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.

Well, the British have finally changed the clocks and I'm not being subjected any longer to the BBC's dreadful Outlook radio programme. This year the clocks in North America went an hour ahead three weeks earlier than the Brits. The radio feed is on a timer, 6am, and that meant Outlook - with some tagline about personal stories - instead of the news. Outlook used to be a case of interesting tales if true. Sadly, too many of them were not true. There were so many red flags that the production team should have given them a wide berth. A good rule of thumb is that if something doesn't make sense, that's because it's probably not true. I checked out one of the programme's Canadian stories and it was so full of holes it could be filed under Collander. Outlook has changed. Now the stories are more likely to be true but the subjects are so boring that no reasonable person cares about them. I tried several times to listen to a full episode but I can't remember now whose story was being recounted when I switched off. The subjects were that tiresome and boring. 

I'm a little bit baffled why these days news programme presenters thank the reporters on sir for their stories. Surely, these reporters have been paid for their contribution and are just doing their jobs. They didn't file the story out of the goodness of their hearts. Mind you, maybe I expect more from people when it comes to doing their jobs properly than others do. Years ago I was an employee of the year. That meant I was a member of the judging panel for the coming year's employee of the month. At the first meeting I felt most of the candidates for the employee of the month award were basically only doing the job they were paid for. I wasn't invited back for any other judging panel meetings.

I'm not a fan of Lallans. I think the problem is that there's no such language. I've heard folk on the radio, poets in particular, who tend to think that all they have to do is substitute as many English words with Scots dialect ones as they can. The problem is the dialect words are plucked willy-nilly from across Scotland. No single person would naturally use all those words in one sentence. There are many varieties of Lowland speech. Welding them all together into one supposed language, Lallans, comes across as fake and affected.

There's a radio programme called the Urbanist. For the past fortnight it was unavailable here. That didn't make me sad. The programme often makes me angry. It usually interviews architects and others involved in city development. The reality of this world is Grenville Towers and 72 dead. Most folk I know are victims of supposed urban developers rather than being better off thanks to them. These people very seldom make ordinary people's lives better. And yet I don't think I've ever heard the programme's presenters ever ask a tough question. The only criticisms of urban planning come from interviewees trying to differentiate themselves from their competitors. I suspect the presenters' reticence may be linked to the fact that much of the programme's content comes from international conferences and perhaps no-one wants to jeopardise the flow of invitations.