The flight

I put this on my Facebook page because I was quite shocked at the crash of flight 9525. Who wouldn't be shocked at the loss of so many people at the hands of one man? 

If you're a teacher who has organised trips and exchanges abroad, you probably shuddered and thought 'what if these were my kids - my colleagues?' The news that there were two babies on the flight was horrible too. You may even, like me, have wondered what happened to the co-pilot that he decided to take this action? And can you imagine his parents arriving at the scene of what they thought was a dreadful accident only to be taken aside, away from the other families, and told that their son is a mass murderer? 

Pilots, as far as I know, don't get trained for nothing. They finance the training themselves. It costs a huge amount of money and it takes years to build up the flying experience needed to enable a pilot to get a job with a company as prestigious as Lufthansa. 

Overall, it is a terrible event. So why were the UK media so anxious to ignore all the other people on the flight and just focus on the British victims? I don't know how many there were - three maybe? And, of course, we feel for them and their families. That goes without saying. But are we so crass as human beings that - as the media, including the BBC online news pages, seem to think - we can't sympathise with the victims unless we know there are British people involved? 

I don't have a high opinion of the British press at the best of times. This general election has destroyed any remaining respect for the newspapers that I might have had. We've had photoshopped sexist pictures of Nicola Sturgeon, Ed Milliband and that bloody bacon sandwich and others. Photos of anyone who is not a Tory seem to be chosen to make them look like fools. And I suspect the Daily Express will live to regret the number of adoring photos of Nigel Farage it has printed this year. 

They say you get the press you deserve but I'm more inclined to believe you get the press half a dozen billionaire press magnates want to give you. And their world view sees us, their British readers, as petty-minded and insular, so we get very little by way of European or international news in the papers and what we do get has to have something to do with the UK directly or apparently we're not interested. 

But we're all a lot more international than the UK press seems to think these days. We travel a lot. Often by plane. We've all been on economy flights which we knew were staffed to the minimum to keep prices down. And we've all been comforted by the idea that pilots are good people doing a good job and take great care of us because they don't want to die either in a metal tube hurtling through the air. And here we have one pilot prepared to kill 149 other people as well as himself, and for no reason that anyone can see at the moment...

I was glad to see the German police keeping the media (and those spectators who always seem to arrive when any disaster happens equipped with their camera phones) away from the home of the pilot's parents. They are victims too. 

We, the electors, salute you!

I've been watching the run-up to the UK general election with a certain sense of distance, thinking: same old circus, same old monkeys. But there are weeks of this claptrap to go yet so I'm trying to drag some entertainment from the proceedings.

The highlights so far:

David Coburn MEP (salary £96,000pa + expenses) is Scotland's only UKIP representative and seems to think he's auditioning for Jeremy Clarkson's job on Top Gear. Scotland didn't find his racist comment comparing Humza Yusaf MSP to Abu Hamza as funny as he did. I didn't vote UKIP in the EU elections. If you did, hang your head in shame. 

Then there's Grant (Second job? What second job?) Shapps. 

Grant is chairman of the Tory party and a chanty-wrastler. He used a second name to keep doing a wee internet job after he was elected, having assured House of Commons officials he wasn't. He didn't so much apologise as squirm a bit and try to give the impression all MPs do this. Maybe just Tory MPs. Grant is a Rt Honourable. I'll leave you to finish the phrase. 

But my discovery of the election run-up is Anna Soubry, another Tory MP and junior minister. 

See the open mouth (it usually is) and the pointing finger (ditto). Anna is over-endowed with self-confidence. In the mould of Margaret Thatcher, she talks a lot but never listens. When people try to get a word in - Alex Salmond and Andrew Marr tried today on TV - she talks louder and keeps right on going. She has never to my knowledge said anything worth hearing but she does fill the air with Tory party noise on request.

So who are doing well in the election? 

I nominate Ruth Davidson, MSP.

Another Tory, but frighteningly I find myself agreeing with a lot of what she says. It's a pity the Tories are still toxic in Scotland because Ruth is young, clever and thoughtful. She has grown into the job she's doing and would make a good contribution to national life.

And then there's Ed.

Yes, I think Ed Milliband is having a good election, in spite of the sneering of the rightwing press. And in spite of the awful photos, apparently chosen to make him look like a fool. When did it become obligatory for party leaders in the UK to look good on camera? That's an American thing, isn't it? We surely expect our leaders to have a bit more to them than that. He had a good go at Osborne in the Budget speech - not an easy gig. The problem is that Ed is saddled with some right numpties left over from Blair and Brown's days: Ed Balls for one. That manic unblinking stare to camera is quite unnerving. Too late to do anything about that now. Or about the meltdown in Labour seats in Scotland, although I suspect they won't lose as many seats as the SNP are hoping. 

Although I won't be voting for them.

You say potato

We had coffee in an Italian restaurant today. It's a great place. Family owned. Very relaxed. Good service. Great coffee. Lovely meals. Does takeaways. It's always busy. It also has a good deli section, so as we were leaving I had a look at the shelves in case I could get tagliatelle (I pronounce it ta'liatelle) which I forgot to get when I was shopping yesterday. There was every kind of pasta but no tagliatelle.

I said to the lassie behind the counter:
- Do you have ta'liatelle?
- Do you mean Italian sausage? It's there. (She pointed to it in the glass case).
- Em, no. Ta'liatelle. You know, pasta.
- O, you mean taGliatelle, she said.
- Yeah, ta'liatelle, said I.

She looked at me kind of puzzled and then looked at the shelves behind her.

- TaGliatelle. TaGliatelle. What does it look like again? she asked.
- Thicker than spaghetti or linguine. It usually comes in wee circles, said I, pathetically drawing wee circles on my hand.

She reached up to a high shelf and took down a box, which she showed to a colleague. They had a wee confab and then she came over to me.

- He says they huvny got taGliatelle. She held up the box. Will that do?

I'd have taken grass cuttings by then just to get out of there. It was of course exactly what I was looking for.

Back home, I googled the pronunciation of tagliatelle. Naturally, I was right.

Questions. How come I managed to find the only non Italian working in that restaurant? And how come nobody in the Italian family who own the place and work there had told her how to pronounce taGliatelle?