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Douglas Daniel

Listed below are comments made by Douglas Daniel between Friday, 13th November 2009 and Monday, 7th December 2009.

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Climate change 2:21pm on 07 Dec 2009 You're correct Brian, it certainly is ridiculous that yet another Scottish Labour leader has been found out participating in some dodgy dealings - after all, you'd have thought that after what happened with Henry McLeish (who was actually a very good politician, and continues to make excellent participations in political debate) way back in the first parliamentary session, subsequent leaders would have been making doubly - even triply - sure that there were no dodgy financial dealings that would come back and haunt them.

Oh wait, that's right, you didn't write a blog about Iain Gray, did you? No, let's ignore the big political scandal of the day when it's not focussed on the SNP.

To be honest, I'd have thought Labour supporters would be breathing a sigh of relief - now's the chance to get rid of the most ineffective party leader Holyrood has seen yet (and that's saying something, considering the list includes Tavish Scott and Nicol Stephen). What is this, media-made political-climate change?
The battle over class sizes 4:18pm on 04 Dec 2009 #195 On top of that, the SNP, within their very first term, are already struggling to sustain a polling lead over the most unpopular UK government in recent years. Some polls have even put Labour back in control of Holyrood in 2011.

That's more than a little misleading. The SNP only got one more seat than Labour in 2007, so they were hardly likely to be massively ahead in the middle of a period of Government. Matters are hardly helped by the increasingly unsubtle anti-SNP bias in the media (Glenn Campbell's report on Reporting Scotland yesterday was nothing short of a disgrace - how long until he starts just saying "Alex Salmond is a (profanity censored) and you hate him, okay?")

Many people thought the SNP's victory in 2007 was mainly due to people placing a anyone-but-Labour vote. If this is true, then for the SNP to avoid a sudden drop in support suggests that many of these people have been impressed by what they've seen so far, so if they're still intending voting SNP, then their anti-Labour vote has turned into a pro-SNP one.

Until someone manages to convince Glasgow and the surrounding areas (with their 20 constituency seats) that a monkey with a red rosette is not their best option, Labour will always have a stranglehold - or at least a headlock - on Scottish politics. Hmmmm, who was it that drew up the Scotland act again...?
Facts about file-sharing 6:12pm on 27 Nov 2009 #24 - that's the most naive business model I've ever seen, which shows a complete lack of understanding of the realities of trying to get a band up and running.

Even if we disregard the costs of music software (I've heard there is decent Linux software) and the knowledge and abilities to use it properly, you can't just expect to put a song online, garner a fanbase and suddenly be on your way. Ignore what the PR people for Myspace and the likes will tell you - it just doesn't happen like that. The reality is that there is so much music on these sites that it is easy for the listeners to get overwhelmed, and a badly-recorded demo is not going to stand a chance.

300 from a 500 fanbase is also nonsense - to expect anything more than 10% of your online fanbase to come to gigs is just wild optimism, never mind 80%. £5 at the door, all going into the artists' pockets? Aye, right! Even if they've managed to avoid a Pay-as-you-play gig (otherwise known as "I take the money for the first 50 tickets and then you get the rest... oh, but if you don't get 50, then you pay the difference"), they're not going to be getting the whole £5.

£1000 for a gig. Honestly, I've never heard of anything so ridiculous. £200 for a (weekend) gig once you're able to attract a decent following, if you're lucky. Believe me, bands get taken advantage of long before they get anywhere NEAR a professional recording studio. It starts the moment they start trying to get gigs.

When do they have time to promote these gigs at the £500 venues if they've got 9-5 jobs? The "promoters" certainly don't bother themselves if they can help it, and you sound like you're calling for everyone to book their own gigs anyway (lots of luck with that). And when do the producers etc get their money? There are actually quite a few people in the music industry who aren't musicians but do actually provide useful services that are worth being paid for.
Scotland: Devolution-max or independence-lite? 5:13pm on 27 Nov 2009 I'm really looking forward to this white paper. It'll be great to see the figures set out properly, rather than the half-truths that are always bandied around by the Unionist parties at election time. People will of course claim that the document has been created with a pro-independence bias, but nonetheless, they should see some things that make them wonder if perhaps there is some truth in the seemingly outrageous idea that an independent Scotland would manage to not just survive, but prosper, on its own.

The phrase about independence not being a magic bullet is an extremely important one, I feel. Labour et al try to claim that the SNP and its supporters think all our troubles would just disappear if we suddenly became independent, that we'd live in a happy land with bunnies bounding around and that we'd suddenly be bathing in cows milk from gold taps (or something like that). They do this, of course, to try and belittle the idea of independence, and therefore belittling the people who believe in independence. But people are starting to see through this, and wondering if the SNP - who are proving to be the first effective Government Scotland has ever had - might actually know what they're talking about after all.

Independence will happen, it's just a matter of when it does. I hope it happens while Alex Salmond is still around, since he's done more for the cause than anyone since the Jacobites in the 18th century.
Facts about file-sharing 3:40pm on 27 Nov 2009 #13 - I agree completely with these questions. Being a former musician myself, I have no sympathy for the record companies, whose obsession with churning out identikit acts with no care for artistic merit merely stunt the growth of new bands. However, I also know how difficult it is for bands to get into a position where they are even able to record music to a decent standard, never mind trailing round the country touring it. It's all very well for established acts to decide they'll give out their music for free as a thank you to fans who have made them millionaires, and if they want to do that then all credit to them; but where did this idea come from that music SHOULD be free? To hear people like badger_fruit, you would think they have a divine right to have all music given to them for free, as if the musicians who make it are mere slaves to their whims. That's pretty typical of modern-day attitudes to life, where people confuse "rights" with "privileges".

I've bought many albums over time by bands that I have no chance of seeing live, whether it be through their death, demise, location, or purely because they are a studio-only act. Besides, the rising cost of ticket sales means gig-going is becoming an increasingly expensive game - I used to regularly go to several concerts per month, seeing many bands who I only "quite" liked, but these days, it's just not worth the effort, so I'm left to wait for those acts who I desperately want to see. If recorded music was free, then a lot of acts I get albums buy would go unrewarded for their endeavours. Fair? I think not.

The music industry has had this coming for a long time thanks to decades of over-pricing music, and much of their arguments are severe cases of bending the truth (when I used to download a few tracks off an album to decide if I liked it or not, my music purchases must have gone up nearly ten-fold, which makes a mockery of the "we're losing album sales" line; also, about 99% of the tracks I've downloaded in my life have been live versions or otherwise unavailable tracks like old b-sides, rather than things that are available on a CD in the high street - I bet the BPI's figures don't take this into account). But the arguments put forward by the average filesharer/downloader are far from being correct, and merely reiterate the idea that downloaders are freeloaders.

Music needs to be cheaper, but not free. The artist should perhaps make the same amount per sale as they do now, but for that amount to be a much more substantial percentage of the overall cost (say, 50%-60%?). That way, people could get much more legal music for the same amount they used to spend, meaning more artists getting more money. Winners all round, surely? Except for the unimportant ones, obviously.
The anonymous bullies 1:04pm on 16 Nov 2009 #10 I remember in my school days finding a rather regrettable pun in a fellow pupils name, repeated the joke time every time I saw him until I got bored and forgot. Only looking back do I realise how tiresome this must have been for him but it was stupidity rather than malice that drove me on: I just didn't think!

Is this bullying? The person in question could have chosen to see the funny side; they could chosen to think you were a moron; or they could have chosen to go home and cry themselves to sleep every night. Whether or not this constituted as bullying very much depends on the recipient's reaction, which is what makes bullying a lot more complicated than what is often suggested.

Being short, chubby and bespectacled at school, I was a ripe target for a concerted bullying campaign; but it never happened, because I didn't make myself out to be a victim. This is why efforts to stop bullying have to take into account the fact that many people become victims because they act like victims, and thus, for want of a better phrase, "ask for it". What's better for the victim: getting bullies to stop because they're told to, or getting them to stop because the victim has been shown how to stand up for themselves, thus gaining respect?
The anonymous bullies 12:51pm on 16 Nov 2009 I agree with the majority of posters here - most of what Rory is describing is not bullying at all, just exaggerated, uncensored versions of what has appeared in the letters pages in daily newspapers for decades. Rory mentions respect, but few people are respected when they launch into vitriolic attacks - after all, we all know the saying that arguing on the internet is a bit like taking part in a certain sporting event that is not quite the Olympics. The only way to gain respect in that sense is if your target is a deserved recipient, which doesn't fit in with the idea of bullying.

The internet levels the playing field for people; it makes it easier to get into a war of words, but it's also easier to stick up for yourself than in the real world, so it plays both ways. Also, you have to get some perspective on the whole thing - the level of abstraction provided by the lack of face-to-face interaction means you take things with a pinch of salt, because you know they wouldn't be quite so abrupt in real life situations. If you're unable to do this, then just stay away from those internet forums, or even just re-register under a different name.

What next - barring people from phoning companies up with complaints because the harshly-worded grievances make the call centre staff feel "bullied"?
All to play for? 6:05pm on 13 Nov 2009 33. At 5:52pm on 13 Nov 2009, Moriarty wrote:

Scotland is waking up to the fact that had we not been part of UK then RBS and HBOS would have went to the wall, Scottish jobs and all.

Christ on a bike, I can't believe some people still subscribe to this nonsense.

In case you haven't noticed, HBOS and RBS DID go to the wall, and this happened as part of the Union. Would it have been worse under independence? Would it have even happened at all? Well we can postulate as much as we want as to whether or not an independent Scotland would have implemented more sensible banking restrictions, but one fact remains:

Being part of the union did not stop our banks going to the wall.

Oh, and what was that in the news a couple of days ago about Scottish jobs in the Lloyds group being lost? Is this, by any chance, happening under the union?
Glasgow North East by-election 12:46pm on 13 Nov 2009 Independence will come eventually, whether Glasgow and the surrounding areas like it or not. Their steadfast refusal to vote for anyone but Labour makes the job more difficult, but it will happen one day nonetheless. It might be easier, of course, if Glasgow was left to remain a part of the union (or to join up with Ireland, as some would no doubt love), leaving the rest of the country to get on with things. Actually, considering that Glaswegians get more public expenditure per head than anywhere else in Scotland, it might make things even better for the rest of us. Plus we could distance ourselves from the mainly-Glaswegian problems like sectarianism. Hmmm, sounds more attractive the more I think about it...
Mobile TV: Ready for take-off? 11:27am on 13 Nov 2009 I just can't see me ever wanting to watch things on a tiny screen. I know people who download films to their iPhone to watch on planes etc, but I just cannot see the attraction. The devil is in the detail, and you don't get much of it on a 3.5 inch screen. There's a perfectly good reason why my main TV is ten times that size: I like the display to be as big as possible. Even the example picture on your blog is bigger than an actual iPhone screen.

However, even supposing I didn't care what size the display was, I still don't quite see where the appetite for live TV on a phone comes from. Watching something you've downloaded is fair enough, because you can pause it when you get to your destination; but what if you arrive at your destination 10 minutes before a programme ends? Do you hang around waiting for it to finish? Should we expect to see people walking into each other in the street because they've all got their eyes transfixed on their phone watching an episode of the X Factor?

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Douglas Daniel