The End

The running will continue, as will the fandango between rich & poor, conservative and progressive. But this season of blogging has finally drawn to a close. Thank you for reading.

Haiku 5: forensic political analysis

Several good runs.

Cameron visits Scotland.

Patronising arse.

Haiku 4: Cameron waffles unconvincingly against Scottish independence

Dawn run. Buds on trees.

A disunited kingdom.  

Fur coat and no pants.

Haiku 3: US leads/UK follows

Fine run, much drier.

UK wealth gap gets bigger

When managed by toffs.

Haiku 2 - reflection on positive use of celebrity

Brisk run through bird song.

Sean Penn supports Malvinas.

No knighthoods for him !

Haiku post for time management related reasons of brevity

Good but murky run.
Cameron is still useless.
No progress there then.

Dump Trump

A good fast run through the rather dreich woods

Donald Trump is a rich American person who plays golf. His dad left him a lot of money, and he made more through property speculation and casino ownership. Seemingly because his mother came from the Western Isles of Scotland, he is developing a “golf resort” for other rich golf enthusiasts, on the east coast, near Aberdeen.

The Scottish government is a democratically elected body, with a policy of developing renewable energy through various means, including offshore wind farms, one of which is planned for a site just off the same stretch of east coast.

In response, Trump has predictably gone on the offensive, in both senses of the word, to protect his sensitive punters from the hideousness of renewable energy generation.

Every cloud has a silver lining though and, whilst the prospect of a loud-mouthed American behemoth stomping around trying to subvert the Scottish government is not attractive, perhaps schoolchildren will be able to learn something about the perils of being on the receiving end of neo-colonial arrogance.

Mutha of parliaments

A damp but refreshing run by the loch this morning before returning to the flesh pots of Glasgow.

George Monbiot recently cited an article in the journal Psychological Science, which argued convincingly that people with conservative views are likely to be of low intelligence. Yesterday's proceedings in the UK parliament appear to confirm this. Ed Milliband put forward a reasonable case that the deeply unpopular proposed changes to the NHS were being handled so incompetently that they should be scrapped. Prime Minister Cameron's response was, essentially, "Yah boo, nobody likes you, not even your brother, and I'm going to do it anyway !!!" 

True, Monbiot goes on to castigate the liberal left for letting conservatism win (ref), but therein lies a much bigger debate about the greed and selfishness that pervades fragmented societies.

Just another day

Ascribing human emotions to other animals is not a cornerstone of respectful inter-species co-existence, but the four red deer, who had strayed into a field where they don't belong, did look very embarrassed as we ran past this morning.

Back at base, a quick scan of the news reveals a collection of domestic headlines which don't really need further comment:

• Ministry of Defence cutting 54,000 jobs with no coherent strategy (Guardian)
• PM says Health Secretary has my full support, and denies National Health  Service bill disaster (Independent)
• England football team manager resigns (The Times)
• Duchess of Cambridge goes to exhibition all by herself (Daily Telegraph).

No further comment that is except for the enduring mystery of why the game of football is seen as so newsworthy. I'd like to think that it reflects a strand of child-like innocence in our society, but probably it has more to do with testosterone and transferred aggression.

Democracy ?

A spectacular sunrise over Ben Nevis this morning, and a possible sighting of two sea eagles as we ran beside the loch.

David Cameron has been very enthusiastic about upholding the freedom of Falkland Islanders to determine their own future, rather less so with the people of Scotland, and not at all with the myriad opponents of his health & social care bill, to whom he is condemning a future of further privatisation, profiteering, and corner-cutting, in welfare services. The only supporters of this bill seem to be Cameron, Health Secretary Lansley, and the private companies waiting to grab a bigger slice of the cake. Oh, and Nick Clegg.