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In my constituency we have candidates from the main parties plus one independent. The independent guy's leaflet reads almost exactly the same as the SNP one. On the list however we have some apparent zoomers. We have: Abolish the Scottish Parliament, Alba (aka The Sleepy Cuddles Alliance), All for Unity (7 candidates here; imagine applying to be an All for Unity candidate and ranking seventh out of seven), Freedom Alliance (George Michael fans perhaps?), Reform UK (no idea what they want to reform - is this one of Farage's?), Tories, Scottish Family (and yet all the candidates have different last names...suspicious), Greens, Labour, Lib Dems, Scottish Libertarians (zoomers), SNP, Scottish Renew (not a scooby what needs renewed), UKIP (Holy cow! Is this still a thing?) I'm half tempted to go along and vote for one of these oddball parties, and just write "Douglas Ross Blows Goats" on the constituency ballot.

All news outlets and public health zealouts:

Any hints or tips on how to sell this to the missus as a chick flick would be greatly appreciated.

Professor of Psychological Medicine suggests that Long Covid may, in part, be psychological. George Monbiot throws toys out the pram. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/14/super-spreading-long-covid-professor-press-coverage

They did indeed recover a bit in 2019, back up to ~1.25 million votes. The reasons why are open to debate but I reckon include the real unpopularity of Corbyn (who lost the 6 he gained in 2017) and Johnson (who lost 7 of the seats May won in Scotland). Comparing SNP performance in 2017-2019 isn't the same as comparing Corbyn's however. In Scotland the Tories and Labour presented two leaders, a Scottish one and a UK one. Much of what I've discussed about the Labour "win" in 2017 relates to England. Scotland has a different dynamic. In 2017 Ruth Davidson led the Scottish Tories, and she was a good campaigner. In 2019 it was Jackson Carlaw, who wasn't. Theresa May stayed well out of it.

The freak election here was 2015. Again, a post-Referendum election and the SNP scooped 56 out of 59 seats. There's no way they could have held on to that number going forward. So things settled back a little in 2017 in Scotland, but mostly because many Yes voters who turned out massively in 2015 stayed at home 2 years later after the Indyref dust had settled a bit. The SNP lost about at third of their votes from 2015 to 2017 (from ~1.5 million to ~1 million). What's interesting here is that the Tories picked up 12 seats and Oh Jeremy Corbyn picked up six. In Scotland.

2017. The high tide of Corbyn. Read any Guardian article about Labour and the comments are filled with Corbyn types waxing lyrical about the miracle of 2017. Whilst ignoring the facts. 2017 was the first post Brexit election. UKIP vanished and their 4 million or so votes split fairly evenly between Labour and the Tories. Post a surprising referendum outcome but before the result was implemented, against the worst campaigner I have ever seen in T May, Lib Dems still in the wilderness after their betrayal in the coalition... Many, many cards fell Labour's way in this freak oddity of election circumstances. And they still lost to Theresa May. For all they talk about 2017 as Corbyns moment, it really wasn't. He never became PM. Never introduced his policies. Helped nobody.

Bruce Springsteen, Etihad Arena, 2012. Came on stage at 7 pm, no warm up band, no break, finished at 11.30 pm. Top class. U2 Murrayfield 1997. This was the Pop tour so a few poor songs in the set, but it was my first proper stadium gig and it was an absolute riot. Eagles Hampden 2001. Fantastic. Joe Walsh in a kilt playing "Life's Been Good" was my highlight. REM, Stirling castle, 1999. They had a warm-up band called Stereolab that were awful and played for about 90 minutes. Me and my friends were (along with everyone else) booing them to get off. Then the band came on and they were fabulous. Glorious summer evening. Last one is a toss-up so I'll call it a tie (or top 6 if you like). First up, Mark Knopfler, Albert Halls, Stirling, 1996. Charity gig for the Dunblane families and a low key affair, but the first time I saw an actually great guitarist at work. Changed his guitar after every song. Second, Smokie, Uppsala Town Hall in Sweden, 1999. You have no idea how popular these guys were in Scandinavia. A fun old concert - turns out the Swedes didn;t know the Chubby Brown version of Livin' Next Door to Alice. I was the only one singing those bits, and getting dirty looks.

There are three main things slowing/preventing an exit from lockdown. First, as I have said before, the public health people who are now enjoying their moment in the sun. People worldwide are hanging on every utterance and tweet. On one level they don't want this to stop any time soon. Second, politicians are terrified. Think back to October/November. Boris Johnson's poll ratings were in the toilet because Labour were effective in their arguments that the UK government had been too slow into lockdown, too fast out of it and had "ignored the science". The vaccination programme has pulled Johnson back up big time, but he and other politicians saw how that argument was corrosive to poll numbers. So in future, we'll see politicians agreeing with the public health folk at the expense of all others, for fear of losing support. Third, sensitivity. In a normal year with a full vaccination programme we lose between 7000 and 20000 people in the UK to seasonal flu. Covid is more infectious and has a slightly higher mortality; so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that come the winter of 2021/22 we might see, say, 30-40,000 deaths. Normally we'd live with it, except we've become so accustomed now to having leaders stand on podiums announcing the "sad deaths" or a handful of people (sometimes one or two, in the summer months) that a number like 30,000 deaths will have many folk clutching at their pearls and demanding lockdowns. Also, remember that those likely to die from flu are essentially the same cohort as those likely to die of covid. And so the total covid+flu deaths won't be as high as one might imagine. This last point is where we need brave politicians to decide what is acceptable and what is not. I fear we'll be in this for the winter again. If we have a Christmas night out, I'll be amazed.

Tough to narrow down to just five... It's a long way to the top Highway to Hell Back in Black You Shook Me All Night Long Thunderstruck

Emily Bett Rickards from Arrow, I think.

Watching it last night: First 40 minutes: standard episode. Last 20 minutes: Oh no. Hope that copper nails the woman to the fucking wall for this. Poor guy. Go on, copper! Last 30 seconds: ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

If this happens, I will take it as absolute proof that she reads the Pie and Bovril coronavirus thread.

On the visitors front, I have been to my parents a few times but kept outside except for one day when hail stones came down and we went into the conservatory. But from now on we're going inside. The wife - an ardent pro-Lockdown person if ever there was one - was invited to her pal's house for a coffee last week. I was surprised, but she went, and went inside. Thinking about it, I've seen my neighbours all have visitors, and my parents neighbours as well. Not sure if anyone is actually sticking to these rules any more.

Righty-oh

Nothing borderline about it.

No, he's been SNP since about 2005.

On the subject of talking to parents, my dad spoke about Labour the other week. He said that when he was younger, Labour was the party of the "ordinary working man". That isn't the case these days. They've become a talking shop for *minor* issues only (his words). The people who were for the ordinary working man in the 80s are still there, but the working man has moved on from the heavy industry days. By minor issues I think he's talking about foodbanks and the like which are very important, but aren't gonna win anyone an election. Put bluntly, he isn't sure what Labour is for nowadays either, but knows what they were for.

Thanks everyone. I will just let them go.

Holy cow. Went away for a few days and came back to this. It isn't going well for the Sleepy Cuddles alliance, is it?

Alright gang - opinions please. My folks have asked if my two kids (aged 15 and 10) would like to go and spend the night with them this week. Pre-covid they stayed with them once a week. They stayed once last summer, but that's been it. Mum has hat both jabs, dad has had one and their opinion is certainly in the "f**k it" category. They want to have a fun night with the grandkids. I'm inclined to just let them go. Can anyone here tell me why not (aside form the fact it's currently not legal)?

On the second point, I agree that even with a full vaccination there is a core of people who will not want to give us back our old lives. When, really, will we stop with the face masks? The public health nutbags who have taken control will keep the Covid show on the road until every person in every nook and cranny of the planet has had a vaccine, and even then they'll be sounding the variant klaxon every week to keep people convinced that at any moment, lockdown will return. Reading that back, I sound like a loony but as we emerge from lockdown this is more and more what I am convinced of. From Peter Hitchens' article yesterday:

My mum, in her 60s with no underlying health issues, has had two jabs of the Pfizer vaccine. Many of her friends, also in their 60s, have had the same. My dad, age 75 with angina, diabetes and a few other issues, has had one dose of the AZ vaccine. Not sure what the score is with this.

Michelle Gomez was the best thing about this

Been having this exact same discussion with the wife. She has been literally scared senseless for the last year and is waiting for the next wave, certain that in a couple of months we will be back in lock down.