Alan Ferrier

The Royal Family - for two decades, at every stage of these shabby, squalid, dishonourable proceedings - protected, covered up, and ultimately paid for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's behaviour. His disgrace is their disgrace.
bsky.app/profile/kerc...

Prince Charles ‘cash-for-honours’ scandal grows with fresh allegations Prince reportedly ‘met at least nine times’ with William Bortrick, the alleged fixer at heart of the claims

King Charles says, "the law must take its course."

Cool.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021...

The last senior royal to be arrested was King Charles I in 1647. He was executed two years later.

Having a monarchy next door is a little like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and has daubed their house with clown murals, displays clown dolls in each window and has an insatiable desire to hear about and discuss clown-related news stories. More specifically, for the Irish, it’s like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and, also, your grandfather was murdered by a clown. Beyond this, it’s the stuff of children’s stories. Having a queen as head of state is like having a pirate or a mermaid or Ewok as head of state. What’s the logic? Bees have queens, but the queen bee lays all of the eggs in the hive. The queen of the Britons has laid just four British eggs, and one of those is the sweatless creep Prince Andrew, so it’s hardly deserving of applause. The contemporary royals have no real power. They serve entirely to enshrine classism in the British nonconstitution. They live in high luxury and low autonomy, cosplaying as their ancestors, and are the subject of constant psychosocial projection from people mourning the loss of empire. They’re basically a Rorschach test that the tabloids hold up in order to gauge what level of hysterical batshittery their readers are capable of at any moment in time.

A timely reminder of how Ireland views the British monarchy, via the @irishtimes.com
www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-r...

Wee thought for the day: but for a twist of fate in the great womb lottery that is the British Royal Family, Andrew might have been the head of state of the United Kingdom.

I'll bet he's sweating now.

And now, of course, the electorate will be bombarded by claims that "Nigel saved your elections."

Could even Liz Truss have played such a blinder?
bsky.app/profile/poli...

How Glasgow is making the world a better place Not the rougher, dirtier sibling of Edinburgh, but Glasgow is a city full of surprises that’s far warmer than the rain would let you think.

How Glasgow is making the world a better place: faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-glasgow-...

HT @gem_ste @ the other place.

Glasgow Subway Map 1896 vs 2025
bsky.app/profile/bril...

Scotland 'matches France for food and drink export value', figures show Scotland's food and drink export value per capita stands “shoulder-to-shoulder” with some of Europe’s biggest economies and outperforms…

In 2024, Scotland exported £7.14 billion worth of food & drink, equivalent to £1288 per person. By contrast, England exported £12.12bn, £207 per person. Scotland’s food and drink exports per head are more than six times England’s, and on a par with France.
www.thenational.scot/news/2585468...

Is anyone from the government now going to resign over wasting £millions arresting and prosecuting decent people for opposing genocide? I think we all know the answer.

An 18-year-old Diego Maradona looking up Glasgow's Hope Street from a window of the Central Station Hotel, June 1979.

I see we've reached the "isn't it about time we sent children back up chimneys?" point of late-stage capitalism.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02...

Sarwar's playing a high-stakes game of political poker. Unfortunately his hand is the Starship Enterprise, the 3 of Cups, Mr Bun the Baker, Vine Street and Colonel Mustard.

Since #bbclaurak is trending, let’s remind ourselves that ONE MONTH ago, the BBC invited Mandelson on for a soft-ball interview on her show. While HIS CLIENT , Palantir’s Louis Moseley appeared as a pundit

Both, as I wrote at time, were ‘abject failures of journalism’
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If both Starmer and Sarwar survive, Sarwar is going into the election campaign with the message, "Vote for a Labour leader I called on to resign".

Via @labourlewis.bsky.social at the other place.

Oh, do fuck off.

A senior Labour source messages: "Currently looks like Anas has gone over the top by himself."

'Idiocy': Labour figures round on Anas Sarwar after he calls for Keir Starmer to quit ANAS Sarwar has triggered enormous backlash after calling for Keir Starmer to resign

“Idiocy, incoherent, and self-defeating. Anas does not have authority to speak on behalf of the Scottish party in this way. It’s a fucking shitshow.”

If Sarwar can't command the respect and co-operation of Scottish Labour then he himself must resign.
www.thenational.scot/news/2583922...

Douglas Alexander is both a cabinet member and *co-chair of the Scottish Labour election campaign*.

How do you run a campaign when your leader and the co-chair of your campaign disagree on whether the Labour PM should resign? How is that sustainable?

Sarwar holding the Labour manifesto with "Change" printed over Starmer's head.

Looks like we might be getting that change after all. But not the change that was promised.

Reminder: it was a certain Gordon Brown who bestowed a peerage on Peter Mandelson and appointed him as Business Secretary in his cabinet. Mandelson had already been sacked twice from high office for scandalous behaviour and actions. Mr. Brown would prefer that we forget this.

I see Labour's promise of "change" and their much-vaunted vow to end corruption and sleaze is going well.

A cracker from Alistair Carmichael, then Secretary of State for Scotland, during the referendum campaign who categorically assured us that there was "no question of there being a Brexit referendum. That is the hard political fact."
t.co/g2zrBmEnT3

That didn't stop the BBC playing it on a loop for about a week. But instead of making public what was essentially a betrayal of Scotland post-referendum he followed his “federalism / home rule” promise by a suggestion that folk start a petition.

Gordon Brown urged Scots to vote No for “faster, safer, better change” within the UK. A "modern form of Home Rule" that's the "closest thing to federalism", with Holyrood "handed equal status to Westminster."

“This is a promise we will keep,” he said.

I don't know if Epstein was working for the Russians, as our media seems keen to persuade us, but I do know that a spy was once found dead folded inside a holdall in a bathtub and news outlets told us that he put himself in the bag and padlocked it from the outside.

'Finally got him to go today': Mandelson's emails to Epstein on Gordon Brown Emails released by the US appear to shed new light on the dying days of Gordon Brown's government.

Blimey.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...