The fastest two hours of my life.

I went on the radio this morning as a guest on Callum Leslie's Soap Box on Edinburgh Student Radio Station www.freshair.org. It's not the first time I've been on the radio talking about politics as I've phoned through to Iain Dale's a couple of times. This was more of a test though as it involved 2 hours of "punditry" with Iain McGill the Conservative candidate in Edinburgh Central. Iain is a bright, friendly and funny guy and although we disagreed about a few things, the discussion was really good humoured. We were joined for the second hour by Labour activist Matthew and we had quite a sparky debate about how we felt the election campaign would go and what the key issues would be.

I was quite pleased that I managed to point out some huge inconsistencies in the Tories' logic. I'd watched on Monday as Murdo Fraser outlined at the Scotland on Sunday Health debate why they were against universal free prescriptions because he as an MSP could well afford to pay and there were better uses for the £40 million it takes out of the NHS budget. I have sympathy with that argument. However, if the Tories are against that universal benefit, why on earth are they giving a £200 council tax to every pensioner household? It's ridiculous when a good proportion of those pensioners will be well off enough not to need it. The Tories are very keen on unnecessary universal benefits to those who they think might vote for them. They are also very keen on students contributing to the cost of their higher education - and how many students do you know who vote Tory?

Going back to Council Tax, Liberal Democrat Jeremy Purvis has come up with something a lot fairer - basically exempting any pensioner with an income of £10,000 or less from Council Tax. That's really quite good for many people, especially women who may not have built up enough of their own pension entitlement.

The scary bit of today's show came when we were asked to comment on music. My tastes are pretty cheesy and as camp as you like.   The challenge was doing a Juke Box Jury style thing with a new song, called Ribena by Pegasus Bridge. Needless to say I'd never heard of them, but I quite liked their song, which is available on You Tube here.



Thing about me is that you should never ever ask me what I think about music because I can never remember anything and it takes a long time to get a song embedded in my brain to the extent that I remember what it is and who it was by. My husband, who lives for music, despairs of me.

I happened to tweet that I was a little nervous about the music angle and am very grateful to Euan Price for tweeting me the following advice.

Quick music primer: Everyone loves Elbow; Bieber is evil; REM, Strokes not as good as b4; Decembrists v. hip; Jessie J = good.

I have actually heard of most of these except Decembrists, so I was quite impressed with myself. Anna loathes Justin Bieber and literally curls up in a little ball and wails if she hears any of his songs. Conversely my niece Emma is, I understand, going to see him. It takes all sorts to make a world, I guess.

There was another amusing moment when Iain was explaining what made him a Tory - admiration of Reagan and Thatcher's handling of the Cold War, while learning about it in Modern Studies. Callum and Matthew pointed out that they'd studied the Cold War in history. That reminded me of a conversation I'd had with my husband, who's 16 years older than me, not long after I'd met him, when we discovered I'd done stuff in History that was Modern Studies to him. Reminding him of that today, he started talking about how he'd done the League of Nations in Modern Studies. An unlikely story, given that that organisation was formed in 1919. He must have meant the UN, surely, which was formed 6 years before he was born.

All in all, the experience was highly enjoyable. It was just like sitting around with some mates having a chat and it wasn't quite as scary as I'd thought. Those two hours passed so quickly - and I found that I could actually have gone on all day. Although given that there was no way of getting a drink in the place, and no ladies' toilet that I could find, I might have expired if I'd tried. I just hope I get invited back.....

15 Albums

Stephen's tagged me in this meme from Facebook, Like him, I thought I'd cross post here, but with some additional notes. There are some who might think I should hang my head in shame at some of the choices here, and I'm taking my chances that my husband is suitably satisfied with my nursing skills over the past few days that he won't divorce me. I know that for some of you the inclusion of some complete and utter trash alongside some great stuff will physically cause you pain. But, do you know what, when I listen to this stuff, I feel happy and that's all that matters.  

I tend to buy a lot of Greatest Hits type compilations and soundtracks - generally that way I get all the songs I like for a fraction of the cost. I tend to spend any spare money I have on books and DVDs rather than CDs, whereas Bob will head for the record shop and pick up some vinyl.

THE RULES: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you've heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what albums my "music-fan-friends" choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste the rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note).

Hits of 76 - the first ever record I bought. The only song I can remember on it is Tina Charles I Love to Love. 

London Town - Wings. I had an enormous crush on Paul McCartney for the second half of the 70s and I loved this album.

Aquarium - Aqua. In the late 90s I had a long commute to work. I used to play this in the car in the morning as it was so happy and frothy that I couldn't fail to wake up.

Madonna - The Immaculate Collection 1990 was a miserable year. We'd just moved to England, I absolutely and utterly hated it. The small consolation was that I loved the music in 1990 which seemed to be dominated by Madonna. This album had all the early stuff along with exciting new stuff like Justify My Love and Vogue.

The Sound of Music soundtrack. Favourite film, favourite songs. You can't go wrong with that.

Welcome to the Beautiful South - for the year we lived in Ayrshire just after we were married, we lived next door to a very nice couple who had a baby who would go to sleep on demand if "You Keep It All In" was played. A good introduction to an excellent band I've liked ever since.

Wicked soundtrack. I love the darkness of this musical and the way the music is almost other worldly. And I love Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. And Defying Gravity has to be one of the best songs ever.

Diana Princess of Wales Tribute album. I know I'm going to get it for this one, but I grew up with Diana. She had her faults, but she did a lot of good. I was genuinely upset when she died and I bought this. Unfortunately I lot it and haven't yet found myself another copy. The music was beautiful, evocative of the emotions of the time and I loved it. from Aretha Franklin to the Pretenders Hymn to Her, one of my favourite songs ever, to Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven which I never have been able to listen to without crying to Queen's I want to live forever. 

The Best of Jon and Vangelis - this was the soundtrack in many ways to me leaving home and of all that happeed in subsequent years.Was there ever a more beautiful song than Outside of this, inside of that?

Ol Yellow Eyes is Back - Brent Spiner I love Star Trek: The Next Generation, but I love Brent Spiner, who played Data more. His slightly bonkers Twitter feed will hopefully explain why. He was fabulous in the quirky US comedy Night Court. Anyway, in 1991, he released this album which I still love. And I won't sell, even though it's on Amazon for much more than I paid for it. It took some getting way back then before the internet but it still has pride of place in my CD cabinet. His velvety seductive voice is perfect for songs like Embraceable You  and When I Fall in Love, but maybe not so much for Zing went the strings of my heart - or maybe that's a song that's even too tacky for me to like. Honourable mentions has to go to Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Levar Burton and Michael Dorn who did the backing vocals on It's a Sin to Tell a Lie

Kylie - Aphrodite  This is a brand new one which I got for my birthday and is my current music of choice in the car. I just love All the Lovers and I just can't get it out of my head (see, that was deliberate, I'm on fire with the puns today) at the moment.

More Abba Gold   I'd actually originally written down the Mamma Mia soundtrack on the grounds that the song Slipping through my Fingers always makes me cry but I'm onto my second copy of the original More Abba Gold because I wore out the first one. It's the one that has some of the less iconic Abba songs like Lovelight and Cassadra which I think are brilliant. 

Live at Knebworth - Robbie Williams  Robbie, singing all his favourite hits and interacting with the audience. Could there be anything more perfect?

Made in Heaven - Queen The title song and I was born to love you. and It's a Beautiful Day are just fantastic. 

The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac - anything of Fleetwood Mac's reminds me of my friends Paul and Rae. My absolute favourite song of the group's is You Make Lovin' Fun

I'm all misty eyed and nostalgic now. Thanks, Stephen. I really enjoyed writing this one.