Apparently, there is both a Transgender Awareness Week and a Transgender Awareness Month. Although, as far as I can make out, these overlap. Transgender Awareness Week falls within Transgender Awareness Month. Presumably, we are expected to be doubly aware of transgender for those seven days. Quite how it might be possible to remain unaware of … Continue reading Average Person Awareness Day
Greetings from the depths of the cloying, choking, suffocating mucus hell that is Covid. I'm still a bit 'vague', I think is the best word to describe it. It's difficult to write when your mind refuses to stay focused for more than a couple of seconds. Whatever you intended to say tends to get lost … Continue reading Mostly mucus
I shall not be mourning the passing of the British queen. Why would I? I didn't know her. We'd never met. We weren't even Facebook 'friends'. I had no connection with this person. With her demise, I suffer no personal sense of loss. She had no place in my life, therefore no space is left … Continue reading An old lady dies
When you encounter people who denigrate and deride The National, try rattling off a list of the columnists who write for the paper ─ Stuart Cosgrove, David Pratt, Kirsty Strickland, Joanna Cherry, Andrew Tickell, Ruth Wishart, Lesley Riddoch and the rest. My guess is that you'll draw blank stares at most of the names you … Continue reading Faceless forces
The Sunday National today presents its "exclusive analysis" under the headline Scotland's councils: The gender balance of each local authority. But how can that be? If gender is malleable how can there possibly be "gender balance"? Sex balance is achievable. Because sex is binary and immutable. There are two sexes so, to state the obvious, … Continue reading Good sense prevails
Andrew Tickell's column in this week's Sunday National is largely given over to the gut-wrenching testimony of those affected by the Post Office 'Horizon' scandal. Hundreds of lives wrecked in the name of corporate greed and arrogance. Thousands if we count the families of those falsely accused of dishonesty because the Post Office management was … Continue reading The stuff of nightmares
For as long as I have been alive - 71 years so far - the touchstone for 'evil' has been Adolph Hitler. He has been the default reference point for the very worst of human beings. When gauging villainy of any kind, but particularly the murderous variety, Hitler was always the comparator. To say that … Continue reading Springtime for Hitler
Long before the coronavirus pandemic I had grown uncomfortable with the traditional handshake greeting. My discomfort only being aggravated by the fact that it was so difficult to avoid. And to forsake. The urge to shake hands on meeting friends and acquaintances or being introduced to new people is almost primal. It is close to … Continue reading Handshake no more
I recently intimated my intention to migrate this blog to a WordPress.org site to give more flexibility - and to avoid the WordPress.com subscription fee. Like so many of my projects, this has come to nothing. I set up the new site without difficulty. But it proved impossible to migrate any of the content. With … Continue reading Still here
That's it! However it was for you, the holiday is over. Unless you celebrate Chinese New Year, of course. In which case you have February 1 to look forward to. I don't. Although it's always a delight to watch the Lantern Festival procession as it passes under the windows of our flat here in Perth. … Continue reading Back to the grind
Peter A Bell 