I was never a fan of the 12inch single and hated White Lines and Blue Monday but then I heard some I liked. Here they are:

Duran Duran The Reflex Dance Mix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFiYdZUpwx0

The first 12 inch I loved and that kinda got me more interested in them so I started to buy some. I still have a few today in my little collection. The Reflex though remains my favourite. Others include

Howard Jones Hide and Seek Extended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liGUgqrF0PA

Hide and Seek is a lovely 12 inch single it really is. Nearly 9 minutes long and well worth a listen.

Ultravox The Voice Extended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfrW13JWeko

A classic Ultravox track and even better with the extended version. I don’t have my copy of the vinyl sadly and have this on my iPod.

The Alarm Sixty Eight Guns Album Version

Not a full 12 inch but the full version from the album rather than the single and one of my favourite Alarm tracks.

Duran Duran The Wild Boys Extended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FOZzKDaxkQ

One of my favourite Duran Duran songs and I remember queuing outside Chalmers and Joy in Dundee on the day this came out as I was desperate to hear it, the 12 inch is brilliant.

Howard Jones What is Love Extended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUUz7evND2k

Another brilliant extended version of one of my favourite Howard Jones songs, I did have the vinyl but now it’s just on the iPod.

Pink Floyd Another Brick in the Wall Extended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP1nINwv-qg

I loved the extended version of this song from the Wall album rather than the single that was released, this version is so much more Pink Floyd. If you haven’t heard definitely have a listen.

Bonnie Tyler Total Eclipse of the Heart Extended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TagfJJmUwXs

Another extended version that I thought was better than the single release and a track I still really like to this day.

Irene Cara Fame Extended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHqSfBqSzR8

One of my favourite soundtrack albums of all time and I really enjoy the extended version of the title track. Great song.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood Two Tribes Extended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUJ_zoWB1hw

Frankie Goes to Hollywood made some of the most iconic 12 inch singles but the one I liked and have on my iPod is Two Tribes. It just goes on and on and for some reason I just really got into it.

So just some of my favourite 12 inch singles.

It was announced this week that Dundee faces another 10 years of austerity.

Council leader John Alexander has noted that

Dundee like local councils all over Scotland have been making cuts after cuts after cuts. Now that Dundee faces unimaginable cuts year on year I have to wonder what will be left, all good and well to have a lovely waterfront but if the rest of the city is a wasteland it will make no long term impact.

Dundee has faced years of job losses, a drug misuse epidemic that is the worst in Europe and services at breaking point, council staff at breaking point, public sector pay that deemed certain council staff as more worthy than others.

John goes on to say

The simple reality is that you can’t keep making cuts, now I accept that the Tories and the Liberals started this process, the SNP government passed on the cuts but they need to be looking at what more they can do. I’ll admit I have a stake as I work for the council in a section that is non statutory so who knows what will happen but I do know that if a solution to local authority funding is not found, Dundee will continue to suffer and I really don’t know how much more the City can take.

I’ve been following the debate around the idea of a Wings Over Scotland Party for list seats in the Holyrood elections to try and maximise the independence majority and minimise unionists representation.

Mike Small over at Bella Caledonia has written what I think is just an obvious hate piece on the idea and on Stuart Campbell as a person. Others like Pete Bell and George Kerevan have also expressed their opinions. There has been the twitter poll above and lots of comments by lots of people.

My opinion, for what it’s worth (as just an ordinary voter ), is that I don’t have a problem with it. I usually give my list vote to the Green Party but they have lost that now due to their ideas around gender recognition so mines is up grabs and a YES Scotland Party (as I’ve suggested before) or a Wings Party would be no bad thing.

I’ve never accepted that we have to hang all our hopes on the SNP, we badly need each other, but the SNP strategy has appeared to myself as being a slow creep and their lack of support for the YES movement in my opinion has not helped the cause. I believe that if yes voters can learn to vote tactically, like the yoons already do, then this could have a pro yes impact on the Holyrood Parliament and I’ve not seen anything to convince me otherwise.

Of course there is a risk of splitting the vote if people don’t understand what voting tactically means but I just don’t see that it’s the end of the world, but even if the party took votes from the SNP and Greens the parliament would still end up with more pro independence MSPs, well that’s what I think is possible.

I also think that an alternative YES party might actually encourage more people to vote, hold the SNP to account on independence, and that would be no bad thing for the cause and in a country where turn out is still pretty low overall, so for me a WoS Party could get my vote for the list.

I don’t get the Scottish office of the Labour Party at all, I don’t understand this blind devotion to the U.K.

Surely there are still some working class members in Scotland, there might even be a few left socialists, but I don’t get their total lack of understanding of the constitutional crisis that Scotland faces right now. They don’t get it at all

Like the Liberal Democrat’s they support another Brexit vote, are they mental, why are they so against Scottish democracy, why are they so determined to keep Scotland chained to servitude, do they hate Scotland that much.

Scotland would not miss the Labour Party at all, the party now is certainly a shadow of its former self but I can’t get my head around the fact that they have accepted poverty, debt, lack of democracy, sanctions, food banks, rather than a chance at a democratic left of centre independent Scotland.

When I read the article today it just makes me sad, and a little angry that Labour in Scotland have so little ambition, so little faith in Scotland and the Scottish people, we really need to make sure this party is wiped out at the next elections.

So I’m off for two weeks annual leave and since we are not going away this year, other than a few day trips in Scotland, I thought I would binge watch the Peter Capaldi Dr Who seasons.

As I’ve noted before I think Dr Who had lost a lot of quality since Russell T Davies left and Stephen Moffat took over. Peter Capaldi took over in seasons 8 to 10. The highlights of season 8 for me were Listen, Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline, and In the Forest of the Night. The link in these episodes is that they weren’t written by Stephen Moffat. During the Matt Smith years the poorest episodes tended to be the ones written by Stephen Moffat. Capaldi does really well overall but the highlight for me was Michelle Gomez as Missy (The Master), she definitely stole the show for me. Last Christmas, the Christmas episode at the end of this season was actually not too bad, although having Santa in the story was a typical Moffat stupid moment, without the Santa the story actually wasn’t too bad and had some interesting parts. Season 8 really was an ok to poor season to be fair.

Season 9 had a few double episodes and started with The Magicians Apprentice, and The Witches Familiar, which were a kind of origin story for Davros the creator of the Daleks. These episodes had a few interesting moments but again were let down by Moffat’s writing, having Davros play at being emotional and reflective, bollocks. Michelle Gomez again stole the show as Missy and saved the first few episodes. The interesting episodes were Under the Lake and Before the Flood, another two parter. The Girl who Died was ok, but the best two were the Zygon Invasion and the Zygon Inversion. This season also saw the end in some ways of Clara Oswald in the episode Face the Raven which leads into the final two episodes which were Heaven Sent and Hell Bent. These two episodes saw the Dr being trapped in some form of loop which eventually leads to Gallifrey, his home. Now these episodes had much to like but as usual Stephen Moffat’s writing lets them down like the Dr being trapped for a billion years as he fights to get to Gallifrey and to save Clara. The Christmas episode was The Husbands of River Song, River doesn’t recognise the Dr to begin with in this sort of diamond heist episode. To be honest this was another pretty poor Christmas episode and highlighted why the audience numbers had been falling to be honest. Peter Capaldi continued to do his best with some really average episodes and some of the worst dialogue ever in Dr Who, it was like Moffat was dumbing it down to try and reach a younger audience which you can do without treating children as if they are stupid. Overall it was another ok to poor season.

Season 10 started with a Christmas episode The Return of Dr Mysterio, this was a rip off of the comic book super heroes with some brain stealing aliens thrown in. This was the poorest Christmas episode that I could remember to be honest and while I hated it the first time I saw I just mildly hate it now. Season 10 did however have two companions, the excellent Matt Lucas as Nardol and Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts, the first openly gay companion and the start of the real political correctness that continued in season 11. Season 10 was the best out of the three seasons that Capaldi did, the dialogue improved greatly and there were some really good episodes. Michelle Gomez and John Sims were both back at Missy/Master but played lesser roles but did well. The stand out episodes for me were The Pilot, Smile, The Pyramid at the end of the World, The Lie of the Land, World Enough and Time, and The Doctor Falls. A few of these episodes were surprisingly written by Stephen Moffat but were good all the same.  Peter Capaldi signed off as the Dr in Twice Upon a Time,

This episode saw the Dr come face to face with the first Dr, played by David Bradley, as they both tried to stop their regenerations. Bill Potts was back and the end saw a cameo by Clara and Nardol as the Dr came to terms with his time being up. We even saw a descendent of Colonel Stewart. The episode wasn’t great either way, very self indulgent but the speech at the end by Capaldi was pretty crap to be honest and spoilt for me what had been a decent final season by him. Still it has been good to rewatch his three seasons and to reflect on them again, they weren’t as bad as I originally thought they were.

My friend Daniel asked me another question this weekend and I thought I would put it up on twitter again to see what others think.

This is a question that has been asked in different forms before like the one to Alex Cole Hamilton Liberal MSP

He was pretty clear in his answer as well, it was

You see that’s the problem isn’t it, the Liberal Democrat’s are Unionists through and through , they are not Democrat’s, and as we saw in the coalition, they are not Liberal either. My little twitter question was split

I wouldn’t trust the Liberals in a minute when it comes to Scotland, federalists my arse, their leadership and most of their politicians are Tory all the way. Now I don’t doubt there will be one or two members who would vote for independence, and even if most did, their unionist leadership would ignore them and argue against their own members.

As has been said in the past the Liberals are dirty political fighters and cannot be trusted.

A friend of mine (Daniel) asked an interesting question last week so I put it up on Twitter, the result wasn’t surprising.

Now I agree the SNP would never accept but a refusal would give the British some traction, and the media would play it for a long time. I would maybe call their bluff and go for it, campaign on a platform of independence in Europe etc. Most people don’t agree

I don’t agree with the Scotland wouldn’t sacrifice England argument, English MPs in the main don’t give a shit about Scotland and my experience is most English people I know are totally indifferent to Scotland leaving the union. Either way we are chained to the U.K. for the time being and our colony status is not under threat right now but it was a good question.