Norman McWhirter

Trump ….. It’s coming along nicely, beautiful beautiful ballroom.

Just checking the weather

I'm not surprised that a patient in Australia recognised Dr Upton - relatives in South Africa have asked me about the tribunal. In a just world Upton would be able to claim damages for the way the prolonged coverage of her as some kind of a predator has ruined her life.

Aye Robot In 2023, Google’s AI invented a list of 12 “new collections” by Scottish poets (it invented some of the poets, too). Now Alan Riach has published 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘢 𝘎𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 – the collection the AI said that he wrote three years previously #poetry www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/2026/10/aye-...

Some folk on the Royal Mile today didn't seem to mind the rain at all #Edinburgh #Scotland

LIKE TO CHARGE REPOST TO CAST

Wrote a complaint to Tora delivery services about an aggressive driver (subcontracted by Evri, that other shitshow) who accosted a neighbour with learning disabilities & who is not delivering parcels to my address and what did they do? Showed him my email. He came to my house today to shout at me 🫠

My youngest daughter is currently in Boston, and it seems like our cultural influence endures.

Nae feckin pasaran, ya fash bass!!

All these convoluted fixes to deal with the NEET issue when the government just needs to make it easier to hire young people. That’s the core of the issue. The NEETroot if you will.

Scotland, too (although the NMI’s Ghost Turnip is in a league of its own). They’re an absolute bastard to carve, requiring multiple stabbings with potato peelers to core out the neep. This is “Hallowe’en”, oil on canvas, c.1911, by William Stewart MacGeorge (1861–1931) artuk.org/discover/art...

Scottish Greens : "Proposing new #nuclear power stations as a solution to today's energy crisis is like thinking the solution to your house being on fire right now is the construction of a billion pound fire station in twenty years' time." #Scotland www.thenational.scot/news/2666106...

no surprise that a journalist looked at trafalgar square and thought to themselves, there's a column in this

Harry Potter and the Metrics That Won't Pay For The Skydance Merger

I'd forgotten the BBC Board member representing Scotland was Muriel Gray - no wonder BBC Scotland's getting burnt to the ground

This is fucked. Really bleak how entrenched this is becoming.

That was money well spent

The hell you say

Verbatim quote - "ACAB drives me up the wall but fuck it's hard to push back on it when that lot justify every word said about it. Fucking arseholes."

"The early introduction of isolation in Scotland is likely to have reduced the risks of people admitted to care homes who were potentially Covid-19-positive infecting others." From the UK COVID-19 Inquiry Module 6 Report covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/u...

“Here’s a policy that’s great for everyone except this one millionaire. Who shall we get on as a neutral expert on it? Oh I know, the one millionaire!”

I was talking to my therapist about the BBC transphobia and the NHS transphobia and she pointed out a great fact which is that of course this feels deeply destabilising and hurtful cause the NHS and BBC are so intertwined with what makes Britain Britain

As I again leave the site of the ancient burial mounds there is a cry. “Leave it” A second time: nearby, but somehow also distant, as if from within one of the mounds. “Leave it” I then realise the voice is that of a dog owner the next field over. Relieved, I slip the Saxon crown back into my bag

Oct 17: Feast of Regulus (Rule) (4thC). Greek who followed an angel’s request to bear some of St Andrew’s relics into ‘northern parts’. Arriving in Fife, the angel brought him to a halt. There Rule built a church to house the relics, which was later called St Andrews.

My latest blog piece - Pulling focus, Burnham and Badenoch's transparent attempts to distract attention from the SNP conference reveals how scared they are of the Celtic Alliance and rising support for Scottish independence. weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2026/10/17/p...

These are proposals that were specifically offered by Labour and rejected at election mere months ago. Get fucked Andy. You and your pet kestrel.

Light in the dark if we work together locally: “What also comes through clearly from working with these places is enthusiasm, commitment, and a sense that no problem is too difficult. Improving social determinants of health is possible and, as our partners say, we will do it. It is inspiring.”

Today in "headlines that make a modern reader blink a bit" - Leicester Evening Mail, August 1944

The Tesla roadster doth use compressid ayre so technicallye it ys not a "flyinge" car it ys a "fartinge" car.

opticians hate this one weird trick

“If you live in Scotland, if you choose to make your life here in Scotland, then you are one of us.” Scotland belongs to everyone who calls it home. No matter where you're from, your background or your beliefs, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. #SNP26

The framing of this issue has annoyed me for years. The SG is not using *general* planning powers to block new nuclear, but *specific* consenting powers in the Electricity Act 1989. This isn't an abuse of power or an unintended consequence, but a deliberate choice made in the Scotland Act 1999.

Ukrainian presidential advisor Serhiy Beskrestnov confirms Elon Musk's Space X crippled Ukrainian capabilities last night. In other words, the US deliberately sabotaged European defence operations mid-mission. Every country in the world should move away from buying American hardware ASAP.

Was this entire country kicked in the head by a mule?

A brutal Executive Summary in the 4th document here from @ageingbetter.bsky.social. The experience of people in their 60s just now varies widely. I’d recommend taking a look at all four papers. In an age of misinformation, it’s useful background knowledge. ageing-better.org.uk/resources/ta...

Oh, that didn't take much digging. They asked people to solve stupid fraction problems. One group got to ask AI, the other group didn't. Then they took the AI away from the AI group. Those people started fucking off. The non-AI group didn't magically know it was time to start fucking off.