The Dumfries Fool

May 2025: A Triumph? Or a Masterclass in Mismanagement?  Is inaction our dynamic future? More Passive decisions but Active expectations. After last month of seriousness I'm reverting to type! Just in time for our Councils political shape to implode before local elections. Ah, what a glorious month for our beloved Dumfries & Galloway! The powers that be (been) have outdone themselves—brand damage to D&G (who needs thriving industries when you’ve got ideological purity, eh?), and a spectacular own-goal in the name of "progress."   Tourism: No Parks, No Parking, No Problem!  John Cooper’s dream of a "go-to destination, not a go-through destination" is coming true—because soon, there’ll be nothing to stop for. Who needs functional infrastructure when you’ve got vibes? Toilets? Car parks? Pfft. After all the Council can barely maintain the ones we’ve got. And why bother attracting visitors when we can just tell them to imagine the natural beauty from afar? ...

The Revival of Cuddy Rigg: The Fool Returns to Dumfries “A jest’s a blade in velvet—soft to touch, sharp beneath.” — Border proverb Welcome to the World of Cuusy Rigg, Modern Fool of Dumfries and Galloway In the cobbled closes and mossy lanes of Dumfries and Galloway—where the River Nith still whispers of Reivers, outlaws, and ghostly ballads—a curious figure has re-emerged. Meet Cuusy Rigg: jester, satirist, provocateur. A twenty-first-century descendant of that most ungovernable of traditions—the licensed fool. Drawing inspiration from the legendary Cuddy Rigg, the so-called “Third-Class Fool of Dumfries”, Cuusy revives the spirit of liminal mischief. In a time of digital dogma and public piety, his jests carry the echoes of a past where truth came dressed in motley and truth-tellers danced at the edge of power. Cuusy is more Wode than Woke—less concerned with purity than provocation, with rightness than resonance. His is the fool’s license renewed: speaking what others dare not, lau...