Wednesday 31 July 2013

Wednesday - I just can't get the hang of Wednesdays ....

I play golf on Wednesdays, a bunch of us crumbly golfers take over the course in our buggies, electric caddies, GPS (which we do not know how to use) from 0930 and proceed to serially abuse one or more golf balls for the best part of three and a half hours as we saunter round, taking in the magnificent views our golf course gives us (and dog walkers) of the surrounding hills, estuary and sea of the Stewarty of Kirkcudbright. We will routinely see all sorts of wild life, marvel at the aerobatics of the red kites, the antics of red legged partridges as they scurry across the fairways from one area of rough to another with their families trailing behind, the occasional deer or hare and the beef cattle the area is famed for. All in all - apart from the occasional poor 'expletive deleted' golf shot - it is a period of harmony, fun and good humour; the humour routinely directed at the deliverer of the 'expletive deleted' golf shot's expense. Sometimes we amaze and stun ourselves by producing golf shots that a Luke Donald or a Tom Watson would be proud but there is always this sense of a world in balance, at ease with itself and who and what it is made up of; from Republicans to Royalists, Socialists to Tories and Better Together or us separatist 'Independistas'.

Around 1500 on a Wednesday I return home, boot up the computer, turn on the radio and am suddenly faced with anger and frustration coming at me from all directions. This overriding sense of a community at odds with itself, seeking people to blame and lash out at, of scapegoating, unable to accept responsibility for its own acts or omissions, the very antithesis of the previous five hours experienced amongst a similar cross section from the same apparently 'angry community' who turn out for golf with me, of a Wednesday morning. It feels like some schoolyard bully sticking their rigid index finger repeatedly into my rib cage and asking, 'Just what are you going to do about it? Eh! Just what?'

Maybe it is this 'Just What?' incessant barrage from the media both mainstream and on line that I find so threatening, disturbing and so unnecessary. There are a lot of 'Just Whatters?' around at the current time whether it is to do with the independence referendum in Scotland or the serial destruction of the NHS and Welfare state in England, all jabbing their bullying, index finger in others ribs leaving a lingering sense of imminent violence that always gathers behind 'Just what are you going to do about it?' if you do not immediately respond in the style the self same bully expects. You have to be for or against, there is no balance allowed. Yet we intuitively understand in our communities that such a stance is destructive and mitigates against any opportunity to move forward. Every 'Just What?' style of argument ends in driving the community back on itself, splitting, insular and becoming increasingly ineffective in addressing the very problems the 'Just Whatters?' rigid index finger, jammed in your ribs is supposedly seeking to resolve.

It is clear the Better Together campaign is run by 'Just Whatters?' It is equally clear there are folk on the 'Yes' side who want to go out and bash ten bells o' hell out of the finger jabbing, 'Just Whatting?' bullies they perceive in 'Better Together' campaign. We need to fight fire with fire, use the same tactics of deceit and deliberate misinformation, start 'Just Whatting?' back at 'Better Together' which will only confirm in the non involved electorate's mind, exactly what Better Together are trying to establish: there is no real difference between the two campaigns, so why change anything.

Maybe this is why I just can not get the hang of Wednesdays; the game of golf requires you to hold your temper and your nerve to be successful, to be able to stay calm to succeed, to focus on being accurate and consistent, the complete and utter opposite of what passes for informed comment in much of the MSM, on line and from the current generation of Westminster politicians and their parties. Wednesday mornings are the complete opposite of what assails my ears and eyes when I return to what is laughingly called 'the real world' and the index finger jabbing of all those 'Just Whatters?'

I can already see the words forming in reader's heads, 'So, just what is he going to do about it?' The answer is I have already done something - I have, hopefully, raised awareness of 'Just Whatting?' so folk can start asking themselves 'Just what can I do about it?' and maybe start coming up with the same answers I have, simply do not be a finger jabbing, 'Just what?' bully, ever, because anger never, ever works in getting someone to listen to your view point and most certainly sets people against you.

Saturday 27 July 2013

Jim Murphy's last hurrah?

The nasty vicious Nu Blu Labour civil war in Scotland continues, to the delight of the 'Yes Campaign' and the SNP with Milliband's attempts to brush the selection debacle under the carpet, after the Scottish Police found no criminal case to answer over Labour's 'independent' inquiry into the Battle of Falkirk. The reason Mr Plod is not interested could be many fold, not the least being the wish to stay clear of Labour blood letting; well, at least until it is all over when picking up the 'criminal' bits will be far less stressful as 'good Labour folk' will be only too happy to stick the knife into the back of other 'good Labour people' and the bigger prize for Mr Plod will be unlocking Glasgow Labour's Tammany Hall with its bursting at the seams skeleton cupboards: Kelly, Purcell, Matheson ...... links to Glasgow's Organised Crime Syndicates .... dubious contracts ..... ALEOs .... Commonwealth Games Land Deals ...

Seen through London Labour's eyes it is 'sorted' and this message is being spun across the London based media, yet in Scotland this is far from the case as Jim Murphy and his Blairites have sidelined the supposed 'elected leader of all' in Scotland, Johann Lamont, who is Unite sponsored, to the point she has been 'disappeared' with Blairite 'Stairheid Rammy' Curran and her pal 'Clatty' Jackie Baillie doing all Lamont's speaking for her.

Behind all this is a bitter bit of infighting going on within Labour's Scottish region's ferret sack between those who consider 'Better Together' to be a political disaster in the making for Labour; such as ex-First Minister Henry McCleish, the STUC, most of the Scottish branches of the Unions, Councillors, a growing chunk of the few remaining Labour members left in Scotland, and the Blairites who need to keep their noses in the Westminster trough to survive, gain power and prosper.

What the Battle of Falkirk was actually about is preventing an increasing number of Labour's Scottish region players from pushing the need for Better Together to change track and bring forward a White Paper on Fiscal Autonomy for Scotland which a Unite win in the selection battle would have triggered, a selection that Jim Murphy could not have let happen with out being further undermined and threatened in his Scottish fiefdom.

Ed Milliband is yet again demonstrating just how weak he is as a leader by brushing the real problems destroying Labour's Scottish region under the 'disciplinary' carpet in the hopes it will all just go away.

PS: It is interesting to note that 'Better Together' spokespeople's language is shifting from Scottish Independence will 'never happen' to talking about 'if' Scottish Independence ever happens.

Thursday 25 July 2013

Tribal Warfare - Better Together's new ruse ...

I wonder how many folk missed the recent leak from Better Together that their next big campaign will be to target 'tribes' within Scotland to create dissension and break up the growing support for a 'Yes' vote. This is a program the Tories have run very successfully in England using it to demonise the unemployed (workshy), the sick and disabled (scroungers), single mums (they are all teenagers) and at present the NHS in England (doctors are overpaid / patients are being 'murdered' in their NHS beds).

I am not about to expand on any of the fallacies surround the Tory campaigns on these matters but needless to say a lot of English folk seem to have had their extreme prejudice buttons well and truly punched which is allowing the Tories to get away with actual murder - it is now estimated that 73 deaths a week are directly related to ATOS ICB/DLA assessments, up from 43 a week three months ago while the first of the bailiffs' notices preceding eviction are just going out across England as part of the Tories 'bedroom tax' campaign.


This left me thinking, just what are the 'Tribes' in Scotland Better Together are going to stir up to break the momentum for 'Yes' ( I have noted the lunacy of a campaign called 'Better Together' seeking to win by causing splits in the population which is supposed to be 'Better Together'). So where do the fault lines lie between Scotland's tribes?

The most obvious tribal warfare they are seeking to run with is the good old boys in the Orange Order, the new chummy relationship with Glasgow Labour which must be causing the odd eyebrow to be raised amongst their 'red rosette on a donkey' council voting fodder around Parkhead and other similar environs. The real problem with this strategy is there is very unlikely to be an Old Firm tie prior to September 2014 on which to berate the SNP with 'crowd troubles'.

 In Aberdeen Donside 'Better Together' tried the 'Aberdeen does not get as good a deal as Glasgow or Edinburgh from the Scottish Government' line ignoring the recent announcement of £6.8 billion of inward investment into the Aberdeen area for, according to Mr Darling, the soon to run out oil and gas support, R&D and new field development over the next three years. There are the small issues of the Labour Council coalition turning aside an £80 million redevelopment in central Aberdeen and the Aberdeen bypass heading for completion. Clearly the Aberdonians are getting a bad deal, so bad a deal they returned the SNP candidate in spite of 'Sir Hairblowers' best efforts.

How about the Highlands and Islands versus the Central belt? 

The Scottish Government released £12 million today for the badly needed repair of the east runway at Sumburgh and is ploughing money into the Highlands and Islands in support of the growth of the reusable energy industry, Inverness is booming and Stornoway could soon be seeing growth in harbour traffic as development of the oil and gas fields to the west of the Hebrides starts to grow in pace and volume over the next five years. Meanwhile SME's in the central belt are seeing new build and other spin off work coming their way from the same industries bolstering the Highlands and Islands. Not too fertile ground there.

This only really leaves race.The race card has been played in England by the Tories and New Labour for an age now, working on the sense of grievance felt by each of the three main racial groupings British Asians, British Afro-Caribbeans and the English. A recently published study suggests these splits are as wide as they have ever been in England. Both the Asian and Afro-Caribbean groupings in England define the term 'English' to mean white, chauvinistic, misogynistic, ignorant and inflexible which is why they call themselves 'British'. The same survey in Scotland did not reveal the polarisation found in England with respondents calling themselves 'Scottish' in the first instance who happened to be of Asian or Afro-Caribbean descent with few respondents feeling any sense of detachment from their 'Scottish' communities. There are many sociological reasons why this could well be the case in Scotland but in terms of Better Together's tribal split campaign just where is the leverage for them to use? UKIP has been a non-event in Scotland(reliant as it is on a sense of racial tension / outrage) and the Scottish version of the EDL has had a still birth (or was that strangled at birth?).

The biggest tribal tension which the Better Together campaign could lever is the very case they are trying to defend - the growing split between the cohesive social politics and direction of a profoundly social democratic, conservative, Scottish nation with the current and foreseeable neo-liberal, UK Governments. In this the Better Together campaign is increasingly battling against the considered will of the Scottish people who want a new arrangement. Denying the devo-max option in the referendum for short term political gain to point score against the SNP will, most likely, be seen as a major error when political historians review the end of the UK and the last pitiful roars of the moth eaten, Westminster lion of British Empire.

I guess the last words from the death bed of the British Imperial lion will be - "Its jist no fair, pal, efter aa we've done fir them Scots".

Saturday 20 July 2013

Something is very rotten in ......

.... Western capitalism.

The biggest smell comes from the current so called 'neo-liberal' economic model of capitalism which I would argue has little in common with and theory of capitalism or of the 'free market'. The neo-liberal model is predicated on the idea there is not enough to go round therefore you need to grab everything to yourself and screw the last dime, penny or cent from it, what ever 'it' is whether health care, water, blood, wheat, air ..... you understand my point, I trust. 

Neo-liberalism knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing and is in a rush to crush any form of regulatory structure that can not be bought or controlled. Worse they seek to traduce and undermine every form of democracy by 'donations' and 'paid for politicians', manipulating parliaments and congresses to achieve their ends squealing 'cheat', illegal, criminal if any other human grouping plays them at the same game such as Trade Unions or questions their action like Greenpeace and other environmental groups. Since these neo-liberal sharks own the media across most of the world they use these outlets to drive wedges between different groupings - or as the neo-liberal brains behind the Better Together campaign describe it - the tribes. In the UK we are seeing this strategy being used to enable the destruction of the NHS in England and its sell off to private health companies. The UK's once universal welfare system is being split and destroyed in the same manner. For the first time since the late 1920's in the UK we are seeing the growth of soup kitchens and food banks. The use of the latter having risen exponentially since 2010 as a result of the failed neo-liberal program of austerity which has been dumped on the people of Britain by a government which secured control with less than 30% of the popular vote - and this is called a modern 'democracy'?

The whole neo-liberal orthodoxy has more in common with the Nazi's Nuremburg Laws of 1934 than any democratic politic. For those who are not history buffs, in the simplest of terms, these laws set up the concentration camps, these camps were initially for the 'workshy', to 'reform them' - the very same workshy tribe Ian Duncan-Smith is in the process of criminalising. The next stage was to declare the mentally ill, disabled and chronically ill as 'Untermensch' who were threatening the gene pool of Germany and so needed to be 'treated'. At first this was in the form of compulsory sterilisation but that was deemed inefficient and not cost effective so they simply started killing them off by taking the sick and disabled for a drive 'in special buses'. ATOS treatment is not so blatant on the sick and disabled in the UK but according to Micheal Meecher MP it is having a similar impact in terms of deaths of this 'tribe'. Ultimately the German electorate sleep-walked into a European war in 1939, the guilt of the holocaust as the 1934 Nuremburg Laws inevitably and entractably enabled and progressed the destruction of their country and its long division.

Either consciously or unconsciously neo-liberal tribal politics, economics and policy has its roots deep in 1930's Nazi style fascism and media manipulation. It is time for the UK electorate to stop sleep walking into the trap they have set, the trap of reducing democracy to a hollowed out shell where most of the electorate can not be bothered to exercise their franchise as 'just what the point they are all the same' as the plutocrats and oligarchs just do as they please anyway. Cameron is simply replaying Hitler's anti-Wiemar theme against a feeble Labour Party busy at being 'Me too Tories' and succeeding even with a vital disadvantage; Cameron can not get anything to run on time, built within budget or garner the same hysterical and fanatical support from the masses. Cameron is now facing the greatest danger to his hopes for his British Reich, one of the key tribes is increasingly telling him to take a long walk down the pier and jump off. Worse for Cameron, all the carefully choreographed, negative, cause this particular tribe to attack itself, spin and media releases are having the opposite effect. Rather than causing splits within the tribe they are increasingly disregarded, laughed at and are pulling the tribe inexorably closer together.


This growing resistance is not only happening in the UK but across Europe where the neo-liberal orthodoxy is under attack from the people, themselves, in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and quite a few others.

The biggest concern to the leaders of the neo-liberal orthodoxy must be just how much longer can they keep the lid on and total control of the jewel in their crown, the USA. In legal judgements, like the Trayvon Martin case, or politically, as in the Texas Capitol's antediluvian, slip it in the back of another bill, abortion act, just how much longer will they be able to push before something has got to give and we see a rerun of the race and civil rights riots of the 60's and 70's. The US is, sadly, getting the reputation of a 'do what we say, not what we do' democracy heading increasingly towards a right wing theocracy (the very thing the founding fathers warned against and sought to prevent in the US Constitution) .... because within the US the levels of discrimination against women, the poor, homosexuals, the Hispanics, the Afro-Americans are all on the increase - in fact it appears any non WASP Christian male 'straight' group is now fair game for attack in the US. 

Am I attacking 'capitalism' perse?

No - I have reservations to do with any political 'ism' because the most trumpeted extremes, such as Marxism or Neo-liberalism, are fundamentally flawed as they leave no room for who human beings really are and try to channel human's into an ever narrower, micromanaged road of thier theoretical construct. Adam Smith's version of capitalism has little in common with neo-liberalism. Smith could see the advantages of organising the means of production in reducing cost and increasing output to a consistent standard. Smith also understood the human element was important to capitalism and that with out a fair, equitable wage all the production organisation efficiencies would fail to deliver the expected profit margins. Smith understands profitable businesses need invest in their factory, plant and workers to thrive. Failure to focus on all three leads to eventual failure. 


This is why Marxism and Neo-liberalism have failed. Marxism has it the government says 'make this', the economy thrives, forget 'profit' and the masses will be happy because we say they are because 'we are all right', thanks. Neo-liberalism says maximise profit at all costs, it is only and all about the bottom line. Forget the masses, forget the supply chain, screw them all and keep a very small minority happy and that is all that really matters. The differences are minimal between Marxism and Neo-liberalism. The reason for their failure within human societies is clear, neither addresses the needs or expectations of the majority for a fair share or recognises the instinctive human dislike of greed. Humans are where we are because we 'share', when we stop sharing fairly there is only conflict left.

Neo-liberalism is not in anyway 'capitalist' because it is fundamentally as protectionist as Marxism. Neo-liberalism is better defined as Western corporatism, a corporatism which is increasingly and unremittingly plutocratic and fascist, complaining about the cost of wages, welfare and health care while pocketing massive public subsidy in the form of tax breaks and tax avoidance strategies. Worse when they get it wrong they suck even more money from the public purse because they are 'too big to fail' in the same way as the Marxist centralised industrial planning could not 'fail'.


We have seen the people bring about the collapse of Marxism and Communism in the old Soviet Block because the people had had enough. I believe it is only a matter of time now before the people in Western Europe and the USA do the same for Western Corporatism's fascist theory of Neo-liberalism.

Friday 19 July 2013

The Silence of the Lambs

"Do you remember Clarice? Do you remember the silence?"

Let me begin by saying I lived over 27 years of my life in England. My son and daughter were born in Cornwall, my wife is from Barnsley. We lived in the mainly unsullied County of Dorset in a town which, up until the late 1990's, both Constable and Hardy would have recognised with ease from atop the 12th century church tower. We have good friends, kind friends, helpful friends, compassionate friends who we return to visit and keep in touch with which makes a hollow mockery of the Better Together campaign's idea some how this will all stop instanter, on independence.

I know many Englishmen and women who are just as passionate about 'their England' and preserving their local traditions and ways as any in Scotland but when it comes to Westminster simply dictating to them, telling them how their lives will be lead there appears a void, a silence and, to me, an acceptance of their powerlessness in the face of an out of control Westminster's plutocratic dictatorship - Quhit can ye dae?

Sadly, as seen in any blog following any article to do with the impending Scottish referendum, the only reaction is to blame the Scots for preserving the very services in public control which are being privatised in England. The NHS, Blood Banks, Water, services in support of the sick and disabled and to day, the 19th of July, social services to vulnerable children. The responses in these blogs from the majority of English bloggers seem to me to follow one simple message - It's just not fair!  The emphasis appears to be that some how we Scots are cheating. There is little or no perception of what is actually happening in Scotland; we are using our legitimate pocket money to do things differently.

It is a struggle to understand the English mind set of 'Scotland are subsidy junkies', that we Scots are somehow 'stealing from England' and this is the only reason England is spiraling down the rabbit hole to their nightmare version of Alice in Wonderland made flesh. Nu Blu Labour is the epitome of the Red Queen crying 'off with their head' when anyone dares to point out they have lost the plot, demonstrates they have forgotten the 'why' behind their party's reason to exist while they go about, painting the blue Tory roses red in an attempt to justify their existence. In the real world everyone understands these remain Tory roses. All the while the Jabberwocky of Tory Governance reduces the UK to a desert of meanness, self interest and insularity, setting everyone against everyone else.

I have increasing difficulty in understanding the contrast between the English people I know who love England, an England where compassion and fairness is at the core of their parish, village or town; with the government they vote for and inflict on the rest of the UK which is the antithesis of the people I know as the English.

It is almost as if the English are now trapped by the psychopathic political equivalent of Hannibal Lecter, all the while having slices of their brain fried with some liver, fava beans and accompanied by a fine Chianti, while they look on helpless, unable to respond to the murderous intent they know is in action.

Sunday 14 July 2013

That Was a Week that Was ...

With hind sight I wonder if those of us promoting the 'Yes Campaign' will look on the last week and be able to say this was the point the Better Together Campaign lost the plot, this was the real tipping point?

On the face of it there was the usual guff coming from Westminster and their London media poodles continuing the too wee, too small, too stupid attack on Scottish Independence while also apparently talking up Darling's latest launch attempt of a positive campaign message from 'Better Together'. The Better Together campaign felt, for once, they had their ducks in line. Darling's speech would be ahead of Wee Eck's giving them a media 'lead' in their own tame media - what could go wrong?

Someone in the MoD misunderstood the 'plan' and decided the time was right to brief 'off the record' on the latest wheeze to keep the unloved nuclear detterent and its future replacement - let's annex a couple of chunks of Scotland after independence and call it England, that sounds a good scare story, that sorts out the SNP's claim of being able to get the nuclear detterent out of Scotland - job done; surely.

What looks a smart, cunning, devastating idea amongst the 'wonk's in London does not always translate as such in Scotland, this 'kite flying' was a classic of the art of shooting yourself in the foot (if not both).

So let us remember the time line which is always the first thing any politician sets out to blurr when they have made a total balls up.

Sometime on Wednesday one of the Guardian lead writers gets let in on the 'annexation' wheeze. As he does not have a clue about Scotland or its politics he can only see this through Westminster eyes - a killer punch. He files his story at Guardian Towers who love this idea and see it as a major coup, a feather in their cap. Late in the Wednesday evening the SNP media people pick up the story and start creating their counter attack. At this point it appears that Better Together still do not know about the 'support' story and are happily briefing about Darling's super-duper positive speech for the Union due to go out to an invited audience and YouTube at 1000 on the Thursday.

Around 0700 'Better Together' waken up to what is going on, the media is running with the 'annexation' story and the SNP are already on the attack. Darling gets on the phone to Cameron and I have few doubts the conversation was less than civil. The week of pumping Darling's positive speech by the Scottish end blown by Westminster in around three hours. Darling is not the story, the story is the idea that an independent England would think of trying to annex a part of an independent Scotland. An idea redolent of everything the bulk of Scots do not like about the English establishment's colonial attitude. The Darling carrot and MoD stick becomes the stick with which to beat Darling. It is clear from the damage limitation action that this was a London 'wheeze'. How much Darling knew about this 'wheeze' is unclear - except possibly he was promised a big idea to help his umpteenth relaunch of Better Together. It is clear it was a planned move. Menzies Campbell rapidly ran around the London media studios in major denial mode and making clear the problem was the massive advantage the story had just given the SNP and the Yes Campaign and not the idea of the possible 'annexation'.

The problem with the soon to be English Establishment is after 300 odd years it believes its own spin that Scotland was subsumed by England in the Union Treaty and has the cack handed idea they tell us and we Scots just do - hence the 'annexation' idea. It is a problem exacerbated by a number of so called 'constitutional experts' who pander to the same line that Scotland is subservient to the 'English crown in parliament' as is the people of Scotland's sovereignty. The same set of experts seek to deride Lord Cooper's judgement in McCormack vs the Lord Advocate (1953) which upholds the constitutional practice of the Scottish people being sovereign (Claim of Right 1689) and points out the idea that any parliament is not bound by its predecessors has no validity in Scots Law and constitutional practice, laws and practice which remain independent of Westminster for 'all time' in terms of the 1706 Treaty of Union. Lord Cooper also stated that for 'all time' in the Treaty meant exactly that. Further, any changes to the Treaty could only be made by negotiation between the sovereign parliaments of the original signatories - England and Scotland. This point of law and constitutional practice was conceded by the Lord Advocate on behalf of the Westminster Parliament in 1953.

The impact of all this is the United Kingdom ceases to exist in any legal or constitutional basis if it is  the sovereign people of Scotland's considered will to end the Treaty of Union. The importance of which is skated over by the idea of the supremacy of Westminster over the Scots is simply this, as soon as a 'Yes' result is announced the Treaty is no more, the UK is no more as it only exists within the terms of the 1706 Treaty and the negotiation of the details of the split of current Westminster functions and assetts can only take place between the sovereign parliaments of England and Scotland, as original signatories.

Here is the big problem for a Westminster establishment which sees the Scots as 'subsumed' they are barking up the wrong constitutional tree and there will be a constant series of these type of communication failures between the Westminster and Scottish end of 'Better Together', based on this fundamental constitutional error they persist in peddling. The time to identify the areas required to be negotiated is in the run up to the referendum but again this would expose the constitutional problems of many of the Westminster establishments 'scare' claims by forcing what the actual situation is, into the public domain. A 'Yes' vote also means there will be no Westminster MPs elected from Scotland to the Westminster UK Parliament in 2015 as it has ceased to exist and returns to being the sovereign English Parliament. I believe the 'Yes Campaign' are aware of the real constitutional position and impact a 'Yes' vote delivers and will spring this on 'Better Together' at some point in the next 14 months. 

In the meantime, long may Westminster continue to successfully shoot their own 'Better Together' campaign in Scotland in both feet.


Friday 12 July 2013

Bitter Together - now on Kindle to download


The UK Government is on the rocks.

The stroppy Scots are looking to go their own way, Prime Minister Cambourne is getting desparate as he needs their oil and gas taxes to sustain his London bankers life styles. Cambourne needs a plan to halt the Scots in their path and save the Union. His prayers are answered when a lowly civil servant arrives to see him with a plan created by his mentor to wreck the SNP's ambitions.

No sooner has Cambourne authorised 'Cockleshell' than the wheels come off and he is searching for a scapegoat to blame ..... well there is always the civil servant worm who brought him the plan .... isn't there?

But the worm has other ideas ...... let mayhem and crisis ensue around the London Olympics.

A political satire for modern times.

" ...a good and powerful writer, with an easy way with words, as well as deep understanding of the topics and worlds about which you write.

I hope for your sake if not mine, that one day I come to regret this decision not to proceed to publish Bitter Together. I certainly enjoyed the political satire throughout it and found it very entertaining." - Managing Director, Ringwood Publications

Bitter Together - the book that has to get out there .. please help and prove the Managing Director of Ringwood Publications right, that his Editorial Board were wrong.


Who was it said the Scots do not do satire ... maybe they should read Bitter Together