James Christie

Nobody of working age in the UK has ever known a time when the basic rate of income tax has risen. It has only fallen. I remember parents and grandparents moaning but accepting income tax rises as an occasional fact of life, like mortgage rates rising. It's hard to see such acceptance returning.

I checked the original transcript from 2021 and this story is correct.

The Wallace Monument. The Victorians knew how to build a spectacular monument. It looms over Stirling University and I could see it from my bedroom when I was a student there.

This was the view from my bedroom at Stirling University. I was a postgraduate, so we got the best accommodation. The view from the top of the Wallace Monument is amazing. You look across to Stirling Castle on its crag and it is clear how you could control Scotland only if you held Stirling.

"Moralischer Schönwetterraum" is an interesting phrase I've never seen before. A moral comfort zone? A place where one doesn't have to deal with the real world?

Trump threatens $1bn legal action against BBC over 6 January speech edit - live updates The BBC chair earlier apologises for the

One hopes that the BBC will refer Trump to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram.
If Trump didn't want to be accused of instigating a violent riot and attempting to stage a coup he should not have done either of these things. It's quite simple really.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...

Rangers - Dundee Football Club - Official Website The Dark Blues were beaten 3-0 by Rangers at Dens Park this afternoon. Nico Raskin and Mikey Moore gave Rangers a 2-0 lead after only quarter of an hour. Dundee kept working hard but never threatened ...

Dundee FC 0 Rangers 3. Some ok spells of play, but with no end product and a porous defence the Dark Blues were nowhere near good enough. My report for the club website.
dundeefc.co.uk/match/ranger...

Heart of Midlothian - Dundee Football Club - Official Website Dundee went down to a 4-0 defeat against Hearts in Edinburgh this afternoon. The Dark Blues contained Hearts for the first half hour but the outcome was never in doubt after Lawrence Shankland put the...

Hearts 4 Dundee FC 0. A poor performance by the Dark Blues in Edinburgh. My report for the Dundee FC website.
dundeefc.co.uk/match/heart-...

I loathe the Hearts press box. It is exposed to the rain and the view is terrible. Half the pitch is blocked by screens to try and keep the rain off electrical equipment. It is awful for a stand that is only seven years old

If there's any coherence at all to Musk's position he's advocating a civil war along racial lines in the UK. Laws wants to deport over 10 million people.

I've just noticed I sent a message in which, as an afterthought, I referred to a famous work by Richard Strauss.
I actually typed 'Also Also Sprach Zarathustra...' without thinking it odd. 'Also' is one of the classic false friends for students learning German.

I suspect Reform UK would want politically appointed judges. They might also favour something like Gesundes Volksempfinden to require courts to do the 'right thing' regardless of what the letter of the law says. Reform has little respect for the traditional approach to the rule of law.

Falkirk - Dundee Football Club - Official Website Dundee lost 2-1 at Falkirk this afternoon. The Dark Blues had the edge in a first half in which they took the lead from Clark Robertson’s header at a corner. Falkirk started the second half strongly a...

Falkirk 2 Dundee FC 1. The Dark Blues threw a point away at the end. They were short of their best but should have taken a point today. My report for the club website.
dundeefc.co.uk/match/falkir...

Driving up the A846 on the Isle of Jura at sunrise. It's surely one of Scotland's most scenic 'highways'.

Populists live on simple answers and cheap applause. When those no longer work and they are confronted by unpopularity, they have nothing.

Facetious or not, it was more sensible than the government announcement. I doubt if even 1% of students taking STEM degrees have an A level in English Language.

In Scotland it makes sense to take Higher level English Language because pupils typically do 5 subjects in 5th year and some more in 6th if they stay on. In England, however, A level English Language is far less attractive because pupils have to specialise, taking 3 or maybe 4 A levels over 2 years.

This is nonsensical, meaningless posturing. English Language A level includes linguistics. It was introduced only in the 1980s. Before then a good O level in English Language was all that was required to demonstrate proficiency. Only a tiny minority of STEM students have A level English Language.

I agree. I have no patience with those who adopt Christianity as a cultural badge while ignoring Christian teaching. Evangelical Christians in the UK are different from those in the USA. I go to an evangelical church, whose members' politics are much the same as any other random social group.

I'm of the generation with fathers who served in WW2 and scorned nostalgia. Dad served in 1st Airborne; 1942-47, North Africa, Italy, Arnhem, Norway, Palestine, in his teens & early 20s (the ages I was a student). He once snapped at a friend. "No, life's far better now. No-one's trying to kill me!"

The letters columns of every local newspaper are filled with retired men moaning that modern life is rubbish and everything was so much better when they were a lad.
Why don't women moan like this? Do they tell their husbands to shut up, stop boring them, and write to the papers instead?

A friend once lent me a copy of CS Lewis's "The Screwtape Letters", just as a book to read. It was a pristine 1st edition in its original cover and signed by the author in 1942. I hardly dared touch it never mind drink coffee in the same room. I had to do some explaining to the owner.

Aberdeen - Dundee Football Club - Official Website Dundee went down to a 4-0 defeat against Aberdeen at Pittodrie this afternoon. The Dons tied up the points with three goals in eleven first half minutes. Jesper Karlsson opened the scoring from the pe...

Aberdeen 4 Dundee FC 0.
That was awful from the Dark Blues, who got what they deserved. My report for the club website.
dundeefc.co.uk/match/aberde...

Obviously that's a ridiculous comparison, but it's entirely Badenoch's fault for bringing it into play by promising to get rid of people without considering how deportation would work. Anyone with a brain or a sense of decency would have steered well clear of the stupid & callous response she gave.

The question is only irrelevant if she doesn't expect to win, or to be taken seriously. It's like a school-leaver saying they'll be earning £150k a year in 12 months and insisting it's irrelevant to ask how.

Is internal audit dead? This piece is prompted is a thought provoking post from Ankit Chakrabarty on LinkedIn. [Link opens in new tab with Ankit’s full post.] Ankit’s headline, that internal audit is dead, is …

Is internal audit dead? No, but if it doesn't learn some important lessons (especially from the Post Office scandal) it might as well die. My blog.
clarotesting.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/i...

I don't think I've ever seen a more stupid insult than "lanyard classes". Taken literally it means anyone with a job. In practice it just means "people I don't like".

I have watched his bit and the bit after Kuenssberg asks the question about 20 times and my ribs hurt.

Janey, Janey, Janey, still making me laugh from beyond.

Duncan was a music teacher and leader of the Royal Dundee Institution for the Blind's Orchestra. He was in great demand as a dance pianist, and was renowned in Dundee for his one man band act. Dolly followed in his footsteps, becaming the resident pianist in a Dundee dance hall at the age of 16. 3/3

It was a long wait for Bob Christie to return to his "darling Dolly". There was much to smile about that summer for the Christies and Macphersons.
This is Dolly Macpherson in her mid-20s in 1920, and her father Duncan. He was blinded aged 4 in an accident, but became a professional musician. 2/3.