Well, the no’s won. Alex Salmond will wander off into the sunset and the shambles can begin.  The devolution promises, made by panicking politicians on the basis of one threatening poll, will have to be delivered. The existing unfairness between England and Scotland will widen and the political fudges will start. Miliband is already tap dancing around the situation because he needs the votes of Scottish Labour MP’s, while ‘all talk’ Cameron hints that the same group won’t be able to vote on legislation affecting only England. Nigel Farage must be laughing all the way to the pub.  Immigration and the EU remain as major issues for voters and now English constituents have another bone to chew on; an open goal for Nigel and he doesn’t miss many.  Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon smiles quietly and looks forward to Scottish rule without the need for a ‘yes’ vote.  Ain’t our politicians wonderful?

    Andy Murray nailed his Scottish colours to the mast with a snide ‘yes’ tweet just prior to the vote, forgetting Wimbledon comes round every June.  How long before he backtracks?  Federer, Djokovic and Nadal are likely to gain extra support if Murray makes it to the last eight.  Mind you, on current form he’ll be about as successful as the Scottish football team!  He might not have aided his mum’s cause either, as she shakes a leg on Strictly Come Dancing.  We’ve got a feeling they’ll both be on the receiving end of another ‘no’ campaign. 

    Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall has put the cat amongst the pigeons so to speak, by telling the media his son shoots grey squirrels for the table.  Some animal rights campaigners have predictably got hot under the collar. Michael Stephenson of The League Against Cruel Sports says parents “have a responsibility to teach kids to respect wildlife”.  Already responsible for reducing the red squirrel population, greys also damage young saplings and destroy bird nests to eat eggs and nestlings; wildlife in the raw.  So Hugh’s son can quite reasonably be applauded for protecting the bird population!  But eating them is a different matter.  I don’t think there will be a rush to taste it if Pam puts squirrel on the menu at the pub.

    As Obama seeks air strike support from UK allies against IS fanatics, Tony Blair can’t resist adding his thoughts about the situation in Iraq, including the possibility of putting troops on the ground.  He’s probably still worried about WMD’s! When in a hole, stop digging springs to mind.  Saddam Hussain was a monster but is the current situation better?  RIP Chilcot! 

    François Hollande probably thought things couldn’t get worse.  With his reputation in tatters thanks to Valérie Trierweiler’s book, he must have hoped for a quiet period, no more bad news.  Then who should take to the air but Nicolas Sarcozy.  Super Sarko turned up on prime time television to make his pitch for leadership of the UMP party.  Having stated he wasn’t there to attack Hollande, he promptly did just that. Even so, 60% of French viewers seem to disapprove of Sarcozy’s comeback according to research.  At least Hollande had the courage to approve the use French air power against the IS terrorists.  We’ll give him full marks for that. Watch Cameron follow his lead.

    The BBC has been running stories on line about discrimination in the workplace for those with tattoos. Having spent a couple of weeks around the sunny Mediterranean with Adrian, bikinis and shorts the order of the day for sun worshippers, we’ve seen every sort of body decoration. One lady scored top marks. She had a vine creeping up both thighs before disappearing into her bikini bottoms.  Wine lovers both, we didn’t check the grape variety!  Small and or discreet seems a thing of the past but do they mean the wearers can’t do a useful job?  Probably not, but Dale Carnegie’s comment that ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’ may hold sway. Rightly or wrongly, interview decisions are often made in the first few minutes of meeting and visible tattoos must influence the interviewer.        

    More female ‘celebrities’ are complaining that nude pictures of them have been hacked from their computers and placed on the internet.  We’ve never heard of most of the complainants, Rihanna the exception, and wonder how the hackers came to target them?  Maybe a hint from the ladies in question that the pictures existed was all that was needed!

    The yes-no debate in Scotland is reaching a crescendo, the polls showing a close race, politicians of every colour clearing their diaries to head north. This seems likely to help the yes vote.  Most of the Westminster ‘big beasts’ are thoroughly disliked, even despised, by the Scots. Threats from big business are coming with increasing regularity, Alex Salmond sounding more like William Wallace as he raises the banner against intimidation.  Perhaps the clans will rally to The Saltire but they won’t need to march.  Salmond is sure of a win whichever way the vote goes.  Party leaders are already promising more powers to the devolved Scottish government in their efforts to influence the ‘no’ vote. Then we have the saviour of the world, Gordon Brown, coming up with his offering, but where does that leave the poor old English.  Significant differences already exist in the areas of social care for the elderly and university fees.  When shall we have some form of devolution for the English?  At present, Scottish MP’s can vote for legislation that only affects England, university fees a classic example.  So controversial legislation that doesn’t affect their constituents can be pushed through with no downside for them.  It must be time for a version of devolution for the English by restricting the measures Scottish MP’s are able to vote on.

    We’re almost beginning to feel sorry for François Hollande.  Former girlfriend, Valérie Trierweiler, has just published her memoir, Merci Pour Ce Moment, the first publishing run of 145,000 sold out in days.  Needless to say, François doesn’t come out of it too well.  A committed Socialist, to quote the man himself, is said by her “to despise the poor”.  At least in the UK, socialist politicians just avoid coming into contact with them!  Hollande’s popularity in France continues to go south and now his judgment has come into question.  Who in his right mind publicly dumps his high profile girlfriend and expects to walk away unmarked? “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” etc, etc. A lesser-known girlfriend might have cut up his suits, but Valérie had walked the corridors of power and knows how to shred his reputation! 

    The horrifying murders of hostages in Syria continue, with governments seemingly helpless to stop them.  Negotiation with fanatics is impossible and our main hope is that the key players in the murders will eventually face justice.  If they go to trial, hopefully it will be in Iraq, with an ending similar to that of Saddam Hussain.  In the meantime, we still await the Chilcot Report in the hope that it gives an insight into how we went to war in Iraq in the first instance.  We’re not holding our breath.  RIP Chilcot seems the most likely result.        

    We’d bet that Sean Wright would have disappeared from his job and the media by the time we got back from our holiday.  South Yorkshire’s police and crime panel passed a vote of no confidence in him while we were away, but still he hung on.  Maybe he didn’t know about the vote since he left before it was taken! As a regular visitor to auctions, I now feel qualified to put an estimate on being shameless.  £80/90,000 with no reserve sounds about right.  As I complete the blog I’ve just heard the announcement that he’s finally resigned.  Now the pressure can migrate to other guilty parties who have been protected from the media by his profile.  

    We learned a new word this week.  Anthrozoology studies the interaction between humans and animals.  We learned the word due to a report that suggests pet cats are becoming stressed due to modern life.  Dr John Bradshaw claims that cats may be terrified when living in close proximity to other cats.  One solution he proposes is keeping the cat indoors.  I applaud the suggestion and plan to share his advice with several neighbours.  It will have to be several neighbours since I can’t be sure which of their little darlings keeps crapping in my borders. 

    A new invention of note this week; a mesh pouch that sits in your tea cup and collects the pieces of biscuit that drop off while you are dunking.  Adrian thinks it’s great but we don’t think it will help him much.  We can generally tell what he had for lunch by glancing at the front of his shirt!