room fixers came up with a politically-convenient solution whose sole purpose was to deflect blame and appease the public. Such behaviour from her majesty’s ministers is a major cause for concern and while I think the honours system in this country is farcical, a dishonours system is sinister. Britain is at its best when it is optimistic, generous and forgiving but in recent times this country has become thoroughly vindictive and it is not a pleasant sight to see.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, the Victorian poet and politician observed: ‘We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality’. Earlier Thomas Moore, referring to the politicians and power brokers of his own day, said there was nothing worse than ‘knaves with moral justification for their cause’.
Finally a New York Times editorial noted in 1890: ‘The British sense of fair play is much celebrated, but it is worthy of note that it is celebrated exclusively by Britons’.
Nothing has changed and a vile mob of our expense-cheating political riff-raff and phone-hacking metropolitan media are gleefully kicking a man who is down.
Today’s banner:
Perth, assuming you get there in one piece
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
Unlike many publications SR doesn’t have an online comment facility – we prefer a more considered approach. The Cafe is our readers’ forum. If you would like to contribute to it, please email islay@scottishreview.net
The perils of
travelling by train
in Scotland
Glasgow Central Station, 2am, and no-one’s causing trouble on
the trains for a change
Photograph by Islay McLeod
The editor and deputy editor wrote on Tuesday of separate disturbing experiences by train last weekend. We have received the following
responses from readers
Sic Inglorious Transit
Locked in on the train with
Day/Night Males
Our trip unsafe for
some Jock Tamson’s Bairns
One big Un-
happy Royle Scots Family
in need of healing.
How heal?
I
Stand up
But do not leave the carriage:
Instead invite great Hamish in,
Call all to be
At hame wi freedom
All, at hame with freedom
II
Say yes, I hear you say
There’s something wrong,
Your talk is sick and sickens me.
So let’s
Bring on some male nurse
person artists:
Call out Ginsberg – Naomi’s Kaddish son –
Queer shoulder to his nation’s wheel;
Call out Whitman, cradler of men,
Presidential death train hymner;
Call out Love, call John MacMurray,
Shrapnel-cheeked ex-orderly,
Nursing’s midwife, Edinburgh U.
III
Oh nation in the dark train tunnel
Ask not ‘Do you agree
That Scotland should
an independent nation be?’
till you have asked, each of each,
On whom the homophobe, the anti-chanters –
On whom all other Otherers –
Depend?
Steve Tilley
SR’s revelations on train travel in Scotland (31 January) were ghastly. I remember a similar experience on the Kilmarnock train, and, although my blood was boiling, I was too afraid to say anything.
I’ve never ever felt intimidated travelling on a London train or underground, even when I’m travelling alone after midnight. Perhaps if we tell these morons that the English are better behaved, in their pathetic, racist little way they’d try to outdo them.
Alternatively, we should campaign for policing on the trains to sort it out before they take over. I’m horrified to think that this bad behaviour is forcing people to seek alternative means of transport, as for some people it is the only option.
PS Did you know that ‘sick’ also means good/cool/awesome? Whatever next? (showing my age)
Alison Hemmings
John Scott
Having just read the pieces on having terrible experiences travelling by train in Scotland, I can fully sympathise.
I lived in Yorkshire for six years and returned to Scotland at least once a month for all six years, travelling by train on the east coast line between Northallerton and Edinburgh. I always looked forward to my journeys and either managed to write or read a book. After moving to Edinburgh six months ago, I began travelling regularly by train to Stirling to visit my sons. I have been disgusted by many of the journeys and what I see and hear from other passengers – often very threatening behaviour.
Why is it that a section of Scottish society see other train travellers as a captive audience to display vitriol and hatred towards? I have also started travelling regularly by bus but rarely see such behaviour. Are such problems found elsewhere in the UK? My own experience tends to show that this awful behaviour is commonplace in Scotland.
Hazel Cameron
What is the point of British Transport Police? Where, indeed, are they? What hiding places have they discovered so thay they might never inconvenience themselves with dealing with unseemly matters concerning an embittered travelling public?
It is surely reasonable that if a person buys a ticket to travel on Scotrail, the company should make some endeavour to ensure the journey is a safe and comfortable one. That, it seems, might only be possible if a pair of uniformed cops were to travel on trains and ensure a visible presence by moving up and down the carriages. Too radical?
Barney MacFarlane
