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Yes there was: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-36300892 Nicola Sturgeon was elected FM by a vote of the Scottish Parliament, having hosed the 2016 Parliamentary elections. Sit down, you thick jakey.

I want to hear the thoughts of people who intend to vote No when the time eventually comes. I ask of you two things: What are the main reasons as to why you are against independence? Can you present a solid case for Scotland to stay in the UK? Lets have a leveled, dignified discussion here. Lets try to avoid bickering, insulting and laughing at each other - that will get us nowhere. Taking the utter piss out of someone because they don't have the same view as you will result in an action of retaliation - a tick on the 'No' box. Lets not alienate people. I aim that message at the Yes voters because PnB is predominantly in the Yes camp. Being absolutely honest, not once has somebody from the No side actually presented to me a number of good reasons as to why we should stay in the UK. So this is your opportunity, No voters, to change my mind. Don't tell me why independence is bad - tell me why the UK is good. And Yes voters, if you see something you don't agree with this is your chance to politely 'myth bust' what has been said. For example - Don't agree that we can't have our own currency? Fine - provide the facts and evidence to show that yes, we can. Constructive and simple. If people choose to be arrogant and ignore the facts and evidence then more fool them. We move on, dish out the reddies, and debate with others. Over to you.

Slo-mo slapping

Sake - I somehow ended up in the ITV News FB Page and there's about 4000 comments on there that would make your eyes bleed. I'd been going to vote Yes but Neil from Stoke has pointed out that we'd need to start paying for stuff ourselves

Scotland votes for a party knowing full well who will be first minister in the case of that party winning. Same as the UK. Sensible people are correct to see that as electing a First minister. It's how the media and newspapers report it. It's how people that can stand up right think of it. if asked "Who was elected First minister in the election last night", 99% of people won't launch into a tedious and pointless exercise in describing the nuances of why no-one is elected First minister - they'll say "Nicola Sturgeon" and everyone will accept that the answer to the question they asked has been answered. I'm now going to sit down to my tea. Actually it's not my tea. There'll be no tea on my plate of food...but you knew what I meant.

First and foremost I do not believe the economic case for independence stands up to the slightest scrutiny. The SNP's attempts at a financial plan for independence last time were laughable and I'm pretty sure by son's P2 class could have come up with something about as worthwhile. I appreciate the sentiment that a post independence Scotland may not be run by the SNP (in practice I suspect it would be for many years to come) but no matter who is in charge you can only work with the tools you have. I think we'll lose a lot of financial sector jobs and it will create labour market problems both with rUk and with Europe, though the latter is probably going to happen anyway post Brexit (which I was also against). I think pensions will be a problem with the main pension funds relocating to England (Standard Life) and the costs of that will inevitably be borne by investors one way or another. From a personal point of view I don't have a problem being "British". I'm Scottish but I don't think that's incompatible. I have as much or more in common with English people as I do with the rest of Scotland. That may partly be a geographic thing being as we're right on the Border but I don't see the governing of the UK by a UK parliament as being any sort of problem. I think the Scottish parliament is an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy that just costs us all a fortune. I'd merrily disband it tomorrow if it were up to me.

Give her the one you've got, they're always disappointed with one thing or another, "your knob is too small", "your knob is too thin", "you came already", "is that it"? she'll just add that to her list and move on.

Training the boy to rip the throat out of anyone using the term doggo.

Thanks to this very thread I have a new avatar.

Great thread, P&B represents a very small percentage of the overall electorate, I would suggest to the mods that anyone entering this thread with insults is given a warning. I'm all for Independence, but also think any supporter of that, needs to understand the concerns or reservations of those who don't. It would give me little pleasure to win the Indy vote by a couple of percentage points, so, let's have a decent, well reasoned debate in here. Thanks to the OP.

He should be forced to walk across the bridge naked carrying a stone of shame the next time there are high winds.

Friction burns on ma doofer after seeing how many we took to rugby park last season. Hopefully we can get the thousands back to roar us onto that holy grail of 2nd place.

Get some "lets make Scotland great again" baseball caps and write on the side of a bus "we send 8 trillion to london every week lets put it into the black pudding industry instead"then deny all knowledge of the bus after we get indy is my plan

Breaking news - Voyager 1, the first man made object to leave the Solar System, has just recorded Effie Deans heed overtaking it at warp factor 8. Swiftly followed by 'Reynard the Fox', closely followed by Reynard's BB gun.

Well, rebecca's recovering fine. Back to being a giggling head case. Think theres maybe 1 day left of penicilin. Emma drew this the other day, without any prompting... I asked her what it was... grass blowing in the wind, she told me.

I agree entirely but don't see this as an argument against independence. Just as there are many English/Welsh/Northern Irish people I have more in common with than other Scots, there are people from outwith Britain I have more in common with than other British people; the sense of how much of an identity I share with other Scottish or British people doesn't enter into my thinking on the correct constitutional arrangement. It's an entirely political decision that has nothing to do with identity and even if Scotland was independent we could continue having those shared relationships with people in rUK that give us as much in common with them, just as currently being in the same nation-state as them doesn't mean I necessarily have more in common with them than people across Europe. As there will be people in Gateshead I have more in common with than others in Greenock, there'll be people in Gdansk I have more in common with than people in Gateshead. Identities and common interests don't stop at state borders, so creating one between Scotland and England shouldn't prevent the continuation of those common ties.

^^ thinks today is Monday.

Ok, I agree with a previous poster - the comments are just becoming more and more depressing, and you are one of the main contributors. I know you are more passionate than a lot of supporters, but how's about cutting down on the depressing negativity? I, like many other fans, know just how bad a predicament we're in - without continually having to be reminded. I'm not a "happy clapper" (whatever that is). I'm not somebody who thinks the Board have done a good job (they have obviously made mistakes, which I'm sure, with hindsight, they know they shouldn't have made). But I still appreciate that these guys are spending a lot of their own time trying to keep the ship afloat. We've got 5 of the next 6 games at home. If we can't get a fair few points out of that - the bottom line is we don't deserve anything other than to be preparing for a play-off. If the worst happens and we do end up bottom of the league, I'm trying to be optimistic that some of our injured players will be fit enough by that time to take part in the play-off, and more importantly, make a difference. It's been an abomination of a season (apart from the Cup), but if I were a betting man my money would still be on us staying up. Assuming we do, we have to get the next managerial appointment right, so it makes sense to me not to rush into a panic decision. The one thing I would do though, is contact somebody like Jimmy Calderwood, or Danny Lennon to see if they'd be willing to lend a guiding hand (for free, obviously) until the end of the season. (If you don't ask, you don't get). And if the unthinkable happens and we do go down, I'll still be there supporting the team, until it takes its dying breath - or I do.

Remove the stone of shame. Attach the stone of triumph.

With those eyes? He'll probably walk into a door.

No one crowd wanks like us Falkirk fans so you're onto a lost cause there HB

The love for Cowdenbeath crosses 2 species, mutant fifers and llamas.

I think a lot needs to be made of the Greens ultimately being the ones to permit the Section 30 request - emphasise as much as possible that while the SNP (obviously) support independence, they aren't independence, and it's not just their campaign. And I'm sure that's something the Greens would be happy to encourage. Patrick Harvey looked utterly devastated the morning after the first referendum. I think also the Yes campaign needs to be more vocal at condemning and distancing itself from the lunatic fringe - people like Wings and the IndyCampers.

I love being bipolar, it's shite

Cunto

Fucking love a referendum. I'm always on the losing side of these things, so I think I'll vote no this time.

If we vote for independence, you can vote for whatever party you like. This is not an election and it's not a popularity contest. To push it back to you in a way you might understand - If you don't understand the offside rule you probably shouldn't be lecturing others about it.

A. Salm is already sporting his 'Yes' pin-badge in the HoC. Incredible stuff from the big man, tbf.

Only one man is capable of saving the Union.

Bought my nephew a watch for his birthday but he's a big lad and it was too tight so I said I'd get it sorted for him. Me and my GF took it to the jewellers to see if he could add a link but he said he couldn't as he doesn't have a match. I thought we were fecked til she asked him if he could remove a link instead, which he did. She then took the watch back to the shop where I bought it and told them it had broken and they exchanged it no problem. She then took the new watch back to the jeweller and asked him to add the link he'd removed from the other watch. Job done. And yes, I rewarded her with sexual intercourse last night. It was the least I could do.

Tim Hart - Farewell Nancy

Bargain hunt has a couple of wids on it.

IQ75 trying to play with the big boys here and struggling badly. Leave attendance-based onanism to the pro's, m8.

Totally agree,i'm a member of the Scottish Greens and an avid independence supporter,this time more should be made of the Greens and Socialists involvement. Our membership is now near 10,000 and rising,we are a vital gog in the indy movement,one that is progressive and outward looking and in Pat Harvie a leader to match anyone on this island.

It's good we have so many political experts on Facebook to guide us though.

Morrisons have just filled their seasonal aisle with all sorts of gardening stuff.

I've had three people share Daily Express pro-Union articles, one post a huge rant about Nicola Sturgeon, three share posts by "ALBA SCOTLAND INDEPENDENCE NOW" pages. It's going to be a long two years on social media.

The only time I'll ever be top of the table ...and there wasn't one!

Here, as promised, is the initial Sonstrust response to the Brabco statement this morning: https://sonstrust.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/sonstrust-response-to-brabco-statement/ We have also commented to the Dumbarton Reporter (which you will be able to see tomorrow) and to the Lennox Herald (Wednesday).

Just got this email from Labour asking for donations to fund the anti-indy fight. Jumping a little too firmly on the unionist bandwagon here...

What happens after the final comma? Suspense is killing me.

3 seasons and 6 games. Twice we had 10 men twice we were 2 goals down. Still Hibs haven't beat Falkirk at Easter Road. MINTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

The art of debate is dead. People need to realise that calling the opposition yoons, britnats, deluded, bigots etc is not going to achieve anything. It's like calling people from the right racist scumbags because they like the cut of Mr Trumps jib. How on earth can you expect to get anyone on your side if all you do is belittle them and make them feel terrible about themselves? All you get is them thinking "you know what, f**k you - I'm voting No." I've been guilty of it in the past. It's easy to type an insult on Facebook and move on. Don't get me wrong, there are some massive massive morons in the world and it'll be near impossible to converse with some of them in a dignified way. I'm talking about the ones who say stuff like "sturgeons a nazi, jimmy crankie, WATP, *insert British flag emoj*." These guys are a lost cause. You could perfectly make your point in a hundred different ways and they'll never ever listen. There will be thousands of Scots who think like that and they'll never change. We can get others on our side though. We can do that be reading up on the facts and having an answer to absolutely everything that is thrown at us. People will continue to watch the BBC, they will continue to read the Daily express, they will continue to read what the people are saying in BIG CAPITAL LETTERS SO IT LOOKS LIKE IM SHOUTING THUS EMPHASISING MY POINT MORE!!! on the Sky News comments section and they will lap that shit up because it's all they'll ever know unless we do something about it.

Somebody else must have answered instead of me - 9/10! Time for a lie down. Knew 3 - Red Sea, Des Moines and TV series. Fairly sure of shoe lace, artist and Diana Price. Inspired guesses for the other 3. (If I'd gone with my first choice for poffertjes I'd have got 10 - but musn't grumble.