Reynard

Aye two of them worked for MSPs. One of them in Holyrood itself working for Murray Tosh and the other one has been the busty secretary type thing for John Scott for donkeys. I think the John Scott type one wanted to be a constituency agent at Parliamentary level and did all the stuff necessary but his faither was long term ill and it meant he could end up in any constituency in the UK potentially and he didnt want to leave the home area at the time. He's more or less pissing about now as he is independently wealthy.

You did ask. It wasnt anything other than an objection to creating more politicians.

The funnelling of power towards the centre under devolution hasn't been very good for locals either. It was going on under Labour but it's possibly even more obvious under this present administration who seem to want to remove as much power from local level as possible.

And of course all these politicians are now full time pros employing a variety of hangers on as spads and water bearers. All paid for by us.

mainly the unnecessary creation of an extra tier of politicians. I'd have rather seen the power going to the fairly newly formed councils instead of back to "regional" level. I'd fought hard enough to try and split the regional councils up and get as small a format local local council thing on the go with increased power. Devolution wiped that out. I think it made for a worse deal We had gone in the late 80s from having an MP, an MEP a regional councillor and a local councillor to a stage after the ridding of the abysmal regional councils where we had one MP, one MEP and one local councillor. Devolution and also the method of carving up votes at local level meant I had an extra local councillor for my ward area as well as a constituency MSP and the 7 list efforts for the region that do precisely f**k all of any use to anyone. Which gives me a grand total of 12 I think. Great..

XBL claimed things would need to be taken to the next level. Which he was laughed out of town about, but he still said it. HB reckons Jamalda or however you spell it said the other thing, I dinno. I reckon if anyone could be bothered they would find plenty opf stupid things people have said in here. As for me, I'm quite willing to abide by whatever result comes in, accept it and move on. Just as I did with the devolution referendum which I voted no in in spite of knowing full well I was pissing in the wind. The bile is all over the internet and not confined to a few mediocre nonentities in a dark corner of a football forum. It's hard to avoid it really.

Well that's simply the perspective of someone that has hung their hat in the camp that is losing/going to lose. That cant really be helpd and it's fairly natural to get a little uptight when things don't go your way. In fact it's just human nature. Part of the grieving process if you like.

It's not going to affect the result one way or another as you know. I've gone into plenty of elections knowing that I am going to lose. Like you, I'm glad I was on the side of righteousness and I held my head high in spite of , at times, catastrophic gubbings. As far as being able to tell folk "I told you so", yeah, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy getting up a few peoples noses if I don't already manage it, in September. Are you telling me it wouldn't be the same the other way around if yes pull off a spectacular win from nowhere? Its the nature of this sort of a forum. The reality is that no matter what happens, we will all just plough on regardless getting on with life as best we can.

I think it was as good as Salmonds first term as President of Scotland.

Is that so? I assume that your last sentence was in a similar vein?

Prior certainly helped Cook in that regard but his form with the bat and then crucially with the gloves meant he couldnt remain inthe side for the last tests. It certainly seemed odd to have Pietersen wandering around the outfield latterly. Its pretty clear that the England management have struggled to handle Pietersens ego and personality. Certainly, Flower has struggled and its obvious they dont geton. But it looks like its Mexican stand off time. Neither man is looking in a particularly strong position. Pitersens had a poor series and Flower has presided over a whitewash. Hopefully they both man up and get on with it.

They have to stick with Cook really, there's not really anyone else crying out for the captaincy. Dropping Pietersen would be a stupid thing to do. I realise he polarises opinion but he is still one of Englands best ever players even if he is a bit of a p***k. That can often come with top sportsmen though and he does need handled properly. He has captained before, he could do the VC job no problem. Its probably not likely to happen but it COULD be done. Anderson will still be the main man next summer barring injury. With a Duke ball and on English wickets he knows how to make it swing, Swann was certainly his mate but it wont make any difference. As for him being grumpy. He's always looked like a grumpy b*****d through his entire career. The team were just mentally shot through. It happened when they played Pakistan in Dubai and if that had been a five match series then they would have lost this 5-0 too as they were all over the place in that one too but as it wasnt an Ashes series then only cricket folk were actually paying it any great attention. When the other lot get a clear upper hand it doesnt take an awful lot to make the other team crumble and fall, particularly in test cricket. Its a much much more mentally challenging sport than most others. The fielding was shit for much the same reason, they were just falling apart at the seams. I'm quite sure the guts of the team will remain, it would be utter stupidity at the moment to be looking to replace anyone from the likes of Anderson, Broad, Bell, Pitersen, Cook etc. They are still top class players. Some failed through the pressure of the situation or through lack of form or for just being arrogant (guess who) and trying to smite the Aussies for the temerity for setting a blatant trap for him in the field. England will be competitive again for the Sri Lankans and the Indians, they have actually been in similar situations in recent times and bounced back reasonably swiftly. The slight hysteria of an ashes series does magnify the situation a lot though.

No, it's simply your wishlist. There is zero chance of a yes win. Not a hope in hell.

Aye OK.

There just isn't going to be a majority for separation in Scotland. It's not going to happen. Absolutely no chance whatsoever. None. Zilch.

I doubt it. Your mob are getting an utter doing here and you know it.

Thew shittier the area you live in the the more inclined to a yes vote probably. It tends to be poor folk and general dole fodder voting yes as can be seen in the likes of this place.

shit December thanks to a stinky virus that went into my chest. Been right back into proper training for a week now, played squash three times and been swinging the kettlebells and doing the chin ups and weights. I'm back on the tabata training as well which makes a huge difference to me when playing squash. I'm a fucking duracell bunny and I can really grind down my opponents by playing long drawn out rallies and being ready to go straight away while they are gasping for air like a half dead fish. If nobody has tried tabata then I suggest that you fucking well do. Its over in minutes but the benefits you get from it are vast. Far better than being out running in the shit weather for an hour and a half.

Yeah there's no way of knowing how the respondents fell into which categories although youre certainly right that the Scottish not Britsih crowd and the British not scottish crowd are your basic yes and no brigade I would have responded more Scottish than British if asked.

I wonder if they will commission other of the STV regions to find out? Although I doubt the results will vary too wildly from that to be honest.

One that ITV commissioned. Came out just there.

They also ran one of those do you feel scottish or british questions. The results are quite interesting lieu of the referendum intentions 21% felt Scottish not British 24% felt more Scottish than British 35% felt equally Scottish and British 7% felt more British than Scottish 12% said they felt British not Scottish 1% didn't know what the f**k was going on

Another poll just in covering the south of Scotland/Borders regions showing 59% voting no 24% voting yes and 17% don't know. Falling pretty much into line with what we already know. The nationalists are being drubbed.

Your opening gambit was a total fantasy. The rest of it is economic illiteracy. Do you advise shovel ready, lever pulling Swinney by any chance?

Vaughan wrote a decent piece on how to manage "difficult" players. Pitersenis undoubtably a giant ego and a big head. Theres nothing particularly wrong or unusual about that and no doubt he rubs some of his team mates up the wrong way too but as Vaughan alluded to it looked very much like he was being made to be a peripheral figure in the side. Bunging him out to the ropes to field and stuff like that. Making him VC a bit like they once did with the likes of Boycott is a method of dealing with that, keep him involved, amke him feel important etc. To drop one of the best players just shouldnt ever happen just because he is a bit of a w**k. Australia managed to incorporate Watson into their set up in spite of him clashing with some of his team mates and indeed, his captain. Good managerment can ease that situation and Pietersen needs to be handled right to get the best of him, hes far too good to be punted, plus he says he wants to be winning the next ashes series, so presumably he means it. Make him VC and let him feed his ego a bit. If there are problems specifically between him and some others then get it dealt with properly. If Australia could do it with their captain and Watson formerly despising one another then so can England. And lets not forget Mitchell Johnson too. Like Finn he was punted out the picture but he sorted it and came back. Its unlikely he will be around for the next ashes series but Finn should be.