welshbairn

He said all the right things when he was powerless, but did nothing about making it happen when he was in powerful cabinet positions. Maybe he found it impossible, but it's much easier saying what you think should happen when you're on the back benches with no responsibility for making it happen.

I see Salmond and Galloway as very similar, bit like Tony Benn. Very good in debate, great in opposition, but a bit weak in critical moments or in power. Very clever in soundbites but not so good at the nitty gritty, compromise and hard slog of making things happen. Populists basically.

We took a taxi out to the pyramids on a very hot July day, saw all the hustlers out trying to shove everyone on camels and asked the driver to take us to a bar. We ended up in the cocktail bar of a very posh old hotel* with air conditioning, very reasonably priced drinks, and a great view of the pyramids. Spent a lovely couple of hours and took another taxi back to town. *P.S. Mena House Hotel

Given that they started with such low ratings in the build up to the referendum I don't think they ever really thought they could win, so the currency wasn't a big issue, they could just blag their way through it, which Salmond thought he was a master at. As soon as Westminster and the Treasury went on the offensive about sharing the pound they had no fall back position, just unconvincing waffle like "It's our pound too you know!". That's what fucked it, ironically along with the EU membership question.

It wasn't till the Quakers took out most of the cocoa, and replaced it with milk and sugar that it became edible, apart from in Mexican cuisine as a sauce for chicken. f**k knows what the Americans did but Hershey bars taste like vomit. Dark Belgian chocolate should only be used for puddings or hot drinks.

There's a canal in Amsterdam with plaques showing the names and ages of wartime occupants of the apartment buildings opposite who died in concentration camps, every few yards you see another one. Incredibly moving, I don't usually react that way. I've been to various museums explaining horrible events and just thought yeah well, I knew that. I think maybe a kid's painting on a wall who you know was murdered in horrific circumstances shortly after can hit home just as hard as seeing where it happened.

It's pretty difficult to distinguish between slave and worker before money was invented, and I think property.

Quite enjoyed the salt mines. Didn't go to Auschwitz but went a a synagogue where they had an exhibition of pictures drawn by children who ended up there, probably just as harrowing. There was something about going on a tourist's outing to a concentration camp that put me off.

He's not thick about manipulating the media, he's bullshitted and blagged his way through bankruptcies, tax fraud, multiple affairs, and lies every day with no comeback. In that sense he's a genius, any other politician would have been toast half way through the primaries. How the f**k he won Florida and Texas after calling Mexicans rapists, thieves and murderers is beyond me.

Finally going all continental, just needs a couple of old boys sitting there, cackling away.

The auld alliance.

They should leave the doddery old fool alone, he's 82, retired ages ago.

How did you manage before you bought a car?

I've no I idea what you mean now. "What kind of infection" could have meant severity or symptomatic v asymptomatic or probably other things. I'll leave you to it.