Movies I've Never Seen

A few weeks ago Tom Harris, the Labour blogging MP for Glasgow South, wrote this post about classic movies that he has never seen and it got me thinking about how few classic movies I have seen.

Those that know me will be aware that I am certainly no film expert. Ask me about music or sport, well football, and I can talk all day but when it comes to films I'm pretty ropey, at best. I obviously do watch movies and own plenty of DVDs but by no stretch of the imagination could I claim to be much of a film buff. I do, of course, have a favourite movie, 'Star Wars - the empire Strikes Back' now that you ask, but there are classic films that I've never seen, the ones on Tom Harris' list of movies he is going to see before he dies for starters. As such, I think I shall add them all to my lovefilm list – I even joined lovefilm in order to expand my knowledge of film.

Tonight will be spent watching LA Confidential and I'll gladly be accepting suggestions to films to watch, in the comments section.

STB

Weekly non political thread

Whilst I've always rather enjoyed writing about politics on this blog, I've often been tempted to write about some of my other interests, such as music and football etc. Now that I'm back and blogging and with it being recess and slightly light on news I figured I'd do some posts on some other things that matter to me.

I'm going to endeavour every weekend to write a post about non political things going on so here goes:

Murraymania

It's resonably fair to say that I'm no tennis fan and certainly did not get swept up in Murraymania as he attempted to become the first British male to play in a Wimbledon final for 73 (I think) years. All the best to the lad etc but I just can't get into tennis at all and barely watched more than a few minutes of the tournament. Role on when I no longer have to flick through page after page in the sports section before I reach the football pages.

Livingston FC

Times are looking particularly difficult for Livingston, although I'm sure Stephen Glenn will have more to say on the matter. There are parallels that can be drawn between the club's plight and what happened with Gretna but there are some differences. Before becoming Livingston FC the club had a proud history as Meadowbank Thistle before moving to West Lothian and becoming Livingston in 1995. It is fair to say that times have been turbulent since then – 14 managers in 14 years for starters and just recently the chairman tried to raise money from supporters. When the Livingston chairman raised a grand total of £149.50 a matter of weeks ago when he went to the fans for financial help.

There are of course various reasons for such a small amount. The club has very little history as a club in West Lothian. By the time they started operating in 1995 many fans would already have a club to support, be it either of the Edinburgh clubs etc, and although the rise through the ranks was better than that made by Gretna – Livingston finished 3^rd in the SPL in their first season thus qualifying for Europe – the dream soon ended with relegation and football in the First Division.

Scottish Football

Bit of a bleak week for Scottish football in general as well with everything continuing to look rather glass half empty. Despite the transfer window being only open a matter of days the majority of dealings involve players leaving SPL clubs rather than the other way around. We also saw Motherwell lose to Llanneli in Europe the other night in the home leg meaning a somewhat uphill struggle for new manager Jim Gannon to turn things around for his new club. The demise of Setanta has rocked Scottish Football and the days of big money signings and Uefa cup final runs seem but a distant memory now. I can only hope that a sponsorship deal is found soon otherwise there will be fears over the longevity of many of the clubs in the SPL.

Music

It's a reasonably fair point to make that I spend the bulk, well certainly more than I should, of my salary on records. At Christmas I finally joined the ipod generation and I haven't looked back. I got one of the 120gb models and have been attempting to fill it since! As it currently stands I have some 13,500 tracks on it with still many records to upload. Whilst our politics are quite different, I have found common ground musically with Herald Journalist, and sometime blogger, Robbie Dinwoodie who has introduced me to the likes of Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore over the course of the last few weeks. Another artist I've recently gotten into is the late Warren Zevon – someone I advise everyone to check out. I've also very much been in Bruce Springsteen mode this week due, in part to his stormingg performance at Glastonbury last weekend, but also down to the fact that in ten days I am seeing him at Hampden Stadium.

What I'm reading

Due to a combination of hayfever and a fairly pasty complexion I'm not much of a fan of the summer – when does Autumn start? - so I tend to spend as much time as I can get away with indoors. One of my main hobbies, other than music, is reading and this week i've finished reading Billy Bremner's biography before starting one on Winston Churchill – it's fair to suggest my reading taste is quite varied indeed.

STB

Clegg and Labour list – a boring marriage made in heaven

Via the medium of Caron Lindsay's twitter page I was alerted to the fact that Chris Clegg has written a post for the Labour list blog. I thought I'd take a wee look to see what he was saying and I really wish I hadn't. Not only is the article unsurprisingly dull but it's essentially just rehashing the rubbish from Ben Bradshaw and Chris Bryant earlier in the week. Now, I do expect some abuse from the cyber Lib Dems who, according to one journalist who was the victim of the vitriol, they are as bad as the Lib Dems but because I'm only having a go at their leader and not the hero figure that is Vince Cable, I should be fine.

According to the “wisdom” of Bradshaw and Bryant the Tory party is, despite everything, still ridden with homophobia. Those of a cynical mind amongst us could suggest that these are very much just attacks from a Labour party on its last legs. I did like how Bryant all but admitted to defeat at the next election by talking how Cameron's back benchers after the election will force him to introduce anti-gay legislation. Naturally, with the rest of your “argument”, not backed up with any evidence whatsoever. The pair of them, and Chris Clegg, brush over the fact that Tory leaders have apologised for clause 28, Michael Howard did it and just last week David Cameron did it. Now, Clegg's stance is because we joined a more eurosceptic grouping in the European Parliament with parties of a right wing nature we are homophobic. It's a rather embarrassing argument from Clegg indeed and it really is little wonder that so few really do care what the Liberal Democrats have to say.

Just last weekend, up here in Edinburgh, was gay pride and the Scottish Conservatives were one of two parties that had a stall at Gay Pride – the other being the SNP. I understand that these style attacks from the Lib Dems and Labour are all about trying to portray the Conservative party as the “nasty party” but to me it's nothing more than a Government party and a party that will always languish in opposition so devoid of ideas that they are forced to trot out this type of rubbish in order to garner headlines. Politics at its worst.

Twitter

How things change. In my, albeit brief, absence from blogging a new phenomenon has started… namely twitter.

For those minded, I can be followed here: http://twitter.com/ScottishToryBoy

STB

Back to blogging

After initially deciding that blogging wasn’t for me and that I had better things to do with my time – blatantly a lie – I’ve decided, well been gently persuaded, that I should bring my alter-ego ScottishToryBoy back ahead of the Westminster Election.

Perhaps it may just be a reunion tour just or maybe I’ll start recording a new album. OK, the music analogy doesn’t really work. But in my absence from blogging there have been times I’ve had things I wanted to say or people I’ve wanted to bait a bit so consider ScottishToryBoy to be out of retirement and back to blogging.

STB