Three days to go

So, not long til voting day. I’m looking forward to it. And to staying up late to watch the results.

How will I vote? Well, I’ll be voting SNP on both my Scottish Parliament votes, and on my first preference in the council elections. I think my second preference in the council vote will be for the Green candidate. I’ll be voting SNP to get a number of things - an independence referendum, a Scottish Executive that will not shy away from using the full powers of the parliament or seeking more where it can, and above a sense of positivity, of aspiration, of “can do” that Scotland has lacked for so long.

And although I’ve been a supporter of both the SNP and independence for as long as I’ve had the vote, I get a real sense that this time the SNP are ready, and that Scotland is at last ready for them. The Sunday Herald backed Alex Salmond for First Minister (the first national paper ever to do so, and the SNP’s current strength is remarkable considering the print media’s hostility), and there seems a real enthusiasm across the country for change, to try out something new, and the SNP are being deemed trustworthy enough to be that “something new”.

I’ll not be voting for either of the Christian parties - I was asked for my views about them the other day, and so here goes. The Christian People’s Alliance seem like a well-meaning, heads-screwed-on, intelligent bunch of folk aiming for the mould of Christian democracy that is hugely popular throughout Europe but never quite seemed (at least under that label) to take off in the UK. They even have a Muslim as one of their leading candidates, who argues that Christians and Muslims share much in terms of moral and social outlooks. In an era of increasing Muslim disenchantment in this country, I wonder if the CPA stand for make gains in this unlikely constituency. If I recall correctly, it was the appointment of a Muslim as candidate which led to a split and the subsequent formation of the Scottish Christian Party, who say they are “proclaiming Christ’s lordship”.

I’ll not be voting for either party, mostly because I do not count myself as a social conservative, and wouldn’t find my personal views on moral and ethical issues to be in tune with those of the two Christian parties - some of which, particularly from the SCP, I would describe as alarmingly extreme. Secondly, I don’t like the assumption that there are no Christian values among the other parties. The SCP are particularly arrogant in their message, and also misguided because I do not feel that the political process is the right channel for evangelism. If their aim is to prove that Christians make better leaders, then Bush and Blair blow that argument out of the water. And in any case, if Jesus is the only perfect leader who can save the world, I hardly feel that voting SCP is going to somehow induce a quality of leadership akin to the Second Coming.

Oh, and one final political point. I had the dubious pleasure of driving through Ibrox a few days ago, the heartland of Rangers fanaticism on the southside of Glasgow. It was rather scary to note that there was a prevalence of posters for the British National Party, the UK’s scary, far-right, racist outfit. In the west end, the few BNP posters in evidence are put at such high levels (presumably for fear of vandalism) that you wonder if the party has access to ladders the other parties can only dream of. On the other hand, the numerous BNP posters in Ibrox were placed at a confidently low height. I’d say that shows you something about Orangeism, but I’ll bite my tongue this time.

So, there’s a whistle-stop rundown of the political thoughts going on in my head. Have a fun election day everyone. And remember - vote early, vote often.

Ice cold in Glen Orchy

Today was another St Silas deathmarch. Or hillwalk, if you will. It was a couple of munros that tower over the hotel at Bridge of Orchy, an hour and a half north of Glasgow.

It was a beautiful day, but the whole ascent malarky was a bit hard-going, and I am realising that I am built for the flat - on the ridges and lower ground I was a powerhouse, but the climbing really took it out of me.

The weather - a cloudless sky, scorching sunshine, and a strong breeze at higher altitude - made for a great day, but I was dehydrated and exhausted at the end of it all. A swift visit to the pub at the bottom of the hill was therefore in order, and I don’t think a pint of lager has been as gratefully received since that famous one in Alexandria. It was truly worth waiting for.

I think I also somewhat impressed Rob in the pub by identifying the barmaid as New Zealandish, purely because she’d told the people in front of us at the bar that dinner would be served from “half pest sux”.

Photos from the hike can be seen here. Some of them are quite good.

A week to go

A week today, Scotland goes to the polls. Two polls, specifically - the Scottish Parliament elections, and the local council elections.

I used to be very political, and especially party political, but then I realised that things aren’t always black and white (or black and fluorescent yellow, as is my leaning) and have since enjoyed observing politics as a (sometimes) impartial observer. I am still motivated and interested in the same sorts of issues, I just don’t personally feel that a partisan, party political process is always the channel for my views. I even enjoy, at times, prolonged periods of apathy.

But I always vote, as is my right and responsibility. I might just blog my voting intentions later on in the week, but in the meantime what I will say is that regardless of your party views these elections are the most exciting in many years and they will absolutely, clearly, change Scotland.  Here’s why:

1. Uncertain outcome - it’s hard to call who’ll finish up the biggest party in Holyrood. The SNP’s poll performances have been higher than they’ve ever been this close to a vote, and you’d be a brave person to put any money on the outcome.  There’s also a higher than ever number of minority parties, who threaten the presumed votes of the bigger parties.  This means that people’s votes will count more than ever.
2. Independence - whether you want independence or not, it’s a core question in the Scottish Parliament election campaign, and people are talking about it more than ever. Although the issue would be subject to a later referendum, your vote next Thursday could still influence whether the United Kingdom continues to exist, and that’s a pretty significant potential outome. Incidentally, it’s been ironic to note that the unionist parties criticise those like the SNP for talking about independence, saying that it’s actually the “real” issues that matter. Yet the unionist parties seem to be talking about independence more than anyone else - firstly by devoting so much energy to attacking the pro-independence parties’ thinking and number-crunching; and secondly by proclaiming loudly that they are campaigning on “real” issues and not independence. Result? Everyone’s talking about it in some sense or another.
3. STV - council elections are, for the first time, going to be conducted by the Single Transferable Vote. I’ll not bore you with the mechanics of it, but it basically means that, thanks to multi-member wards, it will no longer be possible for one party to win a vast majority of councillors on a minority of the vote. My current council, Glasgow, is a prime example - Labour won about half the city’s vote last time, but about 90% of the councillors. That will come to an end, as will the careers of many dinosaurs of local government. So your vote will probably bring in new coalitions and administrations, and a whole raft of fresh blood to local government. Because of the services councils provide, this will make a real difference to people’s daily lives. But exactly what difference, depends on how folk vote.

So, a week to go, and I can’t wait.

Wireless 4: The End. Or Beginning

Greetings from my bed.

Or rather, from me, sitting on my bed. And that’s significant - because it means I am no longer crouched on my flatmate’s bedroom floor, metres from the wireless router. Which in turn means that things are fixed.

The meenister came round this evening, and left not long ago, after praying over the router, exorcising my laptop, and dousing the phone socket in holy water. Actually, that’s not strictly true - he mucked about under the proverbial bonnet of the router and my laptop, and it’s now working.

I’ll not bore you with the technical reasons (largely because I don’t understand), but it was, as many folk have suggested, just a case of changing the channel.

So I am now fully operative and connected, which is nice. And I am supremely grateful to David for his help in what was a busy day for him.

I wonder what else they teach people at Episcopalian boot camp?

The Blue Man Group

In the last few Deeper services at church, we’ve been exploring the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

While the examinations have helped me understand a bit more about probably the most difficult book in the Bible, my two key questions about the book remain unanswered: what was John taking when he wrote the book, and can I have some?

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that (in true Deeper multimedia style) there are two videos made by Graham that help us focus on the message of the letters. The music used in the background is great - deep, bassy, brooding, and minimalist. I thought it sounded a little like Mogwai.

I asked Graham who it was, and it turned out to be tracks by the Blue Man Group. They are, apparently, a troupe of performance artists who engage in all sorts of spectacular and high-energy stage-based jiggery-pokery. They’ve produced a couple of albums of the music they use in their performances, music made themselves on often home-made, improvised instruments.

Graham lent me copies of their album yesterday, and they’re very, very good. If you like Mogwai or the slightly darker songs of Sigur Ros, then the Blue Man Group’s stuff might be right up your street.

Seemingly they’re a bit suss on the whole workers’ rights thing… but hey, the music’s good.

Hard cheese

Happy national cheese on toast day, everyone.

I’m not a huge fan of celebrations and commemorations of frivilous things - you know, National Yoghurt Week, Use Your Indicators Properly Day, or the annual one-minute silence to remember the oppression suffered by left-handed people*. Attempts to steer the national consciousness or create a sense of national guilt about something are often a dangerous thing - Dianamania is a case in point.

But I will make an exception for national cheese on toast day. It is a truly great snack - quick, easy, tasty, and not many foods can boast that they not only look and taste great, but sound great too. And its beauty lies in its simplicity - my preferred way of making it is normal ordinary white bread, some plain old mature cheddar, and a splash of the Worcester sauce, with the cheese grilled until it nearly hardens.

So now we’ve commemorated cheese on toast, what other things, events, people or ideas deserve observance through a day, week or minute’s silence? What are your obscure causes that should be brought to the world’s attention?

* I may have made these ones up.

Wireless 3: Still Bamboozled

I’ve just tried a third wireless card - thanks to Chris’s kind offer.  Sadly it wouldn’t even install properly.  Or configure, or whatever the term is.

On Sunday, various people who know about these sorts of things told me that the solution might lie in things like the channel the wireless broadcasts at, and suggested installing things that sounded exceptionally complicated and beyond my brain’s capabilities.

So I think I might just have to call on David to come pray over my laptop and see if that works…

The future’s Orange?

One thing I have particularly despised about Glasgow is the sectarianism. The west central belt is sadly blighted by the inflated importance of Protestantism and Catholicism and the rivalry and hatred between those who would profess to identify with them. That football has become a… well, football in this schism would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic.

Until now, though, I’ve taken reassurance in the fact that this blight on the face of Scotland is a sickness only in irrelevant little corners of Glasgowshire that nobody really cares about.

Imagine my shock and disgust, therefore, when I read in the Sunday Herald that this weekend saw Inverness’s first Orange march for twenty years. I nearly shed a tear as I read that the Weegie disease has now infected the Highlands (see also the Inverness Courier).

I cannot state enough how pathetic I regard Orangeism to be. Originating in the Protestant communities of Ireland who are descended from British migrants, it’s ostensibly a movement that stands for Britishness, for Protestantism, and for loyalty to the monarchy.

However, it’s sad that those three beliefs actually have no logical basis. Let me explain:

Britishness – Orangemen are from Ireland. Simple as that. They come from Northern Ireland. Northern what? Ah yes, Ireland. They might be the ancestors of Brits, but that was hundreds of years ago, and that makes them less British than the average Australian or American. So how can they claim or uphold a nationality that isn’t theirs?

Protestantism – what is Protestantism, except a version of Christianity? It is nothing more and nothing less than an interpretation of the relationship between people and God, and a model of church government. You cannot be Protestant without being Christian, in the same way that you can’t be Northern Irish without being Irish. And Orangeism demonstrates that it is not Christian, and therefore can’t be Protestant.

Think about it: people who love Jesus and want to tell the world about him are Christians. People who wear bowler hats, play the flute and have a warped view of history are just twats and wouldn’t know Protestantism if someone nailed it to them.

Loyalism – quite how the Queen feels enamoured by having the drunken allegiance of a bunch of fat, Rangers top-wearing, uneducated neds, I am not sure. Certainly most people on this side of the Irish Sea couldn’t give a hoot about what loyalists think. It’s sad and deluded that they are loyal to something that doesn’t actually want them.

The fact that that there are people over here, in Britain, who actually empathise with these retards is astonishing. I’ve seen one or two Orange marches in Glasgow, and have only just managed to resist the temptation to shout at them to go back to Ireland.

I hope that their filth one day leaves Scotland. Or at least never rears its head in Inverness again.

And don’t get me started on the other side of the divide…

Mullet map

Things are hotting up on the mullet front.

I phoned a travel agent the other day to make enquiries about a round the world ticket, but realised on talking to the very helpful adviser that I really need to be an awful lot more specific about my routes and times.

This is annoying in one sense because I don’t want my trip to have to be set out with such military precision that there’s no room for being flexible or simply letting events and experiences determine my pace and direction.

On the other hand it was a useful wake-up call, because it made me realise I need to have at least some sort of vague plan, and it also occurred to me that I really needed to pinpoint the precise location of some of the remaining mullets.

And so, with a world map I bought this afternoon, I did exactly that.

It’s been a helpful exercise, for two reasons. Firstly because just looking at the map on my wall with all the pins has made the trip look quantifiable, manageable, perhaps even achieveable, and I can now start thinking about exactly what route I will take. There are, however, lots of questions I need to mull over, particularly about the balance I strike between air and overland travel throughout the USA.

The second reason is that I have been able, thanks to the wonders of Google Maps USA, been able to find out a bit more about the areas in which some of the American mullets lie, where previously I knew very little about them.

I’m now a little more excited about some of them - Mullet Lake, Michigan, for example, is right at the heart of the Great Lakes region, and is handy for the two Canadian mullets. Meanwhile I’ve discovered that Mullet Bay in Florida is in the Everglades National Park. If it’s not like Gentle Ben in that neck of the swamps, I’ll be gutted.

So after a period of some nervousness about hitting the road for six months, making the map this weekend has helped significantly to bring the task ahead into focus.

There is the small matter of money yet to be resolved, though. More on that later.

Wireless 2: the plot thickens

The plot thickens, but the signal remains just as thin.

In the previous episode, it was looking like my wireless card was the problem. The other day I asked my flatmate to try out his laptop (which has had no difficulties throughout the flat) in my room - on the opposite side of the flat from the router. He did, and it worked just fine. So if his laptop worked fine in my room, and mine didn’t, that seemed to settle it: my wireless card was kaput.

Gareth, ever the wise and helpful sage, promised to send me a spare wireless card - if it worked, then it would prove that I just needed to buy a new wireless card, and I would be cooking with gas. Not literally, though.

His card arrived in the post today, and I have just installed it - and sadly it doesn’t work. It’s much the same as my old one - good signal a few feet from the router, non-existent signal in my room on the other side of the flat.

But I now have the added information of a wee triangular icon on the bottom right of my computer that looks a bit like a bar chart or a set of church organ pipes, and it’s currently telling me my signal is “Marginal: Interference”. Although it seems to be working fine to me.

So there you go. A new wireless card doesn’t improve the situation. But I have a friend in church who has promised me another one, and I will get that on Sunday.

If that doesn’t work, I think I’ll need to ask an expert round. Perhaps starting by taking up the offer from my minister… sorry, Rector!