Monthly Archives: September 2018

Brexit Resignation

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Grouse Beater

At the back of my mind there is the anxiety people will get so bored with the daily diet of Brexit stodge going around and around the gut getting nowhere, its deleterious impact will lose strength and voters will forget what … Continue reading →

Posted in Scottish Independence Referendum, Scottish Politics | 5 Comments

The Equaliser 2 – a review

Posted on September 29, 2018 by Grouse Beater

This is a film that is both very good and very bad. Good bits are the photography, the acting, the special affects and the violent deaths. Oh, and a fine gale force storm in the last fifteen minutes. The bad … Continue reading →

Posted in Film review | 3 Comments

Car News: Home or Car?

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Grouse Beater

A weekly guide to all that’s rotten about car ownership, plus some good bits Home or car? Car makers offer vehicles more plusher, more comfortable to live in than your home. Can you do without one or the other? The photograph … Continue reading →

Posted in Transportation | 5 Comments

A Letter from the Clearances

Posted on September 23, 2018 by Grouse Beater

In my essay ∗The Sorrow and the Shame (∗ the link is at end of this piece) I discuss some of the issues that caused and helped protract the infamous Highland Clearances by the systematic removal of peoples and their culture from … Continue reading →

Posted in Scottish Independence Referendum, Scottish Politics | 24 Comments

BlacKKKlansman – a review

Posted on September 22, 2018 by Grouse Beater

Well, this unusual subject is a very pleasant surprise. After the Cannes Festival premier I’d heard through the grapevine co-writer-director Spike Lee was ‘back on form’, but his film is a lot more than a personal success. The plot is based … Continue reading →

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Car News: EU Licence Gone

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Grouse Beater

A weekly guide to all that’s rotten about car ownership, plus some good bits One inevitable consequence of English telling Europeans they’re meddling foreigners looms on our man-made dystopian horizon. UK driving licences are likely to be invalid on the continent from April … Continue reading →

Posted in Transportation | 9 Comments

The Power of the SNP

Posted on September 15, 2018 by Grouse Beater

Open a newspaper any day, any week and you’ll read any number of right-wing inspired news smears of the SNP claiming it an authoritarian party, so right-wing it’s fascist. Since newspapers are predominately right-wing you’d think they be very happy about … Continue reading →

Posted in Scottish Independence Referendum, Scottish Politics | 16 Comments

Car News: Brexit Bad

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Grouse Beater

A weekly guide to all that’s rotten about car ownership, plus some good bits It was inevitable sooner rather than later one of the UK’s biggest car manufacturers would break ranks and scream ‘bollocks!’ at Theresa May. Jaguar-Land Rover stepped forward. … Continue reading →

Posted in Transportation | 4 Comments

Defoe the Union Spy

Posted on September 7, 2018 by Grouse Beater

Daniel Defoe left his mark on the world in two ways. Among what amounts to an entire recycling plant of political pamphlets, mostly forgotten, and a batch of novels of which only two are remembered by the public, Moll Flanders, … Continue reading →

Posted in Scottish Independence Referendum, Scottish Politics | 16 Comments

Car News: Poor Service

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Grouse Beater

A weekly guide to all that’s rotten about car ownership, plus some good bits I take my wee Smart Car to my local Mercedes-Smart dealership. The building is a few millions pounds of tiled showroom and wall-to-wall glass. The overheads … Continue reading →

Posted in Transportation | 10 Comments