Train cancelled again, ('shortage of crew') - and no power in the carriage (despite attempts to fix it) - just another bright Avanti West Coast morning! Will they do a double-header and cancel my return later? Watch this space! [repeated wailing]

“A special day for Scottish football…” in which Celtic reach another final. BBC Sport Scotland in plucky wee Aberdeen mode…

Playing the Swift album backwards: numerous references to Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle…. #torturedpoets

And, Avanti West Coast , I’m going to persist here. Why, on routes through the West Midlands, do those of us travelling north have to now wait for 20 mins at Birmingham? This is effectively a change. It’s disingenuous to label the train “direct” - why do London routes go non-stop?

another dread Avanti West Coast sign: '9 coaches' all the way to Scotland (which means only 5 standard class carriages....and a guaranteed jampacked festival of pain)

Well of course they did….

Martin MacInnes’s “novels have an unusual sobriety, a serious atmosphere, and a searching quality. The prose is clean and spare but rarely designed to impress; there’s wisdom rather than cleverness in the storytelling.” —Daisy Hildyard go.nybooks.com/3VQ92TV

Can it really be Scottish Tory policy that harassing the disabled, assaulting ethnic minorities & daubing anti-Semitic abuse on synagogues should not be treated in Scots law as aggravated by prejudice? Because that's a big part of what repealing the Hate Crime Act would achieve.

'mis-sold'

1. Which party has fostered, controlled and governed a rentier economy that has drastically disenfranchised 'young-people' - students and non-students alike?
2. Which party mushroomed the fee system?
3. Is there a 'proper' way to 'sell' these skills? Do tell.

Another ‘let everyone* into the Garrick Club!’ UK media classic….

*who is deemed worthy

“WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO SCOTLAND??!!”

Calm

down

ffs.

It’s really illuminating how much this story excites London media, especially “liberal” media….speaking truth to power in order to reproduce and consolidate….power.