The Loch Ness monster became a popular newspaper story in the 1930s. The result of this was that, in an attempt to undermine British morale, both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy claimed to have killed Nessie. The Aberdeen Press and Journal reported in December 1940 on Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels''Monster Fairy Tale', saying: "It is reported from Glasgow, via Stockholm, that the Loch Ness monster has struck a mine, and its body has been found washed ashore in pieces on the west of Scotland." Perhaps unsatisfied with the lack of reaction from that news, a The World's News article ...
I'm an admirer of Rose Macaulay's writing, and wouldn't share the critical judgement in this old London Review of Books article by Claire Harman. Still it does contain an irresistible trivial fact and a good joke at her expense: Perhaps The Towers of Trebizond is the only one of Macaulay's 23 novels in which a satisfactory balance between style and content is achieved. A charming detail is that this cosmopolitan story was partly written at Butlin's in Skegness, where she had taken Gerald O'Donovan's granddaughters for a holiday. Macaulay was not a snob, though she was taken up by snobs ...
Another record I heard on holiday. It was released as a single in 1995 and is also on Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' ninth studio album, Murder Ballads. Far Out magazine explains how this unlikely collaboration came about: Cave was obsessed with Minogue at the time, as he once recalled, and wrote the track with the singer in mind. He explained, somewhat concerningly (via Molly Meldrum presents 50 Years of Rock in Australia), "I had a quiet obsession with her for about six years. I wrote several songs for her, none of which I felt was appropriate to give ...
For those of you who know Liverpool will know that the next sentence I make will be the first time I have used it and will probably never use it again. I agree with Cllr Steve Munby! Steve and I have been adversaries for three decades. He has been a stalwart of the Labour Party for decades as I have been for the Liberal Democrats. However, he is Labour no more. Yesterday he left the Labour Party and will now sit as an independent in Liverpool City Council. Here is what he says about leaving Labour, "following the commissioners the ...
Where are the Democrats? The question has been repeatedly asked as Donald Trump has flooded the political landscape with Executive Orders. Well, the answer became apparent this week: they are alive and well and living in California. Gavin Newsom, the Governor of the Great Bear State, has donned the mantle of leader of the anti-Trump brigade. To do that he has adopted many of the same techniques of Trump himself. Michelle Obama once said: "When they hit low we hit high." That has not worked, says Newsom. He is hitting lower and lower and lower. Trump has called on the ...
With thanks to Bert Ritchie and Dundonian History for All, a fabulous historic photograph of a tram at Ninewells.
The Guardian reports that the UK's official human rights watchdog has written to ministers and police expressing concern at a potentially "heavy-handed" approach to protests about Gaza and urging clearer guidance for officers in enforcing the law. The paper says that in the letter to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, and Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan police, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said the perception that peaceful protest could attract disproportionate police attention "undermines confidence in our human rights protections": Kishwer Falkner, the EHRC chair, wrote that it was vital that any policing of protests was ...
