Defence

How's this for an idea? Many years ago, the name of the War Department was changed the Ministry of Defence. I imagine this was designed to make the department seem less aggressive and more tilted toward defending the country against attack. It might be time to change back. Between scrapping some rather expensive hardware we'll be paying for for God knows how long, mothballing an aircraft carrier and pursuing aggressive ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, isn't it now time to drop the pretence of defence? Let's just go back to War Department. There's the added advantage for those nostalgics among us who miss the wee symbols on all the ammo boxes.

W↑D

Ah, what memories.

Save me from Textspeak

Look, I can understand the value of Textspeak when using a mobile phone, even though I can't bring myself to use it. However, why does anyone sitting at a QWERTY keyboard feel the need to use a puerile collection of letters and numerals to convey a message? I'm not talking about 15-year-olds, mind you. Oh no, I have friends, some of whom aren't that far off being as old as me (yes smartarse, that is old) who didn't grow up with mobiles. "Grumpy old bugger," you might well say, and you're probably right, but am I the only one irked by this?

News of the Day

Given the two obviously earth-shattering news items of the day, would it be apt for Andy Gray to stand for Tommy Sheridan's old seat?