Monthly Archives: August 2012

Romney Marsh

Mitt Romney has less than three months to convince American voters that he is the man to lead them (and the rest of the planet) out of the biggest fiscal hole it has fallen into since the Depression. While we … Continue reading

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Firstest with the Leastest

I like Americans. They are generally direct people who can’t abide havering around and generally “tell it like it is”, albeit sometimes gracelessly. Their Confederate General Forrest went down in history ascribing victory to whoever entered battle the “Fustest with … Continue reading

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Indy-Contrarian Broon Misgivings (ICBM) Strike

From whatever hardened silo complex outside Auchtertool in which they had been nursing his wrath to keep it warm, the Hootsmon launched their secret weapon of Irn Broon full-frontal-page yesterday. For a man who can make the word ‘dour’ look like … Continue reading

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Queen Elizabeth—Another ‘K’atastrophe?

Regular readers will know of my interest in history in general and of naval history in particular. Last week, as part of North Berwick’s Fringe by the Sea, I gave a couple of talks on the former to be delighted … Continue reading

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A Proud City Goes Begging

I have always been a booster for Edinburgh as a city: a walkable, architecturally inspired romp across hill and dale that encourages exploration of its compact city centre and trademark panoramas. Its soul sisters Lisbon and San Francisco come close … Continue reading

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How Come Big Countries Have Such Small Minds?

I belong to a huge minority—the minority that shunned the Olympic opening ceremony because none of us were really sports fans in the first place and had not yet recovered from the previous two months unrelenting blanket coverage of football … Continue reading

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Why Our Friends Aren’t Idiots

There has been much huffing an puffing in the press recently about the supposed ‘split’ in the SNP over NATO and some of my colleagues have taken advantage of the traditional summer silly season to pour a little gasoline of … Continue reading

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The Last Resort

“Patriotism: the last resort of a scoundrel.” Dr Samuel Johnston The Edinburgh Festival is now launched full-scale and among the myriad of performances  is a play from  Tricycle Theatre at the always avant-garde Traverse called “Letter of Last Resort“. As … Continue reading

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Here Comes Summer

It’s been a long wait for summer to hit here in Sconnie Botland but the timing could not have been sweeter. This week is our biggest of the summer here in North Berwick. After a so-so day that allowed our … Continue reading

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England’s Not Foreign to Me

Peter Jones is not a man with whom I would normally choose to cross verbal swords. Freelance journalist more recently for the Hootsmon but previously regular contributor to weighty pieces in the Times and Economist, he knows his stuff but—more … Continue reading

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