Next time Kate "Hawhawsdottir" Laycock tries to tell you on Deutsche Welle Radio that the British invented concentration camps, email and ask her about Shark Island. Though it was built three years after the last British camps were closed, in 1902, Shark Island was far more like what most people think of when they see the words "concentration camp". Arbitrary execution by guards, starvation, disease, inhumane medical experiments and death through over work were all hallmarks of Shark Island in 1905 in what is now Namibia. The main cause of death among the Boer women and children held in British concentration camps five years earlier was disease caused by incompetent healthcare administration, not a policy of near genocide. Similar incompetence meant far more British soldiers died in their camps than on the battlefield. Shark Island was part of an attempt by Imperial Germany to wipe out the rebellious Herero and Nama people. Some of those involved in the deaths of up to 3,000 prisoners at Shark Island played a role in setting up the Nazi camps just over 25 years later. And by the way, the British got the idea of corralling the civilian population to stop them supplying guerrilla fighters from t Spanish operations in Cuba. And in view of Deutsche Welle's penchant love of American propaganda maybe they should ask themselves whether Indian reservations were not the inspiration for the Spanish in Cuba.

When I had a real job, as a journalist, if I was told to do something I wasn't sure was the best way to tackle the story, I would say so. Maybe perhaps that's why I don't have a real job anymore. I don't think that folk realised that what I was doing was actually a sign of respect. There is no point engaging in a discussion with a complete idiot. They won't change their minds. I never tried it with the pair whom I considered the two biggest clowns at the Edmonton Sun. In way there no point because their far more sensible deputies would do the common sense thing anyway after the clowns went home at the end of their shift. But it's a shame that some of those deputies didn't realise that discussion was a sign of respect.

When I was checking how many British soldiers were killed during the First Gulf War in 1991 when the Americans attacked a halted armoured column I was struck by one thing. That was the similarities between the 1991 incident and the US attack on a Canadian live fire exercise in Afghanistan in 2002 which killed four Canadian soldiers. Both incidents involved the Air National Guard, which has a load of civilian passenger jet pilots irresponsibly put in charge of military hardware. But main similarity was that the pilots involved just wanted to kill someone and they didn't care who. Just as long as it wasn't a fellow American. Then they might be trouble. The third similarity was the gross stupidity, lack of professionalism and incompetence involved in both fatal attacks. Both incidents were closer to reckless murder than accident of war. Is there not a song with the line Shot a man Reno just to watch him die. Maybe National Guard has a version along the lines of Bombed some guys in Iraq just to see the body parts fly.

Even more interesting than the question during my interview with the Scottish Office than who I would invite to a dinner party was whether I would lie to a journalist. Lies are nearly always found out in the end. So, lying is not a good idea. The question placed me in a dilemma because I knew British Government spokesmen did lie. A guy at the Ministry of Defence had just lied to me about the deaths of nine British soldiers at the hands of the US Air Force during the First Gulf War in 1991. I didn't want to appear naive when answering at the interview. But having never been to a dinner party, I probably wasn't going to get the job anyway.

Well, the folks in charge of the BBC have shown yet again that they're not fit to run a bath. They've just cut off overseas online access to British and Scottish radio news bulletins. So, no more Good Morning Scotland, no more The World at One. I'm not getting up in the middle of the night to listen to them livestreamed. Even if that was possible. Now, you'd have thought in a world of misinformation the BBC would have an interest in providing as much news content as possible. I guess I'll just have to rely on MAGA Conspiracy sources and that nice Elon Musk chappie, the one who believes the British jail system is filled with political prisoners. I don't think letting folk listen to the same news as people back home get costs the BBC extra. Did you know the BBC has a programme that no men are allowed on - The Conversation. The creators boasted no males were allowed at all but I think they ran into problems denying guys jobs on the production team - ie sex discrimination laws relating to employment. That doesn't mean they don't discriminate, just they can't boast about it any longer. Jolly Good Show.