Salmond Throws out his Rattle.

We have a crucial vote this week in the Scottish Parliament on approving or throwing out the SNP budget.    The number of votes is on a knife edge, and Salmond and the SNP need to have the Tories and the Greens onside to get it through.

This puts the minority parties in a powerful negotiating position, and already there have been concessions made to both to secure party votes.

But Alex Salmond has upped the anti this morning by saying that he will quit if the budget is not approved.     This would in all probability force another election if it happens.    

Salmond is threatening to throw his rattle out of the pram, and behave like a spoilt child is he does not get his way.   He might like to call it brinksmanship.   I call it unstatesmanlike behaviour which won’t win him any favours.

And are we to see this tactic used again when the going gets a little tough?

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Blackbird Behaviour

We have a male blackbird who has been attacking his reflection in a window here for the past two days.    He is making quite a racket and has made the window absolutely filthy.     Yet he persists.   It is mating season, and clearly his reflection is seen as a rival.

We have tried shining a light out from the window, scaring him off from inside ….. and outside, but he is still going at the window hammer and tongs when he gets a chance.

Our latest tactic has been to hang an old pillowcase outside the window.   He is still in the tree outside, looking mighty puzzled.    At least the noise has stopped for now.

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American Elections

I am getting really fed up of the wall to wall coverage of the American Elections in the media.    Last night there was rolling news coverage on BBC News 24, Sky News and Radio 5 live.     So much so, that there was no other news at all.    And this was ahead of the polls closing in New York, and hours ahead of them closing in California.

Yes, it is an important election, and yes, it is interesting to see how the electorate treat a woman, a black and a very old candidate in particular.   

But why are we spending so much time on this?    We don’t have blanket coverage of elections in Canada, Australia, France, or even Ireland in this country.    So just why is so much air time and newsprint being devoted to USA?

And the American election is such a long drawn out process, quite unfathomable to most of us in the UK where we are used to about 6 weeks of campaigning and a very busy 24 hours on election night itself.

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