Diary – 5 December 2009

To Edinburgh, that most gracious and civilised of cities, for what promises to be a less than altogether agreeable experience. I have to confess that, when BBC1’s Question Time rang to ask whether I might be available to take part in last week’s show from that city, the words ‘hole’ and ‘head’ sprang to mind. Scottish audiences tend not to be — how to put this — entirely sympathetic to my general take on the world. And since the likely topics for this encounter are global warming and the Iraq war inquiry, the chances of this audience responding with enthusiasm to a right-wing warmongering certifiable neocon Zionist climate-change denier with a posh London accent are about as high as Al Gore becoming a cheerleader for the Republican party. So it proves. To the propositions that man-made global warming is a scam and the Iraq war was justified, there is not merely hostility but open-mouthed incredulity.