Recently my ire was raised. I made the mistake of listening to the state radio station the Canadian Government forces me to pay for - Motto - Yesterday's News Tomorrow but Infantile American Podcasters Today. Anyway, there was some stupid TV critic yammering on about innocent people being killed to further a good cause. The good cause was forcing an area into a foreign country the majority of its residents wanted nothing to do with. Is this Canadian Government policy? Why am I being forced to pay to give ignorant stupid television commentators a platform for fascist ill-informed comment when they decide to venture into reality instead of made-up fantasy drama.

When I was 16 or 17 I had one of those little 50cc mopeds - a Suzuki AP50 if you're interested. One Saturday or Sunday I decided to ride from Livingston to Callander to look in on my Dad's old Uncle Don. But when I got to his house the woman who answered the door said he'd died a couple of years earlier but she had no details because she'd never met him. The thing is that when I got back to Livingston I was shown a family picture and the woman who answered the door was in it; older but definitely her. We knew Betty Wilson had been staying with Uncle Don. Why would she lie? To a large extent you can choose your friends but not your family.

These days I seem to be hearing more and more supposed subject experts on the radio whose sole qualification seems to that they are bloggers or podcasters. Quite often I'm unimpressed by their insight or mastery of the subject in question, or both. I hope they aren't selected simply because they are easy to find by going on the internet. I know when it comes to locating subject experts these folk are pretty low hanging fruit. Quick is cheap. But you get what you pay for.

It is illegal in Canada to deny the Holocaust happened during the Second World War. I don't think stupidity and ignorance in speech should be a crime. I don't think expressing an opinion or a doubt should be a crime. It is easier to identify nasty cranks quickly if I hear them deny things like the Holocaust. And what if it is decided to make questioning what others might regard as indisputable fact a crime? This is a very very slippery path.

You know, for a draft dodger Trump sure seems to love the use of military force. I heard him on the radio praising the most recent US war dead, following his attack on Iran, as patriotic heroes. And yet when the young Donald J Trump had the chance to serve his democratically elected leaders in the US military in the 1960s he was a no-show. A tenant of his landlord dad, who claimed to have a medical licence, certified Trump as disabled by heel spurs when his draft dodging days seemed to have finally come to an end. Not that that his disability stopped Trump playing team sports. Or that he can recall now which foot had this crippling injury. In his first term as president Trump did not bother to hide the fact that he regarded those in military uniform as mugs. He'd avoided military service; why didn't they have the brains to do the same thing? Let's hope the next German-Scottish president of the USA has better luck when it comes to crippling disability. By the way, is he still claiming Trump is a Swedish name?

I heard a senior British government advisor on the radio recently. She spoke with a pukka Pony Club accent until after she got to her fourth or fifth sentence. Then her Ulster accent became more and more obvious as she spoke. I thought it was sad that she felt she had to hide a part of her identity in order to get a good job. I recall that several of the more successful folk from my home down spoke with accents that were sort of Scottish but not identifiable with any region. I wonder if their "success" could be attributed to their non-accent. Or perhaps it was more due to them being the sort of highly driven ruthless individuals who were prepared to sacrifice part of their identity and heritage on the altar of careerism.

So, Scottish football fans at the World Cup started putting orange traffic comes on the heads of American statues. That apparently went down OK in Boston. Not so much in Miami. For once I have some sympathy with the Yanks. There's a question here of cultural sensitivity. The traffic cone thing appears to have started in Glasgow City Centre with the statue of the Duke of Wellington. There can't be many alive today whose blood would boil at that. In fact, I'd be hard put to think of any statue in Scotland which should never ever be coned. But Americans, especially in Miami, might feel differently if they felt one of their historic icons was being disrespected or ridiculed. It's their country and they have feelings, which should be respected. The Tartan Army's statue high jinx stateside have apparently led to an outbreak of coning across Scotland. Apparently some folk in Edinburgh are not too happy about this resurrection of Keelie Culture. Or is it called Weedgie Culture these days?

I've been delighted to hear so many US broadcasters take a closer look at their country's founders as they celebrate 250 years since the Declaration of Independence. Yes, it was a nasty civil war that was more of a coup than anything else. Concepts like Liberty were a con. Americans just swapped remote masters in London for equally unsavourary local homegrown versions. Egality and Equality were good catch phrases but once the British were out many of those who fought the redcoats found that's all they were. Worries about the future of slavery within the British Empire were more pressing concerns for the men behind the declaration. And London's ban on settlement west of the Appalachians was an even bigger worry. Slave owner George Washington had been involved in illegally selling Indian land and unless London was taken out of the picture, he, like several other leading "Patriots" was going to jail. And it was the French who beat the British by forcing them to divert military resources to defend their far more lucrative Caribbean colonies rather than the bunch of buckskin-clad tobacco-chewing backwoods marksmen of legend. It's important to know where and what we really came from. It's fitting that Trump is president for the 250th anniversary. He's a real chip off the Founders' block.

I hadn't realised that the bonnet badge of the Royal Regiment of Scotland had been designed for the 1960 film Tunes of Glory. Well almost. The makers of Tunes of Glory had to come up with a fictional Highland regiment for the film of the book, both written by former Gordon Highlander James Kennaway. That involved a costume designer coming up with a bonnet badge. A lion rampant imposed on a saltire surrounded a wreath of, what looks to me like, thistles was decided on. The RRoS in real life opted for the lion and saltire without the surrounding spray but a crown above the lion. I'm afraid I can't be sure of the fictional regiment's somewhat busy tartan. But it may have worked better than the bastardised Government tartan, with its outsize gaudy green squares, adopted by the RRoS. The Tunes of Glory kilts, trews and thistle collar badges reappeared in Carry on Up The Khyber in 1968.

I think I'm in danger of hoisting myself by mine own petard. Getting a book published is not easy. But it seems to be easier if a would-be author comes from a Home Counties, or London, Pony Club background. The number of Pony Clubbers among the published seems disproportionate. I recall some dyslexic woman proclaiming in a posh voice that not only had she been published but her book had barely required any editing or correction. I took this to be evidence of how uneven the playing field is. The dice are loaded from the start. I thought a publisher who specialised in books by folk who had spent at least seven years of their life living in a council house might help even things up. But I've often argued that all discrimination is wrong. Two Wrongs cannot make a Right. So, my proposed Council House Press, which would favour those from less privileged backgrounds, must be a bad idea.

I heard an American supposed academic interviewed about a book published under his name about Artificial Intelligence. You may have beaten me to the punchline coz he used AI to write the book. And, surprise, surprise, it had several invented quotes in it. You'd think someone who proclaimed himself an expert in AI would have foreseen that. The Yank claimed every writer these days uses AI. Oh, no, mister, they don't. For what should be obvious reasons. But sadly, time is money and time saved by using AI to research and quickly composed AI text will soon see the cheap drive out The Good.

I just finished listening to a BBC programme about something called Toxic Masculinity. Sounds pretty nasty. I'm a guy. So, whatever I do must because of that be masculine behaviour. I don't need told what is and is not masculine. But what struck me from the programme was how what was regarded as toxic if a man says it has been for decades acceptable if a woman said it about guys. Toxic Feminism has been with us for years. In fact for decades the BBC has given a platform to some very unpleasant utterings - as long as it comes from someone without a penis. I still think the BBC would not broadcast a programme that banned all female contributors and yet one that bans men is acceptable. Let's end the double standards. And stop offering platforms for toxic sexism from anyone.

With the World Cup approaching I have little doubt that folk who know little about football will start chuntering about The Beautiful Game. These people, often North Americans, know little about football. It is game but it is seldom beautiful. In fact, I'm not sure it is ever beautiful. I think part of the problem is that most North Americans have never played it. That puzzles me to extent because it's been played in Canada for years. Edmonton Scottish FC once fielded actual Scots and some of them were pretty good players. I know one old Scottish guy who would have had the chance to turn professional if he hadn't emigrated to Canada. Now the World Cup will soon be being played in Canada, the USA and Mexico. But that's more about trying to create a lucrative professional sports income stream than any actual love or understanding of football on the part of the promoters. One look at how visiting fans are going to be ripped off tells you more than you want to know. In the USA the price of a bus ticket to get to the game has been jacked for $3 to something like $100. And it turns out that daytime temperatures at some of grounds are expected to be dangerously high for both players and fans. It's all about the money stupid. Especially if you’re stupid enough to think it's The Beautiful Game.

I've been disappointed by the high number of America. "academics" teaching at Scottish universities these days - if radio interviews are anything to go by. My reading has led me to form a very low opinion of US faculty members. I resent the time I've wasted finishing the drivel most of them produce. I have a theory as to why they are so piss-poor. It goes back to the Vietnam War and the fact that draft dodgers like Donald Trump could avoid service by enrolling in higher education. The demand for college and university places from spoiled rich brats meant the teaching faculties were expanded too rapidly. Folks who couldn't teach a toddler to tie a shoe lace ended up being taken on. The consequences are still with us - if you're taught by an idiot......... And as those students become professors themselves in succeeding generations the damage was perpetuated. The other sad part of this influx of Yanks is that it also suggests that like US higher education in the mid-60s through to the early 70s the Scottish system has been expanded too rapidly. No surprise these days when kids need a university degree in catering get a job laying tables in a greasy spoon cafe.

When I was a Boy Reporter, editorial and advertising were kept very strictly segregated. Things have obviously changed. Now on commercial radio I can hear a programme host interviewing some local news maker and then seconds later the same woman is extolling the services of some plumber. Can I really take anything she says seriously when she is so obviously prepared to act like a shill*? What is the price of allowing a doubt to be cast over a person's credibility and integrity? I don't think a plumber could pay me enough. In fact, no-one could pay me enough. *Shill: Accomplice of a hawker who acts an enthusiastic customer to entice others.

I'm fairly sure the author Charles Dickens was sceptical when it came to organised charities. He thought the first call on money donated was for the charity's supposed expenses. And I'm fairly sure too that a reasonably recent survey of major charities showed only about 10% of the money they collected actually went to helping people. The rest went on wages for themselves and administrative costs. It would not surprise me. Certainly, watching the charities in my area I have come to the conclusion that the welfare of those in need of help comes way second to the welfare of those employed by the charity. For instance, I don't think administrative talent is hereditary, so mother-daughter management teams causes my eyebrow to raise. Now I'm sure there are some genuine charities out there who really do want to help and don't use other people's misfortunes to line their own pockets. So, how about this - to be a registered charity an organisation must pay no more than minimum wage to any of its employees. That should weed out a lot of the profiteers. As one man who genuinely wanted to help once said There's A Lot Of Money In Poverty.

A while back an acquaintance asked me to help shift a table from her flat to ground floor of her towerblock. Why not. It would get my good deed of the day done before lunch. Now, a lot of people would show their appreciation with a five dollar bill - less than the cost of a pint of beer these days. I'd decided to reject the offer. It's not a good deed if you get paid. But there was no offer. I think she'd mentioned I wasn't the first person she'd asked that morning to help move that table. Maybe the others had helped her move tables before.

There have been a lot of exiles on my radio recently -Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, Lebanon. The thing is that many of them don't represent opinion or feeling in their home countries. They are not drawn from the massive columns of refugees crowded at border fleeing war or an oppressive regime with all their possessions balanced on their heads. They are mainly from the most privileged sections of society and in some cases have had to leave their country because they were involved in trying to reinstall a nasty right-wing regime. A number of Iranian exiles were on the radio lamenting the supposed ceasefire in Iran. They wanted the airstrikes to continue until the Islamic regime is ousted. Easy for them to demand. Back in Iran there were certainly people who initially welcomed the attacks. Then they realised that the American plan is to free them by trying to kill them. Now they are not so keen. I wish the radio would stop giving these privileged, usually politically extremist, exiles so much of a platform.

I just heard a crime drama in which Tyneside had apparently become part of Yorkshire. Not a single Geordie accent. I know not everyone in the area has a discernible Geordie accent, but no-one at all of them. Maybe that was one of the reason the London-based producer of The Black Museum, Harry Towers, failed in the early 1950s to interest the BBC in broadcasting the programme. Another reason might be the scriptwriters' bizarre habit of putting American words into the mouths of British characters. No-one in London would have spoken about sidewalks, wrenches or streetcars. I was also baffled as to why Scotland Yard would be involved in investigating an 1857 murder in Glasgow. But I do know that trial would not have involved only 12 jurors. So, a lack of research may also have put the BBC off buying the drama. Even the involvement of Orson Welles in the project counted for nothing so far as the BBC was concerned. My wee brother tells me the programme, set in the UK and first broadcast in America, was recorded in Australia using local actors.

I heard two writers on the radio discussing the extra barriers they face when it came to getting published due to their humble "working class" origins. Certainly folk from privileged backgrounds seem to have an easier time. I think both attributed their success to their own talent. Maybe so. But maybe not entirely. One was black and the other a transsexual. Two easy checkboxes for publishers who want to claim some diversity credentials.