Fremsley

Hal Hartley's DR. NO

Andrei Tarkovsky's FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Billy Wilder's GOLDFINGER

Ana Lily Amirpour's THUNDERBALL

John Carpenter's YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE

Wes Anderson's ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE

Jean-Luc Godard's DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

Jim Jarmusch's LIVE AND LET DIE

Kevin Smith's THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN

James Ivory's THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

Derek Jarman's WARHEAD

Alejandro Jodorowsky's MOONRAKER

Terry Gilliam's FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Adrian Edmondson's OCTOPUSSY

Jane Campion's NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN

Penelope Spheeris's A VIEW TO A KILL

Jeremy Saulnier's THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS

Bigas Luna's LICENCE TO KILL

Richard Lester's GOLDENEYE

Edgar Wright's TOMORROW NEVER DIES

Stanley Donen's THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

Sally Potter's DIE ANOTHER DAY

Lindsay Anderson's CASINO ROYALE

Scott Prendergast's QUANTUM OF SOLACE

Rudolph Maté's SKYFALL

Naoto Yamakawa's SPECTRE

Edinburgh Junkies.

Today. Old Town, right under my flat, daylight. Junkies fixing their works and shooting up.

It's such a delight living here in fairytale Edinburgh.

Lorna Slater ignored my first communication with her after she was elected. Lets see if she ignores the one I send about this.

Fire In The Sky 2

Fire in the sky 1

Batmobile's seen better days.

The financial deficit in Scotland is a fiction authored by Westminster. In England.

Many people presume that, because I'm pro-independence from Mordor, I'm an SNP supporter; particularly SNP supporters. They take it as a personal insult when I correct them (often becoming aggressively insulting themselves; their favourite is making mental illness slurs, because they're, y'know, so enlightened..). I don't DO "partyline."

We're a long way from 2014. In, very much so, more ways than just time passed.

Why would I support a bunch of yellow-&-black Tories when I refuse to support the blue, red or orange Tories? It's not for nothing that the SNP logo is the negative of the Saltire.

As such I am usually more aware of what Holyrood condones, than most. I'm certainly unsurprised by what they condone that I don't already know about, when I hear about it after the fact. Always shocked. Never surprised.

Simply look at how many of them are landlords, and more; how many of them are UNDISCLOSED landlords/property developers. That tells it all.

There was never going to be any ACTUAL resistance to Westminster from the alleged Scottish Government. Simply because they want to BE Westminster, here.

Daily I feel this tragedy because, frankly, Scotland COULD HAVE BEEN THE genuinely enlightened state that would put the world to shame. But the party who alleged they were the change chose capitalism, and aggressive capitalism at that, over social improvement. Hellfire, over social status quo even. Everything has got SO much worse. They sold everyone who trusted them down the river for personal profit and self-aggrandisement.

And Edinburgh? Edinburgh could have made Paris look half-arsed in its recent achievements. Instead, having swung so far the wrong way, Edinburgh makes Naples look like Paris. A city run by criminals (of any 'party') for criminals, at the constant and ever-increasing cost to those who live here; including their lives.

Just like their monarchist predecessors.

(They had said they thought there was something wrong with themself)

I don't think there's anything wrong with you.  Not even vaguely.  A LOT of people are becoming uncommunicative, even with those they care about; it's a symptom of current life-stresses.  Everything we have to deal with of an official nature is designed to divide and cause anguish now, and a side-effect of the internal response to that is to cut oneself off, to a degree, to everything around oneself.  Everything is a pain, so avoiding everything is becoming more and more common.  Frankly those that aren't practising this to some degree are usually a significant part of the problem; they have no empathy and see it as a flaw.

I've noticed that not merely in my lifetime, or adulthood, but simply the last decade, that even the most BASIC avenues of communication or services have became unbearably infuriating; needlessly complicated.  This isn't simply a matter of perception; they're designed to put one off.  To deflect.  For instance, call menus and call centres becoming increasingly difficult to use.  No alternatives to single point-of-contact phone-numbers and twenty-seven sub-menus that take fifteen minutes to navigate through, etc... "Don't bother us, just throw money and shut up!"  It's bad enough when it's a corporate landlord, but when it's an NHS doctors' surgery where the admin staff consider it their primary function to make sure patients never bother the doctors, then it's clear that everything is fucked up beyond all decency.

Edinburgh: The Clearances

This is STILL the plan. It was never shelved. Merely adapted. Rather than demolish Grassmarket (Old Town/Central Edinburgh), a policy of Clearance - removal of the local populace - was inflicted by successive councils with the full backing of successive administrations. Rather than just drag us out by force they operate an openly clear POLICY of making life as uncomfortable and intolerable as possible for anyone who lives here and refuses to leave.

Unopposed hotel construction.

Unopposed new pubs (half the street is already pubs).

Unopposed premises conversion.

Permitting pubs to get away with excessive licensing conditions ( i.e. beer gardens outfitted with unrestricted external entertainment media open 'til 22:00 in the heart of multiple residential tenements 7dpw/365pa).

Granting STL (Short Term Let [AirBnB et al]) Planning Permissions against residents' wishes.

Granting STL Licenses where Planning has been opposed and banned in specific instances (if Planning are FORCED to ban an existing STL - and dear God they do their absolute best to not do so - then Licensing simply let them instead, regardless of resident objections).

Zero street cleaning in resident areas.

Zero policing in resident areas. - "Well obviously we prioritise Licensed premises and the Night-time Economy." Actual quote from a cop who was asked why they don't respond to resident phone calls for help, when they have a whole vanload turn up ASAP if a bouncer at a pub chips a fingernail.

Zero enforcement of practically every civil statute there is; Noise abatement, internal construction, private capital co-opting/abusing public space, breaches of licences, fucking ad nauseum...

I ..I don't even know WHERE to start with the Fringe/Festival abuses. The sheer amount of liberties they get away with at the expense of those of us who LIVE here. How they're allowed to run wild over every right we have, with not only no sanction, but actual empowerment by both the Council and ScotGov. And The Castle. The Castle gets a free ride to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants.

I have never wanted to live anywhere but Edinburgh. When I crossed back over that border and was driven past the Welcome to Scotland sign those many years ago, I said simply one word: Home. Long past a decade in Old Town has shown me one very evident thing. Edinburgh is the most CORRUPT city I have ever lived in; and I spent 26 years in London.

Every single local and national politician - Council/Holyrood - has wholly done their level best do do NOTHING that would in ANY WAY restrict unfettered capitalism at the expense of Old Town residents' most basic conditions and amenities. Every single one I have written to over the past decade has lied, cheated and prevaricated whilst self-aggrandizing to the maximum they can. Where it has been too hard to wriggle out of something they have simply not replied at all.

Loaded.

This was a question, and my answer, from an online Survey that ambulatory turd Angus Robertson put out a couple of years back. I filled it in against my better judgement, because I wanted it on record. The results were to be published later. Funnily enough I was never sent the link...

The whole thing was loaded questions. "Won't somebody PLEASE think of the Capitalists!"

Some old tweets. Not been on Twitter for some considerable time so quite old. Nevertheless...

I'm a member of Living Rent. It's an alleged Tenant's Union. Only it doesn't seem to do much. Though it talks a lot about the little it does. And it seems to have diluted it's focus on rent by focussing on everything else.

The woman in the triptych above is (or was) the Secretary of Living Rent. As you can see, they're not big on dissent, or questions...

They're not a Tenants Union that organises rent strikes. Meanwhile my rent is now 55% of my income. What're Living Rent doing? They're talking about Buses.