You're Shet, & You Know You Are

We are following two crime serials on TV at present, Trapped from Iceland, and Shetland, based on characters created by Anne Cleeves. Both have similar storylines involving gory murders and abductions. Both have taciturn heroes, called Andri and Jimmy. Most people would agree that Trapped is much better in terms of plot, acting, dialogue, atmosphere etc but that's beside the point. They are both entertaining enough and worth watching.

Recently, Andri arrested a right wing zealot. When the Town mayor was kidnapped and held hostage the fascist in the cell knew where she had been taken, but refused to tell. This week Jimmy arrested a woman, a human trafficker, who knows where 2 innocent girls are being kept prisoner, but I bet she'll not be telling, either.

My question is this: Why don't Andri & Jimmy just save time by twisting the prisoners' arms up their backs till they divulge the places where the victims are being held? I'm not saying it's OK to torture people by waterboarding them or attaching electric wires to their genitals or keeping them awake & standing up, blindfolded, in a corner for a week. If someone twists your arm up your back there comes a moment where you feel on the cusp of the point of no return; I'd confess all to avoid crossing that line and I bet most people would do the same. Since not twisting the baddies' arms means that the cops don't find out what they need to know, and the hostages don't get freed and might well be killed, isn't it morally cowardly not to do it? 

If twisting the arm doesn't result in success, then stop. It means the baddie doesn't have the information and consequently hurting him/her any more won't achieve anything. Apologise and offer him/her a cup of tea and a sandwich by way of recompense.

Now, we all know that the right wing press is despicable. I was once waiting in a GP surgery for someone to come out and had a look at a copy of the Daily Express while I was waiting. It was so horrible I felt the need to have a bath afterwards, just as you do when you have had a glance at what the extreme Right is up to on social media. What a disappointment, then, to find the same mixture of faux outrage, fake news and spite on the left. When we moved to Scotland I subscribed to The National, the paper for supporters of Scottish independence, hoping & expecting to read a lot of serious, challenging and stimulating stuff. I wasted my money. An example of the drivel I bought into is today's story that during the 2014 referendum campaign MP Mhairi Black (who I admire because she has a lot of courage and is a campaigning socialist) was pelted with a Bovril cube during the 2014 referendum.

How do you pelt someone with a Bovril cube? I don't know how many thrown cubes amount to a pelt but I'm sure it must be more than one. The point of this ridiculous headline is, presumably, to portray opponents of independence as hooligans. Perhaps some of them are. Perhaps some Yes supporters are hooligans too.

Here are a few more headlines from the paper's website, all of which are available for subscribers to see today. Compare and contrast with the kind of thing that occurs in the Mail and the Express (or on Twitter) and see if you can tell any difference: 

LEONARD'S CAR CRASH INTERVIEW SPOKE VOLUMES ABOUT SCOTTISH LABOUR

IT'S NOT JUST LEONARD THAT WE FAIL TO RECOGNISE: IT'S HIS PARTY TOO

WE WON'T SEE CHANGE AT THE BBC BECAUSE ENGLAND IS HAPPY WITH IT

If you've never heard of Richard Leonard, that's because he leads the Labour Party in Scotland and you probably live in England or Wales or somewhere else. The National has taken a so-called survey from a unreliable source and used it to claim that most Labour voters in Scotland don't know who Richard Leonard is, either. That's rubbish, surely. 

"England" is happy with the BBC? What? The whole of England? Does that include supporters of Featherstone Rovers as well as the folk that attend the Henley Regatta? What and where is this "England" of whom they speak? 

Since Labour is a left wing Party, and so is the SNP, shouldn't the independence movement be reaching out to Labour voters rather than spitting in their faces? The latest polls indicate that support for independence, even with the Brexit bourach going on around us, is still only around 45%, in which case there is a need to attract converts, and I don't think insulting them is a very sensible way of going about it. 

Imagine these headlines in England:

CORBYN'S CAR CRASH INTERVIEW SPOKE VOLUMES ABOUT LABOUR

SILENT CORBYN'S LABOUR PARTY IS UNRECOGNISABLE

THERE WILL BE NO INDEPENDENCE BECAUSE SCOTLAND IS HAPPY WITH WHAT IT'S GOT

They are all very possible, and might have been used already for all I know. What they indicate is that rubbish is rubbish regardless of where it comes from. It's no good whining when your opponents resort to fake news and insults if you then go and do the same thing yourself. 

By the way, it's reported that Mhairi Black MP has "played down" the stock cube attack. 

For Scottish readers, I recommend the following for intelligent comment and investigative journalism: Bella Caledonia, The Ferret and Common Weal, because, since we can't rely on our papers and TV to give us proper news, we have to look elsewhere for it. Here are a few things (with acknowledgments to the providers) that a lot of folk have not heard about in the last few days: 

Buzzfeed lays into the WWF over torture & other abuses

Over 1 million Muslims interned in China

Poisonous pollution causes a Glasgow stream to be fenced off

Scotland faces post-Brexit lack of environmental protection

Momo Challenge: a big fuss about not very much

Oil executives have their tea ruined


FOOTBALL NEWS

Today's results from the Highland League include: Fort William v Forres Mechanics. Match postponed because of a waterlogged pitch. This represents a better than usual Saturday for the Forts and brings to mind an old joke:

Q: What do you call 6 weeks of rain in Fort William?

A: The summer holidays