I have been voting in general elections since 1979. In all of that time Ihave never missed a vote of any kind, even when temporarily living abroad for a few years. After a proxy failed to place my vore for me, I obtained a postal vote and I retain that now, as I still work away from home.

But for the 2019 general election I simply can't see any person or party worth voting for, so I am going to spoil my ballot paper. I will still vote, but I want to ensure that all of the candidates understand why they will not be receiving my support. As every spoiled paper must be agreed by all candidates they have to be shown them all. I have written them all little messages, just from me. Amn't I sweet?

My pristine paper is shown below. Come back next week to see  what it looked like when it was lodged.

And just for the avoidance of doubt, all remarks that I have made on the paper refer to the party, not the candidate,  I have never met any of them, btu I have seen their election literature and I know how their parties behave. 

Have "Scottish" Labour given up any pretence of actually being Scottish then?

Answers in the comments, please.

I note from his election web page that both his agent and his party are registered at a London address. They're not really trying are they?

After a short pause of less than two and a half years I have been stung into action again by a news story that touches on my own area of expertise. The People’s Democratic Republic has gone even more international than it has been in the past and is now coming to you from Stockholm, where it is helping a major Nordic bank keep on the right side of the EU’s banking regulators.

So what has piqued my annoyance gene? And despite the picture above, it's not a rant about the iniquity of speed cameras...

I'd like to thank my friends in Bradford, Manchester, Coventry, Gloucester and Newport for their messages of support. It appears that despite what the English newspapers say, many south of the border see our referendum - whichever way it goes - as a way of starting to fix the UK's political system and bring power back to where it really belongs.

I said in a previous post that I would be voting Yes because I loved Britain. This post will explain that assertion.

Bruce Forsyth is nowadays best known as the erstwhile host of a Saturday night BBC dance competition, wherein several people you've never heard of perform unusual dance routines with several other people you've never heard of and are given marks by several people who are famous only for awarding marks to people you've never heard of dancing on the telly.

But back in the 1960's Brucie was king of television variety and well known as a stage performer. Because of his fame and influence, and probably also because he could sing and dance, he became involved in the "I'm Backing Britain" campaign towards the end of 1967. This was a cultural phenomenon that would be hard to imagine happening today - it started with a group of typists who decided to work a little bit of unpaid overtime to help their firm and, by extension, the country. It was taken up by the papers who proceeded to make a bit of a thing of it. For a while it was the biggest story in the country and I can (just) remember stories on the evening TV news telling us which patriotic group of workers had joined the campaign that day.

The campaign was sufficiently high profile that Bruce Forsyth recorded a record about it which quickly became its theme song and was played widely. By a bizarre coincidence, whilst this post was in preparation it was played on BBC Radio 2, quite possibly for the first time since 1968. And I sang along with every word.