Free booze



Attended the launch of Tom Devine's Scotland's Empire last night, hosted by his publisher Penguin at the National Museum of Scotland with some chums from work. Excellent surroundings - Victorian glass and steel, wide open with galleries, very classy but gives the unnervng effect when you look directly up that you are in a giant aviary - and plenty of free champagne to guzzle for a couple of hours. Devine's previous history, The Scottish Nation, actually knocked Harry Potter off the top seller spot for a few weeks in Scotland when it came out in PB. Devine dissects Scottish identity and character and, like a number of leading Scots historians, is very strong on social history and not just the usual kings, queens and generals that dominate too many other histories. Always good to see a good book making big waves and hopefully it will sell as well as it's predecessor. Now we just need to secure some more invites to Iain Banks' whisky book launch :-)





IDS? FUK more like



Amongst the hilarity of the sitcom that is the stab-in-the-back-in-the-dark shennanigans within the Conservative party is one thing that has been bugging me for weeks now. When the frag did Ian Duncan Smith suddenly becomes IDS? One day he is the lamest, dullest wee man then suddenly he is not only rebranded with a cooler sounding moniker but the media seem to have colluded in this makeover.



And now I come to think of it, doesn't 'IDS' sounds awfully like the anacronym for an STD? Oh no, he caught a case of IDS by having unprotected politicla intercourse. Symptoms include loss of hair, compelte personality wipe, a charisma bypass and social exclusion.