Monthly Archives: March 2017

Personal Shopper – a review

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Grouse Beater

My, my, two winners in one week; the surprise delight of the grisly horror show Get Out, this week the super-cool Kristen Stewart – among the most quicksilver of her generation’s performers – in Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper, a shape-shifting, resolutely … Continue reading →

Posted in Film review | 1 Comment

Don’t Come To Scotland

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Grouse Beater

If you detest the UK government’s bigoted, craven action to leave Europe and follow Brexit to cast non-UK nationals out of English society, you have my respect. If you see Scotland with all its faults, as I do, still a place of honest, decent, … Continue reading →

Posted in Scottish Independence Referendum, Scottish Politics | 54 Comments

Trump Redacted

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Grouse Beater

Donald Trump has grown to realise that bluff and bluster are no match for the law and the American Constitution. Whether that  stops him talking nonsense is in doubt. His attempts to turn the clock back on democratic progress keep … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Get Out – a review

Posted on March 19, 2017 by Grouse Beater

This is the surprise movie of the month, more accurately of the year, so far. The poster isn’t very attractive, six fragmented images seen through the shattered prism of a glass mirror, or perhaps a window pane, the film’s title … Continue reading →

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Colonialism is a Crime

Posted on March 17, 2017 by Grouse Beater

International law does not recognise the phrase “Once in a generation”. For a nation state to constrain voting rights in another country, that’s colonialism. It will be difficult for some people to accept that description because they do not see police around them … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 42 Comments

When Banks Were Banks

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Grouse Beater

Charlotte Hogg is an economist. She was made deputy governor, markets and banking, of the Bank of England, you know, the one that actually belongs to the UK, not England, the one that said they were able to make sharing … Continue reading →

Posted in Scottish Independence Referendum, Scottish Politics, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Kong: Skull Island – a review

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Grouse Beater

There’s a lot of psychological distance between the amazing indelible image of television’s supreme naturalist David Attenborough getting his hair messed around by a family of affectionate, curious gorillas and a thirty foot specimen rampaging through New York, before falling off the … Continue reading →

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Lion – a review

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Grouse Beater

Warning: Lion is a two-hanky movie; it will have you bawling unless you swallow really cold ice-cream to encourage a brain freeze, or by driving a nail into your palm. That might get you through the first third of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film review | 5 Comments

My Racist Taxi Driver

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Grouse Beater

The student as racist I wouldn’t have taken notice of my taxi driver’s ranting had it not been for a pig-ignorant, vain, histrionic Stirling University student writing a venomous opinion piece only days before in the Guardian newspaper. No names, … Continue reading →

Posted in Scottish Independence Referendum, Scottish Politics | 22 Comments