My 2012 top 12

It's that time of year for retrospectives, so I thought I'd share with you my 12 most read blog posts of 2012. There's a bit on welfare reform, quite a lot on Scottish politics and issues to do with the referendum, and a couple of posts on the portrayal of women in the media. In reverse order:

12, So, what was Jo Swinson doing in Private Eye? Talking about airbrushing and body image as she had another success with the Advertising Standards people over airbrushing.

11. Are you fit to work? I was annoyed the other day when somebody said to me that I never wrote anything against welfare reform. There are two posts in the top twelve on the subject and there have been many more over the course of the year.

10. The Sun's Page 3 has seriously outstayed its welcome.  Our attitudes to women's breasts are totally mucked up when you can be almost slung out of a cafe for breastfeeding, yet the same establishment has the Sun on offer for its customers to read.

9.  Pass the smelling salts - F1 rumour mill is scaring me. And it all came to pass, too. My least favourite driver ever takes my hero's job at one of my favourite teams. The only good thing about it is that Eddie Jordan was proved right.

8. SCVO's Alison Elliott proves Willie Rennie's point My take on a public spat between Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie and the SCVO, whose chief exec was, in my view, a bit too familiar with an SNP Special Adviser.

7.  What should the Spartacus Report mean for the Welfare Reform Bill? A report showed flaws in the Government's thinking on disability benefits. What should have happened was for the whole thing to be reconsidered. Sadly, that didn't happen. That doesn't mean those of us who want to see sick and disabled people treated fairly give up.

6.  Nikki Thomson: 30 December 1967 - 28 June 2012 A post I never wanted to write about a friend gone too soon. Today would have been her 45th birthday. Miss you, Nikki.

5.   How very dare you, Joan McAlpine? Come the day after the Referendum, the job of living together in peace and harmony will be much easier if the pro-independence side can quit the "if you don't agree with us you're anti-Scottish" nonsense, and the pro UK side leaves out the Patriot vs Nationalist nonsense.

4.   "People think Guantanamo is closed" Reflections on an Amnesty demo to mark the 10th anniversary of the notorious US prison camp.

3.  So Yes Scotland's failure is my fault. Well, the nationalists never take the blame for anything...

2.  Alex Salmond booed, twice, but why don't we hear so much about it? Our First Minister got the Osborne treatment both at the Paralympic parade in Glasgow and the Tattoo - but unlike Osborne's booing, the press weren't that interested.

1.  Yes Scotland must be desperate. So, there I am, minding my own business one lunchtime, and then I find out via Twitter that my photo is on the front page of the Yes Scotland website. The cheeky monkeys!

Happy Anniversary - my marriage grows up

Today Bob and I celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary, so I'd like to take the opportunity to thank my poor long suffering husband for putting up with not just me, but the Liberal Democrats in their various guises for all this time.

When we got married, Mrs Thatcher was still in power, Paddy Ashdown had just been elected the first leader of the Liberal Democrats and Labour was led by Neil Kinnock.

look what was number 1 at the time:



but this was kicking at its heels:



We were watching these films back then.

We were apparently all wearing these. I never had one, but Bob did, and, yes, it did smell.

And Richard and Judy were about to become the stars of daytime TV.

There was no internet, no blogging, no Facebook, no mobile phones, no Twitter. Do you know, I think we might have had to talk to each other, in the same room:-).

When we got married we didn't have a tv - although I got that sorted for the new series of Doctor Who which started in October. That was a complete cracker, the 25th anniversary series with Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis, two of my favourite stories ever. I loved the combination of Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, too.

Bush and Dukakis were fighting it out for the US Presidency.

The weird thing is, all this doesn't seem that long ago.......

I've just this minute had a phone call from Cllr Gerry McMullan, Lib Dem Councillor for the West Fife Villages, who tells me that he's been out and about celebrating the 150th anniversary of author Jules Verne's visit to West Fife. He'll be on STV News at 6pm. They walked from Crombie Point through Torryburn and towards what we know as Inzievar House but he called Oakley Castle in his book. So, 26th August is another famous anniversary.

You know me, any excuse to extend a celebration. I have actually worked out that on 21st September, I will have been married to Bob for more than half my life. I will have to rake out some of the photos and scan them in to show you.