Category: Uncategorized

There was a time when the internet felt quieter and friendlier. Before social media, before the constant noise, there were just websites and blogs. You’d find someone’s corner of the internet, read what they were thinking, maybe send them an email. It felt more human. And it felt like enough.

These days it’s different. Social media became the default. We stopped building our own spaces and started posting into systems we don’t control. It’s been getting to me for a while.

So I’m changing how I do things.

One of the first things I’ve done is rethink how people contact me. I’ve kept it simple. There’s a form on this site that works and sends messages directly to me. No layers, no logins, no unnecessary hassle.

I’m also trying to take myself off social media altogether. Quietly. I don’t need to be part of something that constantly demands attention. I’d rather have something slower and calmer.

This website is where I’ll try to build that. And the truth is, it can do most of what social media does. I can post a photo of my dinner here, just like I could on Instagram. I can write short thoughts or longer ones, like Twitter or Facebook. People can leave comments if they want to respond. I can still share things, reflect, and stay in touch; just without all the noise that usually comes with it.

The difference is, I control this space. No ads. No feeds. Just a small corner of the internet where I can show up as myself.

It might not be as fast or far-reaching. But I don’t mind that. I’d rather this space felt like a quiet room than a crowded feed.

Thanks for being here.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about truth. Not in a grand, abstract way. Just… what’s real, and how hard it is to hold onto when everything around you feels chaotic.

Every day there’s more noise. Politicians saying things that aren’t true. News headlines designed to provoke rather than inform. People doubling down on ideas that fall apart the moment you look at them properly.

I keep coming back to this: people are dying because of all this. Not in some distant, disconnected way. Real people, right now. In Gaza, in Ukraine, on the streets of our own towns. And still, we argue about nonsense while the damage piles up.

It seems simple to me. Look at the facts. Let them guide you. But so many people decide what they want to believe first, and then go looking for “evidence” to justify it. That mindset frightens me. Because once the truth stops mattering, anything can happen.

I don’t have a big answer. I just know I want to be someone who keeps trying to see clearly. Who doesn’t twist things to fit a story. Who stays grounded, even when everything feels like it’s spinning.

This is my little corner of the internet. I’m going to use it to think out loud, to ask questions, and to remind myself of what matters. That might not change the world. But it’s something.

I made vegan leek and potato soup today. It was very nice. The leeks, potatoes and chives were grown in my back garden.

I used this recipe from BBC Good Food but made some substitutions. I didn’t have bullion powder, whatever that is. I used an Aldi vegetable stock cube. I used normal vegetable oil for the pan and olive oil to drizzle. I didn’t have almond milk but I did have oat milk so I used that.

I was super simple to make and perfect comfort food for this blustery autumn day.

I tried to watch it. I really did.

I thought I would give the Coronation a go, mostly out of curiosity. A bit of anthropology. I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

I lasted three minutes.

It wasn’t just the opulence, though the sight of gold carriages in a cost-of-living crisis is hard to stomach. It was the sheer exclusion of it all. The religious oath, the “divine right,” the idea that some people are born better than others. It felt like a door slamming shut on anyone who doesn’t fit a very specific, very old mould.

Being an Englishman in Scotland on a day like this is a strange experience.

I am English by birth, but my home is here in Scotland. I support Scottish independence not because I hate where I come from, but because I believe decisions should be made by the people who live here.

Watching the ceremony, the gap between the screen and the street outside felt massive. London felt a million miles away. The pomp and circumstance didn’t feel like “tradition” to me; it felt like a reminder of a hierarchy that we are supposed to just accept.

I don’t accept it. I don’t believe in subjects. I believe in citizens.

So, I switched the TV off. I didn’t get angry. I just opted out.

Instead, I went for a curry.

Sitting there with a tikka masala, surrounded by the noise of a busy Saturday night in a multicultural town, felt a lot more like the modern world than anything happening in Westminster Abbey.

And it tasted a lot better, too.

I wanted to share this quote I came across today.

“We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living.

We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments
for inspectors to inspect inspectors.

The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.”

Buckminister Fuller

I don’t know much about Buckminster Fuller but this spoke to me because I’ve always been puzzled by “automation is taking away people’s work” as an argument against it. For me “automation is taking people’s away people’s work” is an argument for automation.

Who actually wants to work really? If work was fun, if work was something people actually wanted to spend time doing, they would need to pay us to do it. We want to work because we want to live. We need to trade the time working for currency so we can trade the currency for homes and food and health.

The self-service tills in Tesco don’t stop people from doing something they love, the stop people from spending their lives engaged in the drudgery of scanning products. The self-service tills take away the amount of work we need to do as a society.

If we can spend more time as a society making art, enjoying the company of our loved ones or other humans, progressing human knowledge or anything we want, why is that a bad thing?

My partner Stephanie runs a yoga class, and this is the recipe she serves at her socials. It’s too good not to share.

This dish is actually called Kapora, not pakora. One time, in the 90s Stephanie and her mum had a little too much drink in an Indian restaurant and asked for kapora. It became one of those family private jokes where they asked for kapora every time they wanted pakora. That’s not the funny bit, though.

Stephanie and I went for an Indian meal recently. She was telling me about her pakora/kapora private family joke. I’d also had a little too much to drink so I asked for mushroom kapora. The waiter, responded “yes sir mushroom kapora”. That’s actually not that funny or interesting now I’ve written it down. I guess you had to be there.

Anyway, here her recipe is. Enjoy. If you want to check out Strathaven’s most friendliest, accessible and understanding yoga classes, visit loveyogacrew.com. Stephanie will be serving this kapora/pakora at her monthly social.

Ingredients

• 200g gram flour
• 1 green chilli, chopped
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
• 2 medium potatoes, grated
• 2 large carrots, grated
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 40g kale, chopped
• 40g cabbage, finely chopped
• Vegetable oil (for frying)
• Hot sauce, chutney, or pink sauce (for serving)

Method

1. Make the batter: Mix the gram flour with the spices. Slowly add 150ml of water while stirring to form a smooth batter. (Tip: It’s best to let it settle for an hour, but you can use it straight away).
2. Combine: In a large bowl, mix all the vegetables together. Add the batter a little at a time. You want the vegetables coated, but not swimming in liquid.
3. Heat the oil: Fill a deep pan about a third full with vegetable oil and heat. To test the temperature, drop a tiny drip of batter in. If it sizzles immediately, you are ready to go.
4. Fry: Take a handful of the mix and loosely form a ball. Use a spoon to carefully lower it into the hot oil. Fry for 3–4 minutes until golden and crispy, turning halfway through with tongs.
5. Check: Taste the first one to check the texture. If it’s too thick, add a splash of water to your batter. If it’s too wet, add a sprinkle more flour.
6. Finish: Fry the rest in batches—don’t overcrowd the pan! Drain on kitchen paper and serve immediately.

Back in 2017, a few weeks before the general election I wrote a blog post titled “Political betting for the 2017 UK General Election” for people like me who enjoy politics and the occasional flutter. I made recommendations for bets that were good value in my opinion. I’ve republished it here.

I found the post earlier today when I as going through some old files. It was published April 19th, 51 days before the result was known. As I have an hour to kill while I wait for Love Yoga Crew to teach her class, I though I would look up the results and see how much I would have lost.

I’ll list each bet here and calculate returns to a £100 stake. These fantasy bets would have needed to be singles due to related contingency.

• Conservatives to win the most seats @ 1/16 – win
• Conservatives to form the next UK government @ 1/6 – win
• Theresa May to be Prime Minister After General Election @ 1/10 – win
• Hung Parliament, no @ 1/12 – lose
• Labour vote percentage 25-30% @ 9/4 – lose
• UKIP vote percentage of 5-10% @ 6/4 – lose
• Registered voter turnout 55.01-60.0% @ 8/1 – lose
• Total seats – Plaid Cymru, 4 or above @ 8/13 – won

So that’s a total stake of £800 which would have returned… £494.46. A loss of £305.54. I didn’t actually lose that money, just so we are clear. It was a just a game.

I’m not going to make excuses gambling is a mugs game and you should only bet what you can afford to lose. What I will do though is try and find an explanation for how I went so wrong.

I think the biggest contributing factor was Jeremy Corbyn’s excellent performance. He was the Labour Party’s leader and seemed to capture the mood of young people perfectly.

This article from The Guardian explains how Corbyn manage to use the energy of a disaffected youth to increase his turnout and make the election a real contest. Labour we polling 25% at the time I made the prediction of 25-30% vote share but he smashed that with an eventual share of 40%. His support also increased the total turnout and ruined my low turnout prediction.

In retrospect, his (open secret) Brexity credentials convinced many UKIP voters to return to Labour and didn’t seem to put off remainers. I had thought that UKIP’s vote share would tumble, but to go from 12.6% in 2015 to 1.8% in 2017 is ridiculous.

The final loser is the one I’m most unhappy with. The result was technically a hung parliament as the Conservatives only managed to get 317 seats out of the 326 seats needed for a majority, which killed my 1/12 hung parliament, no prediction. The thing is, Conservative leader Theresa May managed to arrange a confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party who are basically the Northern Irish wing of the Conservative Party. Rules are rules though and the bet was a loser.

Leaving a political party is never an easy decision to make, especially if you have invested a considerable amount of time and effort into it. However, sometimes, there are compelling reasons for making such a move. In my case, I recently made the decision not to renew my membership to the Scottish National Party and join the Scottish Green Party.

Firstly, let me be clear that my decision to leave the SNP was not one that I took lightly. I joined the party because of its commitment to Scottish independence, and I campaigned for this cause. However, in recent years, I have become increasingly disillusioned with the party’s direction and leadership. I believe that the SNP has become too focused on securing a second independence referendum at any cost, to the detriment of other important issues facing Scotland, such as climate change and social justice.

The Green Party has long been a champion of environmental and social justice issues, and I believe that these are the most pressing issues facing Scotland and the world today. The Green Party’s commitment to tackling climate change is particularly impressive, and I am proud to be part of a party that takes this issue seriously. I also appreciate the Green Party’s commitment to grassroots democracy and community engagement, which I believe are essential for building a fairer and more sustainable Scotland.

I have been impressed by the passion and integrity of co-leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie, as well as the other MSPs and party members. I feel that the Green Party is a party that is truly committed to working for the common good, rather than simply seeking power for its own sake.

I appreciate the Scottish Green Party’s commitment to working with other parties and groups to achieve common goals. I believe that it is essential for political parties to work together, particularly on the left and with issues as important as climate change and social justice. The Green Party’s willingness to collaborate with other parties and groups is a refreshing change from the tribalism and divisiveness that often characterizes Scottish politics.

My decision to leave the Scottish National Party and join the Scottish Green Party was not an easy one, but it was the right one for me. I believe that the Green Party offers a clear and positive vision for the future of Scotland, one that is based on environmental and social justice, grassroots democracy, and collaboration. I am excited to be part of a party that is working towards a better future for Scotland and the world.