Virtual Methodist

OK... You've probably worked out by now that I love Karine Polwart's new album "Traces" . I'm with others who believe that she is one of Britain's finest songwriters , and in this album she has produced some of her very best work... It has taken a number of years gestation so I'm glad the wait was worth it. She weaves personal memories with political protest through powerful poetic lyrics delivered in her unashamedly Stirlingshire accent. The album begins with evocations of childhood games on the coastal dunes of Aberdeenshire, in "Cover Your Eyes", a protest against Donald Trump's redevelopment of the Aberdeenshire dunes of the Menie Estate to produce his International Golf Links . This has current local echoes in the controversy around the proposed Runkerry Golf Course on the Causeway coast, as does the poignant last song, "Half a Mile" that I referred to yesterday . It reflects on the abduction and murder in 1982 of Susan Maxwe...

The current news story concerning the abduction of April Jones from Machynlleth , in Wales is the nightmare of every right-thinking parent, and indeed upsetting to any right-thinking human being whether or not they have children. But the tsunami of emotions around this, and similar stories in the past, unsettles me almost as much as the event itself. In response to the murder of 8 year old Sarah Payne back in July 2000 her mother pressed for the introduction of "Sarah's Law" (a variation on the controversial "Megan's Laws" in the USA) backed by a name and shame campaign by that late unlamented arbiter of social rectitude "The News of the World", which seems to have contributed to a lynchmob mindset, resulting in innocent people being injured and a paediatrician's home being attacked . That same lynchmob mentality seems to be swinging into gear again. I've had friends on facebook calling for the man suspected of abducting and perhaps m...