With BoJo out of critical care, and yesterday’s UK COVID-19 deaths just shy of a 1000, the highest ever recorded in Europe, it’s time to ask the PM ‘how’s the herd immunity working for ya?’ For as Marina Hyde noted, the people dying today were most likely infected in that critical time when BoJo and co. were telling us this was nothing serious to worry about.

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Seems the lockdown rules don’t apply to Dr Calderwood, Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer. This is incredibly serious and there is only one credible way in which Nicola Sturgeon can handle the situation and that is to sack the CMO.

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I don’t know how you, but I have reached a point where I can’t take the daily No. 10 briefings. There is no end to the half-truths, omissions and outright lies; it’s the £350m red bus all over again.

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Which of our politicians is going to come up with the worst COVID-19 joke today, I wonder? All bets are off on this one, of fools we have no shortage. <– more –>

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The UK Government has yet to put a foot right in its handling of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the decision to order 10,000 yet to be invented ventilators from a vacuum cleaner manufacturer while refusing to join the EU procurement effort is almost certainly another misstep on the way to the mother of all Public Inquiries.

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The Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year 2019 results have been announced, and I am glad to note I got a commendation in the monochrome category for Assynt Evening.

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… and still not following the WHO guidelines. But what does the WHO know, eh? It takes an astonishing level of arrogance to ignore the WHO and at the same time to claim to follow the best scientific advice. But then, this is the guy who gave us the £350m red bus.

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As I noted yesterday morning, testing is at the heart of the WHO procedures for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is rather disappointing that both the UK and Scottish Governments are still choosing to ignore this. We are already reaping the consequences of this, and it will rapidly snowball.

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If, like me, you were were curious what to expect from a government seeking to employ misfits and weirdos, the wait is over. It means nothing more than ignoring prevailing scientific opinion when formulating government policy.

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I finally revamped my photos site. I have meant to do this for over a year now, but didn’t get to it until now. The biggest change is no more SmugMug.

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All in all 2019 wasn’t a bad year by any means, but nevertheless, for a variety of reasons I needn’t to bore you with, it sticks in mind as a year of journeys unrealised and photographs untaken, of unfinished business and, not least, a year of blogs unpublished. Free time was harder to find, and even harder to set aside.

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My current interest in black and white photography goes back to a three night wild camping trip in my favourite part of the world a couple of years ago. I had planned it for some time, with one particular image in mind, but alas, happened to run into an early heatwave, with all that it brings – largely cloudless skies, haze that even a polarizer can’t do much about, thunder, and rapidly forming, all encompassing, evening inversions.

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The question of the role and the importance of realism in landscape photography is one that keeps coming up over and over again. On the one hand we have the purists, holding onto old fashioned notions of truth, arguing that landscapes should be true to the land; on the other the free creatives, raising that millennia old question ‘What is Truth?’. And, broadly speaking, the former seem to have long lost the argument.

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My shoulder hurts from the seatbelt, plumes of steam bellowing from underneath the bonnet; I am sure I can smell petrol. Shaking fingers fumbling with the buckle. The driver side door won’t budge. Scrambling out over the gear stick. I put some distance between myself and the car, expecting it to burst into flames any moment.

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The NC500 is a travesty. The idea of car touring holidays harkens back to the environmental ignorance of mid 20th century and is wholly unfit for these days of an unfolding environmental catastrophe. VisitScotland, the Scottish Government, and all those who lend their name to promoting this anachronism, should be ashamed of themselves.

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A flame stretching up to heaven. The newsrooms can’t get enough, a journalist’s dream come true. You, me, everyone, glued to our screens, riveting stuff. (Honey, make us some popcorn, will you?)

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