O'Kelly Isley III

Aye, the attitude of exiles in an interesting one. In my own family situation there are two relatives, both long based in Southern England, who are never done banging on about THAT woman and the living Hell that will be Scotland should she succeed in dragging us out of the Union. I took so much of it and then politely suggested that they effectively read a bit more than the Daily Express or Daily Mail or basically shut the f**k up. It seems to have worked but I worry that I'm contributing to all this division I'm forever hearing about 😕

You should have seen his latest effort in yesterday's Herald. In years to come it will be the go to tract for anyone seeking the meaning of The Scottish Cringe.

Michael Gove effortlessly cementing his position as UK political Fud-In-Chief on the Andrew Marr Show. Sadly, no rendition of The Sash.

It is torture, but fortunately I discovered a wasp's bike in the loft which prevented me from watching yesterday. I'm going back up today to see if I can find any dry rot to keep me busy on Tuesday night.

Only one person does, and it ain't Langan.

You really haven't been paying attention. Ten, fifteen, twenty years ago this victory by the SNP would have been regarded as truly sensational; today is regarded as Scotland's default political position. Now I'll concede that they failed to claim a majority, but cast your eyes towards England where Labour is peering into an electoral abyss as the most corrupt UK Government of the modern age runs riot on a tide of Brexit-fulled cod patriotism. Sooner or later the 30% of Scottish Labour voters who are well disposed to independence will begin to move across the aisle as that reality bites. Add to that the demographic factor that they are really not manufacturing many Unionists up here now and your closing sentence might be the nonsense.

Really enjoying this....but then I'm not warching it

Did she not ride a bike in the Wizard of Oz ?

No, this will not do. For about the third time on this thread, there is a very economically challenged area, and a great number of people rely on Faslane and Coulport for their livelihoods. Baillie plays the Unionist card on this at every opportunity, seemingly comfortable with ignoring Scottish Labour policy. I don't like it but there you go. Add to that there is still a religious element to voting here, and again Baillie cultivates that sector. She has been the incumbent since 1999 and has been a hardworking MSP since then. She has also been a good ally to Dumbarton FC in our many travails. I know her personally and she is at the better end of the personal and performance scale despite me disagreeing with her core political beliefs. I've never voted for Jackie Baillie and I never will. So, as ICR has already intimated and I have outlined above, you can imagine how fucking pissed off a lot of us have been as a series of lightweight, afterthought SNP candidates has appeared and failed, when we really need a good respected local candidate. If you or anyone has a gripe at the failure of the SNP to capture the Dumbarton seat then direct your fucking anger at at SNP HQ rather than the 16K plus of us who did our best.

Those in Scottish Labour who are finding solace in holding seats like Edinburgh South and Dumbarton, and making some marginal percentage gains elsewhere should really look southwards and see what has been happening across England. If politics was boxing then a referee might be entitled to stop the contest and lead Starmer back to the (former) red corner. And that matters to Scotland. I've lost count of the Labourites who have parroted the line to me about expressing solidarity across the UK and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the brethren in Hull and Hartlepool. Well I have news for them - an awful lot of these folk have now fucked off to the Tories and other right-wing parties and won't be returning any time soon. Whither your solidarity now ? Time to wake up and sniff the coffee boys and girls.

To answer your points about the change of ownership, it is too early to know what are the immediate plans as nothing has yet been communicated in detail. One point that may be relevant however is that the new owners appear to be intent in carrying on with the previous majority shareholders' intention of relocating the club, an endeavor which has already had one failed attempt. From the outside they seem to have laid out a lot of money to take ownership of the club and it's controlling shareholder; perhaps they have their own vision for the future, or perhaps they have literally been 'sold' one - for a price. As for the football, I think Duffy had a limited budget but was pretty much given a free reign in team matters. It's not been a hard watch, it's been a grim watch and I don't think you'll find many Sons fans who are confident of facing the Bully Wee again on league business next season.

Too many here depend on the Naval Bases, there's a strong residue of the old Labour religious vote, and a parochial area like this needs a local candidate. Jackie Baillie is also a hardworking MSP. Labour winning the battle here but badly losing the war.

If it wasn't a recount and we knew there were 25 votes in it an hour ago why the delay ?

I've got the fireworks ready for her back garden.

If proof were ever needed that the Tories and Labour have become two shades of the same blue colour then this is it. Absolute burning shame on the totally unprincipled Labour voters who jumped the political dyke here.